Emancipation Day

Emancipation Day is recognised in many countries, particularly in the Caribbean, as the celebration of the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire on 1st August 1834 as a result of the British Emancipation Act (In fact slavery still existed, as the Act only transformed the slaves into Indentured Workers for a further 4 to 6 years, until the implications of the changes could be managed and organised. Only slaves under the age of 6 years were actually truly Emancipated on 1st August 1834).

The date of the celebration differs from the country to country. Trinidad and Tobago, the first country to recognise with a National holiday the abolition of slavery, does so on 1st August each year.

In the Turks and Caicos Islands (located next to the Bahamas and with a similar history and culture), Emancipation Day is celebrated on 7th August each year.

In the Bahamas, the day is celebrated on the first Monday in August and is usually referred to simply as August Monday. It is usually quite a wild celebration (often referred to as a "Junkanoo"), centred on a former slave village, Fox Hill, in Nassau. The celebration lasts four days and features road races, extravagant costumes, pulsating music (drums and cowbells predominating), bands, limbo dancing, and a range of folk activities. Plus, of course, a wide range of food, especially Caribbean delicacies and specialities.

Throughout the rest of the former British colonial Caribbean, the celebrations also take place on the first Monday in August.

In the United Kingdom, Emancipation Day is not formally recognised, but it is still celebrated within some of the Caribbean communities across the nation.

In the United States, Emancipation Day has a different origin and it is not universally celebrated. However, in Washington DC it is celebrated on 16th April, which is the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Compensated Emancipation Act in 1862, which enabled the release of certain slaves in the Dictrict of Columbia.

In Texas, Emancipation Day is 19th June and is commonly called "Juneteenth" or "Freedom Day". 19th June marks the day in 1865 when Union General Gordon Granger landed on Galveston Island in the almost totally Confederate Texas with 2,000 Federal troops to take possession of the State and enforce the freedoms of the slaves.

Thirteen other States in the US also recognise this day, though not necessarily as a holiday, including Alaska, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina.

If you're looking for a way to commemorate this event, you might be interested in this article: Commemorations with Cross Stitch

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