1862 TOIL IN THE FIELDS
These slaves are working the sweet potato fields at the Cassina Point plantation in South Carolina during the American Civil War. On 22 September 1862, some five months after this photo was taken, US president Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all slaves in the rebel states, including South Carolina, would be freed unless the Confederate States rejoined the Union. The Emancipation Proclamation came into effect on 1 January 1863, with slavery completely abolished in 1865. South Carolina itself played a major role in the slave trade, with almost half of all enslaved Africans entering the US through the port city of Charleston. At one point, the number of slaves outnumbered the rest of the state’s population.