I want you people from foreign states to know that we are celebrating Juneteenth today.

Ashton Villa today

Although Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was signed on September 22, 1862, word did not get to Texas until June 18th of the following year when General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived in Galveston to take possession of the State of Texas for the union.

The following day, June 19th, General Granger stood on the balcony of Ashton Villa and read aloud —

The people of Texas 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 quietly 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.

June 18th and 19th became Juneteenth.  It is cause for much celebration in Texas.

Happy Juneteenth!