CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — As the clock approached midnight on Dec. 31, 1862, African Americans watched each second pass, knowing every tick brought them closer to freedom from slavery.
More than 160 years later, that moment was commemorated in Charleston during a Freedom’s Eve Watch Service hosted by the International African American Museum.
The annual observance marks the final hours before the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on Jan. 1, 1863, declaring enslaved people in Confederate states free…