The Emancipation of the Negroes
January, 1863-The Past and the Future

By Thomas Nast / Engraving / Harper’s Weekly / January 24, 1863

@IrememberOurHistory®: During the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. It declared “That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free…”

Thomas Nast created Emancipation in support of the President’s Proclamation. Nast depicted vignettes showing some of the horrors enslaved people faced, on the left side of the engraving. The artist displayed the public sale and torture of African American enslaved people. On the right side Nast drew his hope for the future of enslaved people. African American children are shown attending public school and African American adults receiving wages for their labor.