With today, Friday, June 19th being Juneteenth, we wanted to reshare this lecture from Dr. Herbert Brewer about his research into the slave ship Margaret.
Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in America learned of their freedom. Although this was two months after the end of the Civil War (and two years after the Emancipation Proclamation), it wasn't until June 19, 1865 when Union General Gordon Granger brought about 1,800 federal troops to Galveston, Texas and enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.
Dr. Herbert Brewer talks about his research into the slave ship Margaret. Its journey from London, England, to Sierra Leone, West Africa, to the Chesapeake and back to England illustrated the complex web of commercial, political and cultural links that tied Europe, Africa, and North America together in the early eighteenth century.
Dr. Brewer is Assistant Professor at Morgan State University and historian of the African American diaspora, slavery, and emancipation in the Atlantic world. He is co-author of Guide to the History of Slavery in Maryland.