A Celebration Of Freedon

Juneteenth also called Freedom or Emancipation Day, celebrates the day that the abolition of slavery was announced in Texas on June 19^th 1865.

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation became effective on January 1^st 1863, but it meant little to the slaves in the Confederate states.  This was true for the African Americans living in bondage in Texas.  On June 18^th 1865 Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas with 2,000 troops to reinstate Federal law and control.

Standing on the balcony of Ashton Villa in Galveston on June 19^th 1865, Granger read General Order Number 3, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”  The former slaves took to the streets of Galveston in celebration.

The next year on June 19^th 1866 the celebration known as Juneteenth began in Texas.

The Act That Made Them Soldiers

Passed by the 37^th United States Congress on July 17^th 1862, the Militia Act of 1862 allowed African Americans to become soldiers.

The Union Army had not accepted African Americans as volunteers, but by the summer of 1862 they were beginning to consider some of the benefits of changing that stand.  The 37^th United States Congress supported the idea of black volunteers for use as laborers and as soldiers.  They passed the Militia Act of 1862 which allowed both of these on July 17^th 1862.  President Abraham Lincoln didn’t start using the Act until after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in January 1863.

If you would like to read more, check out The Militia Act of 1862

A Compensated Emancipation

President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill April 16th 1862 that ended slavery in the District of Columbia.


Eight and half months before he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia on April 16th 1862. This bill called the Compensated Emancipation Act, ended what was called by abolitionist “the national shame”, of slavery in the seat of the United States government. The bill called for immediate emancipation. There was to be compensation to owners who were loyal to the Union of $300 for each former slave, and $100 for each former slave who voluntary emigrated to locations out of the Untied States. During the following 9 months the act approved 930 petition and the freedom of 2,989 former slaves. The former slaves who lived in the District of Columbia celebrated April 16th as Emancipation Day with parades and festivals from 1866 to 1901.

To read the act look at this web site District of Columbia Emancipation Act

Limited Freedom

President Abraham Lincoln held a cabinet meeting on December 30th 1862 at which he gave members a copy of the Draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. He asked them to offer suggestions for the document. The first part of the Proclamation was issued on September 22, 1862, outlining the intent that became law 100 days later on January 1, 1863.

You might also like to read these

http://www.nps.gov/ncro/anti/emancipation.html

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/

The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War)