Juneteenth is celebrated for understandable reasons. But its existence strikes me as a rather sad sign where things were going to go in the Reconstruction.
Texas slaves were actually emancipated with the other enslaved people in those areas in rebellion against the United States on January 1, 1863. Some were escaping to Federal lines and freedom from that point forward. And the old Secesh had no power after Trans-Mississippi Confederacy surrendered almost two months before June 19, 1865. It was the Federal army of occupation which had management over these things and sought to keep the work force enslaved or that longer period to tend the cotton. Too many generals were old Democrats and, with Lincoln gone, Andrew Frickin' Johnson was running things. On Tue, Jun 18, 2024 at 9:02 AM Dennis Brasky via groups.io <dmozart1756= [email protected]> wrote: > But more important, emancipation was not true freedom — not in Texas and > not in most of the American South, where the vast majority of Black people > lived. It was quasi freedom. It was an ostensible freedom. It was freedom > with more strings attached than a marionette. > > Most Black people couldn’t claim their freedom on June 19, 1865, because > their bodies (and their free will) were still being policed to nearly the > same degree and with the same inveterate racism that Southern whites had > aimed at them during slavery. > > As the Rediscovering Black History blog at the National Archives notes > <https://rediscovering-black-history.blogs.archives.gov/2021/09/01/preserving-a-communitys-legacy-the-history-of-the-gregory-school/>, > “Most white Texans desired to keep Blacks as close to their formerly > enslaved status as possible; therefore, they fiercely resisted any actions > that would potentially elevate Blacks to a competitive social, political > and economic status.” This was true throughout much of the former > Confederacy. > > The question of labor is at the core of how we must understand > emancipation and Reconstruction because American slavery, an entire > capitalist system representing billions of dollars in wealth, had been > built on free Black labor, was brought to its knees and would have to be > propped up; newly freed Black people were fed back to the machine to keep > it running. > https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/18/opinion/juneteenth-texas.html > > > > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#30811): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/30811 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/106741132/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
