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JUNETEENTHby
Archie P. McDonald, PhD | |
While
visiting in Toronto, Ontario, last June, I was startled to see coverage of a "Juneteenth"
celebration going on in that Canadian provincial capital. The television reporter
interviewed several celebrants about the meaning of the day, and mostly learned
that it was a "fun" day from the young and was connected to "our freedom" from
the more mature.
Obviously, both answers were correct. Still, I was surprised,
since Canada never allowed slavery. Just as obviously, "Juneteenth," though it
originally was only the day of proclamation of freedom for Texas slaves, has become
a focus of freedom for African Americans everywhere. Let us go back to the source.
Americans fought a terrible war, 1861-1865, to determine if the Union would
be preserved and slaves freed. President Abraham Lincoln was careful to emphasize
only the preservation of the Union as the first commitment of his administration,
but in September 1862, he widened the war by embracing the ending of slavery as
its second great commitment.
Lincoln did so by signing the preliminary
Emancipation Proclamation September 22. It said that the slaves of all who remained
in "rebellion" after January 1, 1863, would be considered free.
Lincoln
was aware that his words immediately freed no one. Slaves within Union lines would
not be affected since their owners could no longer rebel, and those outside Union
Army lines had a great many Confederate soldiers still trying to establish the
Confederacy to protect them. The importance of the Proclamation, then, was that
it fixed abolition as an official goal of the war. Slavery was actually achieved
only with the elimination of involuntary servitude by the Thirteenth Amendment
to the Constitution in 1865.
"Juneteenth," then, marks the day that General
Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston in 1865. Granger announced the end of the
war and the end of slavery in the territory of his new command: TEXAS; few noticed
the difference, either because former owners failed to relay the news because
of guile or their own ignorance of it. But the word spread, and in time Juneteenth
became a happy day for freedmen and women. Some of them eventually moved to Shreveport
or Denver learned of Juneteenth celebrations western states, carrying their cultural
institutions with them.
There was a time, especially during the waning
days of official segregation, when Juneteenth observances were muted, if observed
at all. Now, it seems, the celebrating is back and spreading. Good. Juneteenth
is a day of freedom for all, black and white.
All
Things Historical
June
15-21, 2003 column
A syndicated column in over 40 East Texas newspapers
This column is provided as a public service by the East Texas Historical Association.
Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and author of more than 20 books
on Texas. | | |
