Juneteenth 2023

I had hoped to schedule some special projects, movies, and snacks in honor of Juneteenth, the memorial of the announcement of freedom to Texas’ enslaved population. I didn’t end up making the sweet potatoes, collard greens, black-eyed peas, and cornbread that my husband requested, but we did manage to have a lively family conversation around an article I had found that reviewed the origin of Juneteenth and its development as a federal holiday. My husband charged us with the task of identifying persistent questions, researching the answers, and publishing a summary of new, fun facts about Juneteenth. With that in mind, one of my sons wondered, “Why would anyone not want to celebrate the end of slavery?” We had learned that the date of June 19th was enshrined as a national holiday in June 2021 after a vote of 451-14 in the House of Representatives; we were curious about the people who voted against the bill. We parents presented a few possibilities for both sides of the argument, but we planned to find the answer to that question. We also wanted to know about how slaves found out about their freedom when they were largely illiterate. And how on earth were slaveowners able to trample the grapevine or prevent slaves from leaving their plantations when they finally did learn about Lincoln’s Edict? My family wanted to know if there was a possibility that slaves in other states were informed late about their freedom. As a genealogist, I wondered specifically about when my ancestors in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia first celebrated their emancipation. Because it’s late and I’m not going to be able to get this all together right now, I’m going to discuss our findings in a series of posts for an extended Juneteenth observation. Stay tuned for the rest of my emancipation week posts!