Charles Ingalls (Michael Landon) tells Solomon (Todd Bridges) about the Emancipation Proclamation. Slavery was "legal" in the southern United States until President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
Although they play brothers in this episode, David Downing is 22 years older than Todd Bridges.
Todd Bridges played a similar role in the The Stray (1977) which aired later in 1977. That episode was another commentary on race relations of the time. Bridges played a runaway from North Carolina (Josh) who hides in the Waltons' barn. When discovered, the family temporarily take him in. Josh immediately takes to John and does things to get in his good graces. Although they are growing attached to Josh, John and Olivia know that given the attitudes of the time, they can't keep him with them. John decides to take him to the local group home. Josh runs away and returns to the Waltons, where he would rather stay. John takes him over to meet Verdie Foster. She and her husband Harley decide that Josh can live with them.
The poem the children are reading aloud in class is Casabianca by Felicia Hemans published in 1826.