NOVEMBER
1, 1864:
The new Constitution of
Maryland comes into effect, ending slavery in the State. African-Americans
throughout the North (and restored South) rejoice. Emile Davis, a black woman
living in Philadelphia, writes in her diary:
to day is a holliaday
with most everyone the Colored soldiers are in and everything seemes cherful i
went to meeting quite a nice little meeting after meeting we went to see the [indecipherable] at head quarters I have had no letter from nell this week she is [indecipherable] in a hury to answer my letters
Emilie,
who was a domestic, kept three small pocket diaries, covering the years 1863,
1864, and 1865. They are an invaluable source as to what an “average”
African-American in the North was experiencing during the Civil War. Due to
Emilie’s use of different writing implements and her idiosyncratic spelling some of the text is unreadable.
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