What does it signify?Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865 when Major General Gordon Granger came to Galveston, Texas, to announce the end of the Civil War and slavery.
Although slavery was already abolished more than two years earlier by the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln, it continued in some areas.Read Granger’s announcement in Texas below: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.