Steps Toward Freedom: Lincoln’s Walk in Richmond

Retrace Abraham Lincoln’s steps on his visit to Richmond in April 1865, just a few days after the city’s fall to Union forces. As part of the bicentennial year celebrating Lincoln’s birth, the Valentine Richmond History Center, the National Park Service, the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, and the Library of Virginia present a two-day program that will consider the symbolic nature of the occasion that marked both the near-end of a bloody armed conflict and the promise of freedom for enslaved African Americans.

On Saturday, April 4, at the Library of Virginia, Dr. Lucas Morel, a Lincoln scholar and professor of politics at Washington and Lee University, will discuss the origins and implications of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Morel’s talk, “Lincoln, God, and Emancipation: A Promise Fulfilled,” starts at 2:00 PM.

The weekend continues with more lectures, walks, and historic images exploring the unique combination of devastation, fear, and hope that existed in Richmond in the spring of 1865 when, on April 4, a weary Abraham Lincoln walked solemnly through the smoldering ruins of a fallen city. The weekend concludes with a self-guided walk with stationed interpretation on Sunday, April 5 along the route traveled by Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad on their visit to Richmond following the evacuation of Richmond by the Confederate government and its occupation by the Union military. The walk begins at 17th and Dock streets in Shockoe Bottom. The walk (2:00 to 5:00 PM) should take approximately 90 minutes. For more information on additional lectures and the walk, visit http://www.lincolnwalkrichmond.com/.