The Emancipation Proclamation is the most important document of
arguably the greatest president in U.S. history. Now, Edna Greene
Medford, Frank J. Williams, and Harold Holzer -- eminent experts in
their fields -- remember, analyze, and interpret the Emancipation
Proclamation in three distinct respects: the influence of and
impact upon African Americans; the legal, political, and military
exigencies; and the role pictorial images played in establishing
the document in public memory. The result is a carefully balanced
yet provocative study that views the proclamation and its author
from the perspective of fellow Republicans, antiwar Democrats, the
press, the military, the enslaved, free blacks, and the antislavery
white establishment, as well as the artists, publishers, sculptors,
and their patrons who sought to enshrine Abraham Lincoln and his
decree of freedom in iconography.
Medford places African Americans, the people most affected by
Lincoln's edict, at the center of the drama rather than at the
periphery, as previous studies have done. She argues that blacks
interpreted the proclamation much more broadly than Lincoln
intended it, and during the postwar years and into the twentieth
century they became disillusioned by the broken promise of equality
and the realities of discrimination, violence, and economic
dependence. Williams points out the obstacles Lincoln overcame in
finding a way to confiscate property -- enslaved humans -- without
violating the Constitution. He suggests that the president
solidified his reputation as a legal and political genius by
issuing the proclamation as Commander-in-Chief, thus taking the
property under the pretext of military necessity. Holzer explores
how it was only after Lincoln's assassination that the Emancipation
Proclamation became an acceptable subject for pictorial
celebration. Even then, it was the image of the martyr-president as
the great emancipator that resonated in public memory, while any
reference to those African Americans most affected by the
proclamation was stripped away.
This multilayered treatment reveals that the proclamation
remains a singularly brave and bold act -- brilliantly calculated
to maintain the viability of the Union during wartime, deeply
dependent on the enlightened voices of Lincoln's contemporaries,
and owing a major debt in history to the image-makers who quickly
and indelibly preserved it.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!