by Mildred Europa Taylor, Face2FaceAfrica.com
Although it is not the day slavery legally ended, Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration honoring the end of slavery in the United States.
In fact, slavery had ended in 1863 by an executive order called the Emancipation Proclamation that called for the immediate freedom of slaves throughout the country. But unfortunately, many enslaved people, especially those in the South, remained unfree.
The country was in the middle of a Civil War, and states like Texas, which had seceded from the Union, did not adhere to the Proclamation. Moreover, for Lincoln and the Union army, slavery was “a political motive to justify strengthened military endeavors against the Confederacy”.
But Juneteenth has become the most popular and well-known Emancipation Day holiday in the United States because the events surrounding the day are symbolic of the never-ending plight of being black in America despite seeming social freedoms and opportunities.
As the writer, Ko Bragg, writes in NBC News, many slave owners had gone to Texas with their slaves because it was one of the few Confederate states that were not closely monitored. For this reason, slavery continued there much longer.
It was only in June of 1865, after the Civil War had ended in April, that Union General Gordon Granger and his troops traveled to Galveston, Texas, to announce “General Orders No. 3” before some of the 250,000 slaves found out about the Emancipation Proclamation. The order stated: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free”.
But the announcement on June 19, 1865, did not end slavery in Texas. Many enslavers hid the news from enslaved Black people. According to historians, the heinous practice continued in other forms.
“There was almost universal agreement from statements of enslaved people that many Texas slaveowners held off making the announcement,” said historian and author C.R. Gibbs, according to the Washington Post. “They wanted another crop.”
Many Black people in Texas never received the news until 1866. “Slaveowners resorted to tricks. They delayed. They postponed. This was money,” said Gibbs. “They wanted to continue to get every last drop of sweat from slavery.”
Despite Granger’s announcement, Black people remained in “such a delicate situation in Texas,” as stated by Gibbs. “You have the collapse of the Confederate government. And roving bands of men who wanted to turn the clock back. A Union officer once said, ‘Given a choice between hell and Texas, I would live in hell and rent out Texas.’ It was just that bad in Texas.”
Instead of gaining their freedom after Granger’s order, many enslaved Blacks were killed by their enslavers.
“Texans were so resentful that African Americans would become free, they literally carried out a pogrom,” said historian W. Marvin Dulaney.
“They killed as many as 2,500. They were just murdered outright across the state.”
Most of these killings occurred between 1865 and 1868, Dulaney said, adding that some enslaved Blacks were shot or run down by bloodhounds.
“It takes almost over a year for the Union Army to literally go across the state and free African Americans from slavery,” Dulaney said.
On December 6, 1865, slavery formally ended in the United States with the ratification of the 13th Amendment. It stated, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”
Historians say that the exception clause in the 13th Amendment allowed officials in the South to continue slavery in another form, including through forced prison labor and convict leasing.
In 1980, Texas finally recognized Juneteenth as a legal state holiday, which they call “Emancipation Day in Texas”. Today, many throughout the entire nation celebrate the day.
In 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday.
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