Happy Emancipation Day!

Just a few facts:The US was 3rd to last in the Americas to abolish slavery.

The Emancipation Proclamation came abt partially because enslaved people were self-liberating by the thousands. Don’t let them tell you we just waited to be free.

#JuneteenthDay

In fact, the idea for the proclamation came because enslaved people emancipated themselves and ran away to Fort Monroe at Point Comfort, the very place where the first Africans were sold in Virginia. https://www.dailypress.com/history/dp-civil-war-contraband-slaves-20130114-story.html

When their “owner” came to claim his property, the Union general over the fort decided that as “property”, the Union could keep the men as contraband as war. When word got out, thousands of enslaved people escaped to the fort and run behind union lines across the South.

So as we celebrate the last enslaved people learning they were free, let’s remember that all across the South enslaved people weren’t waiting for their freedom. They took it and by taking it, helped lead to the proclamation that would free all their brothers and sisters.