Session Abstract

The Emancipation Proclamation was, not insignificantly, enacted during a time of war.  Indeed, the United States was one of few slave societies in the Americas that initiated wide-scale abolition in such a context.  In light of the conference theme of “Lives, Places, Stories” and the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, this session brings together leading historians who shall consider both local dynamics and transnational phenomena pertaining to transitions from slavery to freedom.  Roundtable participants will therefore consider both the specificities of emancipation in the US and broader processes of emancipation in the Americas;  they shall consider legacies of the Emancipation Proclamation as well.