Harry Targ
That
on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part
of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United
States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free…. (President
Abraham Lincoln, “The Emancipation Proclamation,” January 1, 1863).
The Purdue University Black Cultural Center on
September 21, 2012 organized a panel honoring the 150th anniversary of President
Abraham Lincoln’s preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, the final version of
which was issued by the President on January 1, 1863. The proclamation declared
slaves in the states rebelling against the United States to be free. It did not
apply to those border states which had not seceded from the union. In those
states 750,000 slaves were yet to be liberated.
Celebration of political anniversaries provides an
important opportunity to better understand the past, how the past connects to
the present, and what needs to be done to connect the present to the future. As
a participant on this panel I was stimulated to reflect on the place and
significance of the Proclamation and the centrality of slavery and racism to
American history.
First, as Marx suggested at the time, the rise of
capitalism as a mode of production was inextricably connected to slavery and
the institutionalization of racism. He described the rise of capitalism out of
feudalism and the centrality of racism and slavery to that process:
The
discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and
entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest
and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the
commercial hunting of black skins, signalized the rosy dawn of the era of
capitalist production. These idyllic proceedings are the chief moments of
primitive accumulation (Capital, Volume 1).
Second, the Emancipation Proclamation began a
political revolution, abolishing slavery in Confederate states, but it did not embrace
full citizenship rights for all African Americans nor did it support economic emancipation. The historical
literature documents that while Lincoln’s views on slavery moved in a
progressive direction, the President remained more committed to preserving the
Union than abolishing slavery. Until the Proclamation, he harbored the view
that African Americans should emigrate to Africa, the Caribbean, or Central
America to establish new lives. As historian Eric Foner wrote: “Which was the
real Lincoln--the racist or the opponent of slavery? The unavoidable answer is:
both.” In short, President Lincoln, an iconic figure in American history
thought and acted in contradictory ways.
Third, Lincoln’s growing opposition to slavery
during his political career and his presidency was influenced to a substantial
degree by the abolitionist movement. As an influential participant in that
movement Frederick Douglass had a particular impact on Lincoln’s thinking.
Foner points out that on a whole variety of issues “Lincoln came to occupy
positions the abolitionists first staked out.” He continues: “The destruction of slavery during the war
offers an example, as relevant today as in Lincoln’s time, of how the
combination of an engaged social movement and an enlightened leader can produce
progressive social change.”
Fourth, the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation
was never fully achieved. It constituted an “unfinished revolution,” the
creation of political rights for former slaves but not economic justice. The
former slaves remained dependent on the plantation system of agriculture; landless
sharecroppers beholden to former slave owners.
Fifth, post-civil war reconstruction began to
institutionalize the political liberation of African Americans. For a time
Blacks and whites began to create new political institutions that represented
the common interests of the economically dispossessed. But the collaboration of
Northern industrial interests and Southern plantation owners led to the
destruction of Reconstruction era change and a return to the neo-slave system
of Jim Crow segregation. Even the “unfinished revolution” was temporarily
crushed.
Sixth, over the next 100 years African Americans,
workers, women, and other marginalized groups continued the struggle to
reconstruct the political freedoms implied in the Emancipation Proclamation and
temporarily institutionalized in Reconstruction America. The struggle for
democracy culminated in the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 and the rising
of Latinos, women, and gays and lesbians.
Finally, the contradictions of victories achieved and
the escalation of racist reactions since the mid-1960s continues. And, most
vitally, the unfinished revolution continues. The question of the intersection of
race and class remains as gaps between rich and poor in wealth, income, and
political power grow.
In this historic context, the candidacy of President
Obama in 2012 offers a continuation of the struggle for political rights
against the most sustained racist assaults by neoliberals, conservatives, and tea
party activists that has existed since the days of segregation.
At the same time Obama’s re-election alone, while
vital to the progressive trajectory of American history since 1863, will not
complete the revolution. The need for social movements to address the “class question,”
or economic justice along with protecting the political gains that have been
achieved, will remain critical to our future.
One hundred and fifty years after the Emancipation
Proclamation the struggle for democracy, political empowerment and the end to
class exploitation, remains for this generation to advance.
