The first organized immigration of freed slaves to Africa from the
United States departs New York harbor on a journey to Freetown,
Sierra Leone, in West Africa.

The first organized immigration of freed slaves to Africa from the United
States departed New York harbor on a journey to Freetown, Sierra Leone,
in West Africa. The immigration was largely the work of the American
Colonization Society, a U.S. organization founded in 1816 by Robert
Finley to return freed American slaves to Africa. However, the expedition
was also partially funded by the U.S. Congress, which in 1819 had
appropriated $100,000 to be used in returning displaced Africans,
illegally brought to the United States after the abolishment of the slave
trade in 1808, to Africa.

The program was modeled after British’s efforts to resettle freed slaves
in Africa following England’s abolishment of the slave trade in 1772.

On December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
officially ending the institution of slavery, was ratified. “Neither slavery
nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States,
or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” With these words, the single
greatest change wrought by the Civil War was officially noted in the
Constitution.

The ratification came eight months after the end of the war, but it
represented the culmination of the struggle against slavery.

TIM MAGUIRE

Rescuers prepare to lower a volunteer into a well parallel to the one
18-month-old Jessica McClure fell into.     
    
    
     
   


On this day in 1887, rescuers freed Jessica McClure from the abandoned well
that she had fallen into in Midland, TX. She was trapped for 58 hours.

Jessica McClure Morales became 33 years young in March.

Following McClure’s rescue on October 16, 1987, surgeons had to
amputate a toe due to gangrene from loss of circulation while she
was in the well. She also has a scar on her forehead where her
head rubbed against the well casing. She had 15 surgeries over
the years and has no first-hand memory of the event.

 
First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by President
Lincoln. (Painted by Francis Carpenter)

On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which sets a date of January 1, 1863 for the
freedom of more than 3 million black slaves in the United States and
recasts the Civil War as a fight against slavery.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, shortly after Lincoln’s inauguration
as America’s 16th president, he maintained that the war was about
restoring the Union and not about slavery. He avoided issuing an anti-
slavery proclamation immediately, despite the urgings of abolitionists
and radical Republicans, as well as his personal belief that slavery was
morally repugnant. Instead, Lincoln chose to move cautiously until he
could gain wide support from the public for such a measure.

President Lincoln signing the Emancipation
Proclamation.

The five page original document, held in the National Archives
Building. Until 1936 it had been bound with other proclamations
in a large volume held by the Department of State.

Retired singer Kenneth Ray Rogers is 81 today.

Kenny Rogers and The First Edition, sometimes billed as The First Edition, was an eclectic rock band whose styles ranged from rock
and roll to R&B, folk, and country.

Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers