Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) is a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. After the war ended in the spring of 1865, General Granger arrived arrival in Galveston that June announcing freedom for Texas’s 250,000 slaves. Emancipation didn’t happen overnight for everyone. Some slave owners withheld the information until after harvest season. Freed Blacks celebrated and Juneteenth was born. Slavery in America was formally abolished with the acceptance of the 13th Amendment in December 1865. BUT!