Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-09-19
EMANCIPATION DAY
Colored People Will Honor Lincoln
September %.
= CELEBRATION IN O11UMVl
Local colored People Will Neverthe-
less Remember on That Day the
Man Who Freed Them or Their An
cestors.

The thirty-eighth anniversary of
Emancipation day, September %, 1858,
when Abraham Lincoln issued the ia
nous proclamation declaring that all
slaves in the United States should be
free on January / of the coming year,
is almost at hand. Although Ottumwa
will have no celebration, there will
doubtless be large number of color
ed people of this city who will attend
celebrations at other points, and no
doubt every colored man and woman
in the United States will on that day
utter prayers of thanksgiving for their
deliverance or that of their ancestors,
from the bonds of human slavery
which existed in the south less than
two score years ago.
September %.
September % is the colored mans
Fourth of July. Indeed it is better
than the Fourth, for, although on that
day the people of the United States
were freed from the oppression OF
England by their own declaration, on
Emancipation day the colored slaves
who had served their masters like
dumb animals ever since they had
been old enough to hold horses
bride, were freed by stroke of the
pen in the hands of that great and
good man whom every colored man
reveres, Abraham Lincoln.
Horrors of Slavery.
At this time few people in the north
ern part of the country realize the aw
full meaning of the word slavery
Time has caused the pictures on the
mind of the white peopleto fade almost
or entirely away, and they look upor
slavery now as an evil that could be
classed with the illicit liquor trade
counterfeiting or some other breach O.
the law. Slavery was more than an.
or all of these offences. Human be
ings treated like dogs and cattle
whipped like Russian convicts in thu
wilds of Siberia, tortured like thu
worst of criminals, were the scene!
which characterized slavery. No on
realizes these facts so much as tn
older colored people who were ono
slaves in the south, forced to do a
hidden by inhuman drivers, forced t
submit to any treatment and thes
people alone cannot forget or ALLOW
their minds to belittle the great benz
fits they derived from the Emancips
ton Proclamation.
Hailed With Joy.
1t is no wonder, then, that the co
ored people of the United States loo
forward with Joyous anticipation t
September %, and observe it as a hol
day. 1t is the birthday of their freet
ON. 1t is the anniversary of the da
upon which their race emerged frol
the darkness of oppression almost lili
that of the slaves of the Old Worl
and began their forward march whic
has already brought many Of them
high standing among the learned an
moneyed people of the country, an
promises many greater results and tt
final triumph of the whole race ov'
the drawbacks which prevent it's ra
i'd progress now, but which are beir
rapidly done away with through II
progressiveness of the more enlighte
ed representatives of the colored pc
pie.
The Emancipation Proclamation.
The great document which made Il
slaves free was issued on January
1854, in pursuance to the original pre-
lamation made September % OF Il
previous year. 1t not only made the
free men but gave them the right
serve in the United States army WIFI
physically able, and gave race offici
recognition in other ways. The prt
lamation follows:
Whereas, On the twenty-second d
of September, in the year Of our Lo
one thousand eight hundred and six
two, proclamation was issued by t
President of the United States, &C
tanning among other things the folio
ing, to-wit:
That on the first day of January,
the year of our Lord one thousa
eight hundred and sixty-three, all p
sons held as slaves within any sta
or any designated part of state, I
people whereof shall then be in
bellion against the United States, sh
be thenceforward and forever free,a
the executive government of the u
ed States, including the military a
naval authority thereof, will recogn
and maintain the freedom of such p
sons, and will do no act or acts to
press such persons, or any of them
any efforts they may make for tn
actual freedom:
That the executive will, on the II
day of January aforesaid, by pro