Abstract
On January 1, 1863, the day the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in Confederate states under federal control, went into effect, Emlie F. Davis, a twenty-one-year-old freeborn black woman, sat in her room in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, pulled out her pocket diary, and proceeded to write about her feelings and activities. From January 1, 1863, to December 31, 1865, Davis recorded her private thoughts, hopes, concerns, and fears, as well as gossip, news, and information about local and national events in three leather-bound pocket diaries, which are currently housed at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Through her simple act of recording her daily experiences, Davis has left us with a much-needed lens through which to glimpse the everyday experiences of a free black woman in Philadelphia during the Civil War.
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