January 1, 1863 Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, and Americans gather all over the country to hear it read aloud. One notable gathering is at Camp Saxton, a garrison of Union troops established on a former plantation near Port Royal, South Carolina, two years earlier. Camp Saxton is home to one of the first Black military brigades, the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment, under the command of Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a well-known white abolitionist and Unitarian minister. The camp also draws various abolitionists and missionaries to educate and
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Emily Dickinson’s friend
