Though it’s not a precise reckoning, the 1870 federal census is the closest account we have of who was emancipated in Wilson County five years earlier. The 310 surnames inscribed above are those reported to the census taker by the newly freed (and a few freeborn).
We need no one’s permission to honor and amplify the memory of our forebears, and we needn’t wait for the government to teach us their stories and struggles. Today, we celebrate freedom, resilience, and the enduring legacies of the men, women, and children these names represent.
Pour one for the ancestors this Juneteenth!
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Juneteenth, observed annually on June 19th and a federal holiday since 2021, commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States. It marks the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce the end of the Civil War and slavery—more than two months after Appomattox Court House and two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.