Juneteenth is the day slavery finally ended in the United States.
The main rebel army surrendered in Virginia in April 1865. It took a while to mop up the smaller rebel units. As a general rule, the Union Army worked from east to west. It took a couple of months for the army to get to Texas, which was a backwater of the war. For enslaved people, the nightmare of slavery didn’t end until the soldiers arrived.
On June 19, 1865, general orders were read proclaiming the end of slavery in Galveston. The news spread rapidly, setting off celebrations across Texas.
If there had been states farther west, further removed from the war’s center, slavery would have endured a bit longer. But Texas was the end of the line in those days. This is where the nightmare ended.
It’s true that other nightmares followed. But those nightmares, too, can be ended and will be one day.
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