Gordon-Reed's book is at once an homage to her home state of Texas, and a wholly original and fascinating exploration of how history and legend and myth all shape what we learn when we’re young, how our understanding evolves as we grow older, and how social dynamics inform the evolution of societal understanding. One year ago this week, the US Congress voted overwhelmingly to make the day a federal holiday. Juneteenth celebrations of this belated emancipation originated among African American communities in Texas, but now take place around the country. 3 in Galveston, Texas, declaring that all slaves were free, two months after General Robert E Lee had surrendered to Gen. Her latest book is a beautiful peroration on the meaning of the holiday known as Juneteenth, which marks the anniversary of a significant historical event: on June 19 th, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. Her book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, won sixteen book prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

She is best-known for her study of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Tom's guest on this archived edition of Midday is the author and historian Annette Gordon Reed.

Place the code “AMINSP22” in the comments as you check out, and the book you receive in late June/early July will be signed by the author.(This conversation was originally broadcast on June 18, 2021) In On Juneteenth she writes, “it is staggering that there is no date commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.” Yet Texas, the last state to free its slaves, has long acknowledged the date of June 19, 1865, when US Major General Gordon Granger proclaimed from his Galveston headquarters that slavery was no longer the law of the land. Don’t miss Gordon-Reed’s discussion with Lisa Baldez about her research process, her childhood in Texas, and the circuitous path to national recognition of the Juneteenth holiday.Ĭopies of On Juneteenth can be purchased from our partners at Porter Square Books at this dedicated url. The Texas native combines her own scholarship with a personal and intimate reflection of an overlooked holiday that has suddenly taken on new significance. On Juneteenth presents the saga of a frontier defined as much by the slave plantation owner as the mythic cowboy, rancher, or oilman.Ĭelebrated for her research and revelations in her prize-winning book The Hemingses of Monticello, Annette Gordon-Reed now tells a tale closer to home. Moderated by Lisa Baldez, Professor of Government, Dartmouth Collegeįor this Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning historian, also a proud Texas native and descendant of Texas slaves, the story of Juneteenth has special resonance.

Watch now on the GBH Forum Network website Presented in partnership with the Boston Public Library, the State Library of Massachusetts, and GBH Forum Network Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Gordon reed on juneteenth