Image by LeoNeoBoy from Pixabay
Written by L. M. Land
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, promising freedom to slaves in Texas and all the rebellious parts of the Southern Confederacy. Enforcing freedom was a job given to the advancing Union troops as they swept through the South.
The Proclamation also announced that it would accept Black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the Civil War, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.
For readers who are young, please remember that the only way to communicate was by horse or by walking. Telephones did not exist yet, and neither did radios or cars. Communication over distances could be slow.
Texas was the most remote state of the former Confederacy. Few Union troops were in Texas when the American Civil War ended. So, liberation was slow and inconsistent.
Unlike the other Confederate states, Texas had never truly been conquered by the Union Army. Most Confederate forces in Texas dissolved before or shortly after Union forces arrived. Therefore, “many white Texans did not feel defeated and were not inclined to comply with federal orders and laws.”3 Bringing freedom to the slaves came down to its practical enforcement by Union Army units.
Major General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, proclaimed freedom for slaves in Texas. Issuing General Order No. 3 on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, informing residents of the Union’s intent to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. This day has become our Juneteenth National Holiday.
The actual order reads:
General Order No. 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, become that between employer and hired labor. The freed are advised to remain 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.”
However, this was not the end of slavery in the United States.
The Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in all northern Union states. Slavery remained legal in two border states, Delaware and Kentucky.
On December 6, 1865, after long debates in Congress, the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolished slavery nationwide, almost six months after General Granger’s order in Texas, and three full years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
The last slaves present in the continental United States were freed in 1866. They had been held by the Choctaw, who had sided with the Confederacy.
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Granger
- https://armyhistory.org/juneteenth-the-armys-role/
- https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation Images of the original document can be seen here.
- https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/13th-amendment The transcript and images of the original document can be seen here.
