Privately determined to free the South’s African slaves, U.S President Abraham Lincoln today ratchets up Northern military might while maintaining a cautious public profile regarding slavery. The Union Army receives a boost from the president’s order to draft 300,000 militia for a period of nine months. It is doubtful that Lincoln believes he will need…
For months, many Northern Baptists have been agitating the U.S. Congress to pass a confiscation act that will permanently free African slaves. Today, their wishes, as well as those of many Northern Christians at large, are granted, as Congress passes the Second Confiscation Act that is, in effect, an emancipation proclamation that grants permanent freedom…
Today one of the worst fears of Southern slaveholders is realized: the first school for emancipated slaves is established in Alexandria, Virginia by Mary Chase, an African American woman. The laws of southern states, with the lone exception of Tennessee, have long decreed that it is a crime to teach African slaves to read and…