History Nerd Post: Juneteenth Edition

This post, as originally posted, has an error. I mistakenly said that Kentucky was a Union state along with Delaware, when I listed the two states that kept slavery in effect until December, 1865.

As an American Descendant of Slaves (commonly referred to as ADOS Americans), let me begin by saying that I am mighty pleased to be living a happy and free life marked by liberty and prosperity for every one of my 50 years on the planet. I do not take it lightly; those who risked everything, even paying the ultimate sacrifice, for me to experience the rights and privileges I now enjoy. For the sake of clarity, I will elaborate on said privileges by borrowing the words of Glenn Loury:

The influence of black people on the culture of America is stunning and has global resonance. Some 40 million strong, black Americans are the richest and most powerful population of African descent on the planet. There are 200 million Nigerians, and the gross national product of Nigeria is just about $1 trillion per year. America’s GNP is over $20 trillion a year, and we 40 million African-Americans have claim to roughly 10 percent of it. We have access to ten times the income of a typical Nigerian. What is more, the very fact that the cultural barons and elites of America—who run the New York Times and the Washington Post, who give out Pulitzer Prizes and National Book Awards, who make the grants at the MacArthur Foundation and run the human resources departments of corporate America—have bought in to the new woke racial sensibility hook, line, and sinker gives the lie to the pessimism that the American dream doesn’t apply to blacks. It most certainly and emphatically does apply, and it is coming to fruition daily.

Glenn Loury, The Case for Black Patriotism

The aforementioned should go without saying, but seeing as nothing ever does, I thought it only right to begin there before I do what follows. I don’t like being the voice of contrarian controversy, but the reality is that what we celebrate as Juneteenth (the day in June 1865 when slavery was officially ended in America), is a historical fiction. Slavery still existed in the United States -and in one Union sate, no less!- until December 1865 when the 13th Amendment was finally ratified.

Two states held on to slavery until the bitter end: the official ratification of the 13th Amendment. Those were Delaware and Kentucky. Delaware, by the way, was a Union state.

It’s okay if you didn’t know that. Most Americans have no idea that slavery was practiced in the north as well as the south. We’ve all been captive to a historical and political binary which erases nuances and complexities in favor of white or black hats. Our education is inundated with it and always has been.

However by all means, enjoy your day off to celebrate the end of slavery. This is not intended to rain on your barbecue. The history teacher in me just couldn’t let this go uncorrected.

Maybe I’ll bake my family a freedom cake on December 6th.