"In American mythology, the freeing of the slaves is a top-to-bottom affair: Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, and after that it was up to government to ensure their rights, though for about a century government didn't exactly do a good job of it. David W. Blight makes plain that it never was as simple as that."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/15/AR2007111502053_pf.html