The Complicated Histories of Emancipation: State of the Field at 150

Abstract

The sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued in the midst of the Civil War in 1863, has proven to be a veritable boon to emancipation studies. Several recently published books, including those considered in this essay, have added depth and dimension to the story of the coming of emancipation. The question remains whether they add anything to the history that has now become familiar to scholars of the period. The broad outlines of a new and dynamic understanding of emancipation were first sketched by historians involved in the Freedmen’s and Southern Society project, the collation and publication of documents from the National Archives in a multivolume set nearly a quarter of a century ago and still ongoing. They first delineated emancipation as a process that involved many historical actors. Often caricatured as positing a “self-emancipation” thesis, the Freedom series carefully illustrated the unfolding of emancipation at various levels, the movement of slaves toward the Union Army, the actions of soldiers and generals in the field, congressional acts and resolutions, decisions made by the Lincoln administration, black military service, and the attempt of former slaves to define their own freedom. This pioneering work underlies all three books. James Oakes’ Freedom National builds on that project and even adopts the subtitle of the first volume, The Destruction of Slavery. But Oakes adds to that story considerably and shifts the focus from the slaves themselves to Republi-