Enslaved people emancipated themselves by fleeing to Union lines in massive numbers.

Evidence

But enslaved Africans now had the power to emancipate themselves. By the end of 1863, 400,000 Black people had escaped their plantations and found Union lines, running toward the freedom guaranteed by the proclamation. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 592

Categorization

• SEED: Counter-narrative angle: self-emancipation as the real engine of freedom, with Lincoln’s proclamation as a partial enabler rather than the cause.