On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, “[that] all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State…shall be then, thenceforward… forever free.”  And thus began the Emancipation Proclamation, a presidential order which freed slaves in those States that did not return to Union control.  Forever Free – Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, a new exhibition designed and staged by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, follows the story of slavery and Abraham Lincoln’s role in ending it.