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Lincoln document that freed slaves now on sale
Thursday, October 07, 2010 11:53:20 AM,
DPA
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New York:
One of the most important documents in US history - a proclamation
that freed slaves in the secessionist South - will go under the
hammer with a targeted sales range of $1-1.5 million, Sotheby's of
New York said Wednesday.
The copy of the Emancipation Proclamation being sold Dec 10 was
signed by president Abraham Lincoln Jan 1, 1863, in the midst of
the Civil War - part of a series of actions that eventually freed
all US slaves.
The document, one of 19 known surviving copies, is being sold by
the family of the late Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during
his presidential bid in 1968. Kennedy, whose brother president
John F. Kennedy was also assassinated, helped push through
civil-rights legislation in the 1960s as a US senator from New
York.
At least 14 of the copies are held by institutions. On its way to
the auction block, the Kennedy copy will be exhibited in Boston,
Philadelphia and New York.
Lincoln took office in 1861, just as the Civil War began. He was
determined to prevent the spread of slavery beyond the US South
and to force the rebellious Confederate states back into the
union.
In 1863, Lincoln issued what is known as the Emancipation
Proclamation, freeing slaves in the 10 Confederate states that
were still in rebellion. Six other states practicing slavery that
had remained in the union or been recaptured were omitted from the
proclamation.
Slavery was not permanently abolished throughout the US until the
13th Amendment to the US Constitution was adopted in December
1865. Lincoln had already been assassinated by a Confederate
sympathiser in April 1865, days before the end of the war.
It would take another 100 years, including the civil rights
movement and another set of legislative reforms to dismantle the
apartheid system that was re-established in the South in the late
1800s. The 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act helped
guarantee African-Americans equal protection under the law and
full rights in US society.
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