We understandably think of slavery in terms of the brutal terms of which it consists. But it can also be properly understood by what it lacks: freedom—over where someone can work, can live, can move. Just as darkness is the absence of light, enslavement is the absence of liberty. By any measure, Juneteenth, the holiday today that commemorates the abolition of chattel slavery in the U.S., is a good day.
On June 19, 1865, about two and a half months after the Civil War had ended, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger set in motion the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation—which President Abraham Lincoln had signed over two years prior—alerting slaves in Galveston, Texas, that they were no longer in bondage. Some slaves in the U.S. would remain in captivity until the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in December 1865, and even afterward, that's not to say their newfound freedom was all that free; they would go on to face yearslong, enormous barriers to equality and liberty. Still, Juneteenth represents a page-turning from one of the most shameful chapters in American history.
