Recognizing a Significant Sesquicentennial

From the beginning of 2011 until the spring of 2015, almost every day is the sesquicentennial of some event that took place during the Civil War. The first day of 2013 was a very important one: the 150th anniversary of the day that Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

On Saturday, March 9, Barbara Krauthamer, historian of slavery and coauthor of the book Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery, will be at the Hudson Opera House to read from her book and discuss "what freedom looked like to black Americans in the Civil War era." In the book, Krauthamer and photographic historian Deborah Willis present 150 photographs—some never before published—from the antebellum days of the 1850s through the New Deal era of the 1930s and help the reader understand the photos as "documents of engagement, action, struggle, and aspiration."

The event, which begins at 4 p.m., is free and open to the public. Copies of Envisioning Emancipation will be available for purchase and signing.