On Juneteenth

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The important, sweeping story of Juneteenth’s integral significance to American historical past, as informed by a Pulitzer Prize–successful historian and Texas native.

Weaving collectively American historical past, dramatic household chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed’s On Juneteenth supplies a historian’s view of the nation’s lengthy highway to Juneteenth, recounting each its origins in Texas and the big hardships that African-Individuals have endured within the century since, from Reconstruction by means of Jim Crow and past. All too conscious of the tales of cowboys, ranchers, and oilmen which have lengthy dominated the lore of the Lone Star State, Gordon-Reed—herself a Texas native and the descendant of enslaved folks dropped at Texas as early because the 1820s—forges a brand new and profoundly truthful narrative of her house state, with implications for us all.

Combining private anecdotes with poignant information gleaned from the annals of American historical past, Gordon-Reed exhibits how, from the earliest presence of Black folks in Texas to the day in Galveston on June 19, 1865, when Main Common Gordon Granger introduced the tip of legalized slavery within the state, African-Individuals performed an integral function within the Texas story.

Transforming the standard “Alamo” framework, she powerfully demonstrates, amongst different issues, that the slave- and race-based economic system not solely outlined the fractious period of Texas independence however precipitated the Mexican-American Struggle and, certainly, the Civil Struggle itself.

In its concision, eloquence, and clear presentation of historical past,
On Juneteenth vitally revises typical renderings of Texas and nationwide historical past. As our nation verges on recognizing June 19 as a nationwide vacation,
On Juneteenth is each a vital account and a stark reminder that the struggle for equality is exigent and ongoing.