The Emancipation Proclamation is usually not on display, but each year for a few days, the document, which is handwritten, and formally establishes the freedom of all slaves in the rebel states, is on display. The National Archives in Washington, D.C., marking the 150th anniversary of one of the country’s most important American documents, is giving the public a chance to view the document from Dec. 30, 2012, through Jan. 1, 2013, which includes a late-night vigil until 1 a.m. on New Year’s Eve. Reginald Washington, the Emancipation Proclamation expert at the National Archives, stated that the preliminary document, issued Sept. 22, 1862, was basically a warning to those states that were in rebellion that if they didn’t return back to the union within 100 days, all slaves in those states …would be set free (Lincoln also spoke of compensation to slaves).

The final Emancipation Proclamation actually invited African American men to join the military, to be part of the Navy. Washington also said that most people don’t know all the ins and outs of the documents, that they know that the doc freed the slaves, but they don’t know that black soldiers were invited to be a part of the freedom effort — as to free not only the slaves but to free America well.