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.