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One day, while hiding in the kitchen,

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Charlotte Brooks overheard 
a life-changing secret.

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At the age of 17, she’d been 
separated from her family

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and taken to William Neyland’s 
Texas Plantation.

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There, she was made to do housework 
at the violent whims of her enslavers.

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On that fateful day, she learned that
slavery had recently been abolished,

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but Neyland conspired to keep 
this a secret from those he enslaved.

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Hearing this, Brooks stepped out of her
hiding spot, proclaimed her freedom,

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spread the news throughout the plantation,
and ran.

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That night, she returned
for her daughter, Tempie.

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And before Neyland’s spiteful bullets
could find them, they were gone for good.

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For more than two centuries,

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slavery defined what would become 
the United States—

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from its past as the 13 British colonies 
to its growth as an independent country.

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Slavery fueled its cotton industry 
and made it a leading economic power.

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10 of the first 12 presidents
enslaved people.

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And when US chattel slavery finally ended,

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it was a long and uneven process.

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Enslaved people resisted 
from the beginning—

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by escaping, breaking tools, 
staging rebellions, and more.

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During the American Revolution, Vermont
and Massachusetts abolished slavery

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while several states took steps
towards gradual abolition.

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In 1808, federal law banned the import
of enslaved African people,

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but it allowed the slave trade
to continue domestically.

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Approximately 4 million people
were enslaved in the US

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when Abraham Lincoln was
elected president in 1860.

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Lincoln opposed slavery, 
and though he had no plans to outlaw it,

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his election caused panic 
in Southern states,

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which began withdrawing from the Union.

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they vowed to uphold slavery
and formed the Confederacy,

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triggering the start 
of the American Civil War.

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A year into the conflict, Lincoln
abolished slavery in Washington, D.C.,

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legally freeing more than 3,000 people.

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And five months later, he announced
the Emancipation Proclamation.

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It promised freedom to the 3.5 million
people enslaved in Confederate states.

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But it would only be fulfilled if the
rebelling states didn’t rejoin the Union

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by January 1st, 1863.

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And it bore no mention of the roughly
500,000 people in bondage

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in the border states of Delaware,
Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri

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that hadn’t seceded.

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When the Confederacy refused to surrender,

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Union soldiers began 
announcing emancipation.

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But many Southern areas remained
under Confederate control,

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making it impossible to actually implement
abolition throughout the South.

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The war raged on for two more years,
and on January 31st, 1865,

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Congress passed the 13th Amendment.

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It promised to end slavery
throughout the US—

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except as punishment for a crime.

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But to go into effect, 27 states
would have to ratify it first.

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Meanwhile, the Civil War
virtually ended with the surrender

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of Confederate General Robert E. Lee
on April 9th, 1865.

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But although slavery was technically
illegal in all Southern states,

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it still persisted in the last
bastions of the Confederacy.

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There, enslavers like Neyland continued
to evade abolition until forced.

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This was also the case when Union General
Gordon Granger marched his troops

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into Galveston, Texas, on June 19th

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and announced that all enslaved people
there were officially free—

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and had been for more than two years.

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Still, at this point, people remained 
legally enslaved in the border states.

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It wasn’t until more than five months
later, on December 6th, 1865,

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that the 13th Amendment
was finally ratified.

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This formally ended chattel slavery
in the US.

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Because official emancipation
was a staggered process,

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people in different places commemorated
it on different dates.

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Those in Galveston, Texas, began
celebrating “Juneteenth”—

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a combination of “June” and “nineteenth”—

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on the very first anniversary 
of General Granger’s announcement.

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Over time, smaller Juneteenth gatherings
gave way to large parades.

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And the tradition eventually became

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the most widespread 
of emancipation celebrations.

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But, while chattel slavery 
had officially ended,

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racial inequality, oppression,
and terror had not.

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Celebrating emancipation was itself
an act of continued resistance.

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And it wasn't until 2021 that Juneteenth
became a federal holiday.

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Today, Juneteenth holds profound
significance as a celebration

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of the demise of slavery, the righteous
pursuit of true freedom for all,

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and a continued pledge to remember
the past and dream the future.