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 ...

"We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth." The 160th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, celebrated this New Year’s Day, offers not only the remembrance of one of ...

For Juneteenth on Morning Edition, professor Nathan Connolly reflects on the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation, and NPR staff voice the document in its entirety. Today, the country observes ...

An enlarged photo copy of Gen. Gordon Granger's announcement that slaves were freed, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, is displayed next to the original copy of the order the by The ...

This booklet was produced in December 1862 specifically for Union soldiers to read and distribute among African Americans. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and ...