The Liberator. Vol. XXXIII, No. 4, Whole No. 1668. Boston, Massachusetts: J.B. Yerrington & Son, 23 January 1863. 

4 pages, folio, 18 x 25 in., disbound. 

A historically significant issue of Garrison's The Liberator, the most influential abolitionist and anti-slavery periodical in 19th-century America. This particular issue bears special significance, being entirely devoted to reporting the diversity of the Nation's response to the Emancipation Proclamation, issued just three weeks earlier by President Abraham Lincoln. 

The paper published a multitude of reactions, including the guarded optimism of anti-slavery societies and abolitionists, to the variety of reactions from other newspapers and associations, such as the vehement opposition to the Proclamation expressed by the Boston Pilot, stating that it will further alienate the South and either cause the War to continue endlessly. Additionally, there are reports regarding the British reaction to the Proclamation, including an account of a special meeting called at Myddelton Hall, Islington, to gather British support for the recent Emancipation Proclamation in America.

Interestingly, the paper reports on the foundation of The Free South, a new paper published in Beaufort, South Carolina, and distributed in the South. The first issue, which was published on January 10th, featured an account of the reading of the Emancipation on New Year's Day at Beaufort with a flag being presented to Colonel Higginson, Commander of the "Negro Regiment".

Also of note are several artistic reactions to the Emancipation Proclamation, including a poem titled "The President's Proclamation" by Edna Dean Proctor and a refutation of Negro inferiority in the style of an alphabetic primer.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]  [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Broadsides, Ephemera, Printing, Posters, Handbills, Documents, Newspapers] 

Bright and very clean. Old folds, minor creasing.