We celebrate Juneteenth, a celebration of the Emancipation Declaration that started in Galveston Texas, June 19th, 1865, the historic day slavery was abolished in Texas. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops under the command of General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as “Juneteenth,” by the newly freed people in Texas.
Today, uniformed members of Lt. Cmdr. Edward Lea, USN Camp 2 of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War will gather at historic Ashton Villa in Galveston and Brother Stephen Duncan will recreate the reading of the General Order, No. 3 issued by General Granger on June 19, 1865.
Texas was the first state to recognize the date by enacted law, in 1980, and it became a federal holiday on June 17, 2021 when the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act was signed into law.
Happy Juneteenth to One and All !!
General Order No. 3
The people 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.
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