Existing comment:
Freedom:
Tens of thousands of slaves did not wait for the Emancipation Proclamation or war's end to break the bonds of slavery. Instead, they set out on a last, climactic journey to freedom. By 1865, more than 60 percent of Virginia's male slaves between the ages of 18 and 45 had fled to freedom.
The Civil War ultimately brought freedom to 400,000 enslaved Virginians and marked the end of a system of labor and social control that had existed for 240 years.
Slave John Washington spotted the Union army near Fredericksburg in 1862 and wrote the following:
"I could not begin to express my new born hopes for I felt already like I was certain of my freedom now."
Did You Know? The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in December 1865, abolished slavery in the United States. |