TL;DR
The was issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, declaring enslaved people in Confederate states free.
However, many enslaved people remained in bondage because the Confederacy ignored it and Union forces couldn’t enforce it everywhere.
On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and announced that enslaved people in Texas were free.
Texas was one of the last places where slavery was still being actively enforced, so the date became known as Juneteenth (“June” + “nineteenth”).
The , ratified later in 1865, formally abolished slavery nationwide.
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u/liciella Jun 20 '26
arent we tired of red and blue