Juneteenth
This is merely a comment. ..
Growing up in Texas, I’ve always thought of Juneteenth as a local Texas holiday, and was surprised to see it recently described in the press as “June 19, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.” I always thought few people outside of Texas even knew about it.
Texas historian Edward T. Cotham Jr. writes in “Battle on the Bay: The Civil War Struggle for Galveston” (University of Texas Press, 1998):
“On June 18, 1865, [Union] General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and began to set up the administration that would govern Texas until Reconstruction governments were established. From his headquarters on the Strand, on June 19, 1865, General Granger issued General Order No. 3, which officially informed the people of Texas that slavery had been terminated by virtue of Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
“Although June 19 is now celebrated in Texas as a holiday (known as ‘Juneteenth’ in commemoration of the date of Granger’s order), there was no real legal importance to Granger’s order on that date. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had been issued in September 1862. That proclamation provided that all slaves were to be freed effective January 1, 1863 …”
It is good to remember that a president has no authority to alter the constitution of the United States. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued in the aftermath of the battle of Antietam, took its legitimacy from a war powers provision that allowed Union forces to seize property of private citizens in seceded states if such property contributed to the economy that supported a Confederate army in the field. Slaves laboring in rebelling states qualified as such property, but not slaves in loyal states. It was the best Lincoln could do at the time.
The 13th amendment, passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, finally abolished all slavery everywhere in the United States. However, it was not ratified until December 6, 1865, some months after Lincoln’s death and General Granger’s Juneteenth proclamation which liberated Texas slaves per the Emancipation Proclamation.
Gotham goes on to write:
“As it turned out, General Granger’s order was largely symbolic as far as it concerned race relations. Although it did confirm that the Emancipation Proclamation was in effect in Texas, it also stated in a patronizing tone that the “freedmen” were advised to stay at home and work for their former masters for wages. Black men and women were still many years away from being treated with equality. Less than two weeks after Granger’s order, for example, the mayor of Galveston fined and jailed one of the former slaves for having given a ball without his permission. Although the Union authorities arrested the mayor for this act, it was done more for jurisdictional reasons than any genuine sense of moral outrage.”
Growing up in Texas, I’ve always thought of Juneteenth as a local Texas holiday, and was surprised to see it recently described in the press as “June 19, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.” I always thought few people outside of Texas even knew about it.
Texas historian Edward T. Cotham Jr. writes in “Battle on the Bay: The Civil War Struggle for Galveston” (University of Texas Press, 1998):
“On June 18, 1865, [Union] General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and began to set up the administration that would govern Texas until Reconstruction governments were established. From his headquarters on the Strand, on June 19, 1865, General Granger issued General Order No. 3, which officially informed the people of Texas that slavery had been terminated by virtue of Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
“Although June 19 is now celebrated in Texas as a holiday (known as ‘Juneteenth’ in commemoration of the date of Granger’s order), there was no real legal importance to Granger’s order on that date. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had been issued in September 1862. That proclamation provided that all slaves were to be freed effective January 1, 1863 …”
It is good to remember that a president has no authority to alter the constitution of the United States. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued in the aftermath of the battle of Antietam, took its legitimacy from a war powers provision that allowed Union forces to seize property of private citizens in seceded states if such property contributed to the economy that supported a Confederate army in the field. Slaves laboring in rebelling states qualified as such property, but not slaves in loyal states. It was the best Lincoln could do at the time.
The 13th amendment, passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, finally abolished all slavery everywhere in the United States. However, it was not ratified until December 6, 1865, some months after Lincoln’s death and General Granger’s Juneteenth proclamation which liberated Texas slaves per the Emancipation Proclamation.
Gotham goes on to write:
“As it turned out, General Granger’s order was largely symbolic as far as it concerned race relations. Although it did confirm that the Emancipation Proclamation was in effect in Texas, it also stated in a patronizing tone that the “freedmen” were advised to stay at home and work for their former masters for wages. Black men and women were still many years away from being treated with equality. Less than two weeks after Granger’s order, for example, the mayor of Galveston fined and jailed one of the former slaves for having given a ball without his permission. Although the Union authorities arrested the mayor for this act, it was done more for jurisdictional reasons than any genuine sense of moral outrage.”
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