6 Things People Get Wrong About Juneteenth

June 19 marks the annual celebration of the federal holiday known as Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Texas to announce that enslaved people were now free.

This event is sometimes regarded as the conclusion of the process which began with President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, in which he had declared that all enslaved people in Confederate states were legally free. However, there are a number of misconceptions and myths which persist in relation to this day in June, despite efforts to clarify the facts.

Here are six things people get wrong about Juneteenth.

1. The Emancipation Proclamation did not instantly end slavery in the US.
2. Many slaves had already heard about their emancipation before Juneteenth
3. The announcement was not read in public from a balcony
4. Slavery didn’t stop everywhere in America immediately after Juneteenth
5. Black people still faced threats to their freedom after Juneteenth
6. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution did not completely ban all slavery

The Emancipation Proclamation did not instantly end slavery in the US.

There are many people who mistakenly believe that the Emancipation Proclamation immediately freed all enslaved people in the United States from the moment it was originally signed. However, in reality, the proclamation only applied to the American states which were in rebellion, and its enforcement depended on the presence of Union troops.

Another frequent misunderstanding is the concept that June 19th 1865 marked the official end of slavery nationwide. While it does commemorate the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce that all enslaved people were free, in legal terms it was not formally abolished until the 13th amendment was ratified later that year.

Many slaves had already heard about their emancipation before Juneteenth

It is sometimes portrayed as though the announcement in Galveston on June 19, 1865, was the first time enslaved people had learned that they were now free. But in fact, news had reached some of those in Texas before that point, and in some areas the issue was not a lack of knowledge of the situation, but a lack of means to make slaveowners follow the law.

Felix Haywood, a former enslaved person in Texas, would later recall: “We knowed what was goin’ on in [the war] all the time.”

The announcement was not read in public from a balcony

A common image associated with Juneteenth is General Gordon Granger reading the announcement on a balcony in Galveston to the people. However, neither he nor any of his staff did this, but the announcement was made publicly available in other forms, including at churches where Black people congregated.

Slavery didn’t stop everywhere in America immediately after Juneteenth

Slavery did not stop immediately in all areas of the country. It continued in Delaware, Kentucky, and some other areas until the 13th Amendment was passed into law in December that year. This was because Delaware and Kentucky were border states between North and South, and freedom had not been given to enslaved people there, whereas it had been given to those in Confederate states.

Some Native American territories also continued with slavery because they were autonomous at the time and the Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Amendment therefore did not operate there. In 1866, an agreement was finally made to cease slavery in these areas, too.

Black people still faced threats to their freedom after Juneteenth

The legal end of slavery did not mean that Black people could now live in total freedom and safety. Former Confederate soldiers continued to try and capture former enslaved people to try and return them to former slaveowners, regardless of the fact it was now against the law to do so.

Black people also faced the threat of being killed by white vigilantes. Former enslaved people were put in the position of having to continually fight for their freedom, despite the formal ban on slavery itself.

The 13th Amendment to the Constitution did not completely ban all slavery

While slavery in most forms was effectively banned by the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in December 1865, there was a loophole in the text: “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, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

The exception was that it was still allowed to exist as punishment for people who had been convicted of a crime, and was therefore not abolished completely.

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