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Emancipation Proclamation
A presidential proclamation that nominally freed all slaves in the Confederacy. President Abraham Lincoln, emboldened by the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam, issued the proclamation on January 1, 1863. The proclamation did not free all slaves (North and South), because Lincoln did not want the proslavery Border States to secede in anger. Though the proclamation had no immediate effect on slaves in the South, it did mark an ideological turning point in the war, because it irrevocably linked emancipation with the restoration of the Union.
Hampton Roads Conference
A peace conference that Jefferson Davis requested in the winter of 1865, aware that the end of the war was near. At the conference, Abraham Lincoln’s representatives opened negotiations by demanding the unconditional surrender of the South and full emancipation of all slaves. The Southern delegation, however, refused anything less than full independence. The conference thus ended without resolution. However, the war ended only a few months later, completely on Lincoln’s terms.
Harpers Ferry Raid
An October 16, 1859, raid by John Brown, the radical abolitionist who had killed five proslavery men at the Pottawatomie Massacre in Kansas. This time around, Brown stormed a federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (present-day West Virginia), with 20 other men. He hoped the raid would prompt slaves throughout Virginia and the South to rise up against their masters. There was no rebellion, though, and Brown and his men found themselves cornered inside the arsenal. A long standoff ensued. Half the raiders were killed and the rest, including Brown, captured. After a speedy trial, Brown was convicted of treason and hanged. Although his death was cheered in the South, he became an abolitionist martyr in the North.
Pottawatomie Massacre
The killing of five proslavery men near Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas, by John Brown and a band of abolitionist vigilantes in retaliation for the burning of Free-Soil Lawrence, Kansas. Neither Brown nor any of his men were apprehended. Instead, “border ruffians” and other proslavery settlers responded violently, sparking the “Bleeding Kansas” crisis. Eventually, the entire territory became embroiled in a vicious civil war that foreshadowed the war between the North and South.
