Juneteenth is a day of remembrance, action, and celebration for Black lives. Juneteenth celebrates the day that slavery ended in the United States.

Chattel Slavery: In the Americas from 1520s to 1860s, enslaved Africans were sold, traded, bought, and inherited as property or “chattel.” Enslavement was passed down matriarchally. A mother’s children were automatically enslaved.

Emancipation Proclamation: An order issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War as a tactic to destabilize the Confederate States by ordering the freeing of enslaved people. The Confederate States had seceded and did not recognize Lincoln as their leader.

13th Amendment: Ratified on December 6, 1865, this amendment banned slavery and involuntary servitude, except in the case of punishment for a crime.

The State of Texas, which has seceded during the Civil War ignored the Emancipation Proclamation which was issued by an outside government (the Union) and continued to hold people in the bondage of slavery.

On Juneteenth, June 19, 1865, one month after the Civil War ended, federal soldiers reached Galveston, Texas and announced that enslaved people were now free.

Seven months later, the 13th Amendment was finally ratified. This ended slavery except as a punishment for crime.

Newly freed people had no possessions, no land, no protection, and no formal education. The black people of today are their descendants. They made a way out of no way.

Original source: Blair Amadeus Imani (blairimani) on Instagram

Another good resource on the subject is the Juneteenth website.