Levi Battery
01-22-2007, 12:06 PM
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I am writing in regards our Juneteenth events of last year. I four local repoprting quite interesting but historically inaccurate. The need to celebrate Juneteenth (June19) is aspiring and is a great thing for the black community and America as a whole. It was a shame that the festivities were mired with violence. Folks just trying to have a good time should not have to be subjected to that.
As for the facts behind Juneteenth.
Folks who helped sponsor the event reported that Juneteenth was a celebration of the end of slavery by way of President Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation. This is historically incorrect and based on myth and not fact.
Juneteenth occurred on June 19, 1865 in the state of Texas. This is when the slaves of Texas received news that the war had ended and slavery was going to be abolished. Slavery was not abolished by law until 18 December 1865 with the passage of the 13th amendment. Some states such as West Virginia did not ratify it until February 1866.
President Lincoln’s proclamation was originally crafted in January of 1863 but he needed a platform or victory to announce it. It was a political and military stroke of genius but in reality it failed to free any slaves.
Lincoln’s time came with victories in Vicksburg and Gettysburg. Without those victories and had Lincoln announced the proclamation, it would have had no substance and would appear to be that of a nation in direr straights. Therefore on 19 November 1863, during the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, Lincoln makes his famous speech. The speaker before him, Mr. Edmond Evert, spoke for over two hours while Lincoln took less that 4 minutes but it was his speech that we remember.
The facts behind the Emancipation were that it only freed slaves in the states currently in rebellion. That is the Confederate States of America. No slave states in the union (West Virginia, Delaware or Maryland) were mentioned. There were also several areas in the Confederacy that were exempt from the emancipation.
The only area of which slaves were freed during the war was the District of Columbia (Washington D.C.) No slaves were freed at anytime during the war and the proclamation did little from that standpoint but was a great political tool in the form of keeping England, France and Russia from supporting the Confederacy.
Lincoln is remembered as the great emancipator but as the war started his concern was that of saving the republic and not abolishing slavery unless it also would save the nation. The union refused to recruit or allow for blacks to volunteer for federal service until in 1863. Even then blacks were segregate, treated with mistrust and for sometime not paid. While in the Confederate blacks were used as servants, bodyguards, teamsters while a small handful even fought for the south. The reasons vary but some even received pensions after the war.
Slavery was a horrific institution. The ending should be celebrated but the truth also needs to be celebrated.
We have failed our children. When we teach history and black history, but our children are not taught about Fredrick Douglass, Robert Smalls, Elizabeth Freedman or other great blacks of the Civil War era and before. Our kids have no idea what the 13th and 14th amendment mean. We need to teach history as it was and not as we want it to be.
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I am writing in regards our Juneteenth events of last year. I four local repoprting quite interesting but historically inaccurate. The need to celebrate Juneteenth (June19) is aspiring and is a great thing for the black community and America as a whole. It was a shame that the festivities were mired with violence. Folks just trying to have a good time should not have to be subjected to that.
As for the facts behind Juneteenth.
Folks who helped sponsor the event reported that Juneteenth was a celebration of the end of slavery by way of President Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation. This is historically incorrect and based on myth and not fact.
Juneteenth occurred on June 19, 1865 in the state of Texas. This is when the slaves of Texas received news that the war had ended and slavery was going to be abolished. Slavery was not abolished by law until 18 December 1865 with the passage of the 13th amendment. Some states such as West Virginia did not ratify it until February 1866.
President Lincoln’s proclamation was originally crafted in January of 1863 but he needed a platform or victory to announce it. It was a political and military stroke of genius but in reality it failed to free any slaves.
Lincoln’s time came with victories in Vicksburg and Gettysburg. Without those victories and had Lincoln announced the proclamation, it would have had no substance and would appear to be that of a nation in direr straights. Therefore on 19 November 1863, during the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, Lincoln makes his famous speech. The speaker before him, Mr. Edmond Evert, spoke for over two hours while Lincoln took less that 4 minutes but it was his speech that we remember.
The facts behind the Emancipation were that it only freed slaves in the states currently in rebellion. That is the Confederate States of America. No slave states in the union (West Virginia, Delaware or Maryland) were mentioned. There were also several areas in the Confederacy that were exempt from the emancipation.
The only area of which slaves were freed during the war was the District of Columbia (Washington D.C.) No slaves were freed at anytime during the war and the proclamation did little from that standpoint but was a great political tool in the form of keeping England, France and Russia from supporting the Confederacy.
Lincoln is remembered as the great emancipator but as the war started his concern was that of saving the republic and not abolishing slavery unless it also would save the nation. The union refused to recruit or allow for blacks to volunteer for federal service until in 1863. Even then blacks were segregate, treated with mistrust and for sometime not paid. While in the Confederate blacks were used as servants, bodyguards, teamsters while a small handful even fought for the south. The reasons vary but some even received pensions after the war.
Slavery was a horrific institution. The ending should be celebrated but the truth also needs to be celebrated.
We have failed our children. When we teach history and black history, but our children are not taught about Fredrick Douglass, Robert Smalls, Elizabeth Freedman or other great blacks of the Civil War era and before. Our kids have no idea what the 13th and 14th amendment mean. We need to teach history as it was and not as we want it to be.
__________________