The District of Columbia celebrated Emancipation Day yesterday marking the 143rd anniversary of the day slaves in Washington were freed by President Lincoln, a day that came nearly nine months before Lincoln issued the much more well-known Empancipation Proclamation. But how well-known is this document really?<\/p>\n
If you’re from the U.S. and you’re like me, you probably have a vague recollection of studying the U.S. Civil War in junior high or in high school. You’ve got a vague idea that “Lincoln freed the slaves.” If you’re like me, you’d be wrong.<\/p>\n
Depending upon who you ask, the Empancipation Proclamation is either Lincoln’s most famous or second most famous document, and while most people have a vague idea of what it did, they don’t know the truth. See, the dirty little secret about this piece of American history is that Lincoln didn’t really free “the slaves.” The Emancipation Proclamation only applied to slaves held in rebellious states. <\/p>\n
Yes, you read that right: only slaves held in states that were part of the Confederacy, which means if you were a slave in say Massachusetts or Maryland your situation didn’t change despite Mr. Lincoln’s grand, sweeping, historically mis-remembered gesture.<\/p>\n
So what’s the point of all these words? I guess I’m just wary of taking things — even things that are 142 years old — at face value in these days of media scandals and constant spin.<\/p>\n
It’s not enough any more to cry “question authority.” No, it’s rapidly becoming “question everything.”<\/p>\n