Rethinking American Emancipation
Subtitle: Legacies of Slavery and the Quest for Black Freedom
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 296
ISBN-13: 9781107421349
Subjects: Slaves, emancipation, united states; African americans, history; African americans, social conditions; United states, race relations; Southern states, social conditions
Description: On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, an event that soon became a bold statement of presidential power, a dramatic shift in the rationale for fighting the Civil War, and a promise of future freedom for four million enslaved Americans. But the document marked only a beginning; freedom's future was anything but certain. Thereafter, the significance of both the Proclamation and of emancipation assumed new and diverse meanings, as African Americans explored freedom and the nation attempted to rebuild itself.