Correcting an error in the National Archives

[wbull1]

I have to boast somewhere and I think you will appreciate it here. For several years I wrote to the National Archives about an error in their description of the Emancipation Proclamation. It is a common misperception that I held and passed on at one time. I have seen the same error in the work of respected historians. The description was "although not a single slave was immediately freed [by the document]." It went on to say the EP had a positive result. People here know that about 50,000 people were immediately freed at that point. I sent in references and never got an answer. During COVID I took my evidence to my Oregon Senator Ron Wyden's office. His staff said they would tell him. Looking at the page the other day, I saw the error had been removed. There was no statement about immediate emancipation, but the misinformation was gone. It was apparently changed in 2022. Hurrah!

 

[lelliott19]

Fantastic @wbull1 Always great news records can be corrected.

 

[lupaglupa]

Good for you! Facts matter.

 

[CavRTO]

I have to boast somewhere and I think you will appreciate it here. For several years I wrote to the National Archives about an error in their description of the Emancipation Proclamation. It is a common misperception that I held and passed on at one time. I have seen the same error in the work of respected historians. The description was "although not a single slave was immediately freed [by the document]." It went on to say the EP had a positive result. People here know that about 50,000 people were immediately freed at that point. I sent in references and never got an answer. During COVID I took my evidence to my Oregon Senator Ron Wyden's office. His staff said they would tell him. Looking at the page the other day, I saw the error had been removed. There was no statement about immediate emancipation, but the misinformation was gone. It was apparently changed in 2022. Hurrah!

Good on ya lad.

 

[DixieRifles]

Jolly good!!

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

People here know that about 50,000 people were immediately freed at that point.

Who would that be?

 

[R. Porter]

It was my understanding that the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves living in the Confederate states only. Lincoln exempted the Border States because he was afraid that it would cause those states to secede from the Union. Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation General Butler declared escaped slaves to be contraband of war, since slaves were considered to be property and furthermore that slaves were considered to be vital to the Southern war effort. Given these circumstances, it would seem that all escaped slaves that were currently living in the North would have been freed.

 

[Zack]

Who would that be?

Those living on the Sea Islands of South Carolina for one.

Eric Foner in FOREVER FREE: "On January 1, 1863, most slaves resided in places where the proclamation could not be enforced. Thus, there was some truth in the famous comment by the Times of London that the proclamation resembled a papal bull against a comet—both were acts outside the jurisdiction of their authors. It is not true, however, as is sometimes stated, that the proclamation freed no slave on the day it was issued. Lincoln decided not to exempt the Sea Islands of South Carolina, occupied since late 1861 by Union forces, from the proclamation's purview. Here, more than ten thousand slaves did gain their freedom with the stroke of Lincoln's pen."

 

[wbull1]

Who would that be?

Please check earlier posts on this site. They are here.