GENERAL ORDER NUMBER 3
“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them, becomes that between employer and hired labor. The Freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.” – General Order, No. 3
On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger, marched through Galveston, Texas reading the historic announcement that declared All Slaves Free. President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, which declared, “That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward and forever free…” However, with few Union troops available to enforce the order, Lincoln’s proclamation had little impact in Texas. Not until General Granger’s Union troops read spread across the state and read the announcement were Texans fully aware of President Lincoln’s executive action that freed the enslaved.
June 20, 1865 in Harris County
The impact of Granger’s General Order Number 3 was not immediate outside of Galveston. Instead, June 19, 1865 marked the beginning of the news spreading across Texas along with the arduous advancement of Union troops westward. An interesting 2008 article written by Bill Kroger (the current president of the Houston Bar Association) details the story of Granger’s troops marching through Houston on June 20, 1865, taking over the Harris County Courthouse, and firing a cannon every day as a reminder of Union control after the surrender of the Confederacy. You can find the article published in The Houston Lawyer at the following link:
Reconstructing Reconstruction: Stories from the Harris County Court Archives on How the Rule of Law Was Restored After the Civil War – The Houston Lawyer, January/February 2008
Juneteenth Today
Today, as we commemorate the difficult journey of racial justice in the last 155 years, we offer historical resources and some of the best writing on the subject of emancipation and race, along with personal reflections of what Juneteenth means to those whose lives were and continue to be impacted by the legacy of slavery in this country.
FURTHER READING
Original Juneteenth Order Found in the National Archives -- Washington Post, June 18, 2020
Juneteenth: FREEDOM -- New York Times, June 19, 2020
How Did We Get Here? 163 Years of The Atlantic’s Writing on Race and Racism in America – The Atlantic, June 16, 2020
The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth — National Museum of African American History and Culture
What is Juneteenth? — The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (PBS)
With Juneteenth, America Can Shine a Light on Its Dark Past - Isabel Wilkerson - The Takeaway, WNYC, June 9, 2017