Emancipation Proclamation, 150 years

[AdamFencepost]

Part of our heritage as Americans: 150 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Here are some photographs of African American life at the time and shortly thereafter: At the Dawn of Freedom

Here are photographs of the proclamation itself: US National Archives

Here is something of the story of the abolitionists: Time Magazine interview with James Basker, Professor of History, Columbia​

 

[saywhatkid]

We wouldn't need this today. Mostly all the slave labor is in Asia.

 

[caz12]

would someone answer question......when the african slaves died did they get proper burial with grave stones....do you see many in the old cemetaries...

 

[AdamFencepost]

Folks that live in places that had slavery could answer that question about slave cemeteries, Caz12.

I can say a little something about a History Detectives television show that I saw several years ago. The best that the researchers could determine, a very, very informal burial in Maryland was for an English indentured servant.

There were no laws regarding proper burial during the years in which the young man died. His grave was in a basement. Anything that even suggests a respectful burial seems to be absent.

People who could afford to bring others to the colonies were granted land based on their numbers. No, the servant immigrants were not given land - the person who brought them was given land. This was also true for those bringing African slaves. It looks like this young man only partially paid the landowner on his investment. Here is something on the burial story from the Baltimore newspaper (link).