In Pursuit Of Personal Conviction: Upon The Civil War Pocket Diaries Of Emilie Frances Davis, A Freeborn Black Woman [A Short Communication]

Abstract

Emilie Davis was an African-American woman living in Philadelphia during the U.S. Civil War. Emile's diaries are a transcription of Emilie’s three pocket diaries for the years 1863, 1864, and 1865. In them, she recounts black Philadelphians’ celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation, nervous excitement during the battle of Gettysburg, and their collective mourning of President Lincoln. The diary allows readers to experience the war in real time, as events unfolded for Civil War Americans.