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Pulitzer
Prize winning Author Joseph J. Ellis says in this new biography
that Americans see their first president on dollar bills,
quarters, and Mount Rushmore, but only as "an icon--distant,
cold, intimidating." Ellis gives us a fresh portrait.
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The
Emancipation Proclamation
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New
Year's Eve watch meeting - the night before the Emancipation
Proclamation took effect Blacks met for prayer
Heard
and Moseley,
Waiting for the hour Emancipation, December 31, 1862, National
Archives
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You
probably know that the Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
formally ended slavery in the Confederate states during
the Civil War. But did you know that the Proclamation
actually did not free a single slave? It specifically
did not end slavery in states which were loyal to the
Union. To do so would have lost the Union valuable support
in swing states. It did end slavery in the Confederate
States but of course the proclamation could not be enforced
there until the war was over.
Nevertheless,
there were widespread celebrations on January 1, 1863
when the Proclamation took effect. At Plymouth Church
in Brooklyn, the well-known abolitionist Henry Ward
Beecher preached a special sermon to a huge audience.
"The Proclamation may not free a single slave,"
he declared, "but it gives liberty a moral recognition."
And after January 1, 1863, every advance the Union army
made into Confederate territory freed more slaves.
The Proclamation also invited Black soldiers to enlist
in the army and navy. Many thousands served the Union
cause.
Because
of the promise and commitment that the emancipation
proclamation delivered, it has its place among the cornerstone
documents of freedom and equality in the world.
The
Civil War
Civil
War History Books |
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