Illustration from The Harper’s Weekly, 21 February 1863. P. 116.
Title: The effects of the proclamation - freed Negroes coming into our lines at Newbern, North Carolina
Source: LOC

As the Union Army took over New Bern, NC and word got to the Enslaved people, they Emancipated themselves by fleeing the resistance of the slave owners to comply with President Lincolns Order to free all the enslaved people. By the hundreds they made their way to New Bern to seek protection as they sought their freedom.

The American slave business was being attacked and the attackers sought it's death in early 1863. Evidence of the determination of the enslaved people together with the fortitude of the Union Army soldiers to end it was seen in this illustration and the first hand account printed in this article in the February 21, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly. The article read:

"THOUGH the President’s proclamation of freedom has been so often compared to the Pope’s Bull against the comet, it seems to be producing some substantial fruits. We publish on page 116 an illustration of CONTRABANDS COMING INTO NEWBERN, NORTH CAROLINA, from a sketch sent us by an amateur, who writes as follows:

NEWBERN, NORTH CAROLINA, January 26, 1863.

I inclose a sketch of a very interesting procession which came to Newbern from “up country” a few days ago. It is the first-fruits of the glorious emancipation proclamation in this vicinity, and as such you may deem it worthy of engraving in your illustrated Weekly.

On our late expedition into Greene and Onslow Counties our company (Company C, Fifty-first Massachusetts Regiment) was out on picket duty the night before our return to Newbern, when an old slave came in to us in a drenching rain; and on being informed that he and his friends could come to Newbern with us, he left, and soon the contrabands began to come in, with mule teams, oxen, and in every imaginable style. When morning came we had 120 slaves ready to start with their little all, happy in the thought that their days of bondage were over. They said that it was known far and wide that the President has declared the slaves free"

Source:https://blackhistory.harpweek.com/.../CivilWarLevelOne.htm

Source:https://blackhistory.harpweek.com/.../CivilWarLevelOne.htm

.Source:http://www.sonofthesouth.net/.../febr.../escaping-slaves.htm