Juneteenth: The Celebration of African American Freedom I grew up in the "Land of Lincoln" in a rural town near Springfield, Illinois. It had always been common knowledge that it was on January 1, 1863 that Abraham Lincoln freed all slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation. Though, it had never occurred to me that this was not the case in Texas. It was not until June 19, 1865 when the Union General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston, Texas with the good news. His first order of business in Galveston was to read the General Order Number 3 to the people of Texas freeing the last 250, 000 slaves, which read as follows: "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 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." (JUNETEENTH.com 1). Note that this was a whole two and a half years after Lincoln's abolition of slavery. No one can be truly certain why there was such a delay of the news. There are some ideas explaining the reason such as one of a messenger who had been killed on his journey to Texas bringing the news of freedom. Another is that the enslavers wanted to hold onto their labor force for their plantations so they purposely kept their mouths shut about the news. Or there was the idea that federal troops waited until the plantation owners could benefit from just one more cotton harvest (McPherson 61). More than anything, the cause would be due to such poor political socialization. Newspapers were only local at the time and there obviously was no television so it took a long time for the word to travel. Two and a half years is pretty extreme though, which is why there really isn't a good explanation for the delay. Still, everyone was completely shocked by what they had just heard. Immediately the freed slaves were fleeing from the plantations and many even headed to the North.
Unlike today, there was no fast communication methods. The tensions between the "free" and "slave" states was already apparent, thus, inflamed passions now began to result regularly in violence. Under those circumstances, any proposition which restoration of peace and abandoned slavery, were slow to coming. The issue of slavery was no longer a matter which could be argued. President Lincoln and Seward, made some mistakes, by the time of Seward 's famous speech, “irrepressible conflict. " The southern states started to isolate themselves and by the time the Southern States seceded from the Union, the U.S. had virtually become two separate nations and when Lincoln became president, that was the last straw. Because the Southern states felt that President Lincoln 's election was viewed by Southerners as a blow to their well-being and honor. So, some of the wording in the speech sounded like thing were already coming at the end. Therefore, talks were no longer an option, this issues were “irrepressible conflict." war were inevitable. But that 's not absolute, the speech could have been a final call to action, to work together to resolve and complete “the unfinished
One of the major reasons Texans fought in the Civil War, was for the right to hold and own slaves. “By 1860, 30% of Texas’ population was made up of slaves, and this might of been due to the fact that Texas was so abundant in land.” (Doc. A) Slave labor was cheap and “whites believed them to be an inferior race.” (Doc. B) John Wesley Rabb even told his mother to “send the slaves into the mountains if the Yankees were to come so the slaves wouldn’t be seized.” (Doc. C) As you can see, slave labor contributed to a great part of the Southern economy, and slaves were an invaluable resource. This is just one reason Texans fought in the
On June 23, 1845, the Republic of Texas was annexed to the U.S. as a slave state. Foley notes "the annexation of Texas as a slave state…became the great white hope of northern expansionists anxious to emancipate the nation from blacks, who, it was hoped, would find a home among the kindred population of 'colored races' in Mexico."(20) But rather than uniting as kindred races, discord between poor whites, African Americans and Mexicans resulted from competition for farmland as either tenant farmers or sharecroppers.
Around the time of 1821, with Texas still attained by Mexico, land was extremely cheap attracting American settlers. Mexico was full on against their new comers due to slavery. These Americans would bring their slaves to live with them, but the act of slavery was against Mexican law. The new settlers sought out the idea of cessation from Mexico and its president, Santa Ana. Texas would now fight for its independence if necessary. Of Course, Santa Ana was against the idea of Texas breaking free; he prepared an army that would follow him to San Antonio where...
From the very second the words of annexation of Texas hit the US borders anti-slavery activists were on the ball...
Lincoln was a very smart lawyer and politician. During his “House Divided” speech he asked the question, “Can we, as a nation, continue together permanently, forever, half slave, and half free?" When he first asked this question, America was slowly gaining the knowledge and realizing that as a nation, it could not possibly exist as half-slave and half-free. It was either one way or the other. “Slavery was unconstitutional and immoral, but not simply on a practical level.” (Greenfield, 2009) Slave states and free states had significantly different and incompatible interests. In 1858, when Lincoln made his “House Divided” speech, he made people think about this question with views if what the end result in America must be.
Lincoln, Abraham. “Restating Positions on Slavery: December 1860.” Simpson, Brooks D., Stephen W. Sears, and Aaron Sheehan-Dean 109-110.
Lincoln declared that “all persons held as slaves” in areas in rebellion “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Not only liberate slaves in the border slave states, but the President has purposely made the proclamation in all places in the South where the slaves were existed. While the Emancipation Proclamation was an important turning point in the war. It transformed the fight to preserve the nation into a battle for human freedom. According the history book “A People and a Nation”, the Emancipation Proclamation was legally an ambiguous document, but as a moral and political document it had great meaning. It was a delicate balancing act because it defined the war as a war against slavery, not the war from northern and southern people, and at the same time, it protected Lincoln’s position with conservatives, and there was no turning
Lincoln is famously known for ending slavery. He Issued the Emancipation of Proclamation. The presidential proclamation was issued during the American Civil War. Lincoln stated in his speech, "I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of states, and henceforward shall be free." The states he was referring to were the 11 out of 22 states that still had slavery. It was because of Lincoln that millions ...
The emancipation of the African slave who was now disconnected from their traditions and way of life after nearly 300 years, is seemingly a great gush from the dam to the ebbs and flows of the struggle. The end of slavery as we know it, presented a ball of mixed emotions among the nation; North and SOUTH. Some slaves were grossly ecstatic to be free. For example, when a slave girl named Caddy, from Goodman, Mississippi found she was free, went to her mistress, flipped up her dress and told her "Kiss my ass!" On the contrary, some slaves were apprehensive of being free. For example, one elderly slave woman reportedly said, "I ain' no free nigger! I is got a marster and mistiss! Dee right dar in de great house. Ef you don' believe me, you go dar an' see." Though most slaves were detached from their families, many managed to regroup and find their love ones after their emancipation and constructed close knit families. Land was an viable means of survival in the minds of newly freedmen and the government was eager to deem lands to the ex-slaves . On January 16, 1865, General William T. Sherman told the freedmen that they will receive the land they were in search of. They were granted the head of each family would receive "possessory title" to forty acres of land. Sherman also gave the use of Army mules, thus giving rise to the slogan, "Forty acres and a mule." Similarly in 1862 the Union military set aside land in Port Royal, South Carolina, which became known as the Port Royal experiment. The freedmen bureau was created to aid newly freed slaves in the transition from bondage to freedom in 1865. After Lincoln's assassination the succession of his Vice president...
The movement for independence in Texas started when Mexican president Anastasio Bustamante, on April 6, 1830, forced new laws upon Texans to increase the population of Mexican citizens and decrease the population of American settlers. Bustamante prohibited further immigration to Texas by Americans. He also revoked the property tax law, which allowed immigrant settlers to avoid paying taxes for a full ten years, and increased the tariffs on goods exported from the United States. If that hadn’t already angered the Texans, Bustamante demanded that the settlers abide with the federal prohibition against slavery. The settlers were told if they were to disobey these orders, military intervention would
When the Civil War was approaching its third year, United States President Abraham Lincoln was able to make the slaves that were in Confederate states that were still in rebellion against the Union forever free. Document A states that on January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and that every enslaved person residing in the states that were “In rebellion against the United States” were free and that the Executive Government of the United States and that the military and naval authority were to recognize them and could not act against them at all. Although the Proclamation did not free every slave in the Confederacy, it was able to release about 3.5 million slaves. Along with freeing all of those slaves, it also stated that African American men were allowed to enlist with the Union and aid them in the war.
The freeing of the slaves constituted freedom de jure, but de facto slavery came into full effect in 1865-1866, when white sout...
During 1862, the abolition movement enjoyed previously unparalleled levels of support and respectability. Wendell Phillips gave rousing speeches in towns where only a year previously, he would have feared for his life. Senator John Sherman wrote to his brother, the general: 'You can form no conception of the change of opinion here as to the Nero question. I am prepared for one to meet the broad issue of emancipation.' A New-England, and therefore radical-dominated Congress received a flood of anti-slavery bills, which they eagerly turned into law. However, feelings of front-line troops were somewhat different, with horrific reports of violence against Negroes, and a general reluctance to further the cause of emancipation. Most soldiers shared the view of a New York private, who wrote: 'we must first conquer, and then it is time enough to talk about the dam'd niggers.' Even those regiments who welcomed black contrabands set them to menial work such as cooking and washing clothes.
“Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22nd 1862. The document states that if the states in the rebellion didn’t cease, the proclamation would go into effect” (10 Facts). When the rebellious states decided not to, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation on January 1st, 1863. The proclamation only applied to the states in rebellion. In fact, the proclamation declared, “that all persons held as slaves, within the rebellious, are and henceforth shall be freed” (The Emancipation Proclamation). During the war, the Southern states used the slaves to support their armies in the field and to manage the home front. Lincoln justified the proclamation as a war measure intended to cripple the Confederates use of slaves in war. The book, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End Of Slavery in America, says “No single official paper in American history changed the lives of as many Americans as Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. But no American document has been held up to greater suspicion” (Guelzo 12).