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Download and the Freedom of African Americans in the United States
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The American Civil War (1861-1865) and the Freedom of African Americans in the United States By: Patricia Ann Talley, Master of Business Administration-Marketing, University of Michigan Alumni Club of México, Zihuatanejo, Guerrero The U.S. Declaration of Independence in 1776 guaranteed freedom and liberty. Written by Thomas Jefferson, it reads: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” These truths and liberties granted in the Constitution did not apply to all Americans. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and many other founders of the country were in the business of slavery and human trafficking. In Mexico, slavery was abolished in 1829, eight (8) years after its independence from Spain. In the United States, however, slavery continued until 1865, some 89 years after its independence from England in 1776 – and the liberation of African Americans took a Civil War. The American Civil War (1861–1865), often referred to as the Civil War in the United States, was a civil war fought over the secession of several southern states, the Confederate States, in response to the presidential election Abraham Lincoln in 1860, who was anti-slavery. Eleven (11) southern states that supported slavery declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America (“the Confederacy”); the other 25 states that were against slavery, including Michigan, supported the federal government (“the Union”). After four years of warfare, mostly within the Confederate States, the Confederacy surrendered and slavery was outlawed everywhere in the nation. The enslavement of African Americans was theoretically abolished by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 with the Emancipation Proclamation which proclaimed that only slaves located in territories that were in rebellion from the United States were free. Slavery was officially abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment which took effect on December 18, 1865. Since the U.S. government was not in effective control of many of the Confederate territories until later in the Civil War, many African Americans in those areas were still in servitude until those areas came back under Union control. Finally, on June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger and over 2,000 federal troops arrived at Galveston Island, Texas, the last stronghold of slavery, to take possession of the state and enforce the two-year old Emancipation Proclamation. There, he proclaimed his “General Order No. 3” on the balcony of Ashton Villa: “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.”3 This occasion is remember as “Juneteenth Day” and is celebrated in African American communities today. Similar to President Vicente Guerrero who abolished slavery in Mexico 1829 and was executed on February 14, 1831, President Abraham Lincoln, who abolished slavery in the United States, was assassinated on April 11, 1865. The truths and liberties guaranteed in the United States Constitution came slowly for many Americans in the United States. African Americans were freed from slavery in the United States in 1865 (13th Amendment to the Constitution), following the Civil War. African Americans did not attain citizenship until 1868 (14th Amendment). Black men gained the right to vote in 1870 (15th Amendment), although this right was often denied until the Voting Rights Act of 1964. American women received the right to vote in 1919 (19th Amendment). The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 gave Native Americans that right, but many states overtly did not allow Native Americans to vote until 1962. 1. Barr, Alwyn (1996) Black Texas: A History of African Americans in Texas, University of Oakland Press, ISBN 0-806612878X, p. 36 2. Barr, (1996), p. 37 3. ”Juneteenth” (http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ref/abouttx/juneteenth.html). State of Texas Website