What does speak to me is Juneteenth. This is the 19th of June: The annual National Day of Reconciliation and Healing from the Legacy of Enslavement (This year the official celebration was on the 15th, but the original holiday was June the 19th).
That is something to be celebrated.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it's origins:
Though Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, with an effective date of January 1, 1863, it had minimal immediate effect on most slaves’ day-to-day lives, particularly in the Confederate States of America. Texas, as a part of the Confederacy, was resistant to the Emancipation Proclamation, and though slavery was very prevalent in East Texas, it was not as common in the Western areas of Texas, particularly the Hill Country, where most German-Americans were opposed to the practice. Juneteenth commemorates June 18 and 19, 1865. June 18 is the day Union General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived inGalveston, Texas, to take possession of the state and enforce the emancipation of its slaves. On June 19, 1865, legend has it while standing on the balcony of Galveston’s Ashton Villa, Granger read the contents of “General Order No. 3”:
"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."
That day has since become known as Juneteenth, a name coming from a portmanteau of the words June and teenth like nineteenth and other numbers ending with -teenth.
The holiday went into decline around the Depression, but has seen a resurgence in its observance since 1994.
I lived in Louisiana in the late nineties, and that was where I first heard of it. A day of healing and reconciliation. Not a solemn holiday, but a celebratory one. To celebrate the first steps this country took into actually making real the promise of "All men are created equal".
I found a rather pleasing piece of history the other day. Many African American surnames are Welsh; Evans, Davis, Jones, Morgan and Floyd (from the Welsh Lloyd which is pronounced with an odd aspirant that doesn't exist in English--the word means "Brown"). There were not many Welsh slave owners, so these names didn't come from owners. Turns out, there were many Welsh Quakers in the Underground Railroad. Moreover, these Welsh Churches welcomed freed men and women into their midsts. The newly freed people often took common surnames of others at their church.
Being Welsh, these are ancestors I can feel good about. The Welsh of this land. Celtic spirits I can honor and respect.
So, Happy Juneteenth everyone!
I found a rather pleasing piece of history the other day. Many African American surnames are Welsh; Evans, Davis, Jones, Morgan and Floyd (from the Welsh Lloyd which is pronounced with an odd aspirant that doesn't exist in English--the word means "Brown"). There were not many Welsh slave owners, so these names didn't come from owners. Turns out, there were many Welsh Quakers in the Underground Railroad. Moreover, these Welsh Churches welcomed freed men and women into their midsts. The newly freed people often took common surnames of others at their church.
Being Welsh, these are ancestors I can feel good about. The Welsh of this land. Celtic spirits I can honor and respect.
So, Happy Juneteenth everyone!
