The effects of the Emancipation Proclamation are rippling throughout the South and the North. In the Confederacy, slaves are escaping from their masters in ever greater numbers and many are now in Union Army uniforms, stationed in Union-controlled areas of the Southern Atlantic seaboard. For their part, slave masters and overseers are forced to keep…
Today the complicated dynamics of African slavery are on vivid display when, three days prior to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln‘s much-anticipated Emancipation Proclamation, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, now devoted to defending human bondage in the Confederacy, is forced by law to free some 200 slaves previously-owned by his wife’s (Mary Anna Custis) father, George…
On this last Thursday of November, many Northerners celebrate a day of Thanksgiving. The day is not yet recognized as a national holiday (this will not take place until next year), but is increasingly recognized as a localized or even statewide event throughout the Northern states. And while Northerners find much for which to be…