Peirspictiochtai Ar An Saol
Image was provided courtesy of the Forest Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, 2020.
Today is Juneteenth.
A number of people will celebrate this holiday with family and friends. Americans of all races, ethnicities, and religious faiths, among other aspects of their lives, will take time to remember. Many African Americans will recall the bonds of slavery that some of their ancestors endured in the United States of America.
During the next few days, Peirspictiochtai Ar An Saol will detail aspects of the history of emancipation of slaves in the United States of America. This five-part series will detail what the Emancipation Proclamation did and did not do; When one of the first celebrations of emancipation by freed slaves took place; What the 13th Amendment to the U S Constitution did and did not do regarding slavery; When slavery was abolished in the entire country.
In addition, Peirspictiochtai Ar An Saol will list statements from some of our leaders and some of our leading institutions in the United States of America. These statements reflect what these individuals and institutions have said occurred on and because of Juneteenth.
Many of these statements include some facts. But the facts noted are not always the only facts and, thus, present only part of the truth.
This news series is designed to provide a summary of what actually occurred as the United States of America officially ended the inhumanity of slavery as an institution in this country for most people.
First, let's detail what actually happened on June 19, 1865. The day that was called Juneteenth – the combination of the month and the date – JUNE nineTEENTH – by slaves who were freed on that date in Galveston, Texas.
"On June 19, 1865, two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln's historic Emancipation Proclamation, U S Major General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3, which informed the people of Texas that all enslaved people were now free," according to a statement from The United States National Archives and Records Administration (National Archives). "Granger commanded the Headquarters District of Texas, and his troops had arrived in Galveston the previous day."
This was about two months after General Robert E. Lee, leading the Army of Northern Virginia of the Confederate States of America, agreed to terms of surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865.
The Confederate States of America did not surrender on that date in that locale.
Only the Army of Northern Virginia of the Confederate States of America surrendered.
The war continued for much longer.
Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America, did not surrender until he was captured by the Union Army on May 10, 1865.
The last Confederate general to surrender was Stand Waite, according to the National Archives: "Waite surrendered his unit of Confederate Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, and Osage Indians...in Indian Territory on June 23, [1865]."
Indian Territory at that time included much of the land that is now the State of Oklahoma.
Four days before that surrender in Indian Territory, General Order No. 3 was issued by U S Major General Granger in Galveston. It read:
"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 National Archives reported in a statement that the whole of Texas was not under the control of the United States of America until August of 1866.
"In a presidential proclamation issued on April 2, 1866, President [Andrew] Johnson declared that the insurrection [the American Civil War] that had existed in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida, and Virginia, was at an end," according to the statement from the National Archives. "The one exception was Texas. Later that summer, the President declared that the insurrection in Texas was suppressed."
The statement from the National Archives continued by noting that "On August 20, 1866, President Johnson issued a proclamation announcing the end of the American Civil War: 'And I do further proclaim that the said insurrection [the American Civil War] is at an end and that peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority now exists in and throughout the whole of the United States of America.'"
The next edition of Peirspictiochtai Ar An Saol will detail aspects of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Peirspictiochtai Ar An Saol – Gaelic – Irish – for "Perspectives On Life" is a column focused on aspects of accountability and responsibility as well as ways people look at life.
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