On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, and freed the last enslaved people in the Confederacy. When we celebrate their freedom, we celebrate America itself.
It is well documented that the words of the founding documents were very consciously crafted in terms of long term abolition, and in fact were drafted as more explicit but were pulled back in negotiations. Even the most prominent slave owning founding fathers saw future manumission as a matter of desirable likely course.
why sad.. I lived in Galveston where Juneteeenth was a holiday for locals.. none of this happened. Oakland is a cesspool.. Juneteenth is just another reason to shoot people in that city. as if they needed a reason
The article is about the larger symbolism of the end of slavery and Rice’s reflections. Focusing on current day crime is a missed opportunity to reflect on the impacts that slavery has had on America to this day. No, I’m not saying you’re racist. I’m not saying white people today had anything to with past slavery. What I am saying is that structural racism exists and it has affected generations of black families. Fair Housing Laws, restrictive racial covenants, Jim Crow…I don’t know how old you are but I was born right as the last of the official Jim Crow laws were coming off the books. There’s an opportunity here to learn about our history if you choose to take it.
Growing up in the 1960's and preparing to go to West Point, my hero was my Great grandfather, William Fox Burke, a staunch abolitionist who helped raise a company of volunteers and led them in General Sherman's "March to the Sea", a war crime that was essential to breaking the will of the South to resist, thus ending the rebellion and ending slavery in America.
If i was an escaped slave and had the opportunity to take up arms to fight against slave owners and free my people, of course i would! But why would 2 million Northern white men serve in the army, and why would perhaps 400,000 of them die, in the most ghastly conditions, to free the slaves?
Because it was the right thing to do, because slavery was evil.
A Harvard historian told the New York Times that northerners were almost as racist as southerners. So their sacrifices could be safely ignored.
Juneteenth is the ONLY Federal commemoration of the Great Civil War, and it allows us to celebrate the freeing of the slaves without having to mention those "racist" northen white men who made it possible.
If those men had known what their descendants would think of them, do you think they would have made such massive sacrifices?
" But the words in those carefully crafted documents—written by great men who were themselves flawed human beings—ultimately lit the way toward a more perfect union. In some sense, the history of the United States is a story of striving to make their soaring words—We the People—real to every American. It’s the story of becoming what we profess to be"
Wonderful words by a true American. As stated by others in the comments, Condoleezza Rice would have made a great president. Several years ago, this white, rural raised farm-boy had the great fortune to spend a brief few minutes with Dr. Rice at a University of Notre Dame home football game. All class, grace, keen intellect, and friendly demeanor! Condoleezza Rice is in a good place as the director of the Hoover Institute.
Except for her role in sending over 6000 American soldiers to their deaths in Iraq and destabilizing the region, resulting in over a million deaths and untold suffering.
Condoleezza Rice is a great American and would have been a great president. Unfortunately she was demonized by the Left / Fascist / Democrats because she had the nerve to be a Republican. We missed a great opportunity.
Its worthwhile to observe the freeing of the slaves with a federal holiday. I had my flag out yesterday like I do for all national holidays. Still, just as MLK Day really ought to be styled "Civil Rights Day" to honor all those of every race who struggled against the apartheid state we once were, Juneteenth should have been named "Emancipation Day." Emancipation didn't happen in just one moment or in one state. It happened after the nation's most bloody war and the amending of the Constitution.
The Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery, nor did the Civil War. The war was about states' rights, more specifically that the Constitution limited the power of the federal government to commerce and disputes between states and the upholding of enumerated rights in the bill of rights. The Emancipation Proclamation was an exercise of war time powers of the President and applied only to states in rebellion. Had they returned to the union, they would have retained their slaves and the legality of the Proclamation would likely have been overturned in court because the southern states were right about the limitations of the federal government. It became moot however when the action that truly ended slavery was taken, passage and ratification of the 13th amendment. With the thirteenth amendment ratified, the federal government was given the power to dismantle the institution of slavery as involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime duly convicted, was banned in all territories of the United States as an enumerated, constitutional right.
Brett you may be right about the technical details but the Civil War was absolutely about slavery. And the Black Codes shortly thereafter criminalized not having a job so that newly freed blacks would be sent to prison and then used as free convict labor. Black communities who found success like in Tulsa were destroyed by whites. And then we have Jim Crow which was still on the books when I was born and lynchings and racial terror. I hope you can reflect on these things.
Oh, I am absolutely aware of efforts to get around the 13th and 14th amendments, but if the Civil War had come to the same conclusion, the Emancipation Proclamation still issued by Lincoln but the 13th amendment not passed and ratified none of those things would have occurred because those people would still be slaves. The federal government is only allowed to intervene in a state's sovereignty if there is violation of a constitutional right. The Emancipation Proclamation would eventually be overturned by federal courts and slavery would have persisted in those states that chose it. The Union's position was unconstitutional and Lincoln knew it.
The 3/5ths rule helped bring an end to slavery by limiting the slave state’s representation. If slaves were counted as whole then the slaves states would have more representation by counting their slaves as their population. I get why people don’t like the 3/5ths rule. I wish we never had slavery but I’m glad my great great grandfathers & their brothers fought to end slavery in the civil war.
I think Dr. Rice makes a wonderful case for the nation celebrating the end of slavery, but why not make the celebration around the Emancipation Proclamation which ended slavery for the entire nation? This seems like the real second founding.
It is not surprising that in a country as large as ours in the midst of war that some areas would receive the word that slavery had ended later than other areas of the country. In any case I do agree that recognizing and celebrating the formal end to slavery is an important and crucial historical event for our nation.
I find myself wishing however that we would formally identify as a holiday, the end of slavery rather than a somewhat esoteric event that makes it seem like it is specifically a black holiday. The end of slavery marks an important turning point in our nation’s development as a free democratic republic. It should not be seen as just a black holiday.
Dr. Rice, I have always regarded you as one of our great living Americans. Your voice of reason and traditional values is critical and sorely needed as we fight the culture war that is trying to devolve the United States back to segregation through identity politics, DEI, antiracism, and all that go along with those illiberal, regressive,, and, dare I say, Marxist ideologies. I was fortunate in growing up in a bicultural family (Brazilian/American) to parents who taught us the intrinsic, immeasurable value of every human being, regardless of immutable characteristics. While I can deplore the historical fraud that is the 1619 project, I can applaud the recognition and observance of Juneteenth. Your perspective truly brought this clarity. Thank you. R. Bosshardt, MD, FACS
Thank you for this article, Dr. Rice, and thanks to TFP for presenting it. You provided a perspective I doubt I would have seen anywhere else, and it has made me reconsider the value of Juneteenth.
It is well documented that the words of the founding documents were very consciously crafted in terms of long term abolition, and in fact were drafted as more explicit but were pulled back in negotiations. Even the most prominent slave owning founding fathers saw future manumission as a matter of desirable likely course.
where is that well documented?
here is what happens on Juneteenth..https://oaklandside.org/2024/06/20/shooting-lake-merritt-oakland-juneteenth-celebration/....
This is what you took from the article? Sad.
why sad.. I lived in Galveston where Juneteeenth was a holiday for locals.. none of this happened. Oakland is a cesspool.. Juneteenth is just another reason to shoot people in that city. as if they needed a reason
The article is about the larger symbolism of the end of slavery and Rice’s reflections. Focusing on current day crime is a missed opportunity to reflect on the impacts that slavery has had on America to this day. No, I’m not saying you’re racist. I’m not saying white people today had anything to with past slavery. What I am saying is that structural racism exists and it has affected generations of black families. Fair Housing Laws, restrictive racial covenants, Jim Crow…I don’t know how old you are but I was born right as the last of the official Jim Crow laws were coming off the books. There’s an opportunity here to learn about our history if you choose to take it.
Growing up in the 1960's and preparing to go to West Point, my hero was my Great grandfather, William Fox Burke, a staunch abolitionist who helped raise a company of volunteers and led them in General Sherman's "March to the Sea", a war crime that was essential to breaking the will of the South to resist, thus ending the rebellion and ending slavery in America.
If i was an escaped slave and had the opportunity to take up arms to fight against slave owners and free my people, of course i would! But why would 2 million Northern white men serve in the army, and why would perhaps 400,000 of them die, in the most ghastly conditions, to free the slaves?
Because it was the right thing to do, because slavery was evil.
A Harvard historian told the New York Times that northerners were almost as racist as southerners. So their sacrifices could be safely ignored.
Juneteenth is the ONLY Federal commemoration of the Great Civil War, and it allows us to celebrate the freeing of the slaves without having to mention those "racist" northen white men who made it possible.
If those men had known what their descendants would think of them, do you think they would have made such massive sacrifices?
" But the words in those carefully crafted documents—written by great men who were themselves flawed human beings—ultimately lit the way toward a more perfect union. In some sense, the history of the United States is a story of striving to make their soaring words—We the People—real to every American. It’s the story of becoming what we profess to be"
Very well said.
Wonderful words by a true American. As stated by others in the comments, Condoleezza Rice would have made a great president. Several years ago, this white, rural raised farm-boy had the great fortune to spend a brief few minutes with Dr. Rice at a University of Notre Dame home football game. All class, grace, keen intellect, and friendly demeanor! Condoleezza Rice is in a good place as the director of the Hoover Institute.
Except for her role in sending over 6000 American soldiers to their deaths in Iraq and destabilizing the region, resulting in over a million deaths and untold suffering.
100% agree.
This is not some "separate but equal independence day" - it's acknowledgement of correcting a horrible wrong.
I'm on board with anything Condoleezza Rice has to say!
Condoleezza Rice is a great American and would have been a great president. Unfortunately she was demonized by the Left / Fascist / Democrats because she had the nerve to be a Republican. We missed a great opportunity.
Its worthwhile to observe the freeing of the slaves with a federal holiday. I had my flag out yesterday like I do for all national holidays. Still, just as MLK Day really ought to be styled "Civil Rights Day" to honor all those of every race who struggled against the apartheid state we once were, Juneteenth should have been named "Emancipation Day." Emancipation didn't happen in just one moment or in one state. It happened after the nation's most bloody war and the amending of the Constitution.
The Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery, nor did the Civil War. The war was about states' rights, more specifically that the Constitution limited the power of the federal government to commerce and disputes between states and the upholding of enumerated rights in the bill of rights. The Emancipation Proclamation was an exercise of war time powers of the President and applied only to states in rebellion. Had they returned to the union, they would have retained their slaves and the legality of the Proclamation would likely have been overturned in court because the southern states were right about the limitations of the federal government. It became moot however when the action that truly ended slavery was taken, passage and ratification of the 13th amendment. With the thirteenth amendment ratified, the federal government was given the power to dismantle the institution of slavery as involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime duly convicted, was banned in all territories of the United States as an enumerated, constitutional right.
Brett you may be right about the technical details but the Civil War was absolutely about slavery. And the Black Codes shortly thereafter criminalized not having a job so that newly freed blacks would be sent to prison and then used as free convict labor. Black communities who found success like in Tulsa were destroyed by whites. And then we have Jim Crow which was still on the books when I was born and lynchings and racial terror. I hope you can reflect on these things.
Oh, I am absolutely aware of efforts to get around the 13th and 14th amendments, but if the Civil War had come to the same conclusion, the Emancipation Proclamation still issued by Lincoln but the 13th amendment not passed and ratified none of those things would have occurred because those people would still be slaves. The federal government is only allowed to intervene in a state's sovereignty if there is violation of a constitutional right. The Emancipation Proclamation would eventually be overturned by federal courts and slavery would have persisted in those states that chose it. The Union's position was unconstitutional and Lincoln knew it.
The 3/5ths rule helped bring an end to slavery by limiting the slave state’s representation. If slaves were counted as whole then the slaves states would have more representation by counting their slaves as their population. I get why people don’t like the 3/5ths rule. I wish we never had slavery but I’m glad my great great grandfathers & their brothers fought to end slavery in the civil war.
I think Dr. Rice makes a wonderful case for the nation celebrating the end of slavery, but why not make the celebration around the Emancipation Proclamation which ended slavery for the entire nation? This seems like the real second founding.
It is not surprising that in a country as large as ours in the midst of war that some areas would receive the word that slavery had ended later than other areas of the country. In any case I do agree that recognizing and celebrating the formal end to slavery is an important and crucial historical event for our nation.
I find myself wishing however that we would formally identify as a holiday, the end of slavery rather than a somewhat esoteric event that makes it seem like it is specifically a black holiday. The end of slavery marks an important turning point in our nation’s development as a free democratic republic. It should not be seen as just a black holiday.
Dr. Rice, I have always regarded you as one of our great living Americans. Your voice of reason and traditional values is critical and sorely needed as we fight the culture war that is trying to devolve the United States back to segregation through identity politics, DEI, antiracism, and all that go along with those illiberal, regressive,, and, dare I say, Marxist ideologies. I was fortunate in growing up in a bicultural family (Brazilian/American) to parents who taught us the intrinsic, immeasurable value of every human being, regardless of immutable characteristics. While I can deplore the historical fraud that is the 1619 project, I can applaud the recognition and observance of Juneteenth. Your perspective truly brought this clarity. Thank you. R. Bosshardt, MD, FACS
Well said, Doc
Thank you for this article, Dr. Rice, and thanks to TFP for presenting it. You provided a perspective I doubt I would have seen anywhere else, and it has made me reconsider the value of Juneteenth.
Thank you for an excellent article, Dr Rice. I just finished David Bright’s biography of Frederick Douglass. He would be proud of you.
Thank you so much for your article. I miss not having your wisdom and grace as part of our government.