What would you do if you knew that you were free? This is the symbolic question that Juneteenth presents for me. Juneteenth, commonly known as “Freedom Day” or “Jubilee Day,” commemorates June 19, 1865, or the day that slaves in Texas (considered the last of enslaved Black Americans) received news that the Confederate Army had been defeated, and that as a result they were now free. This news came over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in January 1863, which stated that slaves in the ‘rebellious states’ were free, and about six months after the 13th amendment was passed which abolished slavery throughout the United States and its territories.
So in reality, by the time that the slaves received this news they had been free long ago. It is my belief that all men and women are born free. Despite the various yokes that we may suffer in life, I believe that God gives us the ability to live out our purpose and our passions and change not only our own lives, but the lives of others. Surely this belief must have been what drove people like Harriet Tubman to defy all of the various laws, slave catchers, slave masters and other obstacles set in her path so that she could lead herself and others to liberty. So in this spirit, I ask you to consider what you would do if you knew that you were truly free from the things that once bound you? Maybe you were born into poverty, or suffer from a debilitating illness or have difficult family circumstances, but imagine how much you can do and how far you could go if you knew that you were could no longer be bound by what you’ve been through before. Happy Juneteenth Everybody. In celebration of this day take 25% off the entire site using code: JUNETEENTH at checkout.
