What I Learned About Juneteenth
By kenya on Jun 19, 2007 in History
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond.
Being from Virginia and living in Washington, DC for almost 7 years, I had not heard of “Juneteeth” until I moved to Milwaukee 9 years ago. From the African American History class I took freshman year of college, I knew that slaves in Texas were apparently the last to find out that they were free but I didn’t know that there was a particular day that was observed. When I found out about the holiday, people were like “You’ve never heard of Juneteenth …” like there was something wrong with me for that. In Virginia, Emancipation Day is April 9, 1865 – that’s what I knew. When I figured out that Juneteeth was to commemorate when Texas found out about the Emancipation Proclamation issued two years prior, I thought “why would you celebrate that?” I still wondered that until yesterday.
I found out that the Emancipation Proclamation, issued on September 22, 1862, actually did not free anyone. It only applied to states that had seceded from the Union and that were not back under Union control by January 1, 1863. So the slaves that it applied to were not subject to the Union’s laws and therefore were not free. Slaves in the Union and in the Confederate states (and counties in some cases) that were back under Union control were not freed by this proclamation. Again, Virginia was notified only a few months before Texas. This proclamation was not enforceable until the Confederates states were conquered. By July of 1968, most slaves (in Union states as well) had been freed. Slavery did continue to exist in Delaware and Kentucky but was finally abolished on December 18, 1865, by the Thirteenth Amendment.
So the reasoning behind Juneteenth is to celebrate when the last enslaved Americans were notified that they were free. That makes sense, to some extent, as we are not free until everyone is free. December 18, is a good candidate as well but there were undoubtedly people who were not freed then. So if there’s one day, why not June 19th.
I won’t go off on a rant about how poorly schools teach history and how they should make it less about memorizing facts and more about it being relevant to where we are today. I also won’t mention how in a global economy we need to know more – not just about our local histories but more about the entire country and the entire world. I almost did a few months ago during the Jamestown 400 year celebration because, of course, we all learned that Jamestown (founded in 1607) was the first permanent English settlement but how many of us were taught that Spain was already here in Florida, which would make since if Columbus “discovered” America in 1492? But I digress …
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