Juneteenth

On 19 of June 1865, 2000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas where Gordon Granger, a U.S. Army officer issued General Order no. 3, informing the people of Texas that every person who had been enslaved up to that point in the borders of the United States, was free. This came some years after the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln, which was issued January 1, 1863, a few months after January 31, 1865 when the 13th Amendment passed in Congress, and some months before December 6, 1865 when the 13th Amendment, officially ending slavery throughout all the United States was ratified.

The Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the Border States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, and later West Virginia which became a state in 1863. When Abraham Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation, he worried that the border states mentioned above would leave the union and join the South making the war all the more difficult to win for the North. And so only slaves in the Confederacy were officially freed by the Proclamation. This Proclamation included all slaves in the south, including Texas, but because information traveled so slowly in those days, the slaves in Texas did not know they were free until Juneteenth. Juneteenth did not mark the complete end of slaverly in the U.S. since the Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to the border states. It was only after the 13th Amendment to the Constitution became law December 6, 1865, that the slaves in the border states were free. The Emancipation Proclamation, General Order no. 3, and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution are fantastic victories that enforce the understanding that slavery is fundamentally immoral, and that basic human rights are God given, and should not be taken away except in the rare instance when someone has committed a crime and needs to be incarcerated for the safety of others. They enforce the idea that the freedoms spoken of in The Declaration of Independence should apply to all people, male and female, regardless of race. ******************************************************* What Is Juneteenth?. (2021). Retrieved 19 June 2021, from https://www.history.com/news/what-is-juneteenth********** Gordon Granger - Wikipedia. (2021). Retrieved 19 June 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Granger **************** National Archives Safeguards Original ‘Juneteenth’ General Order. (2020). Retrieved 19 June 2021, from https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/juneteenth-original-document********************************************* The Emancipation Proclamation (article) | Khan Academy. (2021). Retrieved 19 June 2021, from https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/civil-war-era/slavery-and-the-civil-war/a/the-emancipation-proclamation***** The Emancipation Proclamation. (2015). Retrieved 19 June 2021, from https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation********************** 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery. (2016). Retrieved 19 June 2021, from https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/13th-amendment ***** 13th Amendment ratified. (2021). Retrieved 19 June 2021, from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/13th-amendment-ratified************************************************** The Declaration of Independence. (2015). Retrieved 19 June 2021, from https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration?_ga=2.263441740.1345254968.1624119945-1476364428.1624119945