MENTOR, Ohio -- Next week marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation going into effect. To celebrate, the Mentor Public Library, along with the James A. Garfield National Historic Site, will host "Major Battles of the Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation."
The event is scheduled for noon on Jan. 9 in the Main Library's James R. Garfield Room. Speaking will be Northeast Ohio resident and Civil War historian Dan Vermilya, who also works summers as an Antietam National Battlefield park ranger.
"President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation back in September of 1862, saying it would go into effect on Jan. 1 unless in the interim the South laid down its arms and came back into the fold," said Todd Arrington, chief of education and interpretation at the Garfield site. "Of course the South didn't do that so the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect."
Arrington said many people believe the document freed the slaves, but the presidential order wasn't that precise.
"What the proclamation did was it basically established abolition of slavery as a specific public goal of the Union. It let people know, North and South alike, that if the Union wins this war, slavery will no longer exist. So, as long as the Union won, there was no possibility of going back to the way things were before the war started."
The proclamation also allowed blacks to serve in the Union army. By the time the Civil War ended two years later, roughly 200,000 blacks enlisted.
Arrington said the "Major Battles of the Civil War" series tries to bring the public's attention to the anniversary and parlay that into interest in both the Mentor Public Library and the James A. Garfield National Historic Site.
"Obviously we have a very strong connection to the Civil War here considering James Garfield's role as a Union officer and also as Union Congressman during the war," Arrington said. "The reaction has been very positive."
Roughly 60 people attended the last series event of 2012. The "Major Battles of the Civil War" series is expected to take place for the next two years.
Added Arrington, "Not everyone cares about battles or military history, but they're really interested in political history or in racial history or they're interested in what did the Civil War mean for the formerly enslaved and how did this all play into the reconstruction policies that came in after Lincoln was killed."
The series is free and open to the public. Registration is requested. Register online or call the library at 440-255-8811.