Juneteenth

(General Orders, Department of Texas June 19, 1865)

On June 19, 1865 Union general Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and issued General Order Number 3, which began: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” This ended the legal institution of chattel slavery in the former Confederate States, two years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, 10 weeks after Appomattox. De Jure slavery didn’t end in border states like Kentucky and Deleware, which hadn’t seceded from the Union, until December 1865, six months after the first Juneteenth, when the 13^th Amendment was ratified.

More:

“Juneteenth: Our Other Independence Day,” Kenneth C. Davis, Smithsonian.com

“Juneteenth,” Teresa Palomo Acosta, Handbook of Texas Online

“Juneteenth,” Stephanie Hall, Folklife Today

“What Is Juneteenth?” Henry Louis Gates, Jr., PBS

“Juneteenth,” Teresa Palomo Acosta, Handbook of Texas History

“The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth,” NMAAHC

Related:

“Freedmen’s Bureau,” Cecil Harper, Jr., Handbook of Texas History

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Tags: African American History, African Americans, Civil War, Emancipation, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, history, holidays, Jubilee Day, Juneteenth, Liberation Day, slavery, Texas