Junteenth huh?
There is no good "God" that ever has nor ever will "free" anyone from slavery. In particular, everywhere that slavery has been performed around the globe over the last 600 years, its termination has been due to MAN and her/his works and sacrifice(s) to terminate it. Furthermore in each case, (other) men have opposed that freedom at every turn and proposed new and found ever clever ways to reinstate the institution using the same people...and/or people ethnically adjacent to those groups (e.g. England, France, U.S., Spain, etc.).
So no, "God" is not interested in anyone's abolition; and any credit to God (Euro-centric or* Afro-centric) is definitionally a false attribution" to ending slavery.
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Here in the US:
On 6/19 in 1865, the Black enslaved in the state of Texas were notified by Union Civil War soldiers about the abolition of slavery. This was 2.5 years after the final Emancipation Proclamation which freed all enslaved Black Americans. #Juneteenth
But Slavery continued...and in 1866, a year after the amendment was ratified, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina began to lease out convicts for labor. This made the business of arresting black people very lucrative, thus hundreds of white men were hired by these states as police officers.
Their primary responsibility being to search out and arrest black peoples who were in violation of ‘Black Codes’. Once arrested, these men, women & children would be leased to plantations or they would be leased to work at coal mines, or railroad companies. The owners of these businesses would pay the state for every prisoner who worked for them; prison labor.
It’s believed that after the passing of the 13th Amendment, more than 800,000 Black people were part of that system of re-enslavement through the prison system. The Amendment declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." (Ratified in 1865)
It says, “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude could occur except as a punishment for a crime".⁉️⁉️ Lawmakers used this phrase to make petty offenses crimes. When Blacks were found guilty of committing these crimes, they were imprisoned and then leased out...to the same businesses that lost slaves after the passing of the 13th Amendment. This system of convict labor is called peonage.
The majority of White Southern farmers and business owners hated the 13th Amendment because it took away slave labor. As a way to appease them, the federal government turned a blind eye when southern states used this clause in the 13th Amendment to establish the Black Codes.
@AfricanArchives
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Give praise where praise is due. This Juneteenth we recognize the actual sacrifice of human beings to fight a system of slave labor, dehumanization and financial exploitation throughout US history until present-day. Not someone's skewed perception of a "Good God" or "spirit"...lest we forget all lessons learned.
Happy Juneteenth.
