The issues of freedom for the slaves and military service were intertwined from the beginning of the Civil War. News from Fort Sumter had set off a rush by free black men to enlist in military units. They were turned away, however, because a Federal law dating from 1792 barred them from bearing arms for … Continue reading Emancipation Proclamation: Creation of the United States Colored Troops
Today’s blog post comes from National Archives social media intern Anna Fitzpatrick. Only 100 days after promising in the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation that slaves in the Confederacy would soon be freed, Lincoln fulfilled that promise by signing the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. This proclamation changed the character of the war, adding moral force … Continue reading Emancipation Proclamation: “It is my Desire to be Free”
Today’s blog post comes from National Archives social media intern Anna Fitzpatrick. Throughout the Civil War, when President Lincoln needed to concentrate—when he faced a task that required his focused and undivided attention—he would leave the White House, cross the street to the War Department, and take over the desk of Thomas T. Eckert, chief … Continue reading The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
Today’s blog post comes from National Archives social media intern Anna Fitzpatrick. Before President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, the Federal Government took steps to begin the process of freeing the slaves. In July 1862—acting on Lincoln's warning that freeing slaves in parts of the South occupied by Union troops might … Continue reading Emancipation Proclamation: A Certificate of Freedom
Today’s blog post comes from National Archives social media intern Anna Fitzpatrick. Nine months before President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, he signed a bill on April 16, 1862, that ended slavery in the District of Columbia. The act finally concluded many years of disagreements over ending ''the national shame'' of slavery in the nation's … Continue reading Emancipation Proclamation: Freedom in Washington, DC
Today’s blog post comes from National Archives social media intern Anna Fitzpatrick. During the Civil War, the government moved slowly but steadily from an affirmation of the Constitutional protection of slavery to its complete abolition with the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment. This change was in part forced on the Federal government by the … Continue reading Emancipation Proclamation: My Dear Wife
Today's blog post comes from National Archives social media intern Anna Fitzpatrick. Before the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves, many men and women in bondage ran away from their owners to freedom. These escape attempts were dangerous, and not all of them were successful. Abolitionists sometimes helped slaves in their flight to freedom, like these … Continue reading Emancipation Proclamation: Flight to Freedom
Today's blog post comes from National Archives social media intern Anna Fitzpatrick. January 1 marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. While this document is remembered for freeing the slaves in the Southern states, petitioners had been attempting to end slavery since the nation’s founding. Petitions by anti-slavery groups were sent to the newly … Continue reading Emancipation Proclamation: Petitioning for Freedom
The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. . . . In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of … Continue reading Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on display in New York City
Americans are used to waiting in line for things they really want: tickets to a rock concert, a World Series game or a controversial new movie, for example. At the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, this week some people waited all night for a brief look at one of the nation's most historic documents --- the … Continue reading Waiting All Night for a Look at History
