Well the other day I found another treasure to add to my “book and blog booty” in a copy of the latest Reader’s Digest. The magazine boasted on its cover “A year of incredible miracles.” Always a sucker for an uplifting story, I snatched it up in the checkout line at my local supermarket, not realizing a story of our nation’s dark past was sandwiched between its covers.
Today (January 1, 2013) marks the day, 150 years ago, when Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that freed all slaves in the southern states. Rather than try to pass this document through legislation, Lincoln declared it as Commander in Chief in time of war. Although the conflict still raged, between twenty and fifty thousand slaves were immediately freed in the territories that were already occupied by Union forces. As the Union army advanced, slaves were released in every state. After the war, all slaves were freed; but this promise of emancipation provided hope for all slaves the instant Lincoln signed this now treasured document.
As we enter a new year, I pray the sound of liberty will ring for all people who have yet to be freed from bondage, no matter what that bondage might be.