Why Juneteenth is the most important day of the year
Especially this year
For Juneteenth this year I was given the distinct honor of presenting reflections on the holiday as part of Maine Inside Out’s celebrations in Lewiston and Portland. I couldn’t be more grateful for such a wonderful opportunity from such an incredible organization. Here are my remarks from the events and why I believe Juneteenth is the most important day of the year.
Juneteenth is the most important day of the year. Especially this year.
To understand why, we need to untangle a couple of things, starting with the idea that “all cultures practiced slavery”. You hear this a lot, but is it true? Other cultures’ versions of enslavement could last just a short time. Some allowed enslaved people to earn money and own property and live lives more freely than many Americans live today.
So many of these other slaveries were completely unrecognizable compared to our country’s specific design. One important difference appeared in 1662, when colonial Virginia passed the Hereditary Slavery Law with the deliberate purpose of extinguishing Black humanity and permanently defining Black people as property.
So, according to the American definition, no, not “all cultures practiced slavery”. But if you believe they did, it’s easy to believe another commonly told lie, that “everyone back then was just kind of ok with it”. Obviously, Black people weren’t ok with it, but we’re never really considered in that framing.
The real secret is that slavery wasn’t ever all that popular with white people, either.
By the time the US Constitution was ratified in 1788, slavery was already illegal in 5 of the original 13 states. It was also already illegal in soon-to-be states like the Republic of Vermont and the Northwest Territory, which became Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and part of Minnesota.
Another thing we should untangle is the idea that “Juneteenth was when Lincoln freed the slaves!”
