“[M]ost of the men, women, and children who surrounded Lincoln had remained enslaved until just days or even hours before. They had been considered property, wholly owned chattels. . .If not for the war, the Thirteenth Amendment, and Abraham Lincoln, most feared a fate of permanent servitude, with a good chance their children would be sold away from them. This man seemed the personification of their freedom.
Everyone should read this. Thank you.