Emancipation in Florida

MAY 20, 1865 Florida’s Emancipation

Be A Part of the Annual Celebration

More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, the news reached Florida’s capital city. It arrived on May 20, 1865. It arrives nearly a month before it reaches Texas on June 19 (Juneteenth).

Emancipation Day in Florida, to be historically correct, should be acknowledged and celebrated on May 20th.

Today, news of a single event can be transmitted across the planet in seconds. This was not the case in April 1865, as the Civil War was coming to an end. In the war-torn South, news traveled slowly, often by word of mouth, and the details sometimes were incorrect or contradictory.

Also, Clifton Lewis, a historian with the Florida African American Heritage Preservation Network, notes an important fact. Many slaveholders refused to recognize Abraham Lincoln as President. Because of this, enslaved people were not freed when the Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863.

Neither the war’s end nor slavery’s end was fully confirmed until Union troops arrived in each area. They came to accept the surrender of Confederate forces. This process happened in stages, with areas farther west learning the news weeks after the folks closer to the East Coast.

Union Brigadier General Edward M. McCook arrived in Tallahassee to receive the surrender of Florida’s Confederate troops on May 10th.

On May 20th, McCook formally announced President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation from the steps of the Knott House, effectively ending slavery in the state. As a result, many Floridians celebrate May 20th as Emancipation Day.

A month later, on June 18th, Union General Gordon Granger landed at Galveston with 2,000 soldiers to occupy Texas. The following day, June 19th, he announced the Emancipation Proclamation from the balcony of the Ashton Villa. Consequently, emancipation is generally celebrated in Texas on June 19th.

Over the next months, the Union Army gradually established control of the Confederacy in States in rebellion; thus, the precise day of emancipation varied from one state to another. Florida was one of these states. Former slaves all over the South were quick to institute an annual celebration of their freedom.

Today, Tallahassee and other cities in the state still honor this tradition. They do so to recognize Emancipation in Florida.

A TIMELINE OF EMANCIPATION

SEPTEMBER 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

DECEMBER 31, 1862 “Watch Night” – Slaves waited in churches for the dawning of the promised Emancipation on January 1, 1863.

JANUARY 1, 1863 Emancipation Proclamation becomes effective. In 1864, the Union Armies occupied Florida and other states in rebellion against the Emancipation Proclamation and still held slaves, including those in Florida.

Union Generals began to read the Proclamation as an enforcement order to slave holders, and to slaves in these states.

MAY 10, 1865, Brigadier General Edward McCook and the Union Army arrived in Leon County. They accepted the surrender of Florida’s Confederate troops.

MAY 20, 1865 Union General McCook reads the Emancipation Proclamation from the steps of the Knott House in Tallahassee. Slaves in Florida are freed! A celebration of freedom is held at Bull Pond, now called Lake Ella, in Tallahassee.

JUNE 18–19, 1865: Union General Gordon Granger and the Union Army are in Texas. The Emancipation Proclamation is read in Galveston, Texas. Slaves in Texas are freed, completing the emancipation in all slave states.

DECEMBER 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, officially ending slavery in America.

MAY 20, 1866 Celebrations in Tallahassee and some other parts of the state are held annually thereafter.

MAY 20, 1997 Emancipation Day, May 20th, as an annual statewide celebration, was inaugurated in Tallahassee, sponsored by the Florida Department of State, Museum of Florida History, and the John G. Riley Museum.

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The Henry Hill Foundation will celebrate freedom and community at its annual Florida Emancipation Day Celebration on Saturday, May 17, 2025, from 1-7 p.m. at Henry Hill Park, 1835 Centerville Road.

During this family-friendly event, learn about the rich history of Emancipation Day in Florida while enjoying an afternoon filled with food, music, drum beating, wrapping the maypole, dancing, and more.

For additional events surrounding Emancipation in Florida on May 20th, please visit museumoffloridahistory.com/visit/knott-house-museum/20th-of-may-commemoration.

MORE RESOURCES AVAILABLE AT RileyMuseum.org

A SPECIAL THANKS TO
Florida African American Heritage Preservation Network
John W. Franklin, son of John Hope Franklin
Althemese Barnes, Director Emeritus, John Gilmore Riley Center/Museum
Tallahassee Historical Society
The Council on Culture & Arts
Tallahassee City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox

PHOTO CREDITS

John Gilmore Riley Center/Museum
Florida Department of State – Florida Memory
Spady Museum-Delray Beach, Florida

HISTORIANS

Mary Cathrin May
Clifton Lewis, Executive Director, L.B. Brown House Museum, Bartow, Florida