Why You Should Love Juneteenth

We have a nascent Juneteenth tradition, now that it is a federal holiday. We have a cook out. We eat soul food, which happens to be delicious, if comprised largely of sometimes foods. We got so busy talking this year that we forgot to sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic, but we'll fix that next year. We commemorate the effective end of slavery in these United States.

I have heard complaint that Juneteenth is a token holiday. That it is only a holiday because of the events of 2020, and never would have been so if the feds did not feel like they needed some way to signal "we totally care about black people." And that is obviously true, if we constrain ourselves to examining why it was made a federal holiday at that particular moment.

But the weakness or shallowness of the people who made it a federal holiday should not distract from the solemnity of the occasion.

On June 19th, 1865, the brave sons of the union carried the emancipation proclamation to the last official bastion of black slavery in Galveston, TX. 

To be a bleeding heart for a moment, can you imagine the bittersweet joy of that news. African American spirituals carried a strong focus on freedom in the kingdom of heaven, but God had seen fit to deliver them of this terrible burden on earth. Joy mixed with the sadness for all those who never got to see it. Someone should write a song about it to THAXTED.

I would argue that Juneteenth is the emancipation proclamation observed, for, as we all know, the emancipation proclamation was signed on New Years Day, 1863, and that is quite the holiday to compete with. It is good to celebrate the emancipation, and Juneteenth seems to me the most fitting day besides the day of the proclamation itself.

But let us consider why it is good for us to stop and observe a solemn feast to commemorate the end of slavery.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Emancipation is a fulfillment of the promises of the constitution to secure the blessings of liberty. For numerous reasons, the cessation of slavery was not achievable at the time of the revolution. The polity would have fragmented, and been easy pickings for European recolonization. Plus, it was argued, slavery will be on the way out either. We can deal with it later, surely. Washington did hope to deal with it, writing:

"I never mean (unless some particular circumstance should compel me to it) to possess another slave by purchase: it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by the legislature by which slavery in the Country may be abolished by slow, sure, & imperceptible degrees."

The legislature did move to end the practice of slavery, slowly and by degrees, resulting in rebellion by the states who wished to expand the institution, not wind it down. The future that Washington envisioned for slavery was not to be. There could be no careful unwinding. A resolution had to be made.

To overcome the rebellion and secure the blessings of liberty to the slaves of the south and their posterity we fought a bitter civil war. Our national atonement for this gross national sin was washed with the blood of 10% of the men of fighting age. A terrible price.

We became men of our words. We ended a great injustice, and the evil of American Christians holding other Christians in thrall. We were made to be sons, not slaves.

So when you celebrate Juneteenth, remember these things:

1. This is the fulfilment of the constitution and the vouchsafe of the blessings of liberty to our enslaved black brethren
2. This is the end of a great moral evil that plagued our people and sowed schism
3. Union soldiers carried this message of freedom, leaving countless dead brothers in Blue and Gray behind them.

So I guess I am arguing that we should claim this holiday for all patriotic Americans. There are those out there who feel like this is a day for black folk to celebrate, and white folk to be penitent. This is counter productive, and is behavior not unlike what we wish to celebrate the end of with number 2.

We celebrate the freedom of the slaves, because we did it. Slavery was endemic to the new and old world, and this was when we finally overcame it. We had the wolf by the ears, and somehow we managed to kill it. We did become men of our words. We did not shrink from the awful price when it became clear it was the only path.

We can talk about the miserable failures of reconstruction another time, and why southerners should weep for the death of Lincoln. There is more the story certainly.

But June 19th, the Emancipation Proclamation is carried to the last holdout of slavery in our nation of free men. Amen. Amen.

January 1, 1863

A Transcription

By the President of the United States of America:

A Proclamation.

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, 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; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."

Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.