The Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 did not mean immediate freedom form enslavement. Texas was the last and one of the largest bastions of institutional slavery, primarily because of the minimal build-up of Union troops. Plantation owners from areas relocated to Texas, forcibly taking the people they enslaved with them. Freedom finally came two years later on June 19, 1865, when General Gordon Granger led Union troops into Galveston Bay and declared the more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in Texas free by presidential decree. Celebrations broke out. Juneteenth was born and is the day emancipation is celebrated annually in many American communities.
You may also like
BCBHAS celebrates Canada Multiculturalism Day to honour our cultural communities. Canada Multiculturalism Day was officially June 27th but we celebrated early! “MORE […]
The commemorative stamp was issued to honour “Canada’s First Lady of Jazz.” She has fostered the values of equality and acceptance; is […]
Edsworth Searles was the first Black lawyer called to the bar in BC. Canadian born, of British West Indian parents, Edsworth graduated […]
150 passengers arrived on board the train of an engine, tender, baggage car, express and mail car, two emigrant sleepers, one first-class, […]