What – exactly – did the Emancipation Proclamation do?

On Wednesday, states across this nation celebrated “Juneteenth,” one of the oldest known commemorations related to the abolition of slavery in the United States. The word “Juneteenth” is a contraction, actually a portmanteau, of the month “June” and the date “Nineteenth.” Juneteenth celebrates June 19, 1865, when enslaved people of African descent located in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedom from slavery in the United States.

President Abraham Lincoln the Emancipation Proclamation signed on January 1, 1863, but the provisions did not go into effect until after the Civil War. Texas was the farthest of the Confederate states, and slaveholders there made no attempt to free the enslaved African Americans they held in bondage. President Lincoln’s proclamation was unenforceable without military intervention, which came nearly two and a half years later.

If you asked most Americans what Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did, they would answer, “That’s when Lincoln freed all the slaves.” However, that assertion is not true. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, the Emancipation Proclamation, effective January 1, 1863, applied only to enslaved people in states in rebellion against the United States government – namely South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, and North Carolina.

The proclamation exempted Tennessee and portions of Virginia and Louisiana Union forces occupied. In addition, the proclamation left slavery untouched in the border states of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri. Slavery also existed in the newly-formed state of West Virginia.

The actual text of the Emancipation Proclamation reads:

“Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned [September 22, 1862], order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

“Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

“And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.”

Lincoln candidly admitted the Emancipation Proclamation was a wartime measure. The proclamation also had key provisions that allowed former slaves to serve in the United States military, opening the door for the enlistment of nearly 200,000 men of African descent.

However, slavery did not actually end in the United States as a whole until the ratification of the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865. Even after the ratification of this amendment, many Southern states resisted. Border states Delaware and Kentucky also rejected ratification of the 13th Amendment, and slavery existed in those states for several more years. Although slavery ceased to exist in Mississippi, that state did not ratify the 13th Amendment until 130 years later – in 1995 – and did not formally file its ratification until February 7, 2013.

I have often wondered why no one has pushed to make December 6, 1865, a holiday. Why not celebrate the day when slavery actually came to an end by constitutional authority?

Juneteenth has become a symbol of the end of slavery in the United States. While we can rejoice that slaves in Galveston, Texas, were freed according to the terms of the proclamation, we need to understand the true of end slavery would come months – and in some places, years – later. That end of slavery is worthy of celebration.

Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.