Juneteenth didn't end US slavery — the 13th Amendment did

Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, when Union Major General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 in Galveston, telling Texas that “all slaves are free”, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It is often described as the end of American slavery, but it was not. Lincoln’s proclamation covered only the states that had seceded and left slavery untouched in the loyal border states. Slavery ended nationwide only when the 13th Amendment was ratified that December.

Even in Texas, freedom arrived unevenly. Roughly 250,000 enslaved people lived in the state, and the Handbook of Texas records that the news reached many of them gradually, as individual plantation owners passed it on over the following months.

The order itself is seldom quoted past its first line. Its closing sentences read:

“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.” — General Order No. 3, 19 June 1865

The National Archives, which holds the handwritten original, notes that this language foreshadowed a long fight for equal rights.

• 1 January 1863: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect, in Confederate-held states only.
• 18 June 1865: Granger’s troops reach Galveston.
• 19 June 1865: General Order No. 3 is issued.
• 6 December 1865: The 13th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery across the United States.
• 1980: June 19 becomes “Emancipation Day in Texas”, a legal state holiday.
• 17 June 2021: President Biden signs the law making Juneteenth a national holiday.

The Americas were not finished with slavery even then. Brazil abolished it only in 1888, almost 23 years after Galveston.