FREEDOM ARRIVES

Juneteenth honors when the last slaves in the U.S. got word the Civil War is over and slavery is abolished

Juneteenth, or June 19, became a federal holiday in 2021. The holiday marks the date in 1865 when Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and issued General Order Number 3, which ended the enslavement of Black people in Texas — a full

2-1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.

The Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the U.S., leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under

Northern control and the freedom it promised depended upon

Union military victory.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it fundamentally transformed the character of the war. After Jan. 1, 1863, every advance of federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. The proclamation announced the acceptance of Black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost

RISE AND FALL OF THE SLAVE TRADE

The SlaveVoyages.org website is a collaborative digital initiative that compiles and makes publicly accessible records of the largest slave trades in history.

The Trans-Atlantic and Intra-American slave trade databases are the culmination of several decades of independent and collaborative research by scholars drawing upon data in libraries and archives around the Atlantic world.

200,000 Black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom. A lack of Union troops in the rebel state of Texas made the order difficult to enforce and the Civil War did not end until April 9, 1865.

Gen. Granger’s Order No. 3 stated, “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.” For many African Americans, June 19 is considered an independence day. Before 2021, nearly all 50 states recognized Juneteenth as a state holiday. On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed legislation officially declaring it a federal holiday. zqz

The National Endowment for the Humanities was the principal sponsor of this work carried out originally at Emory Center for Digital Scholarship, the University of California at Irvine, and the University of California at Santa Cruz.

The Hutchins Center of Harvard University has also provided support. The website is currently hosted at Rice University.

The public can search the records at slavevoyages.org to learn about the broad origins and forced relocations of more than 12 million African people who were sent across the Atlantic in slave ships and hundreds of thousands more who were trafficked within the Americas. The site explores where they were taken, the numerous rebellions that occurred, the horrific loss of life during the voyages and the identities and nationalities of the perpetrators.

SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE An illustration of people reading the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.