Slaves not freed on Juneteenth

The slaves that Juneteenth did not free lived in the friendly northern states. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was written for the slaves only in the rebellious southern states. And as the Civil War started to go south (literally) for the confederacy, southern slaveholders and merchants would shepherd their human property deeper into the south, so it's should come as no surprise that Texas held the largest slave population at the end of the war between the states. 

After taking over as the governor and assuming jurisdiction over the state of Texas General Gordon Grainger made the announcement (General Order #3) that began the Juneteenth celebration. It would be months later, and after the passage of the 13th amendment, before slavery was abolished throughout the U.S. portion of America, finally freeing slaves in the overlooked friendly northern states. 

So perhaps the Thirteenth Amendment is what should be celebrated when it comes to discussing freedom for all the slaves. If it were up to me I would go back even farther into the past for a freedom day celebration when a tattered and damaged sailing ship eased alongside the dock in New Orleans carrying the last surviving white farmers, tradesmen, doctors, judges, lawyers, and their families to survive the Haitian slave revolt.

The news the survivors landed with told of the slaves arming themselves and wiping out entire families, before destroying hundreds of white-owned businesses forcing the evacuations of all the pro-slavery whites in Haiti. The news was indeed unsettling to hear about in the years leading up to the Civil War in the U.S. For the longest time leading up to and into the unraveling of the bond between the states, white slaveholders in this country lived in fear of what might happen if black people were allowed to be armed, even to fight in a war to preserve the union of states. Which was no doubt on Lincoln's mind as he interacted with Fredrick Douglass's suggestions on the campaign trail.

Due to the persistence of Fredrick Douglass in the few meetings Douglass had with Abraham Lincoln, black soldiers were armed and allowed to fight for their own freedom, a fact overlooked by many of the Juneteenth celebrations I have attended over the years; making it seem more like freedom was simply given to black people rather than acknowledging the sacrifice made by both the free black men, and slaves, fighting not only to help preserve the union of states but for their freedom as well. If Juneteenth becomes a notional holiday then it will represent all of the above to me, maybe then the oldest African American celebration in the U.S. will make it into school history books and classes.

It's important to remember too that slaves had begun emancipating themselves long before the emancipation proclamation was ever announced, and that while slave revolts, in the U.S., were usually quickly put down slave insurrections still took place. So while June 19th celebrates the end of slavery in the south, I suppose the Juneteenth celebration can still be looked at as the beginning of slavery's actual disappearing in the U.S., an event that would eventually lead to the passage of the 13th Amendment.