The Emancipation Proclamation: "A Poor Document, But a Mighty Act"

[ReignetteC]

(01-01-2013 11:28 AM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  Thanks, Reignette. Here is the link to Foner's article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/opinio....html?_r=0

There is another opinion article in yesterday's New York Times titled "How Many Slaves Work for You?" that addresses what President Obama calls modern-day slavery.

"In a speech delivered in September at the Clinton Global Initiative, President Obama declared that the time had come to call human trafficking by its rightful name: modern slavery. “The bitter truth is that trafficking also goes on right here, in the United States,” he declared. “It’s the migrant worker unable to pay off the debt to his trafficker. The man, lured here with the promise of a job, his documents then taken, and forced to work endless hours in a kitchen. The teenage girl, beaten, forced to walk the streets. This should not be happening in the United States of America.”

The article includes a link to Slavery Footprint where you can take their quiz, "How many slaves work for you?"

http://slaveryfootprint.org/

Thank you, Linda, for providing the link to the quiz. "Knowing about the problem is the first step."

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(01-04-2013 06:53 AM)Jim Garrett Wrote:  The National Archives had the original on display for a few days. The document is very fragile and faded. It can only be displayed for a very brief time. They now have a original copy on display at the Library of Congress.

Jim,

The January 3, 1938, "Lincoln Lore" publication marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of Emancipation Proclamation with a note about what became of a copy that was donated to the Chicago Sanitary Fair (Nov/Dec 1863).

The Fair's committee wrote to A.L. asking that he donate the manuscript. Although Lincoln consented to the donation, he was nevertheless reluctant as evidenced by his letter of October 26, 1863:

"I had some desire to retain the paper; but if is shall contribute to the relief or comfort of the soldiers, that will be better."

Per the editor, Thomas B. Bryan paid $3000 for the E.P. and donated it to the Chicago's Soldier Home. He had the copy lithographed and sold reprints to benefit the Home.

Sadly, the document burned in the Chicago fire of 1871.