--- title: Did Slavery in the U.S. End on Juneteenth? description: Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when enslaved men and women in Texas found out they were free. But liberation didn't arrive in one day. canonical: https://time.com/6286476/juneteenth-when-did-slavery-end/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-06-15T17:44:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2025-06-16T15:10:02.000Z article:section: History og:title: Did Slavery in the U.S. End on Juneteenth? og:description: Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when enslaved men and women in Texas found out they were free. But liberation didn't arrive in one day. og:url: https://time.com/6286476/juneteenth-when-did-slavery-end/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad32a8e0370a8977/698a3dbd16d8846b20c3bed7/13th-amendment-ratified.jpg?branch=production&width=882&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 882 og:image:height: 496 og:image:alt: Celebrate The 13th og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Did Slavery in the U.S. End on Juneteenth? twitter:description: Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when enslaved men and women in Texas found out they were free. But liberation didn't arrive in one day. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad32a8e0370a8977/698a3dbd16d8846b20c3bed7/13th-amendment-ratified.jpg?branch=production&width=882&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # When Did Slavery Really End in the U.S.? The Complicated History of Juneteenth > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: John Legend Reflects on Trailblazing Performer and Civil Rights Activist Harry Belafonte [Watch (HLS stream): John Legend Reflects on Trailblazing Performer and Civil Rights Activist Harry Belafonte](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Qyj5RYPd.m3u8) (4:11)  _Published 2023-04-25. Artist John Legend Legend candidly reflected on the role Belafonte has played in his life, both personally and professionally at the TIME100 Summit._  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Jun 16, 2025 3:10 PM UTCPublished: Jun 15, 2023 5:44 PM UTC  An illustration of the U.S. House of Representatives celebrating the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited slavery, Dec. 6, 1865. An illustration of the U.S. House of Representatives celebrating the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited slavery, Dec. 6, 1865. MPI—Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Jun 16, 2025 3:10 PM UTCPublished: Jun 15, 2023 5:44 PM UTC The push to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, which [successfully led](https://time.com/5853800/juneteenth-national-holiday/) to the first national Juneteenth observance in 2021, brought a new wave of attention to the history behind this celebration. A 2024 YouGov [poll](https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/49737-awareness-juneteenth-has-risen-since-2022-poll) found that 68% of Americans correctly understand that the holiday commemorates the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans. On June 19, 1865, enslaved men and women in Texas found out—weeks after the Civil War ended—that they were free, and the Union Army’s Major General Gordon Granger issued [General Order No. 3](https://time.com/6188864/general-order-3-juneteenth/): “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” But the full story was not that simple. “There are some enslavers in Texas that didn’t tell their enslaved people that they were free, and they had them keep on working,” says Daina Ramey Berry, Professor of History and Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of California, Santa Barbara. So then when did slavery actually end in the United States? **_Read more:_** [_Juneteenth Is Now a National Holiday. Are Reparations Next?_](https://time.com/6188751/juneteenth-holiday-slavery-reparations/) --- ### More from TIME --- There are multiple dates that could be singled out, depending on the geographic location of the enslaved person. The [Civil War](https://time.com/6128421/teaching-reconstruction-study/), fought over [slavery](https://time.com/5653369/august-1619-jamestown-history/), ended in April 1865, but the end of [slavery](https://time.com/5614930/frederick-douglass-fourth-of-july/) was more like a process, rather than an event that occurred on a particular day. There were some cases of people who escaped to freedom or won their freedom in court years earlier. And Berry argues that the most important date to highlight would be Dec. 6, 1865, when [the 13th Amendment](https://time.com/5411662/kanye-west-13th-amendment-tweets-fact-check/), abolishing slavery, was ratified by the States, just about a year after it was passed by Congress on Jan. 31, 1865\. Most people outside the scholarly community think slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, but that’s a common misconception. President [Abraham Lincoln](https://time.com/5936102/abraham-lincoln-quotes-history/)’s Jan. 1, 1863, executive order stated “that all persons held as slaves” within the states that seceded from the Union “are, and henceforward shall be free.” As the historian Carole Emberton explained in a 2022 [essay](https://time.com/6157140/slavery-emancipation-proclamation-freedom/) for TIME, a big part of the goal of the proclamation was to strip the Confederate army of the people supporting their war effort, as enslaved people performed manual labor for the troops and kept the plantations running so they could be fed. Much of the rhetoric around Juneteenth claims that it’s the day, two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation, that enslaved Texans found out they were free. But that implies that the Emancipation Proclamation freed all enslaved people—and it did not. According to Berry, many in the [Confederate](https://time.com/6126789/christmas-slavery-lost-cause-confederacy/) states didn’t obey Lincoln’s order because “they didn’t see him as their president.” “The Emancipation Proclamation did not lead to widespread freedom of African Americans,” says Berry. “It didn’t change that many people’s lives. Very few enslaved people were given their freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation.” But even when slavery did end in Texas, formerly enslaved people still had a long road to freedom ahead of them, as they faced inadequate infrastructure to support them as they started new lives. As Laura Smalley, who was born into slavery in Texas, [recalled](https://www.npr.org/2015/06/19/415809476/juneteenth-marks-day-slaves-in-texas-were-told-they-were-free) that bittersweet moment in a 1941 interview, “We didn’t know where to go. They turned us out just like, you know, you turn out cattle.” The ideal Juneteenth celebration includes an educational component, [activists who supported the creation of the federal holiday](https://time.com/6187898/juneteenth-national-holiday-activists/) told TIME last year, discussing stories like Smalley’s and how the legacy of slavery can still be seen in society today, “It was very important for the formerly enslaved to tell the story of slavery to a younger generation,” says Berry. “Some of that has gotten lost. It’s not completely lost, but some of it has dissipated… Juneteenth celebrations are celebrations, but they’re also an acknowledgement of a history and an understanding of the meaning of freedom. And that’s really, really important and should always be central to these conversations.” **Correction, June 15** _The original version of this story misstated the last name of a formerly enslaved woman in one reference. Her name was Laura Smalley, not Smiley._ ## Transcript So I unfortunate that start with some sad news as you know, but as I'm not sure everybody else knows. I we just got the sad news that Harry Belafonte has died. And so I want it, I want to give you a moment to tell us what your reaction to that news was and how other artists can carry on his legacy God that we had Harry Belafonte for 96 years. He Inspired me so much. Personally he became a friend of mine in the last 10 years or so we spend some private time together. I learned At His Feet basically about all the great work, he's done over the years and if you think about what it means to be an artist and an activist, he was literally the epitome of what that was and I don't know if people know how much he did. So Gifted as an artist as a performer, but used his platform and almost a subversive way because he would sneak messages in their revolutionary messages. When people just thought he was singing about, Good Times in the islands, he was always like infusing messages of protest and Revolution and everything you did. And not only that, but he used his resources, he's one of the most successful artists of his time. He used those resources to fund the Civil Rights Movement. He would show up with bags of cash for dr. Martin Luther King jr. And other people who were marching with him. When people's lives are being taken for support, that movement, entertainers, lies were being taken activist lives were being taken, Jewish. Northerners would come down to the South and help with the movement and they would get killed. There were so many people who put their lives on the line for us to be able to vote for us to be able to have equal rights in this country and Mr. Bellefonte was one of those people. He saw a lot of his friends get killed. He gave so much live through so much helped us grow as a nation and as a world and we just all should be so grateful that he lived such a long powerful revolutionary life. So that leads us into something. I was planning to ask you about anyway, which is what do you think, is the role of Music in the fight for social justice today? I mean, who do you think will be remembered in fifty or sixty years? The way we remember Harry Belafonte today, we have the power to create art. That shines a light on what's happening in the world Nina Simone said, we have a duty to reflect the times in, which we live, and I believe great artists are able to do that. We're able to tell the stories I write the songs. Highlight the issues that will make the world pay attention. And I think art can do it in a Transcendent way. It's not the same as journalism is not the same as other forms of of kind of nonfiction media. It has the power to bring people together transcend boundaries and I think if we use that power for good, it can be really really important. And like I said, Harry Belafonte did it in his art but he also did it with his resources, put his life on the line. Was a great adviser great leader of protest. And so I think artists can use our position to do that as well. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6286476/juneteenth-when-did-slavery-end/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6286476/juneteenth-when-did-slavery-end/"},"headline":"When Did Slavery Really End in the U.S.? The Complicated History of Juneteenth","datePublished":"2023-06-15T17:44:59.000Z","dateModified":"2025-06-16T15:10:02.000Z","description":"Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when enslaved men and women in Texas found out they were free. 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