"When Peace Come": Teaching the Significance of Juneteenth

Abstract

76 "When Peace Come": Teaching the Significance of Joneteenth By Shennette Garrett-Scott It is sometimes hard to teach small but pivotal moments in American history. Survey classes mostly allow for covering the biggest events and the most well known people. Indeed, considering the jubilee as one of the most important events in history, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is even more important that we understand the small historical moments that made it possible. As educators, we strive to impart the complexities and nuances of the past to our students. That desire is part of why we teach African American history: We understand that it is the quintessential American story. Juneteenth is one of those small but important moments in not only African American but also American history. It pushes students to ask questions beyond the historical facts; it encourages them to explore the lived reality of Americans of all races and ethnicities at critical moments in history. It helps them better appreciate the long desire and struggle for freedom acknowledged in the Civil Rights Act. When Northern states in the new republic began emancipating enslaved people after the American Revolution, Blacks throughout the United States began celebrating Emancipation Day, usually on the first day of the year. However, Juneteenth is the only Emancipation Day celebration widely observed throughout the United States and parts of Africa, the Caribbean, and South America. Why is that so? To understand the significance of such a small moment, this article invites teachers and students to examine the roles of race, politics, region, and culture over time. Including Juneteenth in how we teach history contributes to the essential goals of helping students understand the world we live in now and why things change.1 Understanding Juneteenth: The Historical Background "When peace come they read the 'Mancipation law to the cullud people. [The freed slaves] spent that night singin' and shoutin'. They wasn't slaves no more,"2 said former slave Pierce Harper in 1937, recalling 1865 when slaves in Texas learned that the Civil War was over and they had been emancipated more than two years earlier. No.2 The singing and shouting of emancipated slaves in Texas did not occur until months after the Civil War was over. In spite of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender in April 1865 at Appomattox Courthouse, the end of the Civil War did not immediately come to Texas. Slaveholders in Texas refused to acknowledge that the war was over and give up their slaves. Holding on to such a fantasy was not as hard as one might think. The Civil War had barely touched Texas compared to other Southern states. A Confederate blockade shielded it from much of the fighting and effectively isolated the state. In fact, many Southern slaveholders, especially those from Louisiana and Mississippi, took their slaves to Texas to hide them from the Union army. Hiding slaves in such a way was known as "refugeeing." Thus, by the end of the Civil War, tens of thousands of additional slaves were added to the more than 180,000 slaves already living in Texas.3 Union Brigadier General Gordon Granger and 1,800 federal troops arrived off the coast of Galveston in mid-June 1865. Though many enslaved people had already learned that they were freed, on June 19 Granger made the news of freedom official. He stepped onto the balcony of Ashton Villa, the former headquarters of the Texas Confederate Army, and read General Orders No. 3. The order informed the slaves that the war was over and that they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation two and one-half years earlier. The reactions of the newly emancipated were mixed: some stood in quiet shock and disbelief, others shouted prayers to God, but most sang and danced right there in the streets.4 June 19 became Afro-Texans' new "Emancipation Day" or "Jubilee Day." The first Jubilee Day celebrations took place in 1866. Former slaves celebrated with parties, food, and sporting events. They sang songs, especially spirituals like "Go Down, Moses" and "Many Thousands Gone." They even had fireworks, created by cutting holes in trees, filling them with...