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Juneteenth: When Historiography Challenges History

Juneteenth

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Historians, political scientists, philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, and many other academic disciplines count on historical accuracy to develop theories and opinions. Historiography, the study and practice of writing about history, is quite often intermingled with ideological prisms. “Juneteenth”, the most recent established federal holiday, may just be an example of that. What happens when historiography challenges history?

President Joe Biden, with Vice President Kamala Harris at his side, signed into law on Thursday June 18th the nation’s eleventh federal holiday. The legislation established June 19th officially as, Juneteenth National Independence Day. All countries wrestle with the choice of which dates to honor relevant markings that underlie their historical experiences. A nation as historically rich and diverse as the United States, expectedly offers a wide realm to choose from. Is June 19th the most emblematic date to celebrate the end of slavery in America?   

In 1865 on that date in Galveston, Texas, Union troops under the command of General Gordon Granger proclaimed the end of slavery in the Lone Star State. This date, however, does not record the last Confederate stronghold to surrender to the Federal army. Brigadier General Stand Watie, a Cherokee Nation Indian leader who commandeered the South’s Army of the Trans-Mississippi, a battalion composed of mainly Cherokee, Muskogee, Osage, and Seminole Indians, was reportedly the last commander of the Confederacy to surrender. The formal hostilities conclusion occurred on June 23rd, four days later, in then Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).

In fact, for technical preciseness, the last act of Confederate resistance conclusively ended on November 6th, 1865, when the battleship the Shenandoah surrendered in Liverpool, England. This ship, it must be noted, was effective in causing damage to Northern interests. By August of 1865, the Shenandoah had captured or destroyed 38 ships, including whalers and merchant vessels. The Civil War, fought principally over slavery, America’s unresolved foundational sin, has a host of dates which bear greater importance to ending it as an institution then June 14th, called “Juneteenth” a combination of the words “June” and “nineteenth”.

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22nd, 1862. This seminal executive order established that effective January 1st, 1863, “all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” On April 9th, 1865, Confederate Commander General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, technically ending the Civil War. It is true that rebel armed resistance continued, scattered and isolated without a central command. However, much of this activity was because of the slow speed with which the news of Lee’s surrender traveled. On August 20th, 1866, President Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s Vice President, formally declared the end of the Civil War, sixteen months after Appomattox.

There are multiple dates that bear a greater connection with the finality of slavery then June 19th (Juneteenth). Some of them were previously cited. The truth is that Juneteenth, strictly judged in historical relevance, is inconsequential to bringing slavery to its end. This raises honest suspicions as to the reasoning for the decision of highlighting this date in national terms. Here again, the left’s dirty war on the American Republic, bears its monstrous head.

Juneteenth
June 19, 2020 at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. (EFE)

The actual name of the nation’s newly minted holiday is Juneteenth National Independence Day. What is the “national independence” portion all about? July 4th is the only Independence Day, after all, that exists in America. Here is another indication of historical revisionism but through ideologically tinted lens. There is an indirect correlation here with The New York Times “1619 Project”, that fraudulent rendition of American history which claims that slavery was America’s raison d’etre. This is intellectually funded by Marxism’s Critical Race Theory (CRT).

Kentucky Republican Representative, Thomas Massie, one of fourteen brave House Republicans who voted against the new federal holiday, tweeted out upon it becoming law, “The official name of the holiday is ‘Juneteenth National Independence Day’. Bless your heart if you think that name wasn’t chosen to divide this country and diminish the Independence Day we celebrate on July 4”. Massie is absolutely correct. In the Senate, it was passed unanimously.

The left, with its control of mainstream media, Big Tech, woke capital, and the Biden-Harris adminstrationt, is wholly in search of epistemological devices to deconstruct America. CRT and the racial warfare that it is instigating are part of the blueprint. History is under siege by socialist political correctness. Herbert Marcuse called it “Repressive Tolerance”. The Juneteenth National Independence Day is a misnomer, another distortion of the overarching truth from the weaponized arsenal of the socialist warriors. Get your fireworks ready, everyone, to celebrate America’s real day of independence, July 4th!  

Julio M Shiling, political scientist, writer, director of Patria de Martí and The Cuban American Voice, lecturer and media commentator. A native of Cuba, he currently lives in the United States. Twitter: @JulioMShiling // Julio es politólogo, escritor, director de Patria de Martí y The Cuban American Voice. Conferenciante y comentarista en los medios. Natural de Cuba, vive actualmente en EE UU.

2 thoughts on “Juneteenth: When Historiography Challenges History”

  1. Thank you! I am not sorry to say that I will never recognize juneteenth as a national independence day (lower case intended.) We are all citizens of the United States, and our National Independence Day is officially July 4th and has been for a long time. Let us recognize our commonality instead of our differences, as juneteenth seems to want us to do.

  2. I totally agree with you and I’m a black woman. When I heard about this new holiday put into law I was actually bewildered. And then I thought, oh, if I were still working for the city I’d have an extra holiday, lol. But you’re right that so many other important days that actually meant something to all of us and not just for a small amount of tragically uninformed slaves really could have been chosen but it’s obviously a political ploy. I must add that I’ve never known a black person to ever celebrate this day either. Ever.

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