With the festivities of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Years Day now in our rear view mirror, there is still time to reflect on the ritual of my ancestors and many other African Americans, whose forefathers sat around campfires and wood stoves in the twilight of December 31, 1862. There they sang spirituals acapella, prayed, and thanked the Good Lord for what was about to happen the next day.
It was on January 1, 1863 amidst the cannon fire, gun shots, and burnings at the height of the Civil War that President Abraham Lincoln sealed his own fate and signed the Emancipation Proclamation. It begins with the following decree:
Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, towit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."
CAROLE' S TRANSLATION: Effective January 1, 1963 all slaves in the states in rebellion against the Union are free.
Technically that is all that President Lincoln could do at the time. He used his wartime powers as Commander in Chief to liberate the “property” of the states in rebellion of the Union. The act did not free the slaves of the Union or border states (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, or West Virginia) or any southern state under Union control (like parts of Virginia). It would take the Union Army winning the Civil War (April 9, 1965), the assassination of President Lincoln (shot on April 14th and died on April 15, 1865) for all of the slaves to be freed. That included the liberation of the slaves in rebellious Texas on June 19, 1865 (Juneteenth Day) and finally the ratification of the 13th Amendment on December 18, 1865, giving all black people freedom and permanently abolishing slavery in the US.
So in 1862 on the eve of this great era, the slaves “watched”, prayed, and waited. My ancestors, including Bishop Wesley John Gaines of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and the other four million slaves prayed for divine guidance and an empowered Abraham Lincoln to do the right thing.
That is the history of Watch Night in the African American culture.
It is as important today as the tradition of black people eating black eyed peas on New Year’s Day for good luck. (Yes my family ate black eyed peas this past Thursday.) And even though a new snowstorm blasted New England on New Year’s Eve, making driving tricky at best, my church used technology to hold our Watch Night Service. Bethel AME Church-Boston held Watch Night in the form or a teleconference call. A virtual way to praise the Lord by telephone.
Our low tech version of Watch Night by telephone included homage to our ancestors for that first candle light prayer virtual to prayers for our families. We prayed for our children, our hopes, and our dreams. We prayed for the sick, the financially strapped, and those in despair. We prayed for our country and our neighbors from Boston to Botswana.
And we definitely prayed for President Elect Barack Obama. The amens came right through the telephone as we prayed for his safety, for his family, and for his wisdom and guidance as he leads a troubled nation at a difficult time in our history.
Two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New violence in the Gaza Strip. Bail outs from General Motors to AIG. And layoffs just waiting to occur in the first quarter of this New Year.
It’s no coincidence that our first Black President will pledge his presidential oath on Abraham Lincoln’s bible. In many ways these two giants in American history are intricately linked. Just as President Lincoln faced enormous uncertainties in 1863, Obama faces high hurdles in the early dawn of 2009. They are separated by 146 years, but the Lincoln-Obama connection is as strong as ever.
Much work is needed in order to turn our global economy around, stop the regional fighting around the world, resolve our credit crisis, and get people back to work. At least we African Americans know that prayer is a powerful inoculation against life’s uncertainties.
And we know that continuing the Watch Night services of our ancestors is a powerful tool for the spiritual, economic, and social warfare we face today.
Happy New Year, keep praying, and God Bless America.
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