"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer."

     It was General Order Number 3, one of Major General Gordon Granger's first orders of business June 19, 1865, as Union soldiers landed at Galveston, Texas, with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.

     It was two and a half years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which was read in Union-held St. Augustine in January, 1863. At the time it had little impact on the Texans; there were few Union troops to enforce it. Now, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome resistance.

     That landing and reading of General Order Number 3 would become Juneteenth - the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. 

     The reactions to this profound news ranged from pure shock to immediate jubilation. While many lingered to learn of this new plantation relationship, others left, attesting to the varying conditions on the plantations and the realization of freedom.

     The celebration of June 19^th was coined Juneteenth and grew with more participation, a time for reassuring each other, for praying and for gathering remaining family members. Juneteenth continued to be highly revered in Texas decades later, with many former slaves and descendants making an annual pilgrimage back to Galveston on this date.

Compiled from the Juneteenth website