A group of 4 issues of The New South, a Civil War-era newspaper printed in Union-controlled Port Royal, South Carolina. With significant reporting on the Emancipation Proclamation. Issues include: 

The New South. Port Royal, South Carolina: Joseph H. Sears. 

1.  Vol. I, No. 14. 22 November 1862. 

2. Vol. I, No. 20. 3 January 1863. 

3. Vol. I, No. 21.17 January 1863. 

4. Vol. I, No. 22. 24 January 1863. 

The sea islands in South Carolina were captured early in 1861 by the Union, and they maintained control throughout the entirety of the war. Upon Union occupation, the white population fled, leaving behind over 10,000 Black slaves and their plantations. It became the site of the Port Royal Experiment, where former slaves worked on land abandoned by white planters, and Northern charity organizations established schools and hospitals to help the formerly enslaved achieve self-sufficiency.  

The New South was a newspaper published by Union postmaster Joseph H. Sears out of the post office building in Port Royal. Its first issue was published in March 1862 and offers a frontline account of the unprecedented social upheaval in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Still subject to rag paper shortages due to the blockade, it is printed on brownish "necessity" paper. 

Most significantly, two issues in this lot contain extensive reporting on the Emancipation Proclamation, newly issued by President Lincoln on 1 January 1863. In issue No. 20, published just two days later, the following article appears on page 2, "Emancipation in South Carolina. The Slaves of the Palmetto State Declared Forever Free." It reports on the local reception: "The 1st of January - the day announced by President Lincoln for the emancipation of the slaves of all owners in rebellion against the Government of the United States- was celebrated at Smith's Plantation with great enthusiasm." Followed by an address by General R. Saxton, the article describes the rest of the festivities and concludes "At 4 o'clock the negroes reembarked for their homes - having participated in the celebration of the happiest New Year's day that has ever dawned upon them." The reporting on the Emancipation Proclamation continues in the next issue (no. 21). Acknowledging the controversial nature of the Proclamation, the author continues: "there is left for the Army and the country no other course than an earnest support of the Government in carry its measures into effect. Sooner or later we must reach the end of this war, and slavery will surely terminate with it." (p.2). Lincoln's full text is printed on the last page of issue no. 21.  

An interesting article, titled "The 'Cursed Negro'," informs its readers of a report published by the Concord, New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette that "launched a tirade of vulgarity against the 'black wretches whom Hunter and Mitchel have been feeding, clothing, educating and arming at the expense of the nation'." The editor lambasts the Patriot and the other "unprincipled" newspapers that have repeated the "malignant lie," stating that "the story is so palpably absurd that only editors of scanty brains and narrow prejudices could have been gulled into believing it."

Other articles include a poem memorializing John Brown (no. 20, p. 1); the removal of McClellan in command of the Army of the Potomac (no. 14, p. 2); a notice to "Officers of the Colored Regiment" (no. 21, p. 3); and an article regarding "divorces among the contrabands". 

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