The Emancipation Proclamation: What Came Before, How It Worked, And What Followed

This open course uses the sesquicentennial of President Lincoln's issuance of the emancipation proclamation in 1863, to explore what happened in the United States before emancipation, how emancipation worked once proclaimed, and what happened in politics, economics, and society in the century and a half afterward. It will also serve as a forum for participants to discuss the concept of emancipation in states and systems earlier than that of the United States and since to today.