When New Year’s Meant Freedom


Some white Americans still try to dismiss the evils of slavery, pretending that many slaves were happy serving their white masters. But the morning of Jan. 1, 1863, showed a different reality when President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and blacks celebrated, as William Loren Katz recalls.

By William Loren Katz

When the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect Jan. 1, 1863, African-Americans had been fighting the Confederacy near the South Carolina Islands for months. These soldiers assembled with their families to celebrate. Their commander, Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, had been a militant Abolitionist minister who together with black people in Boston had stormed jails to free captured people of color.

In South Carolina he was devoted to his courageous soldiers. His Diary describes their New Year’s Day ceremony:

“About ten o’clock the people began to collect by land, and also by water — in steamers sent by General Saxton for the purpose; and from that time all the avenues of approach were thronged. The multitude were chiefly colored women, with gay handkerchiefs on their heads . . . . “There were many white visitors also — ladies on horseback and in carriages, superintendents and teachers, officers, and cavalry-men. Our companies were marched to the neighborhood of the platform, and allowed to sit or stand, as at the Sunday services; the platform was occupied by ladies and dignitaries, and . . . the colored people filled up all the vacant openings in the beautiful grove around, and there was a cordon of mounted visitors beyond. . .

“Then the President’s Proclamation was read by Dr. W. H. Brisbane, a thing infinitely appropriate, a South Carolinian addressing South Carolinians. . . . Then the colors were presented to us by the Rev. Mr. French, a chaplain who brought them from the donors in New York. “All this was according to the program. Then followed an incident so simple, so touching, so utterly unexpected and startling, that I can scarcely believe it on recalling, though it gave the keynote to the whole day. The very moment the speaker had ceased, and just as I took and waved the flag, which now for the first time meant anything to these poor people, there suddenly arose, close beside the platform, a strong male voice (but rather cracked and elderly), into which two women’s voices instantly blended, singing, as if by an impulse that could no more be repressed than the morning note of the song-sparrow.—

“‘My Country, ’tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing!’

‘People looked at each other, and then at us on the platform, to see whence came this interruption, not set down in the bills. Firmly and irrepressibly the quavering voices sang on, verse after verse; others of the colored people joined in; some whites on the platform began, but I motioned them to silence. I never saw anything so electric; it made all other words cheap; it seemed the choked voice of a race at last unloosed.

“Nothing could be more wonderfully unconscious; art could not have dreamed of a tribute to the day of jubilee that should be so affecting; history will not believe it; and when I came to speak of it, after it was ended, tears were everywhere.”

As cited in several of my books: from Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Army Life in A Black Regiment (Boston, 1882) 40-41.

William Loren Katz is the author of Black Indians: A Hidden History and 40 other books on U.S. history. His website is williamlkatz.com

https://consortiumnews.com/2015/12/31/when-new-years-meant-freedom/

Views: 77

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

Comment by Anti Everything on January 2, 2016 at 11:03am

Their country, tis of thee, polluted land of lost liberty I see of thee, they sing so proudly...

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

Doc Vega posted a blog post

The Draconian Show

Sometimes I talk to my invisible friend, IkeHe comes from another dimension when magnetic fields…See More
yesterday
tjdavis posted a blog post
Thursday
Doc Vega posted a blog post
Wednesday
Doc Vega posted blog posts
Tuesday
Doc Vega posted blog posts
Monday
Doc Vega favorited tjdavis's photo
Jun 22
Doc Vega commented on tjdavis's photo
Thumbnail

Game Night

"Ha! Good one!"
Jun 22
Doc Vega commented on FREEDOMROX's blog post MRNA VACCINES: Question
"Listen man I know where you're at but back in October of 2023 thru December of 2023 for months…"
Jun 22
tjdavis posted a video

Architecton | Official Trailer HD | A24

SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/A24subscribeWritten and directed by Victor Kossakovsky and starring Michele De Lucchi. ARCHITECTON – Coming Soon RELEASE DATE: Comin...
Jun 22
tjdavis posted photos
Jun 22
tjdavis posted a blog post
Jun 21
Burbia posted a video

Europe Will Not Survive

The hubris.All things Archaix at www.archaix.com
Jun 21
FREEDOMROX posted a video
Jun 21
Burbia commented on tjdavis's blog post Track AIPAC
Jun 20
rlionhearted_3 commented on Doc Vega's blog post Latest Details on Missile Exchanges Between Iran and Israel
"May get really ugly over there?"
Jun 20
Doc Vega posted a blog post

Latest Details on Missile Exchanges Between Iran and Israel

Latest information about the air attacks between Israel and Iran as the US moves another carrier…See More
Jun 19
tjdavis favorited Less Prone's video
Jun 19
tjdavis posted a blog post
Jun 19
cheeki kea replied to cheeki kea's discussion Tartaria
"Some interesting information has come to light ( from the renaissance period ) which explains that…"
Jun 19
Sandy posted a video
Jun 19

© 2025   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted