Last updated: June 27, 2024
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Emancipation and Juneteenth in the Capital Region
Library of Congress
Freedom, Determination and Black Resilience
The national holiday known as Juneteenth National Independence Day commemorates the abolition of U.S. slavery. It came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln emancipated enslaved Africans in America through the Emancipation Proclamation, when Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas with news of freedom on June 19, 1865. Juneteenth is a national celebration of emancipation thanks to a 2021 federal proclamation. So why isn’t it more widely celebrated in Washington, DC?
DC, as well as neighboring Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia each have their own unique stories. Infact, Congress signed the nation's first emancipation law for the District of Columbia on April 16, 1862. Today, the district celebrates D.C. Emancipation Day on April 16 as a public holiday.
Timeline of Emancipation
- April 16, 1862. Slavery is abolished in the District of Columbia. Celebrated today as D.C. Emancipation Day.
- January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect with freedom for over 3 million enslaved Black people. President Lincoln declared, "They will be then, and forever free.”
- November 1, 1864. The slave-holding Union state of Maryland abolishes slavery.
- February 1865. West Virginia, which broke from Virginia after its secession from the Union and adopted gradual emancipation in its 1863 constitution, formally ends slavery.
- April 1865. The secessionist state of Virginia fully abolishes slavery throughout the state at the end of the Civil War.
- June 19, 1865. Enslaved people of Galveston, Texas learn of their freedom. Now celebrated nationally as Juneteenth.
- December 6, 1865. The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery is ratified.
But beyond federal and state law, and from the beginning of the institution of slavery, many brave and determined people fought for their own freedom and the freedom of their loved ones through escape, flight, judicial petition, military service, and other forms of self-emancipation. These courageous freedom seekers heard of freedom and knew it was something they wanted for themselves and their families.
Places and Stories of Emancipation
Visitors to the greater Washington region’s national parks now drive, ride, walk, and picnic in places where enslaved communities once lived, where newly freed and self-emancipated people sought refuge in contraband camps, and where those same people began to establish new lives and communities. Learn more about how emancipation came to the greater Washington, DC area and how Black communities in this region led the fight for freedom.