Self Emancipation

Of all the abolitionists I have read about Harriet Tubman seemed to be the boldest when it came to her own personal brand of abolition. Unlike the other abolitionist, she seemed to embody the qualities of both the aggressive abolitionist like John Brown and the more passive abolitionist like her friends William Still and Susan B. Anthony. Harriet took it upon herself to free her people one at a time and all by herself. She frequently traveled to places where there was a price on her head to shepherd individuals and small groups of slaves to freedom, eventually leading her own parents to freedom.

Aided by funds from William Still and others involved with the underground railroad Harriet seldom telegraphed her intentions. Most of the time her supporters and the people she trusted would only learn of one of Harriet's expeditions once she had returned; alerted by a request for shoes or other supplies for those Harriet had guided to freedom.  Early in her life, a blow to the head with a heavy metal weight by an angry overseer had left Harriet with frequent headaches and sudden bouts of illness.  Illness prevented Harriet Tubman from accompanying John Brown on his failed raid of the armory at Harper's Ferry, one coincidence that certainly saved her life.

Anyone who knew Harriet Tubman would tell you there was nothing wrong with her courage. For someone who often gave the appearance of being asleep on her feet, she possessed mental and physical qualities that in my opinion were amazing. During the Civil War, she would lead union soldiers up the Combahee River and free more than seven-hundred slaves. At the end of the Civil War, she would suffer a beating from a railroad conductor and several other men before being thrown into a baggage car after the attack, she survived. The military would refuse to pay Harriet for her service as agreed; selling produce from her garden Harriet would still survive. Harriet Tubman deserves her place in Juneteenth history for her heroics. Unlike many of the other slaves who had convinced themselves that freedom was something they would have only in the next life, Harriet worked hard for them to enjoy some freedom in the life they had.

And while none of the above mentioned would live long enough to enjoy the freedoms that American African people have today the memory of their struggles is still celebrated with the Juneteenth Day Celebration. News of Harriet Tubman spread far and wide, she was invited to England by Queen Victoria to celebrate the Queen's birthday; even after her death from pneumonia in 1913 Harriet's humanitarian contributions, the freeing of her people, with or without an emancipation proclamation, continued to be honored up to and including the U.S. Post Office issuing a Harriet Tubman Stamp in 1995. The stamp shows Harriet Tubman piloting a group of slaves to freedom. The end of slavery and the beginning of the Juneteenth Day Celebration ended the need for Harriet and her abolitionist friends to continue maintaining the secret system of hideouts, hidden trails, and secret transportation also known as the underground railroad.

Harriet Tubman's last husband Nelson Davis was in the military, when he passes away in 1888, she finally received some money from the government in the form of I guess what could be called survivors benefits. In her later years, Harriet Tubman was paid twenty dollars a month. With or without that money I get the feeling this woman would have continued to survive.

Slavery Confusion

First of all, if you were a slave there was no confusion---someone else controlled your life, livelihood, and welfare, the confusion I am referring to was the confusion that came from the fact that in the U.S. not all African American people were slaves, and not all white people were slave owners. If you were an African American (someone actually fresh off the boat) or an American African (someone born in America from someone off the boat) there were some cases where you could purchase your own freedom or the freedom of a family member and live as a free person.

In some northern parts of the country, a free colored person could actually live free, protected mostly by the community they were surrounded by. In some places in the South, even a freed person still had to pick a master in order to reside in a county as free. Another form of freedom for colored people was something called a Deed of Manumission. That meant that in cases where a white slave owner had children by a slave woman and did not want his offspring to live their adult lives a slave a deed of manumission was issued; the document would indicate that after a certain age, the slave owner's child or children were to be freed.

This created a problem for the slave owners and merchants and in many cases gave license to slave chasers to add to their income by stealing free African Americans from the north and selling them into slavery in the south as shown in the motion picture 12 Years a Slave. I also believe that this situation created a problem for the slave owners and merchants because if it could be proven that they had acted unlawfully and acquired an African American with free papers or a deed of manumission they would be forced to give them up and suffer the financial loss created by the shady deal.

So there could be mothers that were slaves who had children that were free, a husband that was free with a wife and children still a slave; and since, at that time, slaves were not considered citizens of the U.S. that same thinking applied to a freed slave. What all this amounted to was freedom without any of the rights of citizenship for the American African.  While not all American Africans were slaves they were, for the most part, all treated that way. Juneteenth celebrates all of the enslaved souls that were finally one day (in June) able to join the ranks of free people.

And while at the end of slavery in the U.S. African American, and American African families were in many cases still separated from each other by hundreds of years of forced separation and insensitivity. Suddenly the slaves were free with no land and property of their own. Many of those who were finally able to make their own way in the world would learn that even some of the abolitionists who worked so hard to help them gain their freedom still didn't relish the thought of those same ex-slaves living next door to them. Being free from slavery didn't mean being free from the racial stigma of slavery; at that point, I suppose the bright spot was the confusion about slavery was all gone; because at least here in this country (after the passage of the 13th Amendment) there was no more slavery.

Martin Luther King Day

In many ways, the ending of the institution of slavery in this country, that is celebrated with the Juneteenth Day Celebration was replaced by the institution of racism. After the Civil War southern legislators who were welcomed back into Washington DC to once more participate in governing the union of states, north, and south. Almost immediately southern lawmakers began designing laws that would legally separate the races in the south. Based on the notion of separate-but-equal, lawmakers came up with a long list of laws that would segregate all of the public places in the south and make it illegal for a white person to sell a property to a black person, illegal for blacks and whites to be married, and more.



Many of those laws would stay in place until the 1960's when they were challenges by Civil Rights Heroes like Rosa Parks, Martain Luther King Jr., and so many others whose activist actions would cast a public spotlight on the struggle of American Black people in the south, and show the rest of the nation and the world that separate, did not mean equal, when it came to the way segregation laws restricted some American people. Desegregation of schools and other public institutions would follow.



Martin Luther King Jr. is the iconic leader of the Civil Rights movement, a Baptist minister by trade Dr. King led civil rights marches, demonstrations and worked with religious organizations, and entertainers to promote civil rights causes. One of my favorite Dr. King moments came when he spoke to Nichelle Nichols, the actress who played Lt. Uhura in the Original Star Trek Scifi television program. During a chance meeting, Nichelle let Dr. King know that she was seriously thinking about leaving the television series.

Like me,  Dr. King was a Star Trek fan so, I will forever be grateful that he was able to convince Nichelle Nichols to stay with the Original Star Trek cast at the time by sharing with her what he had learned during his travels and from his own personal experiences. Dr. King told her that because of the positive role model and inspiration, her character was too young girls interested in space science, and space travel she should reconsider her decision. According to Nichelle, she did decide to stay with the show because of that meeting.



Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s other accomplishments up to and including his I Have a Dream Speech are perhaps way better remembered than his off-chance meeting with a member of the Star Trek original series cast but it was one of the little bits about his life's history that stuck with me. His commitment to the community, and building strong communities through the encouragement of dedicated active participation in the community is something that has also stuck with me through the years.

The Juneteenth Experience

The Juneteenth Day Celebration experience is a great opportunity to learn more about the history of the oldest American African celebration in the United States of America. It has been my experience that there are always knowledgeable people available at the Juneteenth Day Celebration who are willing to share the history behind what amounted to a second American Independence Day for African Americans. Emancipation allowed this nation to grow even closer to the true meaning in the constitution (that all men are created equal).

Since I began paying attention to Juneteenth Day Celebrations I realize that Juneteenth, which is sometimes also referred to as emancipation day, is celebrated as early as January in some states. The latest Juneteenth celebration that has come to my attention happens in the month of August, in Ontario Canada. The last slaves in the U.S. to learn of their freedom received the glorious news in the month of June (June 19 to be exact) and since that happened in (the slaves vernacular) the "teenths" of the month, the time between the 13th and the 19th of June, 1865 the name Juneteenth was born.

Juneteenth honors our African ancestors who would never know the freedoms that some of them prayed, fought, and died for; the thousands of black souls whose perseverance and courage got them to the promised land in this lifetime, and the thousands of black, and white souls who help those in search of freedom and brave enough to purchase that freedom with their lives, if need be.  Juneteenth is a shout-out to the abolitionist builders and maintenance workers on the Underground Railroad for helping so many African American people on their quests for freedom. Some people insist on looking at the Juneteenth Day Celebration as a sad reminder of the past I see it more as a reminder of how far American African people have come as part of the fabric of America.

The Juneteenth Day Celebration came into existence over 160 years ago and over that time the progress of African Americans and the rest of this nation, when it comes to understanding and celebrating the Juneteenth Day Celebration, has been slow but steady. I had not even heard the word  Juneteenth until about 1993-1994 even though both of my parents come from the southern U.S. To me the Juneteenth Day Celebration is not all about slavery, it's about the freedom that took a long time to come and that is in many ways still fully unfolding itself, what I mean by that is, and I-kid-you-not, I was surprised to learn the year I finished my documentary, A Time to be Remembered, about the Juneteenth celebration; that same year (1995) the State of Mississippi had finally gotten around to ratifying the 13 Amendment (the abolishment of slavery everywhere in the United States).

The Abolitionist

To me the Juneteenth Day Celebration is as much an abolitionist success story as it is a story about the end of slavery in the U.S. Nothing can compare to the end of slavery in this country for the Africans, turned African Americans over the hundreds of years Africans toiled in first the colonies on into a growing union of states; but the truth is that for almost every runaway slave that made it safely to the promised land there was a dedicated group of non-black people helping them turn their escape attempts into escape success. Before the Underground Railroad, many slaves chose self-emancipation relying only on their wits, a little luck, and the north star to guide them. For American African people who self-emancipated help from the abolitionist usually only occurred if they reached their intended destination. If they didn't or were caught, well I won't go there right now.

The abolitionist as far as I can see were all motivated by many different causes when it came to assisting runaway slaves; and in my opinion, not all of those causes were good ones. The abolitionists' overall goal did seem to be freedom for those they assisted. However, in the case of the abolitionist that worked with The Colonization Society the freedom they helped provide included a trip to Africa. The abolitionists working with The Colonization Society worked with slaves that were, for the most part, freed slaves. With the promise of a better life in Africa than the life, a free American African could expect in America, freed slaves and their families were given passage to Africa. I suppose the slave owners, and merchants who financed the trips to Africa felt it was better not to have free slaves being looked upon as a ray of hope by a slave population yearning to live free, I can only guess at their motivation. Some of the ex-slaves, however, had no problem accepting the free trip to Africa in spite of the hardship involved in learning a new land, a new language, and soon a long-distance connection with family still living in the U.S.

Other abolitionist organizations worked with freed, and runaway slaves in order to help them relocate to areas away from the places they had lived enslaved. There were two forms of abolitionist that I have labeled the violent and the non-violent kind. The violent kind, like John Brown's brand of abolition, believed that change through violence was the way to finally get rid of slavery in the U.S. A raid he staged to prove his point would result in the loss of his life along with the lives of two of his sons and several of his followers. While John Brown's raid was a failure, but the message his actions sent to the south was clear, there were whites in the north ready and willing to arm and fight with the slaves to end slavery.

The majority of abolitionists, however, chose the non-violent form of protest against slavery and participate in the Underground Railroad the clandestine system set up to assist runaway slaves on their journey to freedom. The safe-houses, wagons, and boats maintained by the farmers, shopkeepers, clergymen, and citizens who worked for the abolition of slavery risked life, limb, property, and freedom since at the times helping a runaway slave was against the law. If caught helping a runaway slave, in some cases the abolitionist was just as likely to suffer the same fate as the slave they were trying to protect. That is why I believe the Juneteenth Day Celebration is a reason for the black and white abolitionist to party. Beyond all the famous abolitionists that are mentioned in history books like Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, William Stills, and Susan B. Anthony, there are countless other names of abolitionists that were there manning the invisible tracks of the Underground Railroad until slavery in the U.S. was gone.

Many abolitionists refused to acknowledge their participation in abolition because of the illegality of it I guess. Others, like William Stills, held on to the notes he made chronicling his involvement with the Underground Railroad; in the hope that his written accounts might someday be responsible for reuniting slave families. Those notes have been turned into a book bearing his name, William Still.  After slavery many abolitionists turned their energy toward other social injustices and took on other social issues of the day, it would take some time but because of the abolitionist movement women would eventually gain the right to vote a right the American men of African descent had been given with the passage of the 15th Amendment, again, thanks in part to the abolitionist. 

The Amendments

Abraham Lincoln did not live long enough to see the amendments that would follow his Emancipation Proclamation going into effect to help those the Civil War set free. One by one the roadblocks installed by the institution of slavery began to fall. Slaves were not considered U.S. citizens even though African Americans fought in the Civil War for the north, and the south but, the African American troops were unable to participate in elections and unable to vote. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were enacted to address those issues.

• The 13th Amendment outlawed slavery throughout the entire United States, followed by the 
• The 14th Amendment made black people citizens of the United States and the 
• The 15th amendment gave black men the right to vote.

The Freedmen's Bureau was set up to help thousands of newly freed planters and laborers reconnect with family members, the bureau was used to teach them to read and write and provide temporary shelter. The Freedmen's Bureau also had many other useful uses granted to them by the War Department; one of those other uses was making sure that blacks and whites learned to work together during reconstruction. Assisting ex-slaves into the working roles as a paid laborer.

It helped me to learn these things because until then "reconstruction" was a word I had heard but had no clue how reconstruction was supposed to work. My reading on the subject showed me that even if Abraham Lincoln had survived the job of somehow forgetting about four years of war that had destroyed an entire way of life for blacks and whites were not about to go smoothly, to put it politely. As far as reconstruction was concerned there was the ideal (a plan) then there was a reality (the plan nixed) by Lincoln's vice president Andrew Johnson.

In spite of the Freedmen's Bureau, many African American families were never able to reunite. One of the other organizations I plan to write a post about is the American Colonization Society an organization made up of slave owners, merchants, even some abolitionists for the purpose of provided passage to Africa for hundreds of ex-slaves and their families. In spite of the fact that many of the black people making the trip to Africa had nothing in common with the African people there except for the color of their skin. The small colony of English speaking black people carried to the African speaking continent would eventually form the nation of Liberia.

Learning this fact solved a long-term mystery for me; for years I had wondered why some of my African American friends, during my day in Jr College, had taken on African sounding names, and the only person I had ever met from Africa (Liberia) had an American sounding name. Reading about the American Colonization Society helped me understand my source of wonder. Americans with African names, and Africans with American names. To me, The Juneteenth Day Celebrates celebrates all of the above, and then some.

Some Juneteenth & Hank Gray History

Welcome to my first blog entry for the Juneteenth Day 1 Blog. Day one represents the first day of freedom for the last slaves in the U.S. to learn of their freedom. Before the fall of slaveries empire here in the U.S. slavery was an economic force for America and Africa. With the exception of the little Edo state of Benin that distinguished itself in my research during the transatlantic slave trade, Benin refused to participate in the transatlantic slave trade it continued to used slaves in its own domestic economy.

Slave trade out of Africa went in two different directions across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas and in the opposite direction across the Sahara Desert toward places in the Muslim world. Much of the research I have done was put into a video presentation that would actually be the companion to the blog. In the late 90's I wrote, produced and directed a documentary titled A Time to be Remember, a Juneteenth Story.

Which was the source of just about all of the Juneteenth information I had collected to that point in time. I have to admit I have enjoyed being a student of this history because the study of the origin of the Juneteenth Day Celebration really opened my eyes to how much history was left out of my grade-school, high-school, and college history books. In a history about slavery where not all black people are good, some acting as snitches, slave chasers, even slaveholders, and a time where not all white people are bad due to setting up and running the Underground Railroad, I was very grateful for a path back through history in the form of writings from many different nations all about the same topic, the transatlantic slave trade.

Antislavery sentiment started in the colonies and driven mostly by Christian reformers would still take over four hundred years to gain enough popular and political support and stamp out slavery in the U.S. There was abolitionist of all races and nationalities some of whom suffer right alongside the slaves and while slavery was hardest on the African American and their family's slavery actually affected everyone in the United States and was on the verge of becoming even more pervasive prior to the Civil War. Since the Underground Railroad was run mostly by white people that make the end of slavery in the U.S. reason for black and white Americans to celebrate Juneteenth.