The White House Proclamation on Juneteenth Observance, 2021, made Juneteenth our newest federal holiday, On June 19, 1865 — nearly nine decades after our Nation’s founding, and more than 2 years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation — enslaved Americans in Galveston, Texas, finally received word that they were free from bondage. As those who were formerly enslaved were recognized for the first time as citizens, Black Americans came to commemorate Juneteenth with celebrations across the country, building new lives and a new tradition that we honor today. In its celebration of freedom, Juneteenth is a day that should be recognized by all Americans. And that is why I am proud to have consecrated Juneteenth as our newest national holiday.
To understand Juneteenth, and why it’s called “The second Independence Day,” requires a knowledge of the history of slavery in America. It’s a complex history and becomes more so when we view it with 21st century eyes. Yet, to give justice to this new national holiday, we need a better understanding of why it came about.
How long has Slavery existed?: The practice of slavery is one of humankind's most deeply rooted institutions. Anthropologists find evidence of it in nearly every continent and culture dating back to ancient times and even the Neolithic period of human development. National Geographic
Existing in many different forms, slavery was present among the 1st peoples of the Americas as well as in Europe, Africa and Asia at the time of Columbus’s arrival in 1492.
UNESCO states that slavery is “identified by an element of ownership or control over another’s life, coercion and the restriction of movement and by the fact that someone is not free to leave.” Through this definition, the U.N. declared in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights that every type of slavery is prohibited. Though it has been 70 years since this universal identification of slavery as an affront to human rights, the business of many types of slavery persists."
Just as slavery in America was driven by power, status and economics, these are the same forces keeping it alive today. Much of the world’s supply of coltan, tin and tungsten minerals [used in the manufacture of mobile devices, computers, batteries and other electronics, including electric cars] is extracted using child and forced labor, despite an industry mechanism meant to guarantee responsible supply chains, a new report alleges. Scheme to stop ‘conflict minerals’ fails to end child labor in DRC.
Whether we aware of it or not, consumer purchases of the items listed above, continue to support slave and child labor in the Congo and other parts of the world.
Native Americans & Slavery: “Between 1492 and 1880, between 2 and 5.5 million Native Americans were enslaved in the Americas in addition to 12.5 million African slaves… Natives had been forced into slavery and servitude with Columbus’ arrival in 1492, and his efforts to enslave the Taino people. It was not until King Philip’s War that natives were enslaved in large numbers. The 1675 to 1676 war pitted Native American leader King Philip, also known as Metacom, and his allies against the English colonial settlers. During the war, New England colonies routinely shipped Native Americans as slaves to Barbados, Bermuda, Jamaica, the Azores, Spain and Tangier in North Africa. Colonial enslavement of Native Americans included those who surrendered, too
"Unlike African slavery, which was legal for centuries and sanctioned by states and empires around the world, Indian slavery was very early on made illegal," according to Andres Reséndez. a historian at the University of California Davis, and the author of The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America" However, because Native American labor had been essential to all of the economic activities going on during this first generation of colonialism, it was unthinkable for the European colonists to do without native slaves. And so they very quickly devised all kinds of subterfuges and euphemisms in order to continue to profit from the coerced labor of natives by calling it different names." From the time Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World until the year 1900, there were as many as five million Native people enslaved in America. There was no abolitionist movement to protect the tens of thousands of natives who were kidnapped and enslaved by the conquistadors, then forced to work in the eighteenth-century silver mines or, later, made to serve as domestics for Mormon settlers and rich Anglos.
According to Charles C. Mann, author of “1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created,” In the late seventeenth century, the new flintlock rifle was becoming available-the first European firearms that native people regarded as superior to their bows…The southeastern confederacies, quickly understanding the new weapons’ superiority, determined not to be outgunned either by the English or other native rivals. An arms races ensued across the Southeast. To build up their stores of flintlocks, native people raided their enemies for slaves to sell-an action that required more firearms. Needing guns to defend themselves they in turn staged their own slaving raids, selling their captives to Europeans in return for guns.
While some natives were enslaved, others owned African slaves. As Paul Chatt Smith (Comanche and curator of the exhibit Americans at the National Museum of the American Indian) writes, “The Five Civilized Tribes [Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole] were deeply committed to slavery, established their own racialized black codes, immediately reestablished slavery when they arrived in Indian territory, rebuilt their nations with slave labor, crushed slave rebellions, and enthusiastically sided with the Confederacy in the Civil War.”
Perversely, Native American ownership of black slaves came about as a way for Native Americans to illustrate their societal sophistication to white settlers. “They were working hard to comply with government dictates that told native people that in order to be protected and secure in their land base, they had to prove their level of ‘civilization,’” Tiya Miles, an African-American historian at the University of Michigan explains
How would slave ownership prove civilization? The answer, Miles contends, is that in capitalism-crazed America, slaves became tokens of economic success. The more slaves you owned, the more serious a businessperson you were, and the more serious a businessperson you were, the fitter you were to join the ranks of “civilized society.” It’s worth remembering, as Paul Chaat Smith says, that while most Native Americans did not own slaves, neither did most Mississippi whites. Slave ownership was a serious status symbol.
Smith and Miles agree that much of early American history is explained poorly by modern morality but effectively by simple economics and power dynamics. “The Cherokee owned slaves for the same reasons their white neighbors did. They knew exactly what they were doing. In truth,” Smith said, the Cherokee and other “Civilized Tribes were not that complicated. They were willful and determined oppressors of blacks they owned, enthusiastic participants in a global economy driven by cotton, and believers in the idea that they were equal to whites and superior to blacks.” How Native American Slaveholders Complicate the Trail of Tears Narrative
Why were Africans brought to the Americas?: English colonies relied initially on indentured servants. Not able to pay for passage, servants typically worked four to seven years in exchange for passage, room, board, lodging and freedom dues. Servants comprised between a third and a half of the Europeans who arrived in English North America in the first century of colonization. Slaves were rare-only three hundred lived in all of Virginia in 1650…. Between 1680 and 1700, the number of slaves suddenly exploded. Virginia’s slave population rose in those years from 3,000 to 16,000-and kept soaring thereafter. In the same period the tally of indentured servants shrank, dramatically, It was a pivot in world history, the time when English America became a slave society and England became the dominant player in the slave trade. Mann “1493”
While many theories explore why this shift, the most likely reason was disease. Estimates are between 75-90% of the natives died from diseases unknown in the Americas, particularly small pox and malaria, within the first 150 years of Columbus’ arrival. Europeans as well as Indians, died rapidly in malarial areas and therefore were not useful as forced labor.
Malaria, existing in southern England at that time, was introduced in the Americas by the Europeans. From Chesapeake Bay down to the southern border of Brazil – just [becomes] full of malaria, and it becomes quite inhospitable for European colonists. In places like Virginia, they have to go through this process, it's called seasoning, which is you bring over an indentured servant and then you sit around and wait for a year to find out if he's going to survive or not. And death rates are up to 40 percent. So you bring over these servants, and 40 percent of them kick the bucket the first year, and many of them are sick for long periods thereafter. It's hugely expensive. And at that point, people start looking around and they start seeing Africans.
Now the interesting thing about Africans is that they're - in a sort of a strict Darwinian-type sense - they're genetically superior to Europeans because their bodies contain - particularly people from West Africa - certain mutations that make them the most immune to malaria of any people on Earth. ….the basic thing is that Africans are much less likely to get sick. And so people who import them have an economic advantage over people who import Europeans.
Now it doesn't mean that malaria causes slavery. Obviously, people are moral agents and make their own decisions. But we all know what the lure of the market is, and you just have a better chance of making a success out of your operation if you bring in people who won't get sick immediately. In '1493,' Columbus Shaped A World To Be
The Mason-Dixon line, the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, is considered the division between the north and south. It’s also the “malaria line.” Due to winters, malaria wasn’t an issue for the northern states. Societies above the Mason-Dixon line, such as New England, kept slaves, but the societies south of the malaria line are really slave societies in ways that New England and places like that are not.
The type of slavery introduced in the Americas was “chattel slavery.” This means that one person has total ownership of another. They are considered property and could be bought, sold, given away or inherited. Children born into slavery, remained slaves.
The first slaves from Africa arrived in late August, 1619, 20-30 enslaved Africans landed at Point Comfort, today's Fort Monroe in Hampton, Va., aboard the English privateer ship White Lion. In Virginia, these Africans were traded in exchange for supplies. Several days later, a second ship (Treasurer) arrived in Virginia with additional enslaved Africans. Both groups had been captured by English privateers from the Spanish slave ship San Juan Bautista. They are the first recorded Africans to arrive in England's mainland American colonies. Hampton History Museum
Free blacks in the antebellum period—those years from the formation of the Union until the Civil War—were quite outspoken about the injustice of slavery. Their ability to express themselves, however, was determined by whether they lived in the North or the South. Free Southern blacks continued to live under the shadow of slavery, unable to travel or assemble as freely as those in the North. It was also more difficult for them to organize and sustain churches, schools, or fraternal orders such as the Masons.
Although their lives were circumscribed by numerous discriminatory laws even in the colonial period, freed African Americans, especially in the North, were active participants in American society. Black men enlisted as soldiers and fought in the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Some owned land, homes, businesses, and paid taxes. In some Northern cities, for brief periods of time, black property owners voted. A very small number of free blacks owned slaves. The slaves that most free blacks purchased were relatives whom they later manumitted. A few free blacks also owned slave holding plantations in Louisiana, Virginia, and South Carolina. The. African American Odyssey: A quest for full citizenship Library of Congress
Abolition: While slavery was common in the 13 original colonies, Vermont, the 14th state, outlawed slavery as part of their constitution in 1777. They were the first colony to do so.
The American Anti-Slavery Society was established in 1833, the same year Britain outlawed slavery. Abolitionists were a divided group. On one side were advocates like Garrison, [William Lloyd Garrison, a Boston journalist, social reformer and leader of the Anti-Slavery Society] who called for an immediate end to slavery. If that were impossible, it was thought, then the North and South should part ways. Moderates believed that slavery should be phased out gradually, in order to ensure the economy of the Southern states would not collapse. On the more extreme side were figures like John Brown, who believed an armed rebellion of enslaved people in the South was the quickest route to end human bondage in the United States.
The threat of an armed revolt alarmed Americans on both sides of the debate over slavery. In the 1860 presidential election, voters chose Republican Party candidate Abraham Lincoln. The senator from Illinois opposed slavery but was cautious about supporting the abolitionists. Thirty-nine days after Lincoln's inauguration, the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, which marked the onset of the U.S. Civil War. National Geographic
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Abolition & Cavendish Vermont: A strong abolitionist town, it was also home to former slave, Revolutionary War soldier, land owner and abolitionist, Peter Tumbo/Tumber. We continue to do research, trying to find more information about him. Click here to see what we’ve uncovered so far. Note, we believe that he was given the name Tumbo, to reflect the part of Africa he was from.
The famous abolitionist, John Brown came to Cavendish in 1857. Below are two articles for further reading:
- John Brown in Cavendish VT
- A letter regarding John Brown’s Stay in Proctorsville
Emancipation Proclamation: President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 during the Civil War. The Proclamation states, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, [the 10 confederate states are named] are, and henceforward shall be free.... [Such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States.... And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God....
Did Juneteenth End Slavery: Unfortunately, it did not. Two states — Delaware and Kentucky — still allowed slavery until the 13th Amendment was ratified, six months after Juneteenth. The Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery. Here’s What Did.
As noted above, the five southern tribes, along with their slaves, were forced in the “Trail of Tears” to leave their native lands and onto reservations in Oklahoma. Since these slaves belong to Native Americans and not American citizens, the 13th Amendment did not free them. The Cherokee National Government voluntarily freed its slaves in 1863. The United States negotiated a treaty with the other four tribes in 1866 stipulating that they must release their slaves and grant them full rights as citizens. If they failed to comply with those terms they would forfeit payment for lands ceded to the United States by the same treaty. Few of the slaves freed by Native American tribes were ever accepted as citizens of their tribes. Records of Rights
ARTICLES ON JUNETEENTH While The White House Proclamation on Juneteenth Observance, 2021, explains Juneteenth, for more information check out the following:
• Juneteenth, the U.S.’ Second Independence Day, Is Now a Federal Holiday. Smithsonian Magazine
• “What is Juneteenth?” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
WAYS TO CELEBRATE: Also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day or Emancipation Day it’s a day to honor and celebrate liberation.
Just as BBQ’s, fireworks, parades and gatherings with family and friends marks the 4th of July, Juneteenth holds similar traditions. Check out the following resources for ways to honor our newest holiday:
• National Museum of African American History & Culture
• 4 Meaningful Ways to Celebrate Juneteenth with Your Kids 2022
• How to Celebrate Juneteenth this year
• Burlington’s Second Annual Juneteenth Celebration
• Winooski Juneteenth Celebration
• Check local newspapers for more information.
The Cavendish Historical Society’s Museum has activities relating to Juneteenth available at their “hands on history” Corner. These include learning how to make a five pointed star in one snip or a confetti popper, along with coloring a Juneteenth flag. The Museum is open on Sundays from 2-4 pm or other times by appointment.
As a national holiday, many places will be closed on Monday, June 20, 2022 to mark Juneteenth.
