Passed in the United States Senate on April 8, 1864, and the U.S. House on January 31, 1865, a proposed national amendment formally abolishing slavery in the United States is ratified by Georgia this day. Georgia’s approval represents the threshold of three-fourths of the states needed to make the act an amendment to the U.S.…
In what proves to be the final hour of the Confederacy, the government authorizes the enlistment and arming of slaves to fight in the Confederate Army. With the signature of President Jefferson Davis, the bill is official. Although by no means putting an end to the debate in the South over slaves serving in the…
Today U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment, thus sending it to the states for ratification. Also today, from Savannah Assistant Adjutant-General E. D. Townsend writes to the U.S. War Department concerning the January 12 meeting that took place between General William T. Sherman and “the colored ministers in Savannah.” From that meeting, during…