In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation formally freeing all slaves in the Confederate States.

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It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule.

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He pointed out it was a freed slave, Phillip Reed, who helped to cast the bronze statue, which was placed there December 2, 1863, not even a year after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

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The closest to that sale was 3.7 million in 2010 for a signed copy by Abraham Lincoln of the Emancipation Proclamation, once owned by Bobby Kennedy.

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In 2010, a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Lincoln was hung in the Oval Office above a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Christie's, in a competing Dec. 19 auction of U.S. historical manuscripts, is selling a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by both Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward.

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