Juneteenth 2023: Part Two

Recall, last month America celebrated Juneteenth (i.e., June 19^th, the date the Emancipation Proclamation was announced in Texas)  as a federal holiday for the third year.  I wrote during that week that my family had a few questions that we wanted to research, and I want to share with you what we discovered.  First I’ll give a short overview of the holiday’s history.Texas recorded celebrations of freedom as early as 1866.  However, people all around the nation memorialized freedom from slavery, sometimes in January, sometimes in September.  They called it a day of Jubilee, reminiscent of the Biblical release from debt God commanded the Israelites to observe every 50 years.  

There was some effort to establish the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation as a national and regular celebration before the turn of the 19^th century. For example, in January 1896, in Memphis, Tennessee, a group of “prominent colored men”, including John M. Langston, Professor J.E. Knox, Professor John R. Ruffin, J.M. Hill, Isaiah Montgomery, and M.W. Gibbs, adopted a resolution that proposed January 01, 1897, as the “date of celebrating the gift of freedom.” *

Research Tip: Search newspapers for events, people, and phenomena that interest you. You can limit your search to a specific topic that might be addressed in newspapers across geographical areas or to a particular geographical area whose newspapers address the topic.

Meanwhile, Texas was still celebrating Emancipation Day on or around June 19^th every year.  In recognition of this ongoing festival, Governor James V. Allred “set aside and proclaim[ed] the day of June 20, 1938, as the date for observance of EMANCIPATION DAY,” urg[ing] all members of the Negro race in Texas to observe the day in a manner appropriate to its importance to them.” * Just over 50 years later, at the behest of Texas Representative Al Edwards through  HB 1016,  Texas became the first state to create a holiday celebrating freedom from slavery, effective January 1, 1980.  This was meant to be “a holiday not just for Black Texans but for all Texans.  This is a day to take pride in our culture and history.”*After many efforts to spread the observance of a national Juneteenth holiday, U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), with the support of U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), proposed a bill to recognize Juneteenth as a federal holiday.  In 2021,  the Senate unanimously voted for the bill while the House of Representatives passed with 415 votes and a bit more debate and controversy.  

When my family learned that 14 members of the House (from Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Kentucky, Montana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin) had voted against the bill, my oldest son wondered, “Why would anyone not want to celebrate the end of slavery?”  It seemed like a fair question.  In my search for the answer to this question, I first learned that the holiday’s official name is Juneteenth National Independence Day.  Its name was one of the main reasons for resistance to federalizing the holiday.  Some Representatives bristled at the idea of another “Independence Day” and suggested that the holiday instead be referred to as Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, or Freedom Day as used in previous years.  Others opined that creating this new holiday would promote division of Americans along racial lines and would emphasize a liberal agenda, identity politics, and critical race theory.  Finally, some representatives did not approve of the cost of the bill or the process used to present it for consideration.  Representative James Comer (R – Kentucky) explained, 

“Just a few mere hours ago, the Committee on Oversight and Reform, which has jurisdiction over federal holidays and the federal workforce, learned that this legislation would be taken up today.  Our committee’s job is to ensure the efficient and effective operation of the executive branch agencies.  Unfortunately, we have not had ample time to consider the effects of granting the entire federal workforce another day off work.  We do not know what effect, if any, this bill will have on federal programs and missions that our government delivers to the American taxpayer each day.” *

My family also was curious about how slaves heard about the emancipation proclamation.  Apparently, there had been rumblings about Abraham Lincoln’s plan to free the slaves in the rebel states.  So, on December 31, 1862, supporters of the push to end slavery gathered in “watch” meetings (later referred to as Watch Night or called Freedom’s Eve) to pray and sing as they anticipated the date on which the Emancipation Proclamation would take effect.* 

Others learned the news when Union soldiers came to their plantation to read it to them or when they heard it directly from their slaveowners.  Mary Anderson, a former slave from North Carolina related, 

“The war was begun and there were stories of fights and freedom. The news went from plantation to plantation and, while the slaves acted natural and some even more polite than usual, they prayed for freedom. Then, one day I heard something that sounded like thunder and missus and marster began to walk around and act queer… In a day or two everybody on the plantation seemed to be disturbed and marster and missus were crying. Marster ordered all the slaves to come to the great house at nine o’clock. Nobody was working and slaves were walking over the grove in every direction. At nine o’clock all the slaves gathered at the great house and marster and missus came out on the porch and stood side by side. You could hear a pin drop everything was so quiet. Then marster said, “Good morning,” and missus said, “Good morning, children.” They were both crying. Then marster said, “Men, women and children, you are free. You are no longer my slaves. The Yankees will soon be here.”*

Research Tip: If this piqued your interest as it did mine, you might want to check out the WPA Ex-Slave Narratives to learn more about how your ancestors may have experienced slavery and freedom.  You can search by state, but remember that former slaves often migrated from the state where they were last enslaved and may be found somewhere you’d least expect to find them!

I knew that my Texas enslaved ancestors had to wait a while for freedom, but I wanted to know about when other slaves, and specifically, my ancestors in Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama first celebrated their emancipation. Any distant relatives of any of my ancestors with roots in Virginia would have found out via the aforementioned “watch nights”, newspapers, churches, or Union soldiers.  In Louisiana, the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in all but thirteen of its 48 parishes; the slaves in those parishes were not freed officially until after the Constitution of 1864 was approved in the fall of that year.  That means my Mom’s Creole ancestors who had been enslaved in St. Landry and adjacent parishes might have heard about their freedom in early 1863, but, in reality, they probably had to wait until early 1865, nearly the close of the Civil War, for it to be acknowledged and implemented.  My relatives in north Louisiana (i.e., Claiborne Parish) probably weren’t freed until slaveowners were forced to do so after the Confederacy’s surrender.  Some slaveowners actively worked to hide emancipation from their slaves or threatened them with retaliation if they left the plantation; moreover, their state governments backed them up.  As late as August 1865, in nearby Shreveport, soldiers were still being conscripted, and their slaveholder status helped to determine whether they would be exempted or not.  One notice reads, 

“All details or exemptions of agents, owners and overseers of thirty slaves issued from [the Enrolling Office of Caddo Parish], are revoked.  Conscripts having such details, will report to this office for duty, within 15 days, or be considered as deserters.”*

Similarly, my ancestors with roots in Mississippi or Alabama who made the trek to Louisiana likely did so after the war was over, for they were still considered property after Lee’s surrender at Appottamox, Virginia, on April 09, 1865.  Governor Charles Clark informed the people of Mississippi on May 06, 1865, 

“…all Confederate armies east of the Mississippi River are surrendered [and] federal commanders will only send such troops as may [have been] necessary to guard public property…The civil laws must be enforced, as they now are, until repealed.  If the public property be protected, and the peace preserved, the necessity for Federal troops in your counties…Masters are responsible, as heretofore, for the protection and conduct of their slaves, and they should be kept at home as heretofore.” *

In Alabama, on April 13, 1865, Commanding Brigadier General John T. Morgan’s notice was published: 

“To the Slave Holders of Alabama…The President has assigned me to the duty of…providing for the enlistment in the army of not exceeding one-fourth of the male slave population between the ages of eighteen and forty-five….[with] no enlistment [to] be made without the written consent of the owner of the slave, or the person standing in the place of the owner.” *

In conclusion, Juneteenth presented a refreshing learning experience for my whole family.  We learned new things about the holiday, including some of the arguments against federalizing it, how slaves found out about the Emancipation Proclamation, and when our enslaved ancestors, specifically, learned about their freedom.  Gathering this information gives me a better appreciation of the Juneteenth holiday.

Footnotes

1. “Their Day of Freedom,” The Shreveport Journal, 22 January 1896, p, 4, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 20 June 2023).  
2. William H. Wiggins, Jr. (1996). “Juneteenth: A Red Spot Day on the Texas Calendar”. In Francis E. Abernethy, Alan B. Govenar, Mullen, Patrick B. (eds.). Juneteenth Texas (Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press. pp. 237–254; viewed on Project Muse (https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/172/oa_monograph/chapter/2473148). 
3. Al Edwards Juneteenth Statement; pdf download, Oak Park Public Library (https://www.oppl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Al-Edwards-Juneteenth-Statement.pdf : accessed 20 June 2023). 
4. Transcript, U.S. House of Representatives House Debate on “Juneteenth” Federal Holiday on June 19, aired June 16, 2021, on C-Span ( https://www.c-span.org/video/?512573-3/housedebate-juneteenth-federal-holiday-june-19 : accessed 21 June 2023). 
5. “Freedom’s Eve: Awaiting the Passage of the Emancipation Proclamation,” National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/freedoms-eve.htm). 
6. “Emancipation through Union Occupation and Victory:  Selections from the WPA Interviews of /formerly Enslaved African Americans, 1936-1938,” p. 8; PDF download, National Humanities Center (https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/emancipation/text7/emancipationwpa.pdf : dowloanded 23 June 2023).   
7. “Conscripts Details Revoked” The South-Western (Shreveport, Louisiana), 02 September 1863, p, 1, col. 2; digital image, Newspapers.com(http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 20 June 2023). 
8. To the People of Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi), 07 May 1865, p. 2, col.3, digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 09 July 2023).  
9. To the People of Mississippi, South Western Baptist (Marion, Alabama), 13 Apr 1865, p. 2, col.3, digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 09 July 2023).