Thursday, June 19 marks the 4th year Juneteenth has been celebrated as a national holiday in the United States. The day celebrates the final emancipation of slaves in Texas and the general enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in all reaches of the country. Though the Civil War ended on May 26, 1865, the last slaves were liberated a few weeks later on June 19, 1865. The 13th Amendment was passed on December 18, thus firmly ending the barbaric practice.
On the Southcoast and in Massachusetts as a whole, slavery fell out of practice earlier on and was formerly abolished in 1783 following a legal suit put forward by enslaved American Quock Walker, who stated his enslavement violated the 1780 Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Article I, that states “All men are born free and equal and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.” Walker was granted freedom, as well as any others still enslaved in the state. In 1792, the settlement of Parting Ways was established outside Plymouth by former slaves who fought for independence.
The area would become a haven for refugees of the South and a central staging post of operations conducted by the Underground Railroad to liberate the oppressed. The Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society was based in Boston but held large influence in New Bedford given the city’s status as an important port and convergence of those freed from the South, notably Frederick Douglass. In his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,
an American Slave (1845), he states, “I had somehow imbibed the opinion that, in the absence of slaves, there could be no wealth, and very little refinement. And upon coming to the north, I expected to meet with a rough, hard‐handed, and uncultivated population, living in the most Spartan-like simplicity, knowing nothing of the ease, luxury, pomp, and grandeur of southern slaveholders. Such being my conjectures, anyone acquainted with the appearance of New Bedford may very readily infer how palpably I must have seen my mistake. In the afternoon of the day when I reached New Bedford, I visited the wharves, to take a view of the shipping. Here I found myself surrounded with the strongest proof of wealth.”
The Southcoast had become a refuge, and even through the fight for Civil Rights through the 20th century, it remained so. Juneteenth provides us with the opportunity to reflect on the past and grapple with the facts that these injustices did not occur so long ago and they did not occur so far off.
The Little Free Diverse Library was unveiled in Rochester’s Plumb Library just before Juneteenth, 2023. This year, hosted by the library, Marcus Coward, human rights commissioner, Sunday school teacher, Army veteran, and New Bedford native, will participate in a celebration and talk at Ned’s Point at 3:00 pm.
By Sam Bishop