The folly of "Juneteenth" | Eastern NC Now

Slavery was an evil institution. Robert E. Lee wrote in 1859, for example. that "slavery is an institution of moral and political evil.".  Its abolition was an important achievement for our country.   However, using "Juneteenth" as a celebration date makes little sense.

The real end of slavery occurred on December 6, 1865 when the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified and came into effect.  Until then, slavery was legal in the five slave states that had remained in the union during the War Between the States.  Among slaveowners losing their slaves on Dec 6, 1865, were Union General Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, whose slaves were in Kentucky, a slave state that had remained in the Union.

So, what was "Juneteenth"? 

Lincoln had issued an Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves only in seceded states, not in states within the union.  This came into effect piecemeal  as union troops captured Confederate territory, and then with a series of surrenders of major Confederate forces at the end of the war.  Lee's surrender in April, 1865 had the effect of bringing Lincoln's proclamation into force in Virginia, followed a few weeks later by Johnson's surrender which covered all Confederate territory east of the Mississippi.

The last holdouts, the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department which included Texas made a series of surrenders between May 26, 1865 of General Kirby Smith's main western army until the last sizable Confederate military force, led by the highest ranking minority to serve on either side in the war, Confederate General Stand Watie, a full blooded Cherokee, surrendered on June 23, 1865.  Of course there was also the commander of the major western Confederate cavalry force, General Jo Shelby, who refused to surrender at all, and instead led his forces across the Rio Grande and offered their services to Emporer Maximillian of Mexico.

With the chaotic list of surrender dates in the west, someone arbitrarily picked June 19 as the date that slaves in Texas "found out" that they were free.  It is arguable whether this is even a valid date for Texas, and it clearly is not for any of the other states.

What should be celebrated as the true end of slavery was the ratification of the 13th Amendment.  There is no question of what date that happened and it was December 6, 1865.  On "Juneteenth", slaves in five states still had almost six more months to wait for their freedom.