Sigh.....I'll say this again, and maybe someone will read it this time. The Emancipation Proclamation didn't 'grant' anyone anything. Sure, it proclaimed slaves to be free, but it wasn't (and still isn't, as far as I know), a law. Slaves in the south may have been 'proclaimed' free on January 1, 1863, but they were, in fact, captive slaves far past that date, until the were freed by Union soldiers marching into the south.
1/1/63 wasn't the date in U.S. history when slaves just dropped their hoes and walked out of the fields a free people. Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation didn't take care of anything.
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Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet. ~ Kabir
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