On this day in 1862, Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. You’ve heard of the official Emancipation Proclamation, of course, but this was an earlier version of it. Did you know that Lincoln gave southern states an opportunity to return to the Union—and to keep their slaves? Lincoln had been contemplating the idea of emancipation for months. As early as July 1862, he’d suggested it to his cabinet. His plan was to ground an emancipation proclamation, as historian James M