There is a line in the Emancipation Proclamation that deserves greater attention. After President Lincoln famously declared in his January 1, 1863 order that American slaves in Confederate-controlled areas “henceforward shall be free,” he pivoted to address the liberated black families directly. “And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.” This often-overlooked line marked the first time that an American president had used an executive order to speak to the nation’s black community. And the statement was remarkable. Lincoln was assuring freed blacks that they had every right —like any American— to defend themselves when attacked.1
Today we call that “stand your ground,” but in those days, it was known as the vigilance principle. And while I cannot prove this with hard evidence, I do believe that Lincoln was using this phrase “necessary self-defence” deliberately, as a respectful nod to black-led vigilance committees, which had battled against slave catchers for decades in the North. Those committees, and their leaders like William Still of Philadelphia, aided fugitive slaves via the “Underground Railroad” and protected northern blacks facing kidnapping. They usually offered this assistance for “self-defence” without any violence, but occasionally violence came to them.
Vigilance was a commonly used word in the nineteenth century, and there were all types of vigilance committees. In San Francisco, during the wild days after the Gold Rush, there was a well-known Vigilance Committee that existed to help keep law and order. But starting as early as the 1830s in the North, there were also vigilance committees devoted to protecting black civil rights. David Ruggles launched the first one in New York in 1835. He was free black man with fearless moral courage and a combative streak that always thrills my students. He even published a "Slaveholders’ Directory” in 1839 that exposed various New Yorkers who were complicit with slave catchers. He was practically a pioneer of doxxing.2
