Cover: The Emancipation Proclamation, 1st Edition by Michael Vorenberg

The Emancipation Proclamation

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First  Edition©2010  Michael Vorenberg

ISBN:9781319242657

ISBN:9780312435813

About

Giving voice to those directly involved in this vital drama, from Lincoln himself to Frederick Douglass to slaves and slaveholders, black and white men and women working for abolition, as well as northern and southern editorialists, Emancipation Proclamation investigates the complexity of the process by which African-Americans gained freedom.

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Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
List of Illustrations
 
PART ONE: The Making and Meaning of Emancipation
      Slavery, Freedom, and the Coming of the Civil War
      Making a War for Emancipation
      The Promise of Emancipation
      The Contested Memory of Emancipation
 
PART TWO: The Documents
      The Problem of Slavery at the Start of the Civil War
            1. Abraham Lincoln, Cooper Union Address, February 27, 1860
            2. Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Lyman Trumbull, December 10, 1861
            3. Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Alexander H. Stephens,
                December 22, 1861
            4. Alexander H. Stephens, Cornerstone Speech, March 21, 1861
            5. Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural, March 4, 1861
      The Impact of the Civil War on Slavery
            6. John J. Cheatham, Letter to L. P. Walker, May 4, 1861
            7. Benjamin Butler, Letter to Winfield Scott, May 24, 1861
            8. Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Orville Browning, September 22, 1861
            9. The Pacific Appeal, Editorial on Emancipation, June 14, 1862
            10. George B. McClellan, Harrison’s Landing Letter, July 7, 1862
            11. Samuel J. Kirkwood, Letter to Henry W. Halleck, August 5, 1862
      Making the Emancipation Proclamation
            12. Lydia Maria Child, Letter to John G. Whittier, January 21, 1862
            13. Frederick Douglass, "The Slaveholders Rebellion," July 4, 1862
            14. Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862
            15. Abraham Lincoln, Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation,
                  September 22, 1862
            16. Benjamin R. Curtis, Executive Power, 1862
            17. Grosvenor Lowrey, Commander-In-Chief, 1862
            18. Edward D. Marchant, Abraham Lincoln, 1863
            19. Adalbert Johann Volck, Writing the Emancipation
                  Proclamation, 1863
            20. Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862
            21. Abraham Lincoln, Final Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863
            22. The Pacific Appeal, "The Year of Jubilee Has Come!" January 3, 1863
            23. "The Emancipation Proclamation," the Cincinnati Daily Enquirer,
                  January 3, 1863
            24. James H. Hudson, Letter to the Pacific Appeal, February 25, 1863
            25. Harper’s Weekly, Sensation among "Our Colored Brethren,"
                  December 20, 1863
            26. Thomas Nast, The Emancipation of the Negroes, January 24, 1863
      African Americans and Military Service
            27. H. Ford Douglas, Letter to Frederick Douglass, January 8, 1863
            28. Frederick Douglass, "Men of Color, to Arms!," March 1863
            29. Sattie A. Douglas, Letter to the Anglo-African, June 20, 1863
            30. Hannah Johnson, Letter to Abraham Lincoln, July 31, 1863
            31. Martha Glover, Letter to Richard Glover, December 30, 1863
            32. Charlotte Forten, "Life on the Sea Islands," June 1864
            33. George E. Stephens, "The Pay of Colored Troops," August 1, 1864
            34. Spotswood Rice, Letter to Kitty Diggs, September 3, 1864
      The Confederacy Considers Emancipation
            35. Patrick R. Cleburne, Letter to the Commanders of the Army of the
                  Tennessee, January 2, 1864
            36. Congress of the Confederate States of America, "Address to the
                  People of the Confederate States," January 22, 1864
            37. Robert E. Lee, Letter to Andrew Hunter, January 11, 1864
            38. Charleston Mercury, "Lunacy," January 13, 1865
            39. Richmond Examiner, "Negro Troops," February 25, 1865
      Reconstruction Begins
            40. Harriet Jacobs, Letter to Lydia Maria Child, March 18, 1863
            41. C. B. Wilder, Testimony before the American Freedmen’s Inquiry
                  Commission, May 9, 1863
            42. Noyes Wheeler, "The Riotous Outbreak in New York," July 20, 1863
            43. Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
            44. Annie Davis, Letter to Abraham Lincoln, August 25, 1864
            45. Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural, March 4, 1864
            46. Abraham Lincoln, Last Public Address, April 11, 1865
            47. Edward D. Townsend, Report on Meeting of African Americans with
                  Union Officials, January 12, 1865
            48. Frederick Douglass, Speech in Memory of Abraham Lincoln,
                  April 14, 1876
            49. Thomas Ball, Freedmen’s Memorial to Abraham Lincoln, 1876
            50. Henry W. Herrick, Reading the Emancipation Proclamation in
                  the Slaves’ Cabin, 1864
      Historians Assess Emancipation
            51. James M. McPherson, "Who Freed the Slaves?," 1996
            52. Ira Berlin, "Who Freed the Slaves?: Emancipation and Its Meaning"
 
      APPENDICES
            A Chronology of Emancipation
            Questions for Consideration
            Selected Bibliography
      Index

Michael Vorenberg

Michael Vorenberg (PhD, Harvard University) is associate professor of history at Brown University, where he teaches courses on antebellum America, the Civil War and reconstruction, race and law, and American legal and constitution history. Vorenberg’s research interests lie at the intersection of three fields in American history: the Civil War era, legal and constitution history, and race and emancipation. He is author of Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment (2001), a finalist for the Lincoln Prize in 2002, as well as numerous essays and articles on topics ranging from Lincoln’s plans for the colonization of African Americans to the meaning of rights and privileges under the Fourteenth Amendment.