Collage of historical images and cartoons of the American Civil War

Visual Culture of the American Civil WarA Special Feature of Picturing US History

Emancipation Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, Freeing the Slaves of the United States.

Published 33 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, this print reproduced the document's text above two vignettes showing southern African Americans' lives before and after slavery. By the time of its publication, there were no longer any black members in the U.S. Senate and exclusionary "Jim Crow" laws prevented many African Americans from voting. But the poem on the pedestal at the top of the print along with the appearance of an African-American angel blessing the Proclamation indicate that this print was directed to black southerners who continued to commemorate emancipation and struggle for its unfulfilled promise of equality.Published 33 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, this print reproduced the document's text above two vignettes showing southern African Americans' lives before and after slavery. By the time of its publication, there were no longer any black members in the U.S. Senate and exclusionary "Jim Crow" laws prevented many African Americans from voting. But the poem on the pedestal at the top of the print along with the appearance of an African-American angel blessing the Proclamation indicate that this print was directed to black southerners who continued to commemorate emancipation and struggle for its unfulfilled promise of equality.

Physical Dimensions: 19.6 x 35.4 in.

Creator: A. B. Daniel

Source: Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Publisher: Tuscaloosa: The Enquirer Job Printing Co.

Date: 1896