02/01/2022
On January 1, 1863, many wondered whether, in the face of the disastrous losses at Fredericksburg, President Lincoln would move ahead with the Emancipation Proclamation. Frederick Douglass joined a gathering of thousands of people at Tremont Temple in Boston and awaited news from Washington eagerly, recalling later in his memoirs,
“We were waiting and listening as for a bolt from the sky, which should rend the fetters of four million of slaves; we were watching, as it were, by the dim light of the stars, for the dawn of a new day; we were longing for the answer to the agonizing prayers of centuries.
“Eight, nine, ten o'clock came and went, and still no word. A visible shadow seemed falling on the expecting throng, which the confident utterances of the speakers sought in vain to dispel. At last, when patience was well-nigh exhausted, and suspense was becoming agony, a man (I think it was Judge Russell) with hasty step advanced through the crowd, and with a face fairly illumined with the news he bore, exclaimed in tones that thrilled all hearts, "It is coming!" "It is on the wires!!" The effect of this announcement was startling beyond description, and the scene was wild and grand. Joy and gladness exhausted all forms of expression from shouts of praise, to sobs and tears…It was one of the most affecting and thrilling occasions I ever witnessed, and a worthy celebration of the first step on the part of the nation in its departure from the thralldom of ages.”
The Emancipation Proclamation declared all persons enslaved in rebelling states to be free and authorized the enlistment of black men into US military service. With this proclamation, the war took on new meaning, no longer simply a war to preserve the Union as it as, the United States Army would now be fighting to build a Union without slavery. In 1863, a new phase of the war began, but the bloodshed was far from over. Douglass acknowledged the limitations of the new policy, but recognized its importance as a monumental step in the right direction.
Reactions to the Emancipation Proclamation in the winter camps of the Army of the Potomac ranged from loathing to admiration. The consequences of a federal emancipation policy were as yet to be determined, as was the answer to the question: what would freedom look like?
