Today, we celebrate a national holiday that goes by many names. Whether you call it Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, or the country’s Second Independence Day, Juneteenth stands as one of the most important anniversaries in our nation’s history. This article explores the key legal and geo-political steps taken by the U.S. government during and after the Civil War—not simply to end slavery, but primarily to preserve the Union. This cover story will examine the proclamations, military orders, treaties, and constitutional amendments that attempted to bring peace and ultimately abolish slavery, often referred to by Southerners as “The Peculiar Institution.”
Pleasing Europe: The Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863
According to Javon Johnson PHD., professor and director of African American and African Diaspora Studies University of Nevada Las Vegas, “There were several written instruments drafted regarding freedom, but none directly gave us our freedom.” He stresses that while President Abraham Lincoln was opposed to slavery, his primary objective was preserving the Union. “The Civil War was fought first and foremost to save the Union—not to free the slaves,” Johnson states.
When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, it only applied to the states in rebellion—the Confederacy. Border states like Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri, which remained loyal to the Union, were explicitly exempt. “Lincoln needed those states to stay on his side,” Johnson explains.
In truth, the Emancipation Proclamation functioned more as a strategic war measure than a humanitarian declaration. “It was a conditional freedom,” Johnson continues. “The Proclamation promised freedom only if the Union won the war. It wasn’t full-fledged emancipation—it was a geopolitical maneuver.”
Donald H. Boyle, McCausland Professor of History Emeritus at the University of South Carolina, supports this interpretation in his book Cause of All Nations. Boyle explains that Lincoln’s Proclamation was carefully designed to discourage European powers—particularly Britain and France—from recognizing or aiding the Confederacy. These nations had already abolished slavery and were increasingly influenced by anti-slavery sentiment. By reframing the Civil War as a moral crusade against slavery, Lincoln ensured that European support for the Confederacy would become politically and morally indefensible.
A World View of Emancipation
Boyle’s work also delves into how the rest of the world reacted to the Proclamation. At the time, both Britain and France were heavily dependent on cotton imports from the Confederate South. Initially, these powers were inclined to support the Confederacy, at least diplomatically. Lincoln’s move shifted the narrative: the North was now fighting for liberation, not just union.
“The British and French governments backed away from military support for the South because their citizens saw the Union as fighting for freedom,” Boyle writes. Public pressure in Europe, especially in anti-slavery circles, made continued support for the Confederacy untenable.
Interestingly, while Britain and France distanced themselves, Russia became an outspoken supporter of the Union. Russian fleets docked at ports in New York and San Francisco, symbolizing solidarity with the Union and serving as a warning to European powers considering intervention. Austria and Prussia, while neutral, also took interest in the conflict—Prussia even sent military observers.
Yet not all enslaved individuals were immediately impacted by these global shifts. Those held in Native American territories remained in bondage years after the Proclamation.
Juneteenth: June 19, 1865
Juneteenth, now a federal holiday, commemorates the delayed announcement of emancipation to enslaved African Americans in Texas. Although the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued in 1863, it wasn’t until June 19, 1865, that Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to issue General Order No. 3, which declared all enslaved people free.
According to Johnson, “Although the order declared freedom, it didn’t immediately free every enslaved person in Texas. It may have only freed an estimated 1,200 African slaves.” Census records from 1860 show Galveston’s total population as 7,212, with 6,127 listed as white, two as “Free Colored,” and 1,178 enslaved persons.
Texas, being geographically vast and largely isolated, contained many plantations that remained untouched by Union troops. In practice, the order was slow to spread, and enforcement was inconsistent. Some slaveholders waited until after the harvest to announce the change.
“Even those who received the news weren’t fully free,” Johnson explains. “Many freedmen were told to remain on plantations and work for extremely low wages. They were warned not to loiter near Union military posts or attempt to migrate.” Essentially, their freedom came with strings attached.
Historians note that this pseudo-freedom allowed plantation owners to maintain a grip on economic power. “They were technically free but practically bound,” Johnson says. Economic dependency, lack of mobility, and lingering intimidation kept many freedmen in conditions resembling slavery.
The Five Civilized Tribes and Delayed Emancipation
Historian Angie Debo estimated that nearly 10,000 African slaves remained in bondage north of Texas, in what was then known as Indian Territory—modern-day Oklahoma. Freedom came even later here. On June 14, 1866—almost a full year after Juneteenth—the Creek Tribe became the final Native American nation to abolish slavery.
The so-called “Five Civilized Tribes”—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole—had adopted many customs of Southern plantation culture, including slavery. “They wore Western clothes, built log cabins, and operated plantations that rivaled those of their white neighbors,” Debo writes.
Johnson adds, “After Lincoln’s election, Union officials were deeply concerned about how Native American slaveholders would respond.” Since these tribes were not under direct federal jurisdiction, emancipation had to be negotiated through treaties during Reconstruction. Only with the Creek Nation’s agreement on June 14, 1866, was slavery finally abolished across all U.S. territories.
The North: The Last to Let Go
While popular history associates slavery with the South, the North also struggled to release its grip. Two Union-loyal states—Delaware and Kentucky—continued to permit slavery until the 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865.
“The Emancipation Proclamation and even the 13th Amendment didn’t address the deeper wounds of racial injustice,” Johnson notes. “Freedom came in stages and often came with fine print.” Legal abolition was one thing; true emancipation—economic, political, and psychological—was another.
Even in states where slavery ended “on paper,” Black Americans faced new systems of subjugation—sharecropping, Black Codes, convict leasing, and later, Jim Crow laws—that perpetuated dependency and inequality.
Conclusion: What was declared and what was delivered
Freedom after the Civil War wasn’t something achieved with the stroke of a pen or the sound of a cannon. It was uneven, staggered, and conditional. “It was evolving,” says Johnson. “We don’t know the exact day African Americans felt free—we’d have to ask our ancestors when they believed freedom truly arrived.”
Juneteenth represents more than a belated announcement; it embodies a symbolic but incomplete victory. For some, freedom came with a soldier’s arrival. For others, it came through years of struggle and legal battles. And for too many, full freedom remains a deferred dream.
Even now, under our current administration, the legacy of conditional freedom echoes in policies, policing, housing, and economics. The question is no longer simply when we were freed—but how we define freedom. Juneteenth challenges us to reflect not just on what was declared, but what was truly delivered.