It took over two months for the news of the Union victory to reach the last stronghold of the Confederacy at the western edge of the rebel states in Galveston, Texas. (It’s hard to imagine today, when events are often publicized to millions around the world within minutes of occurring.) Slaveholders across the South attempted to keep their human “property” by migrating west into Texas, resulting in 50,000 new slaves arriving during the war, added to the 200,000 already there.
When Union forces arrived after Lee’s surrender, they finally brought the bloody war to an end. The Union commander issued General Order No. 3 on June 19th which stated unequivocally that the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Lincoln two years earlier would be the law throughout Texas: “ … all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves … ”
“Freedmen” and women immediately celebrated and marked the day for future commemorations. Could there be anything more momentous in the lives of those who previously had no freedom and no rights other than what a white owner might grant them? It was a bold promise that validated the enormous bloodshed (more dead than in all other American wars combined) and destruction that often pitted family members against each other. It affirmed the true cause of the war: ending slavery in America, even after it had been given a place in the Constitution.
The following years were tumultuous. After Lincoln’s assassination, it was left to Andrew Johnson and then Ulysses S. Grant to help put the country back together. Neither was truly up to the task, and it’s probable that Lincoln would have experienced the same troubles in reuniting the country.
Many former slaves migrated North after the war, but others stayed and tried to collect on the promise of freedom and equality. Under the protection of Union troops, Blacks were able to participate in democracy as never before, with 16 elected as U.S. representatives, more than 600 in state legislatures, and many more in local offices.
But less than 10 years later, they suffered from intimidation, lynchings, voter suppression, and full-scale massacres at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups. The promise of Juneteenth was officially betrayed when Union troops withdrew in 1877, setting the stage for even more violence. Soon, the restrictive Jim Crow laws repressed Black citizens through a two-tiered social, economic and political system that lasted nearly 100 more years until the 1960s.
What happened in America to negate the promise of Juneteenth? Although General Sherman had raised hopes of giving “40 acres and a mule” to freed slaves, President Johnson returned the land to its previous owners. It left many former slaves to be brutally exploited by the sharecropping system.
But two other factors, with eerie parallels to today, also pushed fundamental changes out of the picture. One was a partisan Supreme Court that took the teeth out of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and Constitutional Amendments 14-15. They ruled that governments could not practice overt discrimination but that private citizens were not included under the new laws and were free to continue treating the Black population as second-class citizens, or worse, in every facet of life.
And, foretelling today’s headlines, came a disputed presidential election. In 1876, the results in three southern states were questioned because Rutherford Hayes’ party charged that Black voters there had been bribed or intimidated. With the presidency up in the air, a back-room deal was reached. Hayes could become president if he withdrew the federal troops who were still protecting former slaves and enforcing the changes mandated by Constitutional Amendments. Southern politicians promised to continue Reconstruction policies once the troops were removed, but as soon as they were gone, racial violence became commonplace, and elected Black officials were routinely arrested, killed, or threatened. Less than 10 years later, without federal troops to worry about, white terrorists actually completed a coup in the city of Wilmington, North Carolina, taking over the government by force from a democratically elected interracial government, and were applauded throughout the South. No leaders or participants faced any charges.
The vision and promise of Juneteenth had been abandoned and betrayed. I admire those who can celebrate its modern symbolism with joyful songs and music, food, clothing, and more. It is their spirit that may lead us back towards a promise that won’t be broken.
Allen Woods is a freelance writer, author of the Revolutionary-era historical fiction novel “The Sword and Scabbard,” and Greenfield resident. His column appears regularly on a Saturday. Comments are welcome here or at awoods2846@gmail.com.