When the new year arrived at midnight on Jan. 1, 1863, the quiet of most of the region’s small towns and rural expanses might well have been briefly disturbed by church bells ringing out. But there’s ...

This document gave the states of the Confederacy until January 1, 1863 to lay down their arms and peaceably re-enter the Union; if these states continued their rebellion, all slaves in those seceding ...

Michel Martin speaks with Christopher Bonner, a historian at the University of Maryland, about the significance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued on Sept. 22, 1862. We're ...

The Emancipation Proclamation will be read to commemorate the historic event that occurred in Galveston on June 19, 1865, two years after the proclamation was enacted. Galveston holds the distinction ...

Celebrations of freedom for enslaved Black people have been held around Missouri under different names and on different dates since they gained their freedom. Now, with the federal Juneteenth holiday ...