What is Freedom?

Juneteenth marks the second Independence Day in American History. The night before January 1, 1863, which is known as “Freedom’s Eve,” many enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and their homes, waiting for the news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. The next day, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared more than three million slaves living in the Confederate states to be free.

Sadly, not every Confederate territory was immediately free. The Emancipation Proclamation could not be implemented in certain areas that were still under Confederate control. Due to this, many enslaved people living in Texas were not free until June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that over 250,000 enslaved people in the state were freed by executive decree. The newly freed enslaved people named this day “Juneteenth.”

As we celebrate this holiday and remember the meaning behind it, I want to focus on how freedom often was only limited to those who were able to contribute to the workforce leaving many enslaved disabled people behind. We often acknowledge enslaved people who were exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation because of where they reside, but many enslaved disabled people were also not liberated by the Emancipation Proclamation.

After the Civil War ended, many freed disabled enslaved people could not leave the plantation in the South, unlike abled-bodied freed enslaved people because of their limitations and not being able to join the workforce. This caused many to remain in the institution of slavery. This gave plantation owners the ability to still have power over freed disabled enslaved people such as putting them through a cycle of poverty because they were not able to work or placing some in asylums against their will. This hindered any chance they had of leaving the South for a chance of having a better life. Freed disabled enslaved people’s experiences make it clear that being free did not only mean an end to slavery but also having the ability to find employment.

This denial of freedom for many Black disabled people continues to happen today. Although there have been some changes in laws that are supposed to protect disabled people and allow us to have rights, we can agree that often those laws only help but so much when disabled people still constantly face discrimination on a daily basis and are often limited in opportunities when trying to better our lives. The government continues to punish disabled people who are not able to contribute to the labor force by putting them in poverty, limiting their access to resources, and criminalizing those for simply not being able to afford to live in a country that does not help its citizens, especially in marginalized communities. In society, we often tie people's value to their capabilities which happened to many disabled freed enslaves. Their experiences showed that labor is an important element to determines one’s emancipation. If freed enslaved people were able to contribute to the workforce, the transition from slavery to freedom was something the government was prepared to aid.

Freedom shouldn’t be limited to a certain group of people; it should be a given for everyone. Even to Black disabled people. We deserve to be free, have the freedom to choose our destiny, and not have our worth tied to our capabilities. We deserve our freedom and rights because we are humans.