In 1862, in the Emancipation Proclamation, President Abraham Lincoln declared millions of enslaved people in the United States to be free. However, because word traveled slowly back then, and because many slave owners refused to obey the proclamation, Black people in deep Southern states, including Texas, continued to be held as slaves even after the Civil War ended in April 1865.
Ten weeks after that war ended, Union Army Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, with 2,000 troops to occupy the state on behalf of the federal government and to enforce the conditions of the Confederacyâs surrender, which included the end to slavery. And on June 19, Gen. Granger read aloud a declaration announcing the total abolition of slavery in Texas. âGeneral Orders No. 3â stated: âThe people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.â