Description: On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, an event that soon became a bold statement of presidential power, a dramatic shift in the rationale for fighting the Civil War, and a promise of future freedom for four million enslaved Americans. But the document marked only a beginning; freedom's future was anything but certain. Thereafter, the significance of both the Proclamation and of emancipation assumed new and diverse meanings, as African Americans explored freedom and the nation attempted to rebuild itself. Despite the sweeping power of Lincoln's Proclamation, struggle, rather than freedom, defined emancipation's broader legacy. The nine essays in this volume unpack the long history and varied meanings of the emancipation of American slaves. Together, the contributions argue that 1863 did not mark an end point or a mission accomplished in black freedom; rather, it initiated the beginning of an ongoing, contested process.
Brief description: James J. Broomall is Director of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War and Assistant Professor in the History Department at Shepherd University. A contributor to Creating Citizenship in the Nineteenth-Century South and Civil War History, Broomall's writings have also appeared in A Companion to the American Civil War in the Journal of the Civil War Era.
Review Quotes: "Rethinking American Emancipation introduces new scholarly perspectives on the black freedom struggle and expands our understanding of emancipation in the context and aftermath of the American Civil War. Highlighting the ways in which emancipation was claimed, contested, and remembered, this terrific collection is a must-read for anyone interested in slavery and freedom. Its provocative and original arguments establish new standards in the field that will inform scholarly debates for years to come."
Crystal N. Feimster, Yale University