Emancipation Proclamation
Questions for Reflection
- What were the key motivations and objectives behind President Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation?
- How did the Emancipation Proclamation impact the course and outcome of the American Civil War?
- What were the immediate and long-term effects of the Emancipation Proclamation on enslaved individuals and the institution of slavery in the United States?
- How did the Emancipation Proclamation contribute to the broader struggle for civil rights and equality in American history?
- In what ways did the Emancipation Proclamation shape the national identity and values of the United States?
Reprinting of the Emancipation Proclamation by Strobridge Lithographing Company, Cincinnati OH, 1888. Colorful commemorative prints of the Proclamation were widely printed in magazined and newspapers nationwide.
''When you are dead and in Heaven, in a thousand years that action of yours will makethe Angels sing your praises.''
Hannah Johnson, mother of an African American Union writing to President Abraham Lincoln about the Emancipation Proclamation, July 31, 1863.
Photograph of United States Colored Troops at Port Hudson, Louisiana, 1864
Letter to Former Slaveowner
After the Emancipation Proclamation, the advance of Union troops meant liberating more slaves in its wake. Former slaves drew increasing confidence. This letter is from former slave Spotswood Rice expressing anger to his former slave owner, Kitty Diggs, who still enslaved his daughter.
A1-1 2593 Colored Troops Division Cor-respondence, Department of the Missouri, Letters Received, Series 2593
Abridged Transcript:
''I received a leteter from Cariline telling me that you say I tried to steal to plunder mychild away from you now I want you to understand that mary is my Child and she is aGod given rite of my own and you may hold ont hear as long as you can but I want youto remember this one thing that is the longor you keep my Child from me the longor youwill have to burn in hell and quicer youll get their for we are now making up a bout onethroughsand blacke troops to Come up thrarough and wont to me through Glasgo wandwhen we come wo be to Copperhood rabbles and to the Slaveholding rebbles for wedont expect to leave them there rott neor branch.''
Replica source: Abraham Lincoln, "Emancipation Proclamation," January 1, 1863, National Archives, General Records of the United States Government, Record Group 11, National Archives Identifier 299998, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/299998
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