Why is Juneteenth Important? What is it?

Learn about the origins of Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the abolition of slavery in the United States during the Civil War. Slavery continued in the final strongholds of the Confederacy even though it was formally prohibited in all states at the end of the Civil War. This was the situation when, on June 19, Union General Gordon Granger led his men into Galveston, Texas, declaring all slaves there to be free. Soraya Field Fiorio and Karlos K. Hill did an in-depth exploration of the background of Juneteenth.

Charlotte Brooks overheard a secret that would change her life one day while she was hiding in the kitchen. She had been removed from her family at the age of 17 and sent to William Neyland's Texas Plantation. She was forced to perform housekeeping there at the brutal whims of her captors. She discovered the recent abolition of slavery on that momentous day, but Neyland planned to conceal this information from the people he had kept as slaves.

When Brooks heard this, she emerged from her hiding place, declared her liberation, disseminated the word around the plantation, and then fled. She came back that evening to pick up her daughter, Tempie. They vanished permanently before Neyland's vengeful bullets could find them.

Slavery shaped the future United States for more than 200 years, from its beginnings as 13 British colonies through its development into an independent nation. Slavery provided the fuel for its cotton industry, which helped it grow into a significant economic force. The first 12 presidents had 10 slave owners. Additionally, the process of ending chattel slavery in the US was protracted and uneven. People who were enslaved resisted right away by fleeing, destroying tools, conducting uprisings, and using other means.

Vermont and Massachusetts abolished slavery during the American Revolution, and several other states moved toward gradual abolition. Federal law outlawed the import of slaves from Africa in 1808, but it permitted the domestic slave trade to continue. When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, there were almost 4 million slaves living in the US. Although Lincoln had no plans to prohibit slavery and opposed it, the southern states began to leave the Union as a result of his election.

They established the Confederacy and pledged to defend slavery, which led to the outbreak of the American Civil War. Lincoln ended slavery in Washington, D.C., a year into the war, thereby granting more than 3,000 people legal freedom. He then issued the Emancipation Proclamation five months later. It offered the 3.5 million slaves in the Confederate States freedom. But if the rebellious states didn't rejoin the Union by January 1st, 1863, it wouldn't be carried out.

Additionally, it made no mention of the roughly 500,000 slaves who were still held in the bordering states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. Union soldiers started announcing emancipation when the Confederacy refused to submit. However, abolition could not actually take place throughout the South because the Confederacy still controlled so many of the regions.

After two more years of fighting, Congress finally enacted the 13th Amendment on January 31st, 1865. With the exception of punishment for crimes, it claimed to abolish slavery throughout the US. However, 27 states would first need to ratify it for it to go into effect. In the meantime, Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender on April 9, 1865, effectively ended the Civil War. However, despite being formally prohibited in all Southern states, slavery persisted in the last strongholds of the Confederacy.

There, masters like Neyland resisted abolition until they were compelled to. This was also true when Union General Gordon Granger led his men into Galveston, Texas, on June 19 and declared that everyone there who had been held as slaves was now free and had been for more than two years. People were still technically still being held as slaves in the border states at this point. The 13th Amendment wasn't actually ratified until December 6th, 1865, more than five months later. Thus, chattel slavery in the US was officially abolished.

People in various locations observed official emancipation on various dates because it was a gradual process. On the first anniversary of General Granger's declaration, people in Galveston, Texas, started celebrating "Juneteenth"—a combination of "June" and "nineteenth''—in that city. Smaller Juneteenth celebrations gradually gave way to huge parades. And as time went on, the custom turned into the liberation holidays with the broadest appeal.

Although chattel slavery had been declared abolished, racial injustice, tyranny, and terror persisted. Celebrating independence was a form of ongoing struggle in and of itself. And Juneteenth didn't become a federal holiday until 2021. Today, Juneteenth is celebrated to honor the abolition of slavery, the just quest of true freedom for everyone, and the ongoing commitment to honor the past and dream of the future.