Juneteenth and Civic Memory: The long Emancipation with Professor Ed

Juneteenth and Civic Memory: The long Emancipation with Professor Ed
Zoom connection link emailed approximately an hour before the event (and again 15 minutes beforehand).

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was merely one of countless emancipation events. Achieving freedom was often provisional, varying greatly by individual, location and circumstance. Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation was a significant and symbolic step, but politically and militarily limited. Indeed, its enforcement depended on Union military advances and local actions. In many regions, especially in the deeper South, emancipation unfolded person by person and community by community. The enslaved themselves often took matters into their own hands.

Union troops had to physically advance into Confederate territories to enforce the proclamation, and even then, news traveled slowly. This meant that some enslaved people remained unaware of their freedom for months or even years. In addition, the presence of Union forces did not instantly translate into the cessation of all forms of bondage, as local resistance and the interests of enslavers posed significant obstacles.

This ONLINE presentation explores the complex history of freedom and the way it was achieved -- often by self-manumission and other means independent of the legal process. Virginia, for example, noted that during the early years of the war, fully 70% of its male enslaved had, in some cases, simply walked away, going in search of family and freedom. This is the impetus that made Lincoln's cautious wartime proclamation possible, even necessary. By themselves the enslaved had effectively shown the system no longer sustainable.

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, is a pivotal event in American history, marking the end of legal enslavement in the United States. Celebrated on June 19th each year, it commemorates the day in 1865 when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation. This proclamation had been issued by President Lincoln two and a half years earlier, on January 1, 1863. However, due to Texas' geographical isolation, its Confederate leanings, and minimal Union presence, chattel slavery persisted there even after the Civil War ended. General Granger's announcement on June 19th -- two months after the war ended -- brought the news of freedom to the last remaining legally enslaved Black Americans in Texas. Granger's announcement symbolized a crucial victory in the long struggle for emancipation, but it was by no means the only one,

Juneteenth stands as a powerful symbol of freedom and a testament to the resilience and perseverance of Black enslaved Americans. It represents not only liberation but also the prolonged fight for true equality and justice, highlighted by other significant milestones such as the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery nationwide in December 1865.

Join us on the evening before Juneteenth as we review the chaotic but determined path to freedom -- one taken, step by step, voice to voice, person by person, by so many enslaved people. That work is still, necessarily, being done.