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Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston on June 19, 1865, after the end of the American Civil War, and issued General Order No. 3. The order proclaimed all slaves held in Texas to be free. The slaves in Texas were the last to be emancipated and hence the national celebration of Juneteenth on Sunday.
That June day came 2½ years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the historic Emancipation Proclamation.
Historian Randolph Campbell recounted Granger’s order in his 2010 article “The End of Slavery in Texas: A Research Note.” It reads as follows, “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 personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves …”
With that, freedom had come to Texas.
On hand at the Victoria Regional History Center is a 1934 microfilm publication from the National Archives entitled “Slave Inhabitants in the Town of Victoria in the County of Victoria 1850-60.” The microfilm contains 27 pages. Each page has two columns listing owners by name and slaves by “age, sex, and color.”
One of the slave owners listed is John J. Linn, known locally as Juan Linn. Linn was an original settler in the colony established by Martin De Leon. On the list, dated June 7, 1860, Linn has registered seven slaves, four men and three women. Two of his slaves are listed as “mulatto.” The others are listed as black. They range in age from 11 years old to 50 years old.
No member of De Leon’s family is on the list of slave owners.
Slavery was illegal in Mexican lands, but as Americans emigrated to Texas with their slaves, they pressured local government officials to relax anti-slavery laws. Much of this is documented in “The Laws of Slavery in Texas” edited by Campbell.
Also on hand at the history center are two volumes of Texas slave narratives, one narrative is told by Adeline Cunningham, born in 1852, a slave in Lavaca County.
“I was b’on on old man Foley’s plantation in Lavaca County,” Cunningham said. “He’s got more’n 100 slaves. He always buys slaves, and he never sell … Dey was rough people and dey treat everybody rough.”
Cunningham recounted a time when slaves snuck into the woods and “prays de Lawd to make us free.” She said the slaves made too much noise, praying, because they were “happy,” and the master heard the noise at the big house.
“Den de overseer come and whip us ‘cause we prayed de Lawd to set us free,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham recounted other cruelties, and ended her narrative by saying, about the end of slavery, “Was I glad when dat was over? Wouldn’ you be?”
Hallettsville is in Lavaca County. On Sunday, The Hallet Oak Gallery, 115 N. Main St. in Hallettsville, will host a Juneteenth Celebration with art and informative talks from noon-4 p.m.
On a final note, Campbell wrote that “no written law abolished slavery in Texas until” Dec. 18, 1865, but, when Granger issued his order, slavery was “silenced and struck down” in the state.
Texas was the first state to make Juneteenth a holiday by proclamation, in 1938.
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