• Juneteenth is the celebration of June 19, 1865 when U.S. federal troops arrived in Galveston, TX "to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed." This was 2.5 years after President Lincoln signed The Emancipation Proclamation, 66 days after his assassination and 71 days after General Robert E. Lee surrendered.
  
  
• On June 17, 2021, President Biden signed the Juneteenth bill making June 19 a federal holiday. Juneteenth is the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was signed into law in 1983 by President Reagan. On January 8, 2018, President Trump signed a bill making Martin Luther King's birthplace a national historic park.

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  Depiction of Gen. Gordon Granger and several black Union Soldiers in Galveston, Tx, June 19, 1865 publicly declaring all slaves are free. Whether there were black soldiers with the general on that day, I don't know but black men certainly did fight to free their people and this artwork represents those who bravely served.
  
  

 

Galveston, TX celebration band, June 19, 1900, 35 years after the first Juneteenth. Featured are a violist, two guitarists, a clarinetist, bassist and an American flag mounted on a tree behind them. There's a sixth man but if he's holding an instrument, I can't see what it is.

 

• The celebration of Juneteenth could not be complete without understanding at least some of the history of slavery. What I learned was surprising. Much is said about slavery in the U.S., which makes sense since this author lives here but what I discovered was a much broader picture.
  
  
  • Between 1525 and 1866 (341 years), 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the "New World". This means slavery was present in North and South America 250 years before we were an independent nation, making slavery a well-entrenched institution at the time of our founding.
    
    
  • One dirty little secret is that white slave traders didn't invade Africa and round up people to be shipped elsewhere. They didn't have the means nor was it necessary. Since slavery in Africa was already prevalent, white slave traders were a welcomed additional market for their booming slave trade. In other words, Africans, who were routinely rounded up by other Africans, were waiting at the coast to be bought. Apparently, too many Africans did not see their countrymen as "their own people." There was no "black identity." There was also no collective sense of being "African."
    
    
  • Slavery in the United States was horrific and immoral. Fortunately, however, slavery and the U.S. Constitution were incompatible. One of them had to go. Why? Because there was a political party that believed, using the language of today, that black lives matter. After all civil attempts at persuasion and legislation failed, it took muskets and cannon to settle the matter once and for all -- and the good guys won.
    
    
  • The most surprising fact I discovered is that the U.S. played a comparatively small role in the proliferation of African slavery in the Americas and Caribbean. This table shows the distribution of slaves.
    
    

    Destination	Millions	Percent of Total	Ratio compared to the U.S.
    Brazil*	4.9	39%	12.5
    British Carribean**	2.3	18%	5.75
    Did Not Survive***	1.8	14%	4.5
    Spanish Americas	1.3	10%	3.25
    French Caribbean**	1.1	9%	2.75
    Other	0.7	6%	1.75
    North America / United States****	0.4	3%	1.0

    
    * Brazil imported the lion's share of African slaves to support the growth of their sugar trade and mining of gold and silver.
    
    ** 3.4 million African slaves were sent to the Caribbean, 8.5 times what was sent to the U.S.
    
    *** I find this statistic particularly troubling. Not one in 10 African slaves survived the journey. We can only imagine what those unfortunate people endured.
    
    **** Terrible as it was, the U.S. only imported 3% (about 388 thousand) of the slaves taken from Africa. 620 thousand men were killed during The Civil War to end slavery. That's 1.6 times the total number of slaves brought from Africa to the U.S. Yes, we paid a huge price for the sin of slavery.
    
    
    
    

 

Slavery in the U.S.

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Slavery in the Caribbean

• What I also discovered is even more troubling. While slavery has been mostly eradicated in the western world, the practice in Africa, although illegal, continues. Several sources claim there are 9.2 million people living in slavery -- today -- in Africa! This means United States involvement in slavery was chump change compared to what's going on in Africa right now as you read this. That's right. There are 23 times more slaves in Africa today than were shipped to the U.S. during its entire 300+ year history of slavery.***** I find that appalling. Apparently, black lives don't matter to other blacks in Africa.
  
  ***** I try my best to make sure any statistics I present are not misleading. The 9.2 million includes 5.8 million who are in forced marriages. If we include only those categorized as "forced labor" (3.4 million), that's still 8.8 times the total number of slaves brought to the U.S. Either way, the point that there are many more slaves in Africa today than were shipped to the U.S. holds true.
  
  Below is a table of ten of the top offenders when it comes to slavery in Africa. I point out there's not a white face in the bunch. I could list 50 of these countries in Africa. Although slavery is illegal, their leaders certainly aren't doing enough to end the practice. Where are their Emancipation Proclamations?
  
  Assuming the percentages of forced marriages and forced labor are relatively the same throughout African nations, the "Estimated Number of Slaves" column shows the breakout.
  
  Legend:
  TL = total (9.2 million)
  FM = Forced Marriages (5,821,200)
  FL = Forced Labor (3,418,800)
  

  Nation	Leader	Image	Estimated Number of Slaves
  Federal Republic of Nigeria	Muhammadu Buhari		TL = 1,386,000 FM =  873,180 FL =   512,820
  Democratic Republic of the Congo	Joseph Kabila		TL = 1,045,000 FM =  658,350 FL =  386,650
  Ethiopia	Sahle-Work Zewde		TL = 614,000 FM = 386,820 FL = 227,180
  Egypt	Abdel Fattah el-Sisi		TL = 518,000 FM = 326,340 FL = 191,660
  Eritrea	Isaias Afwerki		TL = 451,000 FM = 284,130 FL = 166,870
  Burundi	Évariste Ndayishimiye		TL = 408,000 FM = 257,040 FL = 150,960
  United Republic of Tanzania	Samia Suluhu Hassan		TL = 336,000 FM = 211,680 FL = 124,320
  Kenya	Uhuru Kenyatta		TL = 328,000 FM = 206,640 FL = 121,360
  Uganda	Yoweri Museveni		TL = 304,000 FM = 191,520 FL = 112,480
  South Sudan	Salva Kiir Mayardit		TL = 243,000 FM = 153,090 FL =   89,910

 

Modern-day Slavery in Libya


Modern-day Slavery in Sudan

• Amazing Grace is perhaps the most recognized hymn on the planet, often sung in black churches and by black celebrities. On April 14, 2014, President Obama introduced Aretha Franklin who sang the hymn. I bring this up because the song's author, John Newton, worked as a slave ship captain. His life's journey is well documented which includes that later in life he renounced his trade and became a prominent abolitionist. When he penned the words:
  "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.",
  he wasn't being disingenuously pious. He finally saw himself for what he was and turned his life around. Perhaps, Juneteenth will inspire others to do likewise.