Search results
On the night of December 31, 1862, enslaved and free African Americans gathered, many in secret, to ring in the new year and await news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect.
On December 31, 1862, enslaved and free Black Americans across the country stayed up until midnight to await the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation, which President Abraham Lincoln was to sign on January 1, 1863.
Watch Night, Christian religious service held on New Year’s Eve and associated, in many African American churches, with a celebration and remembrance of the Emancipation Proclamation (enacted January 1, 1863), which freed slaves in the Confederate states during the American Civil War.
A mass rally in Chicago on September 7, 1862, demanded immediate and universal emancipation of slaves. A delegation headed by William W. Patton met the president at the White House on September 13. Lincoln had declared in peacetime that he had no constitutional authority to free the slaves.
12 gru 2006 · The Watch Night Services in Black communities that we celebrate today can be traced back to gatherings on December 31, 1862, also known as "Freedom's Eve." On that night, Blacks came together...
23 gru 2012 · On Dec. 31, 1862, African-Americans and abolitionists waited for word — via telegraph, newspaper or word of mouth — that the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued. A New Year's Eve ...
30 gru 2023 · The tradition of Watch Night services in the United States dates back to Dec. 31, 1862, when many Black Americans gathered in churches and other venues, waiting for President Abraham Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation into law, and thus free those still enslaved in the Confederacy.
