When did slavery end in America

The legal designation of Juneteenth as a federal holiday recognizes a pivotal moment in U.S. history. While nearly every state and many cities previously celebrated Juneteenth, President Biden’s signing this into law on June 18 provided the nation’s highest approval and recognition.

Unfortunately, most of the reporting on Juneteenth erroneously conflates the arrival of Gen. Gordon Granger and Union troops in Galveston, Tex., on June 19, 1865, with the official end of slavery in the United States. That’s a misreading of the Emancipation Proclamation.

A recent Gallup Poll reported that 37 percent of adults say they know “a lot” or “some” about Juneteenth, and that 69 percent of African Americans made those claims. But it is not clear what respondents actually know.

The limits of the Emancipation Proclamation

As a legal matter, slavery officially ended in the United States on Dec. 6, 1865, when the 13th Amendment was ratified by three-quarters of the then-states — 27 out of 36 — and became a part of the Constitution. The text reads, in part, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” Some legal historians, scholars, activists and even filmmakers have seen the “exception” clause as a loophole, included to appease the South, allowing states to reinstitute slave-like conditions such as chain gangs and prison labor.

Nevertheless, at that moment, chattel slavery was forever outlawed — including in the last two slaveholding states, Delaware and Kentucky. Neither had done so before then; neither were bound to do so under the provisions of the Emancipation Proclamation, which emancipated enslaved people only in states“ in rebellion against the United States.”

Eleven states comprised the Confederate States of America, formed after Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860. Those states were Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Four of the states (Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia) seceded formally after Lincoln’s inauguration although they sympathized with the Confederate states earlier. They joined after the attack on Fort Sumter.

Four slaveholding states — Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri — did not join the Confederacy. The number would rise to five in June 1863 when slaveholding West Virginia joined the Union and not the Confederacy. Close to half a million enslaved people lived in these states — which had Confederate sympathizers but remained in the Union.

After a year and a half of war, Lincoln came to believe that the only way to save the Union was to abolish slavery. In August 1862, he drafted the Emancipation Proclamation, which was to take effect Jan. 1, 1863, with his signature. Because he saw it as a war measure, the order freed only the enslaved people in states “in rebellion against the United States.” Lincoln famously wrote in a letter to abolitionist and newspaper publisher Horace Greeley: “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.”

That last clause outlines exactly what the Emancipation Proclamation did: Free some and not others. It did not apply to enslaved people in the five non-Confederate states noted above. The order did affect Texas, but not those states since they were not in rebellion.

It is also true that three of those five states abolished slavery through state legislative action before Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865. Maryland did so Oct. 13, 1864; Missouri, on Jan. 11, 1865; and West Virginia on Feb. 3, 1865. While many citizens of those states opposed abolition, practical and pro-Union sentiments prevailed.

The 13th Amendment gave emancipation a firm legal foundation

Lincoln reportedly worried that his proclamation could be challenged at some point by a future Congress, or that it might even be declared unconstitutional by a South-friendly Supreme Court. To strengthen the proclamation’s grant of freedom and to ensure that the entire nation remained free of slavery, Lincoln and his radical Republican allies in Congress pushed through the 13th Amendment. It passed both chambers of Congress on Jan. 31, 1865, with two-thirds votes from the House and the Senate. Lincoln did not live to see it ratified 11 months later on Dec. 6, 1865.

There does not seem to be much of a record of celebration of the 13th Amendment’s ratification, either then or now, whether by African Americans or the rest of the country. Activist Frederick Douglass and other Black leaders certainly advocated for the amendment and cheered its passage. However, it was never given the attention of Juneteenth.

In 2015, President Barack Obama delivered remarks commemorating the 150th anniversary of the ratification. But even those remarks were barely noticed in Washington, D.C., let alone nationally.

So why do we celebrate Juneteenth?

On the other hand, African Americans in Texas began to celebrate Juneteenth as early as 1866. Those celebrations began to spread as Black Texans migrated to other states and other African Americans came to value the event. Juneteenth makes sense; it specifically involved African American Union soldiers in delivering the news, and it also literally freed enslaved people. That event truly brought the military end of the Civil War.

Douglass had a hopeful but somber response to the 13th Amendment, saying, “Verily, the work does not end with the abolition of slavery, but only begins.” Perhaps that established a somber approach to the amendment’s passage. African Americans understood then as now that abolishing slavery was not the same as establishing equality and full inclusion in U.S. society. That’s why it is critical to know the history and why the struggle continues for racial justice.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify when Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia joined the Confederacy.

Clarence Lusane is a professor of political science at Howard University and the author of “The Black History of the White House” (City Lights, 2010), among other books.

This blog post was written by Alton Coston, III, advocacy intern at the ACLU of Virginia.

America — a country established on July 4, 1776, that prides itself of being a place where “all men are created equal,” yet inequities fostered from race, wealth and social status have festered in existence to this very day. A country that went to war with a government that strangled it under a tyrannical English crown, is similar to a constant war that some Black people encounter daily as they leave their homes questioning if their lives will be taken at a moment’s notice. A country where finally affirming the importance of Juneteenth, also known as Black Independence Day, has been long overdue.

On June 19, 1865, enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, were finally made aware of their freedom under the Emancipation Proclamation, even though it was enacted in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln.  To think, with the simple signature of a pen and ink, thousands of enslaved Black people were instantly unshackled who had remained in servitude. However, although the initial stroking of a pen was effortless,  a constitutional amendment needed to be passed in order to guarantee the abolishment of slavery.

Racism is institutional. Dismantling this system of oppression will take all of us

The 13th amendment, ratified in 1865, essentially abolished slavery, but also made it legal to exploit people as a punishment for a crime: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime.” In simpler terms, the language of the amendment legally allows incarcerated populations to provide daunting prison labor for wages less than a single dollar. Although the 13th amendment is highly praised as ending slavery, the policy was a mere illusion as opposed to a definite victory.

Juneteenth is a monumental holiday for Black Americans that is worthy of profound celebration. It marks one of the first true virtues of accountability of a system that neglects and omits Black people from life-changing opportunities— which persists to this day.

It should not have taken Virginia 155 years, from the olden-days of 1865 until present-day 2020, to recognize and celebrate a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.

Although Juneteenth is a time of celebration, the ACLU of Virginia, along with millions of Black Americans, acknowledge that there is a long road ahead to dismantle centuries-old systemic inequities and racism in our criminal legal system.  The work towards a more just system has been a constant state of struggle, strife and trauma for Black Americans. Additionally, the current circumstances of the world have only amplified the inequities in Black communities. The debilitating spread of COVID-19 in our prisons and jails disproportionately affect incarcerated Black men and women at alarming rates. According to the Marshall Project, there have been 1,295 cases of COVID-19 reported among prisoners in Virginia; and Virginia’s incarcerated population is comprised of 55% Black people.

The never-ending trauma Black people experience from police brutality has been heightened during these times, and the Commonwealth, country and world are finally examining the distress police brutality has on the Black community. It is an anguish that Black people cannot simply just walk away from, because they will forever and always be Black. From Emmett Till in 1955 to Sandra Bland in 2015 to Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in 2020, the stories are the same, just a different excuse for justification. From accusatory whistles to ambiguous stand your ground laws, the results are and have always been the same: another young Black person left for dead.

The ACLU of Virginia recognizes the various injustices occurring within our criminal legal system. We ultimately believe that it is no longer time for a mere plastering of the words “criminal legal reform” or “police reform” on websites and news outlets. The time has come for substantial change in combatting the disheartening, racist history that Virginia has assisted towards in the upholding of systemic racism and inequality. For far too long Black people have experienced redlining, police brutality, food deserts, lack of access to quality education, lack of employment and health care, mortgage discrimination –  the list could continue for days.

We have centered our priorities on expanding the right to vote and access to the ballots, protecting and reducing the number of people who are unnecessarily jailed and incarcerated and addressing racism in policing. We see anti-Black racism’s impact through overt acts of hate and violence against Black individuals. We see it in the underlying systemic policies and practices that sanction and guide our public life in Virginia. Racism is institutional. Dismantling this system of oppression will take all of us.

It has been 155 years since Juneteenth’s inception, but it’s also taken 155 years for Virginia to fully recognize Black Independence Day as a statewide holiday. It has taken 155 years for legislators to finally be encouraged to bring about change and acknowledge institutionalized racism.  It has taken 155 years and longer for America to truly recognize the humanity in its Black citizens — the people who quite literally built this country. Celebrate and rejoice the holiday of Juneteenth, as it is a joyous day to praise the ambitiousness and yearning of Black Americans; however, also seize the opportunity to reflect and accept our nation’s cruel past.