Today Juneteenth is being celebrated.

John

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=2678039065812199&notif_id=1592597321919159&notif_t=live_video

The Frémont Emancipation Proclamation

Fort Monroe and the Slave Question

The attack on Fort Sumter did not change Lincoln’s mind about the illegality of secession. On April 19, 1861, he referred to the current situation as “an insurrection against the government of the United States,” not an attack from a foreign nation. He went on to renounce any hostile actions from the seceded states as coming merely from the “pretended authority of such states.” Lincoln was working out a way to classify and eventually destroy the insurrection while also attempting to find a middle ground on the slave question in an effort to placate the border states and ultimately save the Union.

The first real test of the Federal government’s stance on the slave question came at Fort Monroe, Virginia. On May 23, three of Colonel Charles Mallory’s slaves from the 115th Virginia…