6/19/09
Please link to the Web sites below for more detailed information on the history of Juneteenth. We can very briefly tell you that it is the oldest known celebration for the “official” end of slavery – when, on June 19, 1865, the enslaved individuals of Galveston, Texas were the last to be informed of the Emancipation Proclamation that was signed in 1863.
The Middle Passage Pictorial by Tom Feelings with an Introduction by John Henrik Clarke is also quite interesting with a few selected written samples below:
“Nowhere in the annals of history has a people experienced such a long and traumatic ordeal as Africans during the
Atlantic slave trade….millions of African men, women, and children were savagely torn from their homeland, herded onto ships, and dispersed all over the so-called New World….”
[note: the “new world” includes north america, south america, and the caribbean islands .]
“It was not atypical to see a massive school of sharks darting in and out of the wake of the ships filled with human cargo plying the Atlantic….If the Atlantic were to dry up, it would reveal a scattered pathway of human bones, African bones marking the various routes of the Middle Passage.”
“Every morning, perhaps, more instances than one are found of the living and the dead fastened together,” a quote by John Newton (a former slave ship captain who, years later, became a minister and wrote the very popular hymn – “ Amazing Grace” – which includes the line “…that saved a wretch like me.” The following link gives more detailed information on the background of this story: Amazing Grace
Juneteenth and Emancipation Day Celebrations: USF Africana Heritage Project
African American Registry: Juneteenth, National Freedom Day observed!