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This is America in Pursuit, a limited run series from ThruLine and NPR.

I'm Ramtin Adablui.

Each week, we bring new stories about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the U.S. that began 250 years ago this year.

Today, we're going back to one of the most significant moments in U.S. history, the Civil War, one of the bloodiest wars fought on American soil.

At the heart of the war was the question of slavery

and whether to abolish it. The Confederate South broke off from the Union because it wanted to keep

slavery and the freedom to govern themselves. The Union in the North, led by President

Abraham Lincoln, wanted to make slavery illegal and keep the United States together.

A little less than two years into the bloody conflict on January 1st, 1863, President Lincoln made a bold proclamation.

All persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion

against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.

The Emancipation Proclamation was a major flex in federal power. Lincoln spells out new

terms of peace.

The fighting would only end when slavery ended.

This was a risky move because the union was gearing up for a presidential election,

...