Why Mexico's Anti-Slavery Law Helped Shape the Road to Juneteenth

A Juneteenth flag flies on a float during the 45th annual Juneteenth National Independence Day celebrations in Galveston, Texas, on June 15, 2024. Juneteenth falls on June 19 and has often been celebrated on the third Saturday in June, to mark the end of slavery in the US. (Credit: Photo by Mark Felix / AFP) (Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images)

When Americans celebrate Juneteenth each year, they commemorate June 19, 1865, the day Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed enslaved Black people that they were free. What many Americans do not know is that slavery had already been abolished in neighboring Mexico more than three decades earlier.

Juneteenth marks the day Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston at the end of the Civil War and issued General Order No. 3.