With the
sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation and the ongoing popularity of
the Lincoln movie, which focuses on passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in the
House of Representatives, it seems as relevant as ever to talk about how we
teach emancipation to undergraduates today.
When I broach the subject in my 19th Century US History
course I begin by asking the class a simple question:
Who freed
the slaves?
The answers
are predictable. First is usually “Lincoln.” And then “the Union Army,” followed
by “Congress” and/or “the 13th Amendment.”
A particularly astute student will say, “the slaves freed
themselves.”
The answer,
I quickly tell them, is that all of these things are true. But as quickly
becomes apparent, I tend to emphasize the latter interpretation—self-emancipation—over
the others. After all, scholarship on
emancipation in the last 30 years has focused more and more on the myriad ways
in which slaves undermined the bonds of mastery, broke for Union lines at
places like Fortress Monroe, attained contraband status in Union army camps,
served in the Federal army as soldiers, and made a revolutionary bid for
freedom and citizenship in a unique moment when the white power structure was
rent by civil war. I have contributed
to that scholarly trend myself with my work on the border states of Kentucky
and Missouri, where the Emancipation Proclamation did not apply, and slave agency—by
male and female alike—proved especially critical in the emancipation process.
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