“Freedom is the state or fact of being free from servitude, constraint, inhibition, etc.; liberty.”

—Oxford English Dictionary

Hail and well met, Pathfinders!
Paizo’s offices are closed today in honor of Juneteenth National Independence Day (Juneteenth). This holiday celebrates the true end of chattel slavery in the United States, when the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced in Texas at the end of the Civil War.

While many American history classes conflate Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation with the end of slavery, it took several years before the order reached states like Texas—and it wasn’t until June 19th, 1865 that slavery was properly abolished. It should also be noted that while slavery was banned as an institutional practice, it still exists in the prison industrial complex and disproportionately affects Black Americans.

Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day, celebrates June 19, 1865, the day when the last slaves in the United States were finally informed they were free. The road from the first Juneteenth to today wasn’t smooth or easy. Last year, I wrote a blog about the history of Juneteenth, which you can find here, but this year, I wanted to talk a bit about what we can do on Juneteenth now, in the present day, and in the future.