In Honor of Juneteenth 2021
1776 Black Loyalists: British Army offered freedom to enslaved who left rebel owners.
1781 New York State Legislature voted to free enslaved who had fought for three years in the American Revolutionary War
1799 New York State law for gradual abolition. Children born to enslaved mothers required to work as indentured servants - men until age 28 and women until age 25.
1817 March 31: Abolition Act: New York State Legislature abolished slavery effective 7-4-1827.
1827 July 4: Slavery abolished in New York State which freed all slaves born before July 4, 1799. Children were still bound to work as indentured servants.
1862 July 22: President Abraham Lincoln shared with the Cabinet his first draft of his Executive Order for Emancipation Proclamation.
1862 September 22: President Abraham Lincoln presented a revised draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to the Cabinet ordering that in 100 days the government would “deem all slaves free in those states still rebelling against the Union.”
1862 December 31: People waited through the night checking to confirm that Lincoln would issue the proclamation the next day as he had declared he would do.
1863 January 1: Emancipation Proclamation announced. Enslaved in the rebellious states were freed.
1865 January 31: Thirteenth Amendment to U.S. Constitution passed by Congress
1865 Civil War Ends:
April 9: Confederate Military Surrender at Appomattox.
April 26: Confederate Military Surrender in North Carolina
May 4: Confederate Military Surrender in Alabama
May 9: Confederate Military Surrender at Gainesville
May 12: Confederate Military Surrender at Brownsville
May 26 Confederate Military Surrender at Galveston
1865 June 19: Union soldiers led by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston, Texas, with
the news that the Civil War had ended and that the people who remained enslaved in Confederate territories were free.
1865 December 6: Thirteenth Amendment ratified by the needed 27 (of 36) states
1865 December 18: Thirteenth Amendment proclaimed:
AMENDMENT XIII ABOLITION of SLAVERY
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2: Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
2020 July 22: New York State Assembly passed legislation establishing Abolition Commemoration Day to be observed the second Monday of July. (A.10831) (S.8598)
2020 July 22: New York State Assembly passed legislation recognizing Juneteenth as a public holiday in New York State (A.10628)
2021 June 16: U.S. House of Representatives overwhelming passed the bill for Juneteenth Independence Day to be a federal holiday.
