David Ruggles Freedom Courtyard was dedicated on October 19, 2013, to honor the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. After a proclamation issued on September 22, 1862, Lincoln declared that as of January 1, 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state in rebellion against the United States would be forever free, and that the executive government, including military and naval authorities, would recognize and maintain their freedom. On that date he designated as in rebellion Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana except specified parishes including New Orleans, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia except West Virginia and certain counties and cities, and he declared that all enslaved persons in those designated places were free. He urged those declared free to abstain from violence except in necessary self-defense, recommended that when allowed they labor faithfully for reasonable wages, and declared that suitable persons would be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places and to man vessels. Calling the act one of justice warranted by the Constitution and military necessity, he invoked the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God; the document was done at Washington and signed by Abraham Lincoln, with William H. Seward as Secretary of State.