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Juneteenth, Freedom Colonies, and Freedmen’s Settlements
How African Americans fought to define their own spaces after the Civil War
Note: I used the photo above for this article because for the first time, after Emancipation, black families were no longer forcibly separated. They could live with their families and, in places like Freedom Colonies they could safely raise their children. I do focus more on Texas in this article than other parts of the South because I live here and am more familiar with its history.
After the American Civil War, former slaves were set free, which was great. Instead of getting 40 acres and a mule, however, they were often made to feel unwelcome and denied services by whites. Realizing that they would have to fend for themselves, these freed slaves banded together in their own settlements. Known throughout the South as Freedmen’s Settlements, they were know as Freedom Colonies or Freedom Communities in Texas.
Their origins go back to emancipation.
The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, also known as the Emancipation Proclamation, was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. While Union soldiers, some of whom were black, would march onto plantations and into cities throughout the South and inform local blacks of their…
