“All slaves are free.”
Our country celebrates those words on Juneteenth. It was June 19, 1865, when U. S. General Gordon Granger read aloud General Orders No. 3, “…in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”
Federal troops had arrived in Galveston, Texas, to regain control of the state. Six months later, on December 6, 1865, Congress ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, formally ending slavery in the United States...