New Video Release

July 1, 2022

On Jan. 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation to declare an end to slavery. But it was not until 1865 that some states received the news.

Read an article by Florida Humanities about Emancipation in Florida HERE.

The Freedom Video attached below was filmed on Saturday, May 21st in honor of Florida’s Emancipation Day of May 20th. The location of the event was Gifford Historical Museum & Cultural Center.

Emancipation Day Video

Juneteenth, celebrated just over two weeks ago, was the Emancipation Day in Texas. It marks the General Order No. 3, issued by Union Army General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas - two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s historic Emancipation Proclamation.

General Gordon Granger

The official handwritten record of General Order No. 3, is preserved at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC and reads:

“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, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”

Juneteenth became a federal holiday on June 17, 2021. All 50 states and the District of Columbia recognize Juneteenth as a holiday or observance, and at least 18 states have enacted laws to observe the holiday as a paid state holiday.