Juneteenth - Origins, History & Meaning

Patriot Lessons: American History and Civics (Constitution, Declaration of Independence, etc.)

Commemorate Juneteenth and reflect on its origins, history, meaning, and traditions.

Learn about the prevalence and acceptance of slavery in world history (such as in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Athens, Rome, Britain, England, and Europe) and its development in the colonies and the United States. Examine the cruel and barbaric slave trade and Middle Passage across the ocean from first hand accounts.

Explore how some Founding Fathers such as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton opposed slavery, and George Washington emancipated his slaves. Learn how Thomas Jefferson trembled for the future of the country because of slavery, and how he banned slavery in the Northwest Territory and signed the law banning the slave trade in America.

Learn how the opposition to slavery led to sharp divisions in the country, eventually exploding into the Civil War.

Review how President Abraham Lincoln shifted his original position and supported the emancipation of the slaves as a wartime measure, and implemented emancipation through the first and final Emancipation Proclamations. Learn how the final Emancipation Proclamation only freed those enslaved by the Confederate States of America.

Learn how many enslaved first learned of the Emancipation Proclamation for the first time on June 19, 1865 by virtue of Union General Gordan Granger General's Order No. 3 issued in Galveston, Texas after the Union army occupies the city, but only after the 25th Army Corps — primarily composed of African American Union troops — liberate Galveston.

Review how slavery was finally abolished through the ratification of the 13th Amendment and treaties with Native American tribes (who held slaves) such as the Cherokee, Creek, and Chickasaw.

Explore how June 19 becomes a new celebration - called Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, and finally Juneteenth - and the celebration spread across the nation, and was finally recognized as a federal holiday in the wake of the George Floyd killing in 2021.

Listen to several Juneteenth Presidential Proclamations by Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden.

Focus on how commercialism is starting to creep into the Juneteenth celebrations.

Highlights include Christina Snyder’s book Slavery in Indian Country, The Changing Face of Captivity in Early America, Olaudah Equiano (Gustavus Vassa), the Great Awakening, chattel slavery, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Eli Whitney & the cotton gin, Missouri Compromise, Bleeding Kansas, Lincoln Douglas debates, "A House Divided" Abraham Lincoln speech, presidential election of 1860, Declaration of Independence, abolitionists, Fort Sumter, Civil War, Grand Army of the Republic, Horace Greeley, Gideon Wells, William Seward, Antietam, Gettysburg Address, Lincoln First Inaurual Address, Lincoln Second Inaugural Address, Richard Hofstadlter's American Political Tradition, bill of lading, General Robert E. Lee, Appotomattox Court House, CSS Shenandoah, Union General Gordan Granger General Order No. 3, and much more.

To learn more about America & Patriot Week, visit www.PatriotWeek.org. Our resources include videos, a TV series, blogs, lesson plans, and more.

Check out Judge Michael Warren’s book America's Survival Guide, How to Stop America's Impending Suicide by Reclaiming Our First Principles and History at amazon, or other major on-line retailers.

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