HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION
The history of slavery of Africans in America spans more than 400 years. The official importation of people from Africa across the middle passage to the Americas involved more than 12 million souls lost at sea. The practice of kidnapping and transporting African men, women, and children for the purpose of enslavement and transporting them across the ocean was outlawed in 1826, but the system of slavery continued through forced breeding and resale from plantation to plantation. By the time of the Civil War, the states were at odds over whether newly admitted states to the Union should be free or slaveholding. Most southern states rebelled and seceded, becoming the Confederate States of America. Florida was among them.
In March 1861, confederate sympathizers took over Fort Marion (now known as Castillo). When Union navy ships were spotted approaching the area, they abandoned the fort and moved inland.
In 1862, a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln and read at a church in St. Augustine, FL and other places. Both free and enslaved Black men joined volunteer troops, which later became the U.S. Colored Troops.
On December 31, 1862, watchnight services were held to await word that the draft proclamation would be signed by the president.
On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation to free people enslaved in states that were in conflict, announcing the day as Emancipation Day.
On January 1, 1864, the first annual Emancipation Ceremony was held in St. Augustine. Celebrations and parades continued throughout the 19th Century and into the late 1920s throughout the streets of St. Augustine.
In April 1865, the Civil War ends.
On May 20, 1865, General Cook brings word to Tallahassee that war is over and slavery is ended.
On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger brings word to Galveston, TX that those held in slavery are freed.
On June 18, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law proclaiming Juneteenth as a national holiday, the first since MLK Day. That same year, Florida approved May 20 as Emancipation Day.
