Lincoln’s Radical Idea for Labor: Freed Slaves as Wage Earners

We know that President Lincoln freed the slaves. He actually stated this policy in two separate proclamations (highlighted below).

For this Labor Day, I have lifted up a single sentence from Proclamation Number 95 (Jan. 1, 1863). Addressing freed slaves, Lincoln stated: “And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that in all cases when allowed they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.”

What a remarkable statement! He had an employment relationship in mind—not the sharecropping and peonage systems that kept blacks in a state of economic subservience to whites.

But his statement was so incomplete.

A careful reading shows that Lincoln said “when allowed.” He went as far as he could, given the times. Indeed, Lincoln went as far as the South would allow until 1965 (and in many cases, through 2018). The Proclamation gave African slaves and their children freedom; but it allowed racial bigotry to stand in the way of employment for blacks.

To all who work as an employee or independent contractor, thank you for your labors. Our work is one of the main pillars of civilization.

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 Sources: Proclamation 93—Declaring the Objectives of the War Including Emancipation of Slaves in Rebellious States on January 1, 1863, September 22, 1862, available in http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=69782, stated an intention to make all slaves “forever free” along with a policy that the executive branch would “recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons” ….

President Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation 95—Regarding the Status of Slaves in States Engaged in Rebellion Against the United States [Emancipation Proclamation], January 1, 1863, 12 Stat. 1268, 1269 (1863), available in http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=69880, ordered the freedom of all slaves in ten states.