Juneteenth - On June Nineteenth Poem by Chris Lane
Juneteenth - On June Nineteenth
`Juneteenth - On June nineteenth
An emancipation day celebration for African-Americans
And although emancipation, originally granted effective January 1863
News, slow in traveling never reached Galveston Texas
'till 1865, approximately two and a half years later.
The civil war had ended two month earlier
Union Major-General Gordon Granger declared
as he read - General Order Number 3
To all those assembled in Galveston there.
Massa John,
his brother Michael
and their first cousin Abel Kane
took the news rather badly even though one final harvest for free had been brought in.
One hundred years later hard fought civil rights gave emancipation true meaning
Another fifty years would pass
before the arrival of the first
African-American President.
© Calac
General Order Number 3
'The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer'
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4/23/2024 10:58:51 AM # 1.0.0.1119
Just to add to the paradox of the poem, the UK had outlawed the slave trade with the Slave Trade Act in 1807.The Act also included the right of compensation for slave-owners who would be losing their ‘property’. The amount of money spent on the compensation claims was set at 'the Sum of Twenty Millions Pounds Sterling. Under the terms of the Act the British government raised £20 million to pay out in compensation for the loss of the slaves as business assets to the registered owners of the freed slaves. Today, the UK members of parliament, have been exposed for claiming £10000000 in taxpayers money for ‘expenses’ such as cleaning, extravagant household goods, meals out etc. Some of those individuals have resigned in shame but others are sticking it out until the next general elections. The government has already agreed that, when they resign at that point, they will receive full pension rights and qualify for payments worth a total of £129,532! ! . Bid the citizens therefore be of good cheer. Kind regards Aine: -)