And we were with our friends and with our families. It was a day for us kids to run around and drink a lot of what we call soda water, which means soda pop, I guess, in the Northeast, they say, and throw firecrackers. GORDON-REED: Well, it was sort of a precursor to July Fourth. How was it celebrated when you were growing up? But first, I want to talk with you a little bit about how the holiday has been celebrated in your family. GROSS: So we'll get a little deeper into the history later in the interview. So it's - it was a part of the process of emancipation. But it was at that time that Gordon Granger was able to go to Texas, go to Galveston and make this announcement that slavery was over in the largest state of the union.

And the last battle of the Civil War was in Texas, and actually, the Confederates won. The Army of the Trans-Mississippi kept fighting. But what happens in Texas is there was a delay from when the Emancipation Proclamation was put forth and when Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April of 1865. There was not any one day that made everything OK, made it all over until we get to the ratification of the 13th Amendment, which was in December of 1865. GORDON-REED: Well, it was - emancipation was a process. GROSS: So how does June 19, 1865, fit in to the end of slavery, the abolition of slavery in the U.S.?

And it has been a day to commemorate what we know - and we know from the way they acted - the joy of people who were enslaved in Texas when they heard the news that slavery was over and being treated as chattel - those days were behind them and they were supposed to be - then go forward as equal people in the place where they lived. So let me ask you to give a fuller version of what Juneteenth represents.ĪNNETTE GORDON-REED: Well, Juneteenth represents the end of slavery - technically the end of slavery in Texas in 1865. I learned a lot that I'm really happy I learned from your new book. TERRY GROSS: Annette Gordon-Reed, welcome to FRESH AIR. Her other books include 'Thomas Jefferson And Sally Hemings: An American Controversy' and 'The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.' She also edited the book 'Race On Trial: Law And Justice In American History.' Terry Gross spoke with Annette Gordon-Reed last year, when her book was published. She's from east Texas, and she's a historian of slavery and the early American republic. Our guest, Annette Gordon-Reed, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Harvard professor who's written a book called 'On Juneteenth.' It's part history, part memoir. Juneteenth is now a national holiday, observed just a couple of weeks before July 4, which celebrates America gaining its independence while enslaved people remained in bondage. Texas was the last state to free enslaved people. Sunday marks the holiday of Juneteenth, commemorating the day the abolition of slavery was announced in Texas on June 19, 1865.

Annette gordon reed on juneteenth