The Emancipation Proclamation now
In 1841, a young and depressed Abraham Lincoln confided to a friend that he would just as soon die except he had yet to accomplish anything to make people “remember he had lived.” Two decades later, the man who became the nation’s 16th president kept the country from fracturing in the Civil War and helped to end slavery with his historic Emancipation Proclamation. The document, issued on Jan. 1, 1863, declared, “All persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Staff Writer Colleen Walsh of the Harvard Gazette asked scholars from across Harvard to reflect on the proclamation’s 150th anniversary, and how the document resonates today. Here are their thoughtful responses. Freedom and military service Drew Faust is the president of Harvard University and Lincoln Professor of History in...