- The first attempt at emancipation was when Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. At first he included a clause that would abolish slavery in American. During a meeting of the 2nd Continental Congress, delegates from Southern Colonies, particularly Edward Rutledge from South Carolina hotly contested the abolition clause. The South threatened to vote against the Declaration if the abolition clause wasn’t removed, which left Thomas Jefferson with no other choice as the vote to ratify the Declaration of Independence had to be unanimous by all the colonies.
- The United States of America was as you know, born on July 4th, 1776 and the Declaration of Independence was our Nation’s Birth Certificate. That independence was secured 5 years later when the Revolutionary war ended at Yorktown on October 16, 1781. General Cornwallis and his British Army found themselves completely surrounded by General George Washington’s Army on one side, and the French Fleet in the harbor on the other side leaving them with no escape. But still, not everyone was free. Because the British lost the war, slaves that were promised freedom if they fought with The Redcoats were returned to their slave owners.
- Slavery went on for over 80 years after America secured its Independence at Yorktown. On New Year’s Day 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation following the Battle of Antietam, which freed millions of slaves, but not all of them. News didn’t reach Texas until almost two years later. Emancipation Day, known as Juneteenth, occurred on June 19, 1865 when Union General Gordon Granger issued the order in Galveston, Texas, that all slavery was abolished.
July 4th, Independence Day was the Birth of American Liberty and Freedom.
Juneteenth (Emancipation Day) was the fulfillment of American Liberty and Freedom.
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