A lot of people know about the Juneteenth celebration now who didn’t know about it when I was a kid growing up. I am happy that it is now a federal holiday. The only thing that perplexes me is the mistaken notion some people have about how and when slavery was abolished.
Everybody knows the Civil War ended slavery but when asked about specific dates and changes, things get a little hazy. When I taught U.S. History I was sometimes appalled by my students’ lack of knowledge of dates and events, since such facts are needed to build a chronology and improve understanding of patterns of social development.
The statement is sometimes made that Juneteenth ended slavery but to me that is not entirely true; it is an over-simplification at best. In any full history of the struggle against slavery, one certainly must include Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863) which was the first powerful blow against slavery. With a Union military victory, slavery would be mortally wounded. A second and even more decisive knockout punch was Congressional passage of the Thirteenth Amendment (December 6, 1865).
Some people flippantly like to say the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery. They make a two-fold objection: first, only Confederate states (11 in number) then in rebellion had their slaves declared emancipated. Four Border States that remained loyal to the Union were not included, although they had few slaves or were in the process of ending slavery themselves.
The other objection is that the Emancipation Proclamation is “just a piece of paper”; only Union victories on the battlefield could end slavery. One can say that of almost any document, including the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. It would take further actions by Congress and the American people to make such new language a reality.
One can concede as much without forgetting the powerful impact Lincoln’s signature on the Emancipation Proclamation played in American society. His words rang the death knell of slavery, to be sure. For those concerned about loopholes or exceptions, the Thirteenth Amendment was passed for good measure to make sure no people in bondage were overlooked or any vestiges of the hated institution of chattel slavery remained. It was passed by Congress in January and ratified in December 1865. These three events combined to end slavery: Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the Union Army victory, and the Thirteenth Amendment.
And thus we come to the re-discovery of “Juneteenth” which must be placed in its proper historical context. Most slaves already knew of the Emancipation Proclamation; nearly 200,000 black men joined the Union Army and understood they were free as the New Year of 1863 began. Charlotte Forten, granddaughter of anti-slavery activist James Forten, described a large gathering that waited with baited breath for the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, which touched off wild jubilation and singing. The document was printed and celebrated by anti-slavery forces throughout the land!
It is a bit presumptuous, therefore, to say that black slaves in Texas ended slavery; in fact, it’s putting the cart before the horse. The fact that they were the last people in bondage to learn of their liberation does not make them the primary agents of change bringing about that liberation. That Texas slaves were still kept in the dark as late as June 1865 regarding what was happening in the rest of the nation doesn’t change the course of events of the Civil War.
Their forced ignorance, however shocking, doesn’t change the fact of what happened on January 1, 1863 with Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation or General Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865. Thus, in June 1865 the Union Army delivered news to Texas slaves of the end of the Civil War and their freedom. The surrender of the South had already occurred two months earlier at Appomattox, Virginia; those Juneteenth proponents who push the notion that slavery only ended on June 19th 1865 are confused and involved in a bit of time distortion. Texas was the exception, not the rule; slavery ended with the South’s surrender in April 1865.
The inflation of Juneteenth into something grander than the actual facts warrant can mislead young people and adults into thinking a traditional history of the Civil War is mistaken and only this new holiday has it right. Nothing can be further from the truth. Celebrating Texas slaves’ learning of their freedom is one matter; that is cause for celebration in and of itself.
If anyone wishes to assert there were slaves in America who did not even know they were emancipated before June of 1865, that is a true assertion that must be conceded, but to take that fact and suggest slavery had not already received its death blow is to engage in unwarranted exaggeration: maybe for Texas but not for all the other defeated Confederate states!
Before “Juneteenth” (June 19, 1865) momentous events had already transpired:
In the summer of 1863, the battles of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River and Gettysburg in Pennsylvania (under Generals Grant and Meade, respectively) had been fought and won by the Union Army. In 1864, Sherman’s triumphant march from Atlanta to the sea occurred. Slaves by the tens of thousands had flocked to Union camps to work as laborers and teamsters and then serve as able-bodied soldiers and sailors. Estimates vary from 180,000 to more than 200,000 black men served in the Union Army and Navy, fighting as free men.
The story of Slavery, Abolitionism (the Underground Railroad) and the Civil War is far more complex than any simplified one-shot statement. Sharing knowledge about the Civil War and the anti-slavery struggle is the best way to honor Juneteenth, even if it means within that knowledge are the seeds by which the holiday is placed in its proper context, and not celebrated as the one and only date that matters.
Many Civil War dates, from April 1861 to April 1865, matter. The issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1865 matters. The surrender of the South at Appomattox matters. Before the year 1865 was over, the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment matters. And yes, “Juneteenth” matters too—it looks intriguing when considered as a single event but it looks twice as relevant when given its true place in the long and victorious fight to abolish slavery!
Nov. 6, 1860 (Lincoln elected president)
January 1, 1863 (Emancipation Proclamation)
July 1863 (Battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg)
April 11, 1865 (surrender of the Confederacy)
June 19, 1865 (Texas slaves told they are free)
December 6, 1865 (13th Amendment ratified)
I would suggest that these dates are all crucial. As nice as another federal holiday is, there is also a more complex story that needs to be told: the full story and not just the celebration of a single day by itself, where “news received” is not transformed into the fallacious claim that Texas slaves ended slavery; the fact remains, they were the last to learn they were free.
Educators and parents need to teach their students and children the full complexity of American history. The struggle against slavery started decades earlier: the Abolitionist movement should be remembered and celebrated, too. The bravery of soldiers, both white and black, in the Union Army, should be honored as well. “Juneteenth” didn’t end slavery; rather, it took thousands of people working together over the previous half-century to achieve the final abolition of slavery.
We should celebrate the full story of Abolitionism, the Underground Railroad, and the Civil War and their full-blown role in ending slavery, once and for all.
