Juneteenth commemorates the day when slaves in Texas learned of their freedom. This took place on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, when Union General Gordon Granger read General Order #3, announcing that “all slaves are free” by Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Lincoln on September 22, 1862, and issued on January 1, 1863. It took over two and a half years for the news to travel to southwest Texas. And it was over two months after the end of the Civil War.
Later attempts to explain this two and a half year delay in the receipt of this important news have yielded several versions that have been handed down through the years. One story often told is that of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the news of freedom. Another is that the report was deliberately withheld by the enslavers to maintain the labor force on the plantations. And still another, is that federal troops actually waited for the slave owners to reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest before going to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. All or neither of these versions could be true. For whatever the reasons, conditions in Texas remained status quo well beyond what was statutory.
General Order #3 stated:
“The people of Texas are informed that per a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”
Large celebrations on June 19 began in 1866 and continued regularly into the early 20th century, spreading to other states. Celebration of Juneteenth declined during World War II but had a short revival in 1950. The Juneteenth celebration returned in 1976 after a 25-year hiatus, becoming a legal holiday in Texas in 1980.
Emancipation Day is a holiday in Washington DC to mark the anniversary of the signing of the Compensated Emancipation Act. On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia. This came over eight months before President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The act brought to a conclusion decades of agitation aimed at ending what antislavery advocates called “the national shame” of slavery in the nation’s capital. It provided for immediate emancipation, compensation to former owners who were loyal to the Union of up to $300 for each freed slave, voluntary colonization of former slaves to locations outside the United States, and payments of up to $100 for each person choosing emigration. Over the next nine months, the Board of Commissioners appointed to administer the act approved 930 petitions, entirely or in part, from former owners for the freedom of 2,989 former slaves.
Although its combination of emancipation, compensation to owners, and colonization did not serve as a model for the future, the District of Columbia Emancipation Act was an early signal of the end of slavery as an institution in the United States. In the District itself, African Americans greeted emancipation with great jubilation. For many years afterward, they celebrated Emancipation Day on April 16 with parades and festivals.
In 2005, Emancipation Day was made an official public holiday in the District of Columbia.
