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I'm glad people/companies are recognizing Juneteenth, but please don't reduce it to "when slaves were freed in Texas."
June 19th, 1865 was when a Union general announced that the last enslaved people in the Confederacy (TX) were free. 2.5 YEARS after the EP "ended" slavery.
June 19th, 1865 was when a Union general announced that the last enslaved people in the Confederacy (TX) were free. 2.5 YEARS after the EP "ended" slavery.
Meaning, Texan & migrant slaveholders had kept people enslaved for as long as possible, knowing well what the EP meant, so that they could continue to profit from Black labor, for as long as possible. Emancipation arrived only after federal intervention enforced the Proclamation.
And even then, not every slaveholder moved quickly. Some of them STILL found ways to keep people enslaved "until after the harvest." Henry Louis Gates, Jr. wrote about this in his essay, "What is Juneteenth?"
The enslaved who heard the news and acted on their own risked death.
The enslaved who heard the news and acted on their own risked death.
The 13th Amendment that December is what expanded the E. Proclamation to include the entirety of the US, not just the remaining Confederacy. The 13th freed thousands of people still enslaved in the former "Union" states.
p.s. Did you know MS didn't ratify the 13th til 1995?
p.s. Did you know MS didn't ratify the 13th til 1995?
Juneteenth is about freedom, delayed. Freedom, finally. And freedom yet to be fully realized. It celebrates the TX pronouncement that Confederate slavery was over, but enslaved ppl already knew it was wrong, and had been seeking freedom without a proclamation for generations.
Juneteenth honors what happened in TX as a milestone on the road to freedom, especially in the South where slavery had such a stronghold.
But it also honors those last enslaved people of the Confederacy. The ones who heard the news, gathered in their communities, and rejoiced.
But it also honors those last enslaved people of the Confederacy. The ones who heard the news, gathered in their communities, and rejoiced.
