#Emancipation Proclamation

[whenweallvote]

Many of us are taught that slavery came to an end with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, but for enslaved people in Texas, freedom didn’t come until June 19, 1865.

Swipe to learn about the history of Juneteenth, and why it’s a celebration of freedom, culture, and progress.

[usnatarchives]

This remarkable photograph shows the then-oldest living ex-enslaved individual, Mrs. Sally Fickland, viewing the Emancipation Proclamation in the Freedom Train at Philadelphia, on September 17, 1947.

[houghtonlib]

"Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation and Freedom" is a project from Houghton Library to make primary sources on African-American history freely accessible to all.

United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. [Circulars, etc., issued by the commissioner of the bureau of refugees]. Galveston [Texas], 1865-1868.

55-12

Houghton Library, Harvard University

[citizenscreen]

On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation.

[lionofchaeronea]

Emancipation: The Past and the Future, unknown artist, 1863

[gettysburger16]

you guyz are NOT ready for this omg. dropping new years 1863 XDD

[nickysfacts]

A reminder that Karl Marx was a strong supporter of democracy and freedom!

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[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

The Hidden Truth Behind The End Of Slavery - Thomas Sowell

Slavery was destroyed within the United States at staggering costs in blood and treasure, but the struggle was over within a few ghastly years of warfare. Nevertheless, the Civil War was the bloodiest war ever fought in the Western Hemisphere, and more Americans were killed in that war than in any other war in the country’s history. But this was a highly atypical—indeed, unique—way to end slavery. In most of the rest of the world, unremitting efforts to destroy the institution of slavery went on for more than a century, on a thousand shifting fronts, and in the face of determined and ingenious efforts to continue the trade in human beings.

Within the British Empire, the abolition of slavery was accompanied by the payment of compensation to slave owners for what was legally the confiscation of their property. This cost the British government £20 million—a huge sum in the nineteenth century, about 5 percent of the nation’s annual output.38 A similar plan to have the federal government of the United States buy up the slaves and then set them free was proposed in Congress, but was never implemented. The costs of emancipating the millions of slaves in the United States would have been more than half the annual national output—but still less than the economic costs of the Civil War,39 quite aside from the cost in blood and lives, and a legacy of lasting bitterness in the South, growing out of its defeat and the widespread destruction it suffered during that conflict.

While the British could simply abolish slavery in their Western Hemisphere colonies, they faced a more daunting and longer-lasting task of patrolling the Atlantic off the coast of Africa, in order to prevent slave ships of various nationalities from continuing to supply slaves illegally. Even during the Napoleonic wars, Britain continued to keep some of its warships on patrol off West Africa. Moreover, such patrols likewise tried to interdict the shipments of slaves from East Africa through the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. Brazil capitulated to British demands that it end its slave trade, after being publicly humiliated by British warships that seized and destroyed slave ships within Brazil’s own waters. In 1873, two British cruisers appeared off the coast of Zanzibar and threatened to blockade the island unless the slave market there shut down. It was shut down.

It would be hard to think of any other crusade pursued so relentlessly for so long by any nation, at such mounting costs, without any economic or other tangible benefit to itself. These costs included bribes paid to Spain and Portugal to get their cooperation with the effort to stop the international slave trade and the costs of maintaining naval patrols and of resettling freed slaves, not to mention dangerous frictions with France and the United States, among other countries.40 Captains of British warships who detained vessels suspected of carrying slaves were legally liable if those vessels turned out to have no slaves on board. The human costs were also large.

[..]

None of this means that the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade should be ignored, downplayed, or excused. Nor have they been. A vast literature has detailed the vile conditions under which slaves from Africa lived—and died—during their voyages to the Western Hemisphere. But the much less publicized slave trade to the Islamic countries had even higher mortality rates en route, as well as involving larger numbers of people over the centuries, even though the Atlantic slave trade had higher peaks while it lasted. By a variety of accounts, most of the slaves who were marched across the Sahara toward the Mediterranean died on the way.53 While these were mostly women and girls, the males faced a special danger—castration to produce the eunuchs in demand as harem attendants in the Islamic world.

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On the issue of slavery, it was essentially Western civilization against the world. At the time, Western civilization had the power to prevail against all other civilizations. That is how and why slavery was destroyed as an institution in almost the whole world. But it did not happen all at once or even within a few decades. When the British finally stamped out slavery in Tanganyika in 1922 it was more than half a century after the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States, and vestiges of slavery still survived in parts of Africa into the twenty-first century.

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This video pairs visual elements with Sowell's audiobook reading of his own book, "Black Rednecks and White Liberals."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_Africa

The Blockade of Africa began in 1808 after the United Kingdom outlawed the Atlantic slave trade, making it illegal for British ships to transport slaves. The Royal Navy immediately established a presence off Africa to enforce the ban, called the West Africa Squadron. Although the ban initially applied only to British ships, Britain negotiated treaties with other countries to give the Royal Navy the right to intercept and search their ships for slaves.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Africa_Squadron

The West Africa Squadron, also known as the Preventative Squadron, was a squadron of the British Royal Navy whose goal was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. Formed in 1808 after the British Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act 1807 and based out of Portsmouth, England, it remained an independent command until 1856 and then again from 1866 to 1867.

[usnatarchives]

National Archives Announces Emancipation Proclamation to Go on Permanent Display in 2026

The National Archives announced today that the Emancipation Proclamation will be put on permanent display in the Rotunda of the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, in 2026.

Read the full press release on the National Archives website:

[rabbitcruiser]

On May 20, 1865 General McCook read Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation during a ceremony in Tallahassee, officially ending slavery in Florida. That same day, his jubilant troopers raised the U.S. flag over the state capitol building. Tallahassee was the penultimate Confederate state capital to rejoin the USA.

[worldwide-blackfolk]

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[jazzdailyblog]

We Insist! Freedom Now: Exploring the Revolutionary Jazz Album That Echoed Social Change

Introduction: Music has the power to transcend boundaries and become a vessel for social and political commentary. In the realm of jazz, the album “We Insist! Freedom Now” by Max Roach stands as an enduring masterpiece. Released in 1960, this avant-garde jazz album, featuring vocalist Abbey Lincoln, is a vocal-instrumental suite that delves into themes related to the Civil Rights Movement. With…

[quotesfromall]

Lincoln gave the Confederate states until the end of the year to return to the Union if they wanted to maintain slavery. They ignored him.

RIchard Wormser, The Emancipation Proclamation

[whitesinhistory]

On February 24, 1865, the Kentucky General Assembly refused to endorse the end of slavery in America when it voted against ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery "except as punishment for crime."

As the Civil War began in 1861, Kentucky, a border state, remained in the Union, but the state's legislature did not fully support President Abraham Lincoln or his Republican administration because lawmakers worried that Lincoln would abolish slavery. Throughout 1861, President Lincoln assured Kentuckians he had no intention of interfering with the state's "domestic institutions."

In March 1862, President Lincoln proposed a plan of gradual emancipation for the border states, offering to compensate enslavers who freed the Black people they enslaved. When the congressional delegations for the border states turned down that offer, President Lincoln issued a draft Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862 and signed the final version on January 1, 1863, which applied only to enslaved people in states that were in rebellion. Thus, it allowed for enslavement to continue in Kentucky, along with Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and Tennessee, as well as portions of Virginia and Louisiana that were occupied by the Union.

Kentucky legislators continued to oppose all efforts to abolish slavery in the coming years, and on February 24, 1865, the Kentucky General Assembly rejected the Thirteenth Amendment. Prominent politicians and other public figures harshly criticized President Lincoln and members of Congress, and the Kentucky legislature expressed their disapproval of the amendment's adoption by politically siding with the former Confederacy throughout the post-Civil War era. Kentucky did not officially adopt the Thirteenth Amendment until 1976.

[skjam]

Book Review: Class Distinctions Thru History in Review

Book Review: Class Distinctions Thru History in Review by Stephen Joseph Scott Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author for the purpose of writing this review. No other compensation was requested or offered. As long time readers of this blog will know, I’m not myself a historical scholar, just a reader of history books from time to time, so I am not necessarily someone who can…

[usnatarchives]

Shogan Announces Plans for Permanent Emancipation Proclamation Display 📜

On Saturday, June 17, 2023, Archivist of the United States Dr. Colleen Shogan was honored to announce that the National Archives intends to place the Emancipation Proclamation on permanent display inside the Rotunda, joining our nation's foundational documents alongside the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

Dr. Shogan made the special announcement on Saturday just before General Orders No. 3 and the Emancipation Proclamation went on public display through June 19.

The National Archives will begin an assessment to determine the best display environment, considering the condition and importance of the original document.

The current plan for display calls for showing one side of the Emancipation Proclamation, a double-sided five-page document, alongside facsimiles of the reverse pages. The original pages on display will be rotated on a regular basis to limit light exposure.

Watch the full announcement on our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/p/CtmMzyjAUmR/?hl=en

Learn about the Emancipation Proclamation and General Order No. 3: https://museum.archives.gov/featured-document-display-emancipation-proclamation-and-juneteenth