When Did Slavery End? The Answer Varies

The novel I’m writing now takes place in 1864 Oregon. The Civil War was the biggest news of the day, though other issues were also important to Oregonians of the period. I’ve been researching what happened during the Civil War in 1864, and when news of these events reached Oregon. In early March 1864, the telegraph finally connected Oregon with the rest of the nation, so news began to reach the state more quickly.

One topic I’ve been researching is how Oregonians of the time felt about the abolition of slavery. Some of my characters support the Union and others the Confederacy. I want to use real debates of the day as the basis for my characters’ dialogue.

My interest in this topic was also piqued by a recent blurb on the “This Day in History” site for December 18, which announced that on December 18, 1865, slavery was abolished in the United States. That was the day Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment. However, when slavery actually ended at various locations in the U.S. varied over the course of almost three years—between the Emancipation Proclamation which took effect on January 1, 1863, and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 18, 1865.

Here is some history on the abolition of history:

But Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was a war measure. It ordered the Union Army to liberate slaves in the Confederate territories they occupied. So as of January 1, 1863, the slaves in Confederate territory occupied by the Union Army were freed.

President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, stating that all enslaved people in states that were in rebellion (the Confederate states) would be free as of January 1, 1863. And on January 1, 1863, he issued another proclamation formally changing the status of slaves in the secessionist states to that of free persons.

As the Union Army advanced, former slaves in the Confederacy were freed at various times. As most people know, it took until Juneteenth, June 19, 1865, for the slaves in Galveston, Texas, to be informed of their freedom by General Gordon Granger of the Union Army.

The Emancipation Proclamation did not address slaves in border states such as Missouri and Maryland, which remained part of the Union. Some of these states ended slavery by state action at various times between January 1, 1863, and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in December 1865.

For example, Missouri convened a Constitutional Convention on January 6, 1865. On January 11, 1865, the delegates passed an ordinance abolishing slavery in Missouri. This was three weeks before the United States Congress proposed the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and many months before the Thirteenth Amendment took effect.

But not all states acted on their own initiative. In Kentucky and Delaware, it took the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery. Congress introduced the Thirteenth Amendment in early 1864. It was passed by two-thirds of the overwhelmingly Republican Senate in April 1864. However, the Democrats in the House of Representatives blocked passage of the Amendment until after the Union had already won the Civil War. As noted above, the Thirteenth Amendment did not go into effect to end slavery throughout the nation until December 18, 1865.

Even after passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, African Americans in Oregon faced racism and discrimination. The Oregon Legislature passed the Thirteenth Amendment. However, the legislature passed and then rescinded approval of the Fourteenth Amendment, and refused to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment.

Nevertheless, the Black citizens of Oregon were determined to strengthen their community from within through religious and civic organizations. On January 1, 1869—too late to be referenced in my novel, but an interesting fact—Black community leaders in Portland, Oregon, held a celebration on the sixth anniversary of the Great Emancipation.

While my work-in-progress is not directly about the Civil War or the ending of slavery, these issues must have been topics my characters read about and thought about. So I will try to work in some references where appropriate in the book.

Are there 19th Century historical issues which interest you?