{"id":748,"date":"2011-06-15T09:01:48","date_gmt":"2011-06-15T07:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=748"},"modified":"2015-04-27T21:59:29","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T19:59:29","slug":"the-truth-shall-set-you-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/the-truth-shall-set-you-free\/","title":{"rendered":"The truth shall set you free"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Civil War<\/span> had ended, and the slaves were free. They just didn’t know it, because nobody had told them. Many found out only when occupation troops arrived.<\/p>\n

The war had been over for two months when Union<\/span> troops finally showed up in the last Confederate<\/span> area, Texas, in June 1865. On June 19<\/b>, General Gordon Granger stood on the balcony of what had been the Confederate army’s headquarters in Galveston and announced that the slaves were free. Immediately, there was dancing in the streets.<\/p>\n

This occasion, known as Juneteenth<\/b>, is an important part of African-American history, and an occasion that is celebrated in various ways in various states. Many have an official ceremony at which Granger’s proclamation or President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (see below) is read and the original events remembered. In Texas, the day is more of an occasion for parties with barbecues<\/span> and live music.<\/p>\n

The occasion may start to get more attention because this year marks<\/a> the 150th anniversary<\/b> of the start of the Civil War. Other events over the next four years are calling attention to this dark time in our country’s past, and the Southern states are hoping for increased revenue<\/span> from tourism.<\/p>\n

The War between the States<\/h2>\n

Contrary to<\/span> popular belief, slavery wasn’t the cause of the Civil War. The war was fought over the issue<\/span> of political and economic separation, or unity. That said<\/span>, however, slavery was certainly a big part of the equation<\/span>. The South argued that without unpaid labor, its economy would collapse<\/b> \u2014 so several Southern states seceded<\/span> as a defensive measure. The North realized that it might be able to engineer<\/span> the collapse of the Southern economy by removing slave labor, so in 1862 it made liberation<\/span> of the slaves an official goal of the war.<\/p>\n

Because the North did not see the South as a separate country, Congress was able to pass laws that in theory also applied to<\/span> the South.<\/p>\n

So first, Congress ended the practice of returning escaped slaves to their owners. Then it announced it would compensate slave owners who freed their slaves. Finally, it declared slavery illegal in the entire United States. Lincoln decided, as commander-in-chief<\/span> of the army and navy<\/span>, to enforce<\/span> this as part of his military strategy.<\/p>\n

They didn’t know they were free<\/h2>\n

The Union army was freeing slaves along the way as it took territory from the Confederacy. Some 200,000 of them even joined the Union army to fight the South. But to Lincoln, the four million slaves of the South were already free \u2014 they just didn’t know it. So he issued<\/span> his Emancipation Proclamation<\/b>, which would take effect on January 1, 1863.<\/p>\n

Word of mouth<\/span> was supposed to do the rest. Slaves were supposed to feel empowered<\/span> and rise up against their owners. But this didn’t happen. Not enough of them got the news, and the others were too afraid. So the task fell to the Union army to spread the news in person.<\/p>\n

The moral of the story, I suppose, is that just being free isn’t enough<\/b>. Earning your freedom or being given it means much more. Remembering these events can make us better appreciate the free society we live in. That’s something to think about at that Juneteenth barbecue on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US Civil War had ended, and the slaves were free. They just didn’t know it, because nobody had told them. Many found out only when occupation troops arrived. The war had been over for two months when Union troops finally showed up in the last Confederate area, Texas, in June 1865. On June 19, General Gordon Granger stood on … >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[43,22,229,62],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1698,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions\/1698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}