For Juneteenth – The Emancipation Proclamation

This month, our Collection Spotlight case recognizes Juneteenth, the federal holiday that commemorates the ending of slavery with the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas on June 19, 1865. We are displaying the copy of the Emancipation Proclamation found in our collection, which was published as a pamphlet by the War Department on January 2, 1863, and distributed to the Army.

In the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862 stating his intention to free all individuals held as slaves in secessionist states on January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation itself was then issued on January 1, 1863. The version that we hold in our collection was published the following day by the War Department with the notation that “The following Proclamation of the President is published for the information and government of the Army and all concerned.” The proclamation was relevant to the War Department because also within it was the announcement that freed Black men could enlist in the Union Army and Navy. Later in January, following the enactment of this provision, Massachusetts governor John Andrew received permission from the U.S. War Department to raise a Black regiment as part of the Union Army. Enlistment began in February, and those who joined became the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. You can read more about those regiments, and see some photographs of enlisted soldiers, in previous blog post.

Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19, 1865, the date that marks the official end of slavery, when General Gordon Granger and Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas and enforced the Emancipation Proclamation, over two years after it was initially issued. Since then, Black communities have gathered on that date to celebrate Juneteenth as an Independence Day. Part of those celebrations sometimes includes a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, which is why we have chosen to display it this month. You can read more about Juneteenth on the National Museum of African American History & Culture website, and view the original Emancipation Proclamation at the National Archives.

Visit us from June 3 through July 1 to see the Emancipation Proclamation pamphlet on display. Though only the first page of the Emancipation Proclamation can be exhibited, we have included facsimiles of the subsequent two pages. Also on display is a copy of the official proclamation issued by Governor Charlie Baker in 2020, which established Juneteenth Independence Day as a state holiday. The following year, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

Elizabeth Roscio

Preservation Librarian

Item of the Month for March 2013 - A Massachusetts Governor Marks the 100th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation

As we in Massachusetts, the country and the world note the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, we can look to numerous ways in which the long conflict is and has been remembered. In January of this year, the original copy of the Emancipation Proclamation was placed on display in the National Archives to much acclaim. This commemorates the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s edict.

Massachusetts Governors often issue proclamations relating to such significant historical events. Thus, on September 22nd, 1962, Governor John A. Volpe not only praised what had happened 100 years before, but in doing so spoke specifically about Lincoln’s views on the subject of slavery. One section below refers to a call by Horace Greeley that the President act more forcefully to end the institution.

Sections of the proclamation read as follows:

Whereas, President Lincoln, the first great leader of the Republican party, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which became final on January 1, 1863, after months of deliberation and out of his long-held and firm conviction of equal rights and freedom for every man, and

Whereas, As early as 1837 Lincoln protested against the pro-slavery resolution adopted by his State Legislature in Illinois; in October of 1854, speaking of slavery’ he said, “I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself, because… it enables the enemies of free Institutions to taunt us as hypocrites, causes friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity…”and

Whereas, on August 22, 1862, a month after President Lincoln had first discussed with his cabinet, the subject of emancipation he took the entire nation into his confidence through his published reply to Horace Greeley’s challenging letter on the subject: “I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution….My paramount object in this struggle is to save the union, and it is not either to save or to destroy slavery…….I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men could be free,” 

See Greeley’s letter and the President’s response

One may visit the State Library to find extensive materials about the Civil War. Our current exhibit: “It was Everyone’s War: Celebrating the Contributions of Massachusetts to Abolition and the Civil War,” will be up through May 31st, 2013. And, there have been some other entries on our blog related to this long conflict. Please go to the link below and type in the term Civil War to view them. http://www.mastatelibrary.blogspot.com/.

Pamela W. Schofield
Legislative Reference Librarian
State Library of Massachusetts