This is an excerpt from the film Rather Die Free Than Live a Slave.
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation came into effect at Midnight, January 1st, 1863. The hour was observed by African Americans throughout the nation, including in the rebellious southern states. The Proclamation freed all slaves in territories still controlled by the Confederacy. But it also did something else just as important, it allowed black men to serve in the Union Army and led to the creation of the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT), in which nearly 200,000 black men became soldiers. Two-thirds were former slaves and by wars end, 10% of the Union Army was black. USCT soldiers in the Union slave states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland & Delaware also gained their freedom, and in many cases the freedom of their families as well.
This year marks the 155th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. This year is also the 400th anniversary of the introduction of slavery into the American colonies. The U.S. has yet to come to terms with that legacy ...
This short sequence is excerpted from the film Rather Die Free Than Live A Slave, about the story of the black soldiers of the USCT and the African American freedom struggle during the American Civil War.
Copyright 2019 by Passage Film, Inc.
