By Lauren Flotte
On January 1, 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, yet this news did not reach the free by law, yet still enslaved blacks in Texas until June 19, 1856.
For over two years, slaves in the nation’s largest state did not know they were free.
While the end of slavery was never described as a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am deal, my history teachers never explained that some slaves were unaware of their freedom. In our modern world of 24/7 news coverage, it is hard to even imagine how a news flash like that could have missed an entire state. (Let’s face it: CNN would have endlessly speculated and sensationalized until the next excuse for breaking news…)