Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor,
This year the 19th of June was a federal holiday; and some people are describing it as a second Independence Day. It was on the 19th of June in 1865 when federal troops finally gained control of the State of Texas, allowing enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation. With the defeat of the last Confederate forces in Texas, the Civil War was finally over; and slavery was ended in the States of the former Confederacy. The people promoting the Juneteenth holiday claim that the date marks the end of slavery in the U.S. It does not.
The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln on 1 January 1863, freed all slaves in the Confederate States. Of course, the Proclamation was meaningless until federal troops could enforce it through occupation of Confederate territory. The 19th of June was a very significant day for slaves in Texas, but it was not the end of slavery in the US. The Emancipation Proclamation only applied to slaves in those States which were in rebellion against the U.S. Not every slave state had seceded from the Union. Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri were slave states that did not secede. Also, several counties in northwestern Virginia refused to follow the rest of the state into the Confederacy; and formed the new state of West Virginia. The slaves held in these five states were not freed by the Emancipation Proclamation; but by the end of the war, only Delaware and Kentucky had failed to either end or phase out slavery.
Surprisingly, there were still slaves in at least one “free” state. New Jersey, which had been slow-walking emancipation since 1804, still had quite a few slaves in the 1860s. These slaves, those in Kentucky and Delaware, and others who might have fallen through the cracks, were finally freed by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified on 6 December 1865, nearly six months after the Texas emancipation.
Interestingly enough, even the 13th Amendment did not end all slavery in the U.S. Slavery had existed in the western hemisphere long before Europeans discovered the place. In the 19th century, Indians owned both African and Indian slaves, and slavery in the Indian Nations was not ended until it was ended by treaty in July of 1866 — over a year after the Texas emancipation. So, how did Juneteenth get to be such a big deal outside of Texas?
Very truly yours,
J. R. Dunworth
225 E. College Avenue
Holly Springs, MS