On June 19th, 1865 Texas slaves in Galveston heard the announcement that they were free. For this year’s Juneteeth celebration, I volunteered to do a character interpretation of one of the newly freed slaves. Although I read through all the lively character interpretations, I was assigned to by Mattie Gilmore. According to her narrative, she was an unmarried young woman when emancipation came. She reported that some former slaves laughed and celebrated while others cried. She and her stepmother were asked by their former master, Mr. Barrows, to remain on the plantation and work and he compensated monetarily.
What I found most interesting about her narrative was her observation that Negroes weren’t used to managing themselves nor their money. This situation was further exacerbated when some former slave masters did not give their former slaves money when they released them. Ms. Gilmore’s conclusion was that even though they were free, they still suffered. The period costumes that we wore were very heavy and beautiful. I just imagined that we were dressed up in the Sunday finest clothing since this was a celebration of freedom. Yet, I also wondered how they could stand be in such clothing during the summertime. I have to believe that they weren’t as used to creature comforts as we are now or they actually wore a cooler blend of clothing.
I overheard this male actor giving a very lively interpretation of his freeman’s narrative. He talked about how some former masters went crazy after emancipation. One was so distraught that he had a heart attack and died. One has to wonder was it merely the thought of free Negroes or did he predict that life would be so horrible without the power of being a slave owner. After telling my freewoman’s brief narrative to vistors, I bid them farewell and told them to enjoy their freedom. That was a heartfelt good bye since I often think that we take our hard-earned freedom for granted.
Recently, a popular Southern white TV chef was charged with making racist comments, least of which was using the N word in anger. The worst was her wish for a “traditional plantation” wedding were black men were dressed in all white and serving food. This is the third time in my life that I’ve heard a white woman romanticizing how wonderful things were back in the good ol’ days when either slavery or Jim Crow were in place.
As long as that attitude is among our society, we’ll need things like Juneteenth and Black History Month.