Emancipation Proclamation Information

St. Helena Island is home to the Penn Center, originally called the Penn School, which was established in 1862 just six months prior to the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation was decreed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. and was one of the most unprecedented acts in United States history. It was the initial Civil Rights act in the United States that changed African- Americans' status from enslaved to free.