Emancipation Proclamation at 150: A Slave's Revealing Letter: On April 25, 1864 -- 15 months after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863 -- Annie Davis sent this letter to the White House:
Mr. PresidentMy heart breaks -- and breaks again -- every time I read Annie's letter. I do not know her age. Or how she dressed. Or what she saw outside her window each morning.
It is my Desire to be free. To go to see my people on the eastern shore.
My mistress wont let me.
You will please let me know if we are free. And what I can do.
I write to you for advice.
Please send me word this week. Or as soon as possible, and oblidge.
Annie Davis
But my soul tells me that by the time the enslaved woman mustered the courage to dispatch this missive, she had spent every waking moment for a very long time yearning for liberty. Her envelope traveled just 70 miles from Bel Air, Md., to Washington, D.C., but her anguish endures through the ages.
