Since this just became an official federal holiday I thought I would make a post about it. As you may already know, this is the celebration of the June 19, 1865 announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army general Gordon Granger in Galveston, proclaiming and enforcing freedom of enslaved people in Texas.
The order read as follows:
"Head Quarters District of Texas
Galveston Texas June 19th 1865.
General Orders
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 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.
By order of Major General Granger
F.W. Emery
Major A.A. Genl."
Of course this did not reach all enslaved peoples in the state immediately, which numbered around 250,000, but is the date that became the traditional date to celebrate "Emancipation Day".
The following link is a quick listen of an interview given in 1949 in Hempstead from a first hand account of the reaction to the news.
https://www.npr.org/2015/06/19/415809476/juneteenth-marks-day-slaves-in-texas-were-told-they-were-free
" LAURA SMALLEY: We didn't know where to go. Mom and them didn't know where to go. You see, after freedom broke, they started just, like, to turn some of them out, you know? We didn't know where to go. They turned us out just like, you know, you turn out cattle (laughter), I'd say."
I have also heard that day and reaction referred to as "The Great Scatter", as many newly freed people began to look for friends and family members that may have been sold to other farms.
This celebration started as a primarily Texas one, the Great Migration helped spread it throughout the US and now is a federal holiday. It is good to see a Texas tradition spread across the US.
The order read as follows:
"Head Quarters District of Texas
Galveston Texas June 19th 1865.
General Orders
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 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.
By order of Major General Granger
F.W. Emery
Major A.A. Genl."
Of course this did not reach all enslaved peoples in the state immediately, which numbered around 250,000, but is the date that became the traditional date to celebrate "Emancipation Day".
The following link is a quick listen of an interview given in 1949 in Hempstead from a first hand account of the reaction to the news.
https://www.npr.org/2015/06/19/415809476/juneteenth-marks-day-slaves-in-texas-were-told-they-were-free
" LAURA SMALLEY: We didn't know where to go. Mom and them didn't know where to go. You see, after freedom broke, they started just, like, to turn some of them out, you know? We didn't know where to go. They turned us out just like, you know, you turn out cattle (laughter), I'd say."
I have also heard that day and reaction referred to as "The Great Scatter", as many newly freed people began to look for friends and family members that may have been sold to other farms.
This celebration started as a primarily Texas one, the Great Migration helped spread it throughout the US and now is a federal holiday. It is good to see a Texas tradition spread across the US.