Kentucky & the Emancipation Proclamation

Kentucky and the Emancipation Proclamation. . , During the Civil War, Kentucky was a Unionist, slave-owning state. When President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, it did not legally affect slavery in Kentucky. The Proclamation only applied to areas that were under Confederate control., The Proclamation did not free enslaved Kentuckians, but many citizens opposed it because they feared that it would lead to slave insurrections or the complete abolition of slavery. They also did not think that the Federal government had the right to interfere with slavery in any state., Cassius Clay, the emancipationist who lived here at White Hall, later claimed that he convinced Lincoln to issue the Proclamation. Lincoln, Clay wrote, feared that “if the proclamation of freedom should be issued, Kentucky would go out to the South.” Clay responded, “No; I have discussed the liberal issue all these years in my own State; those who would favor the rebellion are already in arms, those remaining are for the Union with or without slavery; ten men would not be changed.”, However, George R. Browder of Logan County thought that the Proclamation would cause “stirring times, such as we never saw before.” Browder, who feared a slave uprising, later blamed one slave's “insolent” and “insulting” actions on the Proclamation, writing “This trouble is the result of Lincoln's war.”, Some Kentucky soldiers abhorred the Proclamation and resigned from the service when the abolition of slavery became a Union war aim. For example, Lexington resident Frances Peter remarked that Captain James C. Morris of the 20th Kentucky Union Infantry “resigned when the President's Proclamation was issued.” Some proslavery legislators wanted to pull Kentucky regiments out of the Union army and passed laws preventing freed slaves from other states from entering Kentucky., The Emancipation Proclamation gave Union soldiers a moral cause to fight for and helped keep European powers out of the Civil War. Slaves in Kentucky were finally freed when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in December 1865.,

For God's sake, stand by the proclamation … The Good men of Kentucky will stand by you in every effort to crush the rebellion. , Former Kentucky congressman Green Adams to Abraham Lincoln, December 31, 1862

, Captions (left to right) , . An African-American man reads a newspaper headline “Presidential Proclamation, Slavery,” announcing Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division , . An artist's depiction of Abraham Lincoln reading the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division , . An image from the December 20, 1862 Harper's Weekly publication depicting the uncertainty of Abraham Lincoln issuing the final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society, Timeline , . 1809 Abraham Lincoln born at Sinking Spring farm, in present-day Larue County, Kentucky. , . 1816 Lincoln family moved from Kentucky. , . 1841 Abraham Lincoln visited his friend Joshua Speed at Farmington, the Speed family plantation, in Louisville, Kentucky. , . 1842 Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd of Lexington, Kentucky. , . 1847 The Lincoln family visited Lexington, Kentucky, en route to Abraham's only term in Congress. , . 1860 Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States in November. , . 1865 Abraham Lincoln assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.