Juneteenth: Why It Took More Than 2 Years for Emancipation to Reach Texas

On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” But the murky wording of the proclamation—it only applied to states that had seceded from the United States—left enslaved people across the nation waiting for their freedom as the Civil War raged on for another two years.

This was especially true for residents of Texas, the westernmost Confederate state and the last to grant enslaved people their freedom. Texans didn’t receive official news of Lincoln’s proclamation until June 1865—two and a half years after its issuance. Here’s why it took so long for freedom to reach Texas.

The news of Lincoln’s decree ending slavery spread slowly across the fractured nation via newspapers and telegrams. Additionally, Union soldiers spread the news on foot across cities and plantations in the South. They carried small copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and read it aloud to help get the word out.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery in the Confederacy (except for some areas already under federal control), the Union had no way to enforce the policy until it won the war. “On paper, the Emancipation Proclamation doesn’t free anybody,” says Thanayi Jackson, director of the history graduate program at California Polytechnic State University. “Instead, it’s a military measure with a pathway toward implementing freedom.”

On the same day Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Confederate troops in Texas attacked Union forces who had taken control of the port city of Galveston in October 1862. Despite the lopsided nature of the Battle of Galveston—the Confederacy was outnumbered and didn’t have any true warships at its disposal—the underdogs won.

Recapturing Galveston was a crucial Confederate victory that ultimately prevented a major Union invasion in Texas. Some enslavers moved to Texas after the Emancipation Proclamation was announced, thinking that relocating to this safe haven might allow them to ignore the abolition decree. Texas saw an influx of more than 150,000 enslaved people, according to The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.

Although Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, effectively ended the Civil War, Texas was a holdout. Finally, Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered in Galveston on May 26 of that year.

On June 19, 1865, after arriving in Galveston, Union Major General Gordon Granger announced the war was over and began enforcing the end of slavery. Granger’s General Order No. 3 read: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

Leaders in Texas had been aware of the Emancipation Proclamation but reluctant to enforce it. And while the news of slavery’s end had spread across the country, it’s likely that some enslaved people, especially in remote Texas, weren’t aware of it—or what it meant for them.

On June 19, 1865, there were more than 250,000 enslaved people in Texas. While Union soldiers came to enforce the law, freedom and equal rights for enslaved people didn’t happen overnight. Some enslavers refused to voluntarily grant freedom, and freedpeople, or those who attempted to become free, were attacked and killed.

It wouldn’t be until after the 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865, that slavery was officially abolished throughout the United States. June 19, 1866, marked the first celebration of Emancipation Day, now known as Juneteenth. Texas became the first state to declare the anniversary a holiday in 1979.