I’m glad it is our nation’s newest national holiday. It has
a very true meaning for a reason to celebrate: the end of slavery in the United
States. While the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery on paper, some two
and a half years earlier, it didn’t immediately free any slaves. The Confederacy
didn’t listen to Lincoln, and there were provisions for the slave states that
stayed with the Union that gave them some wiggle room as to exactly when the
slaves had to be freed. It sounds good in theory: give the states time to set
up programs to help the former slaves adjust to life a free human-beings. Well,
that ain’t exactly what happened, but that is fodder for another diatribe.
June 19th was the date that the Union soldiers
reached Galveston, TX. Galveston was the last place to hear the word. It was
proclaimed that all Black people were free. Now that is something to celebrate.
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1 comment:
Indeed!
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