1863: Lincoln's Pivotal Year

1. The Day of Jubilee

9 1 The Day of Jubilee Edna Greene Medford Six days after President Lincoln issued the decree that promised freedom to all enslaved people held in areas under Confederate control, the Richmond Daily Dispatch boldly suggested that “no proclamation which the Yankees have issued, or may issue, will have the slightest effect upon the slave population of the South.”Heretofore,it argued,the Union forces had carried off the enslaved population through kidnapping.“But beyond the lines of the Federal army, slavery will continue intact and impregnable as the rock of Gibraltar. It is a good deal older than any earthly Government , and it will last a good deal longer than any throne or republic of the earth.‘Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren,’ is a proclamation which even the mighty Abraham Lincoln cannot abolish .”1 Doubtless, many of the newspaper’s readers drew comfort from its prediction, but almost immediately, residents of the Confederacy found themselves facing an alternate reality.Their bound labor force had deserted plantation and farm,the able-bodied men among them had found dignity and self-worth in the ranks of the Union military, and those who chose to remain at home were facilitating the destruction of slavery from within.The Emancipation Proclamation would impact the South and its foundational economic institution in ways both predictable and unexpected. Before the end of the year, supporters and critics alike, in the North as well as the South, would be compelled to acknowledge its transformative nature. Few would challenge the contention that New Year’s Day 1863 was one of the most anticipated in American history. The nation had been at war with itself for more than a year and a half, with little indication of an impending resolution. The president’s ultimatum, delivered one hundred days 10 Edna Greene Medford earlier, had threatened the rebellious South with forfeiture of its human property. For some, the day represented the potential for a new national beginning; others thought it likely to herald the permanent dissolution of the Union. No one better understood the importance of the day or the action that would be irrevocably linked to it than Lincoln. So when it came time to make good on his promise by affixing his signature to the proclamation, he placed the pen down long enough to steady a hand badly cramped from greeting well-wishers who had come to the White House, as was the tradition in those days. Of course, who could have blamed him if the unsteadiness of his hand had been caused by second-guessing this momentous act? Freeing three million enslaved people could rightly cause one’s hands to shake, especially in a nation where the vast majority of the citizens were either indifferent to the suffering of people in bondage or gave tacit acceptance of their condition as long as whites were unaffected by their presence. The political, economic and social implications of the president’s action were enormous. Instead of saving the Union, as it was intended to do, it could have served as the deathblow to the Northern cause. Lincoln accepted the gamble, knowing that the blame for failure would be directed to him. But the president was not alone in appreciating the gravity of the moment . Despite the bravado from the Southern press, Confederates recognized that an emancipating document issued by the national president would compromise their cause. They had already lost thousands of laborers to the Union; those absconding often carried valuable information on troop movements and other military information that advantaged the North.2 The vulnerability of the Confederacy to Union influence over their bondmen and women led Southerners to charge the North with inciting insurrection among the enslaved, an accusation that was repeated with even greater certainty after Lincoln issued the proclamation.3 Arguably, having more to lose than either Lincoln and the North or Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy were the 4.5 million men and women of African descent, nearly 4 million of whom were legally property. Since the beginning of the war, they had tied their fate to Northern success. Free men and women of color—constrained by prejudice against them as a result of their membership in a “servile” race—had hoped that white Americans would recognize the disruptions that slavery had caused the nation and put an end to the heinous institution once and for all. Their spirit had been buoyed by the preliminary proclamation of...