CANTON -- The St. Lawrence Historical Association, 3 East Main St., will host a roundtable discussion on the Emancipation Proclamation and its effects Sunday, Jan. 27 at 2 p.m.

The discussion will be led by Elizabeth Regosin and Mary Jane Smith, both faculty members at St. Lawrence University.

Regosin’s specialization has been African Americans in the transition from slavery to freedom. Smith’s specializations are U.S. southern race relations during the Progressive Era (1880-1917), the history of the U.S. South since Reconstruction and African American History.

The discussion is part of the Commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

Around 7,000 men from St. Lawrence County enlisted to fight for the Union during the Civil War.

The Emancipation Proclamation was a military order, and it did not free all of the nearly 4 million slaves in the United States. But it did declare the slaves of the Confederate states, almost 3.1 million people, to be free.

The proclamation did not apply to slaves in the border states that had remained in the Union: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri, or parts of the Confederacy that were exempted because they were under Union control.