Emancipation Day in DC
Tax Day is traditionally April 15. So, why is it April 18 this year? You can thank Emancipation Day for your three-day reprieve. Here's why:
The standard: If April 15 falls on the weekend, the tax deadline is moved to Monday. (When was the original deadline?)
This year: Emancipation Day, April 16, is a legal holiday only in Washington, D.C. (since when?). Since it falls on a Saturday this year, it will be observed April 15. A federal statute says tax filings are impacted nationwide, so this year's tax deadline is Monday. (And you thought nothing good ever came out of D.C.)
On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act (read the document), which freed all slaves within the District of Columbia, the first in the nation to be freed by the federal government. The more famous Emancipation Proclamation took effect 36 weeks later, but the District of Columbia continues to celebrate Emancipation Day on the anniversary of the first act.
Proclamations notwithstanding, America's slaves weren't all freed at the same time. (In Texas, for example, emancipation took effect as late as Juneteenth in 1865.)
Let's look at how slavery ended state by state.
The following states passed their own gradual emancipation laws, designed to phase out the institution of slavery over a period of time.
Massachusetts
Year passed | State flag photos | State motto
Note: State constitution adopted with freedom clause, which courts interpreted as prohibiting slavery
Year passed | State flag photos | State motto
Note: State constitution adopted with freedom clause, which courts interpreted as prohibiting slavery
While in many cases slavery had already been abolished when they were territories, the following states were admitted into the Union as "free" states:
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 ended slavery in the following states that had seceded, provided the Union won the war:
In 1865, the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ended slavery in the following "slave slates" that had not seceded (and throughout the nation):
Source:Specials
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