President Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863 lent new urgency to the question of “what shall we do with the Negroes.” What had been only a possibility a few months before — the freeing of more than 3 million slaves still behind Confederate lines — had now become a likelihood dependent only on the success of Union armies.
The question possessed both practical and policy implications. Since the beginning of the war, Union field officers had experienced varying degrees of success in offering care and protection to the thousands of slaves fleeing to Union lines. Policy makers in the Lincoln administration, free from the day-to-day demands of camp management, dealt instead with a growing chorus of voices calling for a plan for how best to absorb as many as 4 million freed men and women.
Surveying Emancipation - NYTimes.com
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