The Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, which recently produced a chart categorizing hard work, self-reliance, and the nuclear family as attributes of whiteness, describes Juneteenth as “our country’s second Independence Day.” Unfortunately, some news media outlets have followed suit.
The United States is one nation with one people, and we should honor only one Independence Day. It is true that American independence was imperfectly realized in 1776 as slavery continued for generations, but our Declaration of Independence from Britain is the true beginning of our country, and its significance should not be diluted by the confused timelines of subsequent events. The end of slavery is worth celebrating, but it is not the event that defines who we are as a nation, just as 1619, when the first African slaves arrived on these shores, is not the proper date of America’s founding, much though revisionist historians wish to persuade us otherwise.
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Juneteenth itself is confusing and misunderstood by almost everyone who celebrates it. June 19, 1865, marked the functional end of slavery for a portion of the population being held in southern Texas, but it had no national significance at the time or for many generations afterward.
President Abraham Lincoln announced his intention to emancipate the slaves in states that had rebelled against the Union on Sept. 22, 1862, but even then, he put off the order until the next year. A man of his word, though, Lincoln followed through, and on New Year’s Day 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, announcing that “all persons held as slaves” within states still fighting against the Union “henceforward shall be free.”
While this order held out the promise of freedom for millions of slaves, their release from bondage could not occur until the Union army physically liberated them. This did not change when Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Court House, in Virginia, on April 9, 1865. Most slave owners had no intention of giving up their slaves, no matter what Lincoln ordered, until the Union army came and physically forced them to do so.
That is what happened in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, more than two months after the Civil War ended. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger came to southern Texas with Union soldiers and posted copies of General Order No. 3 around the town announcing that, “In accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”
While this was true for the slaves of Galveston, it was not so for hundreds of thousands of slaves in border states that had not joined the Confederacy and were therefore not included in the Emancipation Proclamation. It was not until Dec. 6, 1865, when the requisite three-fourths of states ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, that slavery became unconstitutional.
The U.S. is a country of imperfect humans, not angels. In addition to being born with the same burden of slavery that afflicted most of the world at the time, our country has not always treated everyone equally. It was not until the mid-1800s that men without property could vote in every state, women did not have the right to vote until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, and Japanese Americans were interned during World War II. We do not need separate holidays marking the end of each of these injustices.
The beauty of Independence Day is that it can be celebrated by everyone. Like the flag and the national anthem, it is a unifying cultural entity that allows us to see ourselves as one unified people, not distinct demographics, each with our own separate identity and history. There are already far too many things that divide us, and a second Independence Day isn’t going to help.