June 19, 1865 was the day that the end of slavery was announced in Galveston, Texas, the last state to acknowledge slavery and the end of the Civil War. That came two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863.
Joe Zellner, a longtime town resident, teacher, and student of U.S. history and culture, wrote in a column posted on The Bedford Citizen last year, “Today, we celebrate and commemorate June 19 as the day slavery ended in the U.S. We may want to commemorate other prior significant dates to mark the end of legal slavery in the U.S., but I ask us to recognize June 19, 1865. It can be shown that on that date, all enslaved people in the U.S. knew about, or perhaps, had the option to know that racial slavery had ended in the U.S.”
He added, “Ending slavery did not come quickly nor easily for the U.S. And when chattel slavery, birth-right slavery, ‘one-drop’ slavery, was ended in the U.S., race-based slavery still existed in other countries of the world.”
The ratification and addition of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution did not happen until December 1865 when it was officially declared that slavery was no longer legal in the United States.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was the first to make slavery legal, which it did in 1649 with the “Body of Liberties” law.
The first state to enact policies to end slavery was Pennsylvania, which declared it illegal in 1780. Massachusetts and New Hampshire were next, bringing it to an end in 1783, followed by Connecticut and Rhode Island (1784). Vermont actually abolished slavery in 1777 while it was still an independent colony.
Juneteenth became an official federal holiday in 2021. It has become more universally recognized beyond Black America. Many people get the day off work or school, and there are many street festivals, fairs, concerts and other events. The First Parish in Bedford hosted a small public Juneteenth ceremony on the front steps of the church on Sunday.
Bedford Town Historian Sharon McDonald said last year that there is not much in the town records about slavery. The Bedford Historical Society has a bill of sale from 1756 of a five-year-old child named Jeffree being sold by Joseph Fitch to Joseph Hartwell for 24 pounds. Jeffree later fought in the American Revolution. Then, as a free man, he changed his name to Jessie Freeman and moved to Dracut.
McDonald acknowledged that her research found that at various times between 1690 and 1775, “about 30 African Americans lived here in the place we call Bedford. Almost all of them were enslaved,” noting “their owners were wealthy and prominent people.” Among the owners was Rev. Nicholas Bowes, who “owned” a woman named Nanne. A plaque with her name on it resides in the First Parish sanctuary. To find more about Nanne and Rev. Bowes, read this story from The Bedford Citizen at https://thebedfordcitizen.org/2020/02/black-history-and-first-parish-on-bedford-common-nannes-life-matters.
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a very astute comment. it was the end of LEGAL slavery!!