Today we celebrate the first day of 2013. Our greatest hope is that this new year will bring progress, enlightenment, and perhaps even a little joy. The first day of January 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln signed his final draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. It wasn’t his first draft, and it did not release all enslaved Americans, but it was a momentous occasion nonetheless. While we look forward to a productive 2013, let’s look back at a few documents from Archives and Special Collections* that remind us just how far we’ve come.

In 1802, in Hanover, New Jersey, it was possible to buy and sell a human being with one simple document.

 
In 1808, if a human being attempted to obtain their own freedom, returning that person to slavery would win you a cash reward.

In 1813, if an enslaved person was very lucky, his owner might decide that it was time his slave was free to try to create a life of his own.

It wasn’t until the 13th Amendment was passed and ratified in 1865 that the last slaves were fully and legally freed, and of course the end of slavery was just the end of one chapter of racial injustice in the United States – but the Emancipation Proclamation marked a turning point and it’s a moment worth celebrating. So, let’s welcome 2013 with an eye for the change we can make in our own world.

*All documents are from the Lucy Maynard Salmon Historical Collection and were a gift of Margaret H. Pierson, Vassar Class of 1878.