Historic Diaries 150 years after Emancipation Proclamation

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

On January 1, 1863, a young African-American woman in Philadelphia opened a small journal and wrote her first entry.

It was a momentous day for her and a nation torn by civil war.

On that New Year’s Day, President Abraham Lincoln signed the document known as the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in the rebellious Southern states.

“Today has bin a memorable day and I thank God I have bin sperd [spared] to see it,” wrote Emilie Davis. “The day was religously observed and all the churches were open We had quite a jubilee.”

Reading her words 150 years later is the result of a series of fortunate acts. Possibly a family member saved the tiny book and the two others in which she dutifully recorded her thoughts, emotions and notes of big and small events in her life daily, through Dec. 31, 1865.

The diaries found their way to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania from a private collector. In 2009, in collaboration with the Penn State University libraries, nearly 400 pages were digitally archived and made available for public view. Many of the pages in Emilie’s own handwriting were faded and difficult to read.

In a project at Villanova University, a history professor and several of her graduate students transcribe the entries creating a rare primary source – and a unique perspective – immediately accessible to scholars, students and others interested in those years that changed the course of American history.

On the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, the website “Memorable Days: www.davisdiaries.villanova.edu">The Emilie Davis Diaries” was launched at midnight on Dec. 31, 2012 and is  accessed at www.davisdiaries.villanova.edu.

The idea of transcribing the diaries was proposed in early 2012, a group of students started working intensely in the summer transcribing the diaries and pursuing their research leads using other contemporary resources and annotated key passages adding historical context.

The spelling was phonetic with little to no punctuation and the size of the diaries meant each small page included entries for three days. Emilie wrote in pencil and sometimes in ink, in some cases the writing was faded or ink from one page bled through to another. The team projected and expanded images of the digitized pages and tried different contrasts to puzzle difficult passages out.  Having at least two sets of eyes on every page, the project came together as they started to know her and recognize repeated names and words.  

In her diaries and from research of census and other records Emilie Davis was born in 1839 aged 24 through 26 during the period and lived in Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward - near South Street - and working as a domestic and a seamstress. She is believed to have been the daughter of Isaac Davis, born in Maryland but known to have been in Philadelphia by 1820, it is unknown wheteher he was born into slavery but his four children were born in Pennsylvania, in freedom.

Young, unmarried, living in the city and going to night classes at the Institute for Colored Youth, later Cheyney University, Emilie appeared to be keeping track of her relationships, her work, people getting married ... her writing is timeless.

The entries are not dissimilar to today's Twitter or Facebook. For students of the period her references to turning-point events during the war and the days after were priceless. Initially the team looked for her references to the big events of the war, the Emancipation Proclamation, the summer [of 1863] of the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania before Gettysburg, new “colored” troops going off to war, African-American refugees arriving in Philadelphia and later, Lincoln’s re-election, and the terrible day Emilie learns of his assassination "by a Southern villain.”  She wrote of the passage of the slain president’s funeral train through Philadelphia, and speaks of waiting for hours before finally viewing his casket lying in state in the city.

Readers see [history] happening in pieces as people would have lived. Her diary is personal, her thoughts and emotions were intended for herself and is truly her window into that time period. It overlays what is known of the time.

Beyond the public events, the team felt they got to know her more but some lesser-known events were equally fascinating: Emilie’s two brothers’ enlistment in the Army and the Navy; the loss of one and the deaths of other family members.

In the diaries, Emilie mentions visits from a young man named Vincent, a possible beau which
led to more research that turned up a listing in a marriage registry for Emilie’s wedding to a George Bustill White, a member of a prominent Philadelphia African-American family, active in abolitionist and other social causes. Records showed they had five children and was a successful union but it was not Vincent.

The project developed far beyond transcribing Emilie’s words. The team created and designed the “Memorable Days” website and transfered their transcriptions to the site. The university’s library also playes a critical role in hosting the website.

With the site live - the great value in Emilie’s writings is available for many users, from academics to students at the middle school, high school and college levels, as well as the general public.

Emilie’s diaries are the Civil War through the eyes of a young black woman, a view offered nowhere and to rediscover Philadelphia when epic events unfolded. On the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the diaries are a window into the war.

Much more remains to be learned from Emilie Davis’s little journals.