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Lot 237
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Emancipation Proclamation! Union General David Hunter Proclaims Former Slave Free, Only One in Private Hands
Emancipation Proclamation! Union General David Hunter Proclaims Former Slave Free, Only One in Private Hands
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Civil War Slavery
Port Royal, SC, August 22, 1862
Emancipation Proclamation! Union General David Hunter Proclaims Former Slave Free, Only One in Private Hands
Partially printed DS

This dramatic document proclaims Jupiter Jamison, "once claimed as a Slave," to be "forever free." This declaration of freedom also applied to his wife, mother, and children.

On March 31, 1862, General David Hunter was given command of the Department of the South, which encompassed Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. After capturing Fort Pulaski (Georgia) on April 11, he emancipated all the captured slaves. On May 9, he declared all the slaves in the Department of the South to be "free forever." Ten days later, President Lincoln nullified Hunter's emancipation order, reserving the "war power" of emancipation for himself as commander-in-chief. The president also overruled Hunter when he raised a regiment of black recruits in South Carolina. He was relieved of the command of the Department of the South on August 22, 1862, the date of this document. Perhaps, as his final act, Hunter distributed these certificates of freedom to the former slaves in Port Royal.

On July 17, 1862, Congress passed the Militia Act that authorized a militia draft within the states. It also authorized, for the first time, African-Americans to serve in the militia as soldiers. If an African-American man served in the Union army or as an army laborer and was claimed as a slave, "he, his mother and his wife and children, shall forever thereafter be free."

On August 1, 1862, General David Hunter provided hundreds of men in the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Regiment (which was being temporarily disbanded) with what might be termed their own private emancipation proclamations: "The bearer, __________, a _______ in First Regiment S.C. Volunteers, late claimed as a slave, having been employed in hostility to the United States, is hereby agreeably to the law of 6th of August, 1861, declared free for ever. His wife and children are also free." Hunter chose August 1, because African-Americans celebrated that day to commemorate the abolition of slavery in the British Empire (August 1, 1834). This certificate by Hunter effectively enacts that provision for Jupiter Jamison.

[CIVIL WAR.] David Hunter, Partially Printed Document Signed, Certificate of Freedom for Jupiter Jamison, August 22, 1862, Port Royal, SC. 1 p., 7.75" x 8.75". General toning; very good.

Historical Background
On August 22, the date of this certificate, President Lincoln responded to New York newspaperman Horace Greeley's editorial, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions," calling on Lincoln to emancipate the slaves. Lincoln wrote, "I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views."

One month earlier, on July 22, Lincoln had read his preliminary emancipation proclamation to his Cabinet, but he awaited a Union victory before issuing it publicly. After the Union "victory" at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, Lincoln issued his proclamation on September 22, declaring that on January 1, 1863, he would declare all persons held as slaves in places then still in rebellion would be "then, thenceforward, and forever free."

David Hunter (1802-1886) was born in New York and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1822. He served in the antebellum army but also spent time as a land speculator. While stationed in Kansas in 1860, he began a correspondence with Abraham Lincoln, which produced an invitation to join Lincoln's inaugural journey to Washington in February 1861. Hunter quickly rose in the ranks to become a major general by August 1861. He served as a division commander under John C. Frémont and took command of the Western Department, after Frémont issued a proclamation freeing the slaves of rebellious owners. After protesting his transfer to Kansas, Hunter received command of the Department of the South and established headquarters on the sea islands of South Carolina. A strong advocate of arming black men as soldiers, Hunter raised a regiment of former slaves as the 1st South Carolina (African Descent). Initially ordered to disband them, he later received Congressional approval. On April 25, 1862, he declared his entire Department (including South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida) to be under martial law. Two weeks later, he issued an order declaring all the slaves in his Department to be "forever free." Concerned about the political effects of Hunter's order in border slave states like Kentucky and Maryland, Lincoln immediately rescinded the order, even before receiving an official copy. In response to the order and Hunter's recruiting efforts among African Americans, Confederate President Jefferson Davis declared Hunter to be considered a "felon to be executed if captured." In May 1864, Hunter took command of the Army of the Shenandoah and the Department of West Virginia, and he destroyed much Confederate property before Confederate Jubal A. Early defeated him at the Battle of Lynchburg in mid-June. After the war, Hunter served on the honor guard at Abraham Lincoln's funeral and presided over the military commission that tried the Lincoln assassination conspirators. He retired from the army in July 1866 and wrote a memoir that was published in 1873.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 7.75" x 8.75"
  • Medium: Partially printed DS

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