Emancipation

"Emancipation," Thomas Nast lithograph, circa 1865, zoomable image

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Note Cards

Events

Date	Event
07/02/1848	Danish government plans a ten-year abolition in the Danish West Indies but local slaves demand immediate freedom
05/26/1861	Union General Benjamin Butler declares slaves as "contraband of war"
08/06/1861	President Lincoln signs the First Confiscation Act authorizing the seizure of slaves aiding the Confederacy
08/30/1861	General John C. Fremont declares martial law in Missouri and orders emancipation of slaves in the state
09/11/1861	President Lincoln orders General John C. Fremont to modify his emancipation mandate in Missouri
09/17/1861	In Hampton, Virginia, Mary Smith Peake teaches her first classes for "contrabands"
09/25/1861	U.S. Navy Secretary Gideon Welles authorizes the enlistment of runaway slaves into the naval service
10/01/1861	Moncure Conway publishes "The Rejected Stone" arguing for emancipation
11/02/1861	In Missouri, Major General John C. Frémont resigns as head of the Western Department of the Army
02/22/1862	Mary Smith Peake, teacher of classes for "contrabands," dies of tuberculosis in Hampton, Virginia
03/06/1862	President Lincoln suggests to Congress ways gradually to end slavery in the United States
03/13/1862	A new Article of War forbids the military to return escaped slaves to their former owners
03/24/1862	In Cincinnati, Wendell Phillips is forced from the stage as he attempts agitate for abolition and disunion
03/27/1862	Abolitionist lecture in Burlington, New Jersey ends in chaos and a barrage of rotten eggs
04/02/1862	The United States Senate passes President Lincoln's suggested resolution to help end slavery gradually
04/03/1862	On a party line vote, the U.S. Senate votes to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia
04/07/1862	In Rockville, Maryland Unionists meet to denounce the bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia
04/11/1862	In Washington D.C., the House passes the bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia
04/16/1862	Slavery is abolished in the District of Columbia
04/18/1862	Union forces advance on Stafford County, Virginia
05/09/1862	Without authority, Union General David Hunter declares all slaves in three states "forever free"
05/15/1862	In the Virginia Senate, Senator R. R. Collier opens debate on the centrality of slavery to the South
05/19/1862	President Lincoln declares void Union General David Hunter's South Carolina declaration of emancipation
07/17/1862	President Lincoln signs the Second Confiscation Act authorizing freedom for confiscated slaves
09/01/1862	Moncure Conway becomes co-editor of "The Commonwealth, " an anti-slavery journal
03/17/1863	In Washington, the Senate votes to strike down the color bar on railroad cars in the District of Columbia
05/15/1863	Frederick Douglass speaks at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn
05/20/1863	General John Schofield replaces abolitionist General Samuel Curtis in the Department of the Missouri
05/22/1863	The Army creates the Bureau of Colored Troops to oversee the creation of African-American regiments
05/28/1863	The 54th Massachusetts leaves Boston for active service in South Carolina
06/12/1863	General Hunter takes his leave after an eventful year as head of the Department of the South
06/27/1863	Missouri Convention is hammering out a resolution to end slavery and compensate slaveowners
07/29/1863	In New Orleans, leading Creole citizen Captain Andre Cailloux is given a hero's funeral
02/21/1864	In Baltimore, the first Catholic Church exclusively for the use of African-Americans is dedicated
03/01/1864	In Boston, Rebecca Davis Lee graduates as the first female African-American medical doctor
06/08/1864	The U.S. Congress funds "separate but equal" schools for black children in the District of Columbia
06/23/1864	In Washington D.C., the U.S. Senate votes to repeal all remaining Federal Fugitive Slave Acts
06/25/1864	The U.S. Senate votes to ban exclusion from testifying in United States courts on grounds of race
06/29/1864	The House of Representatives upholds Senate on banning exclusion from U.S. courts on grounds of race
12/07/1864	In Philadelphia, black leaders meet with city transport companies to demand desegregation of their streetcars
01/31/1865	In Philadelphia, white streetcar riders vote overwhelmingly to keep black citizens from city streetcars
01/31/1865	In Washington D.C., the House of Representatives passes the Thirteen Amendment outlawing slavery
03/10/1865	In South Carolina, teenaged domestic slave Amy Spain is hanged for proclaiming herself free
06/19/1865	Landing in Galveston, Union General Gordon Granger decrees that slavery in Texas is at an end.
11/28/1865	Alabama's African-Americans hold their First Freedmen's Convention at Mobile
12/29/1865	After thirty-five years of anti-slavery efforts under William Lloyd Garrison, the Liberator ceases publication
01/25/1866	In Boston, the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society rejects a proposal to disband since its work is done
02/07/1866	In Washington, Frederick Douglass leads a delegation of African-American leaders to the White House
03/15/1866	In Indianapolis, angry Indiana Democrats condemn Congress and support President Johnson.
03/28/1866	The Wisconsin Supreme Court rules that male Wisconsin African-Americans have the right to vote
10/19/1866	A large force of nightriders terrorize African-American homes throughout Marion County, Kentucky.
11/06/1866 to 11/09/1866	The "Indiana Colored Convention" is meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana.
11/06/1866	In Massachusetts, Republicans win smashing victories in the fall state elections.

People

Aaron, Samuel

Arnold, Isaac Newton

Ayers, James T.

Baldwin, John Denison

Bingham, John Armor

Butler, Benjamin Franklin

Casey, Samuel Lewis

Chase, Anna Harrison

Creswell, John Andrew Jackson

John Andrew Jackson Creswell, circa 1863, detail

Crisfield, John Woodlawn

Crummell, Alexander

Drake, Charles Daniel

English, James Edward

French, John Robert

Gay, Sydney Howard

Jay, John

Kelley, William Darrah

Lincoln, Abraham

Abraham Lincoln, November 8, 1863, detail

Peake, Mary Smith Kelsey

Pierce, Edward Lillie

Edward Lillie Pierce, circa 1880, detail

Rivers, Prince

Rumley, James

Spradley, Henry Williams

Stevens, Thaddeus

Thaddeus Stevens, Brady-Handy image, detail

Trumbull, Lyman

Whittier, John Greenleaf

Documents

Date	Title
	Abraham Lincoln to John A.J. Creswell, March 7, 1865
	Charles Jones Jenkins, "Inaugural Address as governor of Georgia (excerpts)" December 14, 1865, Milledgeville, Georgia
07/05/1861	Newark (OH) Advocate, “The Impending Danger,” July 5, 1861
08/30/1861	Gen. John Fremont, Declaration of Martial Law in Missouri, August 30, 1861
09/02/1861	Abraham Lincoln to John Frémont, September 2, 1861
09/22/1861	Abraham Lincoln to Orville Hickman Browning, September 22, 1861
12/04/1861	Brigadier General John W. Phelps, Proclamation to "The Loyal Citizens of the Southwest," December 4, 1861
12/27/1861	Flag Officer William W. McKean to Gideon Welles, Concerning Brigadier-General Phelps' Declaration, December 27, 1861
04/16/1862	President Abraham Lincoln, Signing statement for the Bill to Abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia
05/03/1862	Major-General Mansfield Lovell, General Order 17, May 3, 1862
05/19/1862	Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation Revoking General Hunter's May 9, 1862 Order of Military Emancipation, May 19, 1862
06/22/1862	Abraham Lincoln to John M. Schofield, Monday, June 22, 1863, Washington, D.C.
07/22/1862	Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation---First Draft, Washington, DC, July 22, 1862
08/14/1862	Abraham Lincoln, Remarks on Colonization to African-American Leaders, August 14, 1862
08/22/1862	Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley, Washington, DC, August 22, 1862
09/13/1862	Abraham Lincoln, Reply to Emancipation Memorial Presented by Chicago Christians of All Denominations, September 13, 1862
09/22/1862	Abraham Lincoln, Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, September 22, 1862
09/28/1862	Abraham Lincoln to Hannibal Hamlin, September 28, 1862
12/01/1862	Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862
12/31/1862	Green Adams to Abraham Lincoln, Wednesday, December 31, 1862, Washington D.C.
01/01/1863	Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation, Washington, DC, January 1, 1863
01/16/1863	John T. Cuddy to John H. Cuddy, January 16, 1863
05/01/1863	The Retaliatory Act, Confederate Congress, May 1, 1863
08/05/1863	Abraham Lincoln to Nathaniel Prentice Banks, August 5, 1863
08/07/1863	Charles Sumner to Abraham Lincoln, August 7, 1863
08/25/1863	Stephen Duncan to Mary Duncan, August 25, 1863, Natchez, Mississippi.
08/26/1863	Abraham Lincoln to James C. Conkling, August 26, 1863
09/02/1863	Abraham Lincoln to Salmon Portland Chase, September 2, 1863
09/11/1863	Abraham Lincoln to Andrew Johnson, September 11, 1863
12/08/1863	Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 8, 1863
04/04/1864	Abraham Lincoln to Albert G. Hodges, April 4, 1864
12/06/1864	Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 6, 1864
01/06/1865	Theodore M. Pomeroy to Elizabeth L.W. Pomeroy, February 1, 1865
07/04/1865	Orlando Brown, An Official Fourth of July Address to the Freedmen of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, July 4, 1865
09/20/1865	Alabama State Convention, "Debate on ending Slavery," October 20, 1865, Montgomery, Alabama
10/10/1865	Andrew Johnson, "Remarks to the First Colored Regiment of the District of Columbia," October 10, 1865, Washington D.C.
11/24/1865	Colored People's Convention of South Carolina, Address of the Colored State Convention to the People of the State of South Carolina, November 24, 1865, Charleston, South Carolina
11/28/1865	"Resolutions," First Freedmens' Convention, Mobile, Alabama, November 28, 1865
12/18/1865	Ulysses S. Grant to Andrew Johnson, December 18, 1865, Washington, DC
12/19/1865	Edward McPherson, Description of "An Act to Amend the Criminal Law of South Carolina," December 19, 1865
02/07/1866	Frederick Douglass, et al, to Andrew Johnson, February 7, 1866
02/07/1866	Transcript, Meeting between President Andrew Johnson and a Delegation of African-Americans, White House, February 7, 1866
02/08/1866	Benjamin Brown French to Andrew Johnson, February 8, 1866
02/14/1866	John H. Brinton to Andrew Johnson, West Chester, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1866
02/25/1866	E.J. Bantz to Andrew Johnson, February 25, 1866
03/29/1866	"Colored Suffrage in Wisconsin," Chicago Tribune, March 29, 1866
04/09/1866	An Act to protect all Persons in the United States in their Civil Rights, and to furnish the means for their Vindication, April 9, 1866
11/09/1866	Address of the Colored Convention of Indiana to the Citizens of Indiana, Indianapolis, Indiana,