Juneteenth Freedom Comes to Texas

Juneteenth, now a Federal holiday, brought freedom to the enslaved people in Texas. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was preliminarily issued on September 22, 1862 and signed into law on January 1, 1863, the enslaved people in Texas were not aware of their freedom. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger informed the people of Galveston, Texas that the Civil War was over, and that enslaved people were now free. 

During the early months of the Civil War, the United States gradually began leaning toward freeing the enslaved people of the South. General Benjamin Butler issued the “contraband of war” statement to a Southern slave holder, when he went to Fort Monroe to get his “runaway slaves.” On August 6, 1861, Congress passed the First Confiscation Act of 1861, freeing enslaved who had been forced to work on Confederate works.  On July 17, 1862, the Second Confiscation and Militia Acts passed, freeing enslaved who reached the Union military or free states. These acts also allowed Black men to serve in the military, as the military “deemed necessary to suppress the rebellion.”        

President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, five days after the Union victory at Antietam. He signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. This act freed all of the enslaved in the Southern states still in rebellion against the United States. The 13th Amendment abolishing slavery passed January 31, 1865. 

President Lincoln promoted Major General Ulysses Grant to Lieutenant General and appointed him General in Chief of the United States Army in March 1864. General Grant had all of the Federal armies attacking the Confederacy every day until Confederate General in Chief Robert E Lee surrendered at Appomattox court House on April 9, 1865.  

Major General Gordon Granger was in command of the Department of Texas on June 19, 1865.  He lands at Galveston, Texas, on that day, he informs the people of Texas that the Civil War had ended, and the enslaved people were now free. 
            

General Order 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 Emancipation Proclamation issued on January 1, 1863 had no effect in Texas because there was little presence of the Union army in Texas. When General Granger arrives with his troops, he has enough soldiers to enforce the freedom of the enslaved. Juneteenth is recognized as the oldest known celebration in commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States.