Nineteen Questions about Juneteenth

By Edward T. Cotham, Jr. · Originally published June 2021 · pp. 36–38

What happened in Galveston on June 19, 1865? On the morning of June 19, 1865, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and assumed command of Union occupation troops in the District of Texas. From his headquarters, five general orders were issued. The third order, General Orders No. 3, concerned emancipation and became known as the“Juneteenth Order.” Juneteenth, one of the oldest continuous emancipation celebrations, is a contraction of the date upon which the famous order was issued. Although it originated in Texas, Juneteenth is now commemorated in some form in every state and some foreign countries as well. It may soon become a national holiday.

Nineteen Questions about Juneteenth By Edward T. Cotham, Jr. Celebrated on the nineteenth day of each June, Juneteenth has become an increasingly prominent celebration of emancipation and the U.S. military’s important role in ending slavery. For something so famous, there is little reliable historical information available about the original event. Instead, a number of persistent myths and legends have grown up about Juneteenth.They obscure the event’s meaning and importance. As someone who has studied Galveston history and the events of Juneteenth for many years, I have come up with nineteen questions to try and clarify the events of June 19, 1865. These questions explore what we do know, and what we don’t know, about the story behind the celebration.

What did the Juneteenth Order actually order? The text of the order, as originally issued, is as follows: Headquarters, District of Texas Galveston, Texas, June 19, 1865 General Orders, No. 3 The people 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. By order of MajorGeneral [Gordon] Granger F. W. Emery, Major & Assistant Adjutant General

Did the Juneteenth Order free any slaves? The answer to this question is complicated. The order itself does not purport to free any slaves; it expressly credits that result to President Lincoln’s September 1862 preliminary

Emancipation Proclamation, that 100 days later, resulted in issuing the final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation said that enslaved people were free, but in Confederate states like Texas it did not result in their actual freedom and liberty. It would take the Union army and navy, and battlefield success, to make that happen. In June 1865, the issuance of the Juneteenth Order and the arrival of a large Union occupation force inTexas meant that emancipation was now in effect in Texas. As a practical matter it meant the institution of slavery had come to an end in Texas. It took time for word to filter out of Galveston, and there were certainly slaveholders who failed to release control of their slaves promptly, but within a relatively short period of time, large numbers of enslaved people in Texas and surrounding territories received word that they had now finally and unequivocally received “actual freedom.” The Emancipation Proclamation said that enslaved people were free; the Juneteenth Order and other orders like it in other states made enslaved people free because those were areas under United States control.

What fundamental error was included in the text of the Juneteenth Order?

The first sentence of the Juneteenth Order declared that President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation provided that “all slaves are free.” In reality, that quoted language did not appear in Lincoln’s proclamation. In later printed copies of the Juneteenth Order, the quotation marks around the misquoted phrase were omitted. In fact, the quotation is an inaccurate characterization of what Lincoln actually ordered. Lincoln had very carefully avoided declaring “all slaves are free.” The final Emancipation Proclamation issued on January 1, 1863, provided that slaves in designated Confederate states and portions of those states were free. It did not apply to Tennessee nor to the four Border States: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. It also exempted certain portions of Louisiana and Virginia that were then under effective Union control. Lincoln had deliberately omitted these areas from his proclamation to enhance its chances of surviving judicial review. The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which declaring that slavery no longer existed throughout the United States, was not ratified until December 1865, almost six months after the Juneteenth Order.

Why was the Juneteenth Order issued?

The Juneteenth Order was designed to serve several purposes. It put Texas slaveholders on formal notice that slavery had ended and showed that the U.S. Army was now present in Texas and was fully committed to enforce emancipation. It also defined the changed status of freed slaves by stating they had “absolute equality” with their former masters. It referred to their new status as “hired labor.” The last two sentences were added to notify the freedpeople that they had to continue working at their present homes and would not be allowed to be idle. This last part was particularly important to Union generals, who were increasingly concerned that the freed slaves would be so unsettled by the emancipation experience that they would leave crops unharvested and come to the army seeking food and supplies. This might result in an economic and humanitarian disaster.

Who wrote the Juneteenth Order? Although Gen. Gordon Granger’s name is commonly associated with Juneteenth, Granger’s association with Juneteenth is historically misguided. General-in-Chief U.S. Grant hated Granger and succeeded in getting him relieved from his command in Galveston on July 19, 1865, only a month after his arrival. The true authors of the Juneteenth Order are two men who rarely receive the credit they deserve. On June 13, 1865, from his New Orleans headquarters, Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan ordered Granger to notify the people of Texas that “all slaves are free” as soon as he arrived in Galveston. He also told Granger to advise all freedmen to “remain at home,” and to issue a warning that they should “not collect at military posts, and will not be supported in idleness.” The language of Sheridan’s order was important and became the beginning and the ending portions of the Juneteenth Order.The middle part of the order, directing that there be an “absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property,between former masters and slaves” and that freed slaves were to be treated as “hired labor,” was not language provided by Sheridan. It is highly unlikely that General Granger came up with this language. It does not appear that he wrote anything like this during the war and his recorded interactions with enslaved people were less than positive. Instead, it is highly likely that Maj. Frederick W. Emery, the assistant adjutant general (AAG) whose name appears on the order, came up with this language. Emery had been the editor of an abolitionist newspaper in Kansas before the war and was a passionate advocate of emancipation. This language reflects his background and writing style.

Who signed the Juneteenth Order? General Granger signed the first two general orders issued at Galveston but only Major Emery’s signature appears on General Orders No. 3. The order recites that it was issued “By order of Major-General Granger” This was in accordance with standard military practice involving issuance of such orders.

Where in Galveston was the Order issued? The order states that it was issued at the Headquarters of the District of Texas. That headquarters was located in the Osterman building at the corner of 22nd and Strand (Avenue B). That building was owned by Rosanna Dyer Osterman, a philanthropist and volunteer nurse who was one of the most prominent Jewish residents of the city.

Where was the Order publicly read? Although public readings of the order from balconies have long been staged as part of Juneteenth celebrations, there is no contemporary evidence that any such public reading took place on or around Juneteenth. General Granger was not the kind of officer who delivered public speeches and he knew that General Sheridan had been careful in telling him the exact language he wanted issued. The last thing in the world that Granger wanted to do was draw General Grant’s attention to him by giving some unauthorized public speech. In addition, a public reading in Galveston would have served little purpose. Slavery in Texas was largely a rural institution. Only a tiny fraction of Texas slaves or their former masters would have been in Galveston on June 19, 1865.

How did the Juneteenth Order reach its intended audience? The army had long realized that orders of this type were best circulated by printing them in the newspapers. Newspapers across Texas ran all of Granger’s orders in their pages for weeks. In addition to newspapers, the orders were printed on handbills that were posted and handed out by soldiers sent to occupy the more remote parts of Texas. One of these handbills is preserved in the collection of the Dallas Historical Society. In some cases, army chaplains were sent out to meet with the freedpeople to discuss their situation and help them understand the challenges and opportunities of their new status. There are many interviews with former slaves who describe masters or overseers gathering the slaves and reading the “paper” or “freedom paper” to them; in Texas the paper that freedpeople associated with the arrival of actual freedom was usually the Juneteenth Order.

How many enslaved people were affected by the issuance of the Juneteenth Order? At the beginning of the war therewereapproximately200,000 enslaved people in Texas. As other Confederate states were conquered and occupied, many slave owners fled to Texas and brought their slaves with them. The number of “refugeed” slaves who entered Texas during the war is difficult to calculate, but Confederate General John B. Magruder’s estimate of 150,000 is almost certainly an exaggeration. Modern estimates suggest that the total number of enslaved people in Texas on Juneteenth likely exceeded 250,000, making it the largest and last slave population in a Confederate state.

Was emancipation a surprise to enslaved people in Texas? Modern newspaper accounts often suggest that Juneteenth was the first time that many enslaved people learned of their freedom because emancipation had been kept a secret from them. This ignores the wide publicity given in the South to Lincoln’s emancipation orders and informal communication networks between slaves that spread the news of emancipation widely. John Mason Brewer, a scholar famous for his research on African American folklore in Texas, rejected any contention of secrecy or surprise, maintaining that “as a general rule the Negro slave in Texas received the news of his freedom without very much outward demonstration.” Writing in 1935, Brewer expressed his opinion that news of emancipation had been widely shared through informal slave communication networks and, for this reason, the slaves were typically “not surprised when their freedom was proclaimed.”

Did the Juneteenth Order have any legal effect? The answer to this question may be surprising. After all, General Granger was an army officer, not a legislator or judge. In addition, the Juneteenth Order was deliberately worded to declare that the emancipation described in the order came about solely as a result of Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Nothing about the order suggested that it was establishing policy or breaking any new ground. After the war a question arose concerning when slavery in Texas legally ended. As a practical matter, it certainly did not end on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln signed his Emancipation Proclamation in Washington. Millions of dollars of slave-related sales and transactions took place in Texas during the 2 ½ years after Lincoln’s proclamation. Were they legal or not? In 1868, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in a split decision that Juneteenth was the legal as well as the symbolic date for ending slavery in Texas. Despite its provisions to the contrary, the Juneteenth Order ended up having important legal consequences.

When did the first Juneteenth celebration take place? Annual celebrations of the Juneteenth Order itself began in earnest on June 19, 1866, the first anniversary of the order. While General Sheridan and the Union army watched with interest, large celebrations by freedpeople in Houston and Galveston came off successfully and without violence. Houston, in particular, put on an enormous event with a procession of thousands of welldressed freedpeople marching down Main Street from “quite an early hour in the morning until after ten o’clock.” The marchers were proud to display their devotion to the United States flag and the army that had helped deliver them from slavery. A news report stated:“A great number of United States banners from the size of a pocket handkerchief up to a bed quilt, supplied no doubt for the occasion by the military, floated above them and added not a little tothe imposing appearance ofthe scene.”

When did the name “Juneteenth” originate? It is unknown when African Americans first began referring to the annual celebration as Juneteenth,but the first published references to it by that name that I have located were in 1890.

Was the Juneteenth Order the only order of its kind? No, there were many general orders issued by Union generals across the South declaring that slavery had ended, and that freedpeople needed to keep working. Orders issued by General John M. Schofield in North Carolina and General Francis J. Herron in Louisiana were particularly influential and were probably used as models by General Sheridan when he drafted the language for the Juneteenth Order. The Juneteenth Order is most famous because it was one of the last such orders and led to freedom for such a large population of formerly enslaved people.

Why has Juneteenth become the primary celebration commemorating emancipation? Emancipation could potentially be celebrated on many different days. The difficulty is that enslaved people were emancipated as a practical matter on widely different dates and in many different places. There is no natural holiday for emancipation. There are a number of theories why Juneteenth has gradually emerged as the most successful of the freedom celebrations. Some believe that it is because it marked the completion of the army’s effort to separate enslaved people from their Confederate masters. Others point to the fact that a celebration around New Year’s Day (date of final Emancipation Proclamation) would be confusing and that the weather in June is much more conducive to outdoor events.Whatever the reason, Texas Monthly magazine may not be exaggerating too much in calling Juneteenth “the greatest Texas export of the late twentieth century.”

Where is the official historical marker for Juneteenth? The Texas Historical Commission marker for Juneteenth in Galveston is near the southwest corner of 22nd and Strand (Avenue B). The marker’s location is also near the location of what would have been the front door for the Osterman building. This is appropriate since the Juneteenth Order was likely first posted near that door on June 19, 1865. The Osterman building was destroyed in a storm and is today a parking lot. A community project has now resulted in an enormous Juneteenth mural on the side of a building there. The mural will be called “Absolute Equality” in honor of the language of the Juneteenth Order. There is a Juneteenth statue at the 1859 Ashton Villa, 2328 Broadway Street, but that historic home has no direct connection with Juneteenth.

Where is the original of the Juneteenth Order kept? There are several original copies of the Juneteenth Order, all held at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, D.C. In a headquarters like the one established by Granger in Galveston, orders were typically kept in a variety of large books. In 2020, NARA made headlines by suggesting that it had located the original order in the “General Orders Issued” book. Since copies of the order were sent across Texas and to General Sheridan’s headquarters in New Orleans, there are also copies in the “Orders Sent” and other record books.

Endnotes: 1. Edward T. Cotham, Jr., Juneteenth: The Story behind the Celebration (College Station, TX: State House Press, 2021). 2. “Juneteenth Worldwide Celebration,” http://juneteenth.com. 3. General Orders No. 3, Galveston, TX, June 19, 1865, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (OR), Vol. 48 (Part II) p. 929. 4. Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Roy P. Basler, ed., (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1953), 6:28-31. 5. Robert C. Conner, General Gordon Granger: The Savior of Chickamauga and the Man behind Juneteenth (Philadelphia, PA: Casemate, 2013), p. 186. 6. P. Sheridan to G. Granger, New Orleans, LA, June 13, 1865, 48 OR (Part II), pp. 866-867. 7. Charles W. Hayes, History of the Island and City of Galveston (Cincinnati, OH, 1879), 2:645. 8. Elizabeth Hayes Turner, “Osterman, Rosanna Dyer,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 08, 2021, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/osterman-rosanna-dyer. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. 9. For a good selection of interviews with freed slaves, see Ron Tyler and Lawrence R. Murphy, eds., The Slave Narratives of Texas (Austin: TX: The

Encino Press, 1974). 10. Randolph B. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821–1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1989), p. 231. 11. For a thorough discussion of the number of slaves moved to Texas during the war, see W. Caleb McDaniel, “Involuntary Removals: Refugeed Slaves in Confederate Texas,” in Lone Star Unionism, Dissent, and Resistance: Other Sides of Civil War Texas, Jesus F. De La Teja, ed. (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2016), pp. 60-83. 12. J. Mason Brewer, Negro Legislators of Texas and their Descendants: A History of the Negro in Politics from Reconstruction to Disfranchisement (Dallas, TX: Mathis Publishing Co., 1935), p. 5. 13. Randolph B. Campbell, “The End of Slavery: A Research Note,” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 88, no. 1 (July 1984): pp. 71-80. 14. Tri-Weekly Telegraph [Houston, TX], June 20, 1866. 15. General Order No. 32, Raleigh, NC, April 27, 1865, Vol. 47 OR (Part III) p. 331; General Orders No. 20, Shreveport, LA, June 3, 1865, Vol. 48 OR (Part II) p. 749. 16. For an excellent discussion of Juneteenth and its memory, see Elizabeth Hayes Turner, “Juneteenth: Emancipation and Memory,” in Gregg Cantrell and Elizabeth Hayes Turner, eds., Lone Star Pasts: Memory and

History in Texas (College Station: Texas A&M Univ. Press, 2007), pp. 143-175. 17. Annie Dingus, “Independence Day,” Texas Monthly, June 2001, accessed March 6, 2021, https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/independence-day. 18. Jennifer Reynolds, “Juneteenth Mural Absolute Equality,” The Galveston County Daily News, February 1, 2021. 19. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 393, Part II, Entry 5543, District of Texas, General Orders Issued. Edward T. Cotham Jr. has been called “Mr. Civil War Galveston” by many of his readers but might be known just as well as Mr. Civil War Texas. He has already chronicled the battles of Galveston and Sabine Pass, but has now turned his keen intellect and deft pen toward an event that may have an even greater impact on the national imagination: Juneteenth. The longtime president of The Terry Foundation, he is a well-known advocate for Civil War historic preservation. His work on shipwrecks off the coast of Texas has earned him accolades as has his efforts on behalf of Galveston history. He is a graduate of the University of Texas Law School, the University of Chicago, and the University of Houston.