Juneteenth as a Fulfillment of the Founding Vision
How Juneteenth Celebrates the Realization of Jefferson and Lincoln’s Prophetic Words
Contrary to popular understanding, Juneteenth is a celebration of the end of slavery in the Confederacy, not nationwide. The 13th amendment ended slavery in the United States, and it wouldn’t be ratified until December of 1865. What about the Emancipation Proclamation? It did not apply to all slaves. In fact, it applied only to areas belonging to the Confederacy, not to the United States, meaning these were only the areas where it could not be enforced. Lincoln acknowledged before taking the presidency that it would be unconstitutional to end slavery in states where it already existed. Therefore, he believed that he could only issue an emancipation proclamation to states or areas not under Union control on January 1st of 1863. This meant the several slaves states that remained in the Union, the state of Tennessee, which at this point in the war was under Union control, and various other counties and municipalities the Union had taken where US troops could actually free slaves immediately were exempt (as a quick glance at the order shows). In practice, several slave states ended slavery prior to the 13th amendment including Missouri, Maryland, and West Virginia. Only Delaware and Kentucky maintained slavery until the ratification of the 13th amendment in December 1865 forced emancipation.
There are several ways to view Juneteenth as a holiday. Some will (and have) used this day as an excuse for race baiting.
Descendants will be blamed for their ancestors, and racial groups will be blamed regardless of whether or not the individuals and their ancestors were even in the American continent before the Civil War, all while mysteriously shutting down talk of the origins of the African slave trade (or absolving their involvement). Others will use this day as an opportunity to teach false history in order to push a political agenda. However, there is a better way to understand today.
It is probably most accurately viewed as a V-Day for the Civil War: rebellion was crushed and those enslaved by the rebels were freed. At the same time, it is a great triumph for freedom and realizing the principles espoused in the Declaration of Independence that God creates all people equal with rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Abraham Lincoln wrote that the Declaration (and its author Thomas Jefferson)
meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit. They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere.
Abraham Lincoln, Speech on the Dred Scott Decision, June 24, 1857
Is this not the perfect embodiment of today’s holiday? Juneteenth is not the end of slavery nationwide. It was a step of progress. On June 19, 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation was read in Texas simply declaring the right of liberty that enforcement might follow; though, in this case, the circumstances allowed enforcement to follow immediately. Yet, this would not be the end. These principles would not be fully realized until every slave was freed, meaning there was more work to be done.
Some disagree with Lincoln’s assessment. They claim alongside Democrat Sen. Stephen Douglas that Jefferson could not mean that all men are created equal. Since he owned slaves, he must have been a white supremacist and believed that slavery was just and thus black people were not equal in rights. Listen to what Jefferson would write ten years later in his Notes on the State of Virginia:
The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other.
… can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest. … The spirit of the master is abating, that of the slave rising from the dust, his condition mollifying, the way I hope preparing, under the auspices of heaven, for a total emancipation, and that this is disposed, in the order of events, to be with the consent of the masters, rather than by their extirpation.
These words speak for themselves. They need no spin. God’s justice would not side with slaveholders, Jefferson said. The Civil War proved his words true. He sees slavery, not as a positive good (a later perversion arising in the early 19th century), but as “despotism.”
On Juneteenth, we celebrate that Jefferson was right. “God is just” and “His justice cannot sleep forever.” Therefore, the slave was made free. But oftentimes, in our discussions of slavery, we forget that it still exists around the world today. Too frequently, advocates denounce the evils of American slavery, while turning a blind eye to human trafficking and the 40 million people in bondage today (Guardian estimated in 2019 it’s 1 in 200 people worldwide). In places like China and North Korea, slavery is government-sanctioned and supported. We have a long way to go, so we must not lose heart or give up. May we strive for a freedom from slavery and bondage for people everywhere and fight for justice, God’s justice.
