Today the 49th annual meeting of the American Baptist Missionary Union convenes in the First Baptist Church of Cleveland, Ohio. U.S. Senator Ira Harris (NY), a Baptist layman, presides over the meeting as the organization’s president. Singing, scripture reading and prayer open the conference. Delegates from Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New…
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…
In the North, today’s edition of Harper’s Weekly features a celebrative illustration of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln‘s Emancipation Proclamation, drawn by Thomas Nast. A family of former slaves is pictured in the center, with a portrait of Lincoln hanging on the wall. The past is illustrated to the left, and a hopeful future is envisioned…