Happy Juneteenth
Juneteenth is a holiday that many people don’t know about. From Wikipedia:
Though the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued on September 22, 1862, with an effective date of January 1, 1863, it had minimal immediate effect on most slaves’ day-to-day lives, particularly in Texas, which was almost entirely under Confederate control. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day Union General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take possession of the state and enforce the emancipation of its slaves. Legend has it while standing on the balcony of Galveston’s Ashton Villa, Granger read the contents of “General Order No. 3”:
Of course, it was still 1865 so the contents of G.O.#3 was insulting by todays standards:
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.
So while we talk about retweeting a tweet that was just sent by an Iraqi protesting on the street 6,000 miles away describing in graphic detail the events transpiring there, consider that these men and women lived in bondage for almost 30 months after they had been freed and their captors had never told them about it.
Oh, and it is my anniversary. Happy 16th, Mrs. Geek.
Tags: Civil Rights, History, Holidays
Happy anniversary to the Geeks!
I’ve always heard the June 19, 1865 was the day the last slaves were told of the Emancipation Proclamation. I’m not sure why this isn’t a bigger holiday or at least a holiday honoring the day the Proclamation was signed.
Which does Mrs. Geek prefer; Geekette or Geektress???
I learned about Juneteenth when I was stationed in El Paso, TX back in the 80’s. Actually had some fun times at the picnics and bbq’s and learning about this event. We never learned about it in school.
And mazel tov on your anniversary. My partner and I just celebrated our 11th on June 5.
Happy Anniversary Mr. & Mrs. Geek!
I think that Juneteenth celebrations are very big in Texas, but there are plenty of churches and civic organizations that put on Juneteenth BBQs or prayer services. Never seen one here in Delaware, tho…which isn’t to say that there aren’t any, but I haven’t seen any.
As a reminder, though, the CSA didn’t recognize Lincoln as having any authority over the territories within its boundaries, and considered Lincoln’s proclamation to be an attempt by a foreign power to incite civil disturbances within its border.
To have expected the people of Texas and the rest of the CSA to have complied with the Emancipation proclamation is akin to Saddam Hussein expecting Kuwait to submit gracefully to his demands in 1990.
For WRWR, Juneteenth is a day of mourning.
To have expected the people of Texas and the rest of the CSA to have complied with the Emancipation proclamation is akin to Saddam Hussein expecting Kuwait to submit gracefully to his demands in 1990.
Very akin. So similar, infact, that some person of moral rectitude needs to shoot Lincoln as a traitor to the white race.
That analogy is stupid. By the time of Juneteeth, the Confederacy had been soundly defeated and the states of the Confederacy were back in the United States of America — with every expectation to follow its laws. Since, you know, they had just gotten their butts kicked over that very thing.
RwR only wants to look at it from the Confederacy’s standpoint. From the Union’s standpoint, there was no official government in the Confederacy. They were part of the United States.
As for which name my wife prefers, she hates the title of geek and cringes every time she hears my nom de plume.
..Happy anniversary … and don’t go with that “silver holloware” nonsense as the gift for the 16th…just another thing to clean…
(And, RWR, there are places in the South that see the election of our current president as ” an attempt by a foreign power to incite civil disturbances within its border.” Just ask those no-birthcert folks. )
Happy Anniversary, Geek. I hope the weather is nice for you all this weekend.
“That analogy is stupid. By the time of Juneteeth, the Confederacy had been soundly defeated and the states of the Confederacy were back in the United States of America — with every expectation to follow its laws.”
At wars end, the people of Texas (and the rest of the South) didn’t just automatically accept union principles. Obviously, slavery ended, but not prejudice….witness the Jim Crow era.
I wonder if RWR refers to the Civil War as the War of Northern Aggression or “The Great Unpleasantness.” Which one is it, RWR?
Domestic Squabble?
As the direct descendant of a decorated soldier of the Grand Army of the Republic (who used a cane for the rest of his life due to his leg wound) who was also a legal client of Abraham Lincoln — and an alum of a university for which Abraham Lincoln also drew up the original incorporating paperwork — I resent the suggestion that I adhere to the Confederate cause. Retract, please, or you will hear from my seconds.
And please recall that the Emancipation Proclamation was signed on 1 January, 1863 — and Union control over Texas was not reestablished until June, 1865 (the final collapse of the Confederacy not being until May, 1865), and it is pretty clear why slaves were not told of the Emancipation Proclamation until June 19, 1865.
As a Republican, I have a natural aversion to the peculiar institution that the Democrats fought to keep and then replace with Jim Crow laws. Juneteenth is hardly a day of mourning tome — it is a day that merits being marked as a significant milestone of America towards full freedom in the face of Democrat efforts to undermine that bedrock principle of the American system.
On the other hands, you backwards people in Delaware kept slavery even longer than Texas and the other Confederate states did — and your favorite son, Joe Biden, even brags about it (and regularly makes comments that indicate he is every bit as racist as your ancestors were).
Happy Juneteenth to you! We’ve started a giveaway today for people who leave a comment telling us about one of your African American heroines. The price is a custom-made Sparklette Necklace Tag.