In 1863, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, a document declaring the freedom of all African American slaves in the United States. Although Lincoln’s act of emancipation did extend some aspects of freedom to African Americans, the document did meet opposition from black abolitionists who believed it ineffective in long-term goals for universal freedom. 

Courtesy of the Brown Digital Repository

Serving as Secretary of Treasury from 1861 to 1864, Salmon P. Chase was primarily responsible for financing the Civil War. Before serving in Lincoln’s cabinet, he practiced as a lawyer in Cincinnati, where he was an active abolitionist and protested against the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It was with this anti-slavery fervor that he drafted what would become the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Although his views ultimately may have been too extreme for the more moderate Lincoln, his words served as the basis for this important document.

Read the full draft here. 

Courtesy of the John Hay Library, Brown University

This images of the Emancipation Proclamation, owned by Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, was distributed to cabinet members as a preliminary draft. Welles kept a meticulous diary during his time as Secretary to Lincoln, and today it serves as the most reliable account of the Emancipation Proclamation's creation and distribution.

Read the full draft here.

Courtesy of the Brown Digital Repository

This image reflects the tension in the air in 1863. The faces of Lincoln and his cabinet, solemn and stern, show that these men know the potential negative consequences that this document will bring to the Civil War. As President Lincoln reads the Emancipation Proclamation over, his colleagues wait calmly, knowing that this would mark a formative moment in the nation’s history.

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In this lithograph, created by Henderson-Achert-Krebs Company, Lincoln stands in a familiar gesture of deliverance, holding onto the hand of a recently freed slave who gazes upward, shackles broken and arm outstretched to mimic how Lincoln himself raises the Proclamation in freedom. 

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In this allegorical drawing, created by publishers Morris Swander and P.S. Duval & Son, the Emancipation Proclamation takes the form of President Lincoln’s own portrait. The words bring to life Lincoln’s determined expression, creating a literal profile that asserts the centrality of the Emancipation Proclamation to Lincoln’s presidency. Accompanying the allegorical portrait are two small scenes in the bottom corners of the document. In one, an abused slave looks towards Lincoln as though in a plea for freedom, while in the other, Union soldiers happening upon a group of slaves gesture to Lincoln as the reason for their presence, redirecting attention once more to the source of the slaves’ freedom. 

Courtesy of the Brown Digital Repository

This illustrative draft of the Emancipation Proclamation is significant for its depiction of not only Lincoln, but also all fifteen Presidents. In showing these formative figures in American political history, the artists Max and Louis N. Rosenthal have rendered the document an integral part of the nation’s legacy and American patriotism. Additional images along the left and right sides of the written Proclamation show the plight of the slave from forced labor to civilized freedom—represented overhead by a devil and an angel, respectively— suggesting again what influence the document would have for continuing the narrative of America as the land of the free. Importantly, the figure of the freed slave is peripheral to both the presidents and the text of the Proclamation itself.

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“As brothers all, then follow the call, For Freedom and Emancipation. A man is a man, deny it who can, It shall be so at least in this nation.” The jovial nature of this song, inspired by the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as the strong messages it gives to support the document, was a sure way to rally American support for the movement toward greater equality for all races. By speaking of brotherhood, the songwriters put forward a feeling of commonality between black and white Americans alike.

Find the full sheet music here. 

Courtesy of the Brown Digital Repository

The Emancipation Proclamation was also used to help the Civil War monetarily. In order to bring more money to the Civil War relief effort, citizens were asked to contribute a dollar for the chance to receive a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. With the larger dissemination of the Emancipation Proclamation, many Americans who may not have had access to the document itself could now read its actual contents for the first time.

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On July 4, 1863 the Democratic Catechism of Negro Equality was published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The document criticizes the Democratic Party of the United States for placing the responsibility of African American emancipation on the Republicans' shoulders instead of participating in the struggle themselves. By beginning the text with an index of the Democratic Party’s accomplishments, the catechism’s authors show how the Party’s ideology already supports abolition, thus revealing the hypocrisy of Democrats' inaction.

Courtesy of the Providence Public Library, Harris Collection

Thomas Nast, a prominent American political cartoonist, was deeply committed to the principle of abolition. He supported the Union during the Civil War by drawing images that valorized Lincoln’s efforts and the new act of emancipation. One such cartoon depicts President Lincoln helping a sick, African American male (whose forehead reads “Slavery”) with a bowl of an “elixir” (which reads “Emancipation”). In Nast’s view, the Emancipation Proclamation represented a type of cure-all which would make Southern states recognize that slavery degrades the whole nation.

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This broadside, likely distributed in 1863, was written after Frederick Douglass’ speech of the same name, delivered in Massachusetts in March of that year—and was signed by Douglass himself. Douglass may be the most famous black abolitionist, but was joined by over 300 black men and women who worked both in concert with, and separately from, their white allies in the fight for emancipation. This document rallied newly freed African American men to join the military and fight in the Civil War. The capitalized and emboldened words place both opportunity and responsibility in the hands of black men, urging them to use their power to fight for freedom.

Courtesy of the Providence Public Library, RI Ephemera Collection