A National Day of Historical Ignorance

That is how historian Brion McClanahan describes the new federal holiday of Juneteenth. He writes:

Hereditary slavery did not end in the United States until December 6, 1865, the ratification date of the 13th Amendment. Slave auctions continued in Kentucky through November 1865, five months after slavery supposedly ended on June 19th, 1865. If the last slaves were told they were free on June 19th, then what about slaves sold into slavery AFTER that point? Would be news to them. Delaware, Kentucky, and New Jersey (all slave States in 1865) rejected the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, and slavery was legal in each State until December, six months after June 19th, 1865. By the way, Delaware, Kentucky, and New Jersey were technically all UNION States during the War, though Kentucky was a special case and could be considered a Confederate State as well. Only Mississippi rejected the 13th Amendment from the former Confederate States. That means THREE Union States and only one Confederate State rejected the amendment that ended slavery after the War. So much for the theory that the Union fought the war to free the slaves, even after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

See and hear more on his website.

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3:40 pm on June 21, 2021