I was surprised at the lack of Emancipation Proclamation news yesterday, but I guess the newspaper writers were all hungover. Here’s a handy recap on the act and its slow-burn consequences from the WaPo.
On New Year’s morning of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln hosted a three-hour reception in the White House. That afternoon, Lincoln slipped into his office and — without fanfare — signed a document that changed America forever.It was the Emancipation Proclamation, decreeing “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious Southern states “are, and henceforward shall be, free.”