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Because even as some of them are free, living in the North, the realities of slavery tormented free Black people as well, even if they weren't physically in bondage. What you start to see is a Black political culture and a national identity among Black people forming in a nation where they are an estranged people. The end of slavery in the British West Indies in 1834 became one of the most widely celebrated Freedom celebrations in the 19th century again, preceding Juneteenth. The abolition of slavery in New York on July 4, 1827, became a formal Freedom Day celebration that Black people engaged in, though they celebrated it on the 5th, that it might have its own day, and also serve as a critique of July 4th. It wasn’t only about them being enslaved, but also a protracted struggle to make freedom a real thing.
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But this is to say - the first Freedom celebrations did a very similar kind of work that Juneteenth would do after the Civil War: They commemorated the suffering and deliverance of Black people. It didn't mean the end of slavery in America, and some Americans continued to participate in illegal international trading of enslaved Black people after 1808. This was a turning point in Black American history for a number of reasons. But one of the earliest freedom celebrations connected to slavery in United States began after the ending of the transatlantic slave trade on January 1, 1808.
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One of the first was the celebration of Haiti becoming the first Black republic in the Americas on January 1, 1804, after the Haitian Revolution. "These Freedom Day celebrations are always commemorative of the suffering Black people experienced as it pertains to slavery. But they're always aspirational, right? Because while they're celebrating "freedom," there is a deep awareness that freedom for Black people continues to be incomplete." It is actually preceded by a number of different “Freedom Day” celebrations that Black people observed, in their own political and cultural life. One of the things it’s important to realize is that Juneteenth is not the first commemorative event of its kind for Black American people. That time lapse is very striking, and it adds a poignant layer to this idea of celebration. In fact, there were some enslaved black people who continued to be forced to work for their masters - illegally - in some cases, even six years later. I think the symbolism of the delay continues to do important work. So, it commemorates the end of racial chattel slavery across the United States - but it's also tied to that particular event, where you have people who were still living in bondage, even as the Emancipation Proclamation had technically emancipated them some two and a half years prior. Juneteenth is tied to the story of enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, learning that they had been emancipated, close to two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation had formally been put into place. Tell us about the history and meaning of Juneteenth. We asked Jarvis Givens, a historian and assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, to describe the history and significance of the day - and to speculate on whether its celebratory promise can be fulfilled. A confluence of national politics and grief and outrage following the murders of Black Americans by police has brought the holiday of Juneteenth - celebrated annually on June 19 - to new prominence across the country.