New Year's Eve services hold historical significance for blacks

On slave-owning plantations, Dec. 31 not only ended the calendar year but also that year's accounting period. To slave owners who were businessmen as well, December was the time to review the books and decide whether to increase, decrease or maintain the number of slaves kept.

Aware that New Year's Day might bring the break-up of their families, slaves gathered the evening before to pray their families remained intact — or to say goodbye.

Then on Dec. 31, 1862, later also known as "Freedom's Eve," New Year's Eve took on even greater meaning.

Slaves and free blacks knew the Emancipation Proclamation was to take effect Jan. 1, 1863, so they gathered in homes and churches to pray and offer thanks for deliverance.


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