Enslavers across the state resisted the emancipation order and hid the news from enslaved Black people, many of whom continue to labor under ruthless enslavers.
Pasua Turner jumps double Dutch as people take part in a Juneteenth event along Black Lives Matter Plaza on June 19, 2023, in Washington, D.C. In 1903, a Black man walked into an office in a small town in Texas, seeking any news about whether slavery had ended.
“There was almost universal agreement from statements of enslaved people that many Texas slaveowners held off making the announcement,” said historian C.R. Gibbs. “They wanted another crop.” After Granger’s order, the Union Army literally had to march across Texas to enforce the order and free enslaved Black people. In some cases, enslavers killed enslaved Black people rather than allow them their freedom.“Texans were so resentful that African Americans would become free, they literally carried out a pogrom,” Dulaney said, citing a speech by Barry A. Crouch, a professor of history at Gallaudet University. “They killed as many as 2,500.
That last line, historians say, set the stage for the continuation of slavery through convict leasing and “Black code” laws that would restrict the freedom of Black people.“Granger was warning them against idleness,” Dulaney said. “That order would lead to creation of vagrancy laws and Black codes that would be wielded against Black people, forcing many into forced labor without pay.”
Some enslavers resisted the emancipation order by fleeing — taking their enslaved people south into Cuba and Brazil, where slavery had not been outlawed. The kidnapping of Black people out of the country struck fear in those who were still in precarious situations in the control of their former enslavers — without protection from Union troops.Frederick Douglass’s brother Perry Downs, who was enslaved in Texas, recounted hearing his enslaver say he would run his “property” out of Texas.
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