@thekinseycollection 🙏🏾 Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. It was on June 19th, 1865 that the Union soldiers landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. This was two and a half years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation - which had become official on January 1st, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the enslaved population in Texas due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. Freedom finally came after a proclamation by General Granger solidified the emancipation of the quarter-million enslaved people in the state. These images are from a larger selection of early ambryotypekw and tintype photographs in @thekinseycollection. Taken during the post-Civil War period of Reconstruction, these elegant portraits portray newly freed African Americans dressed in their best for the photographer. In many ways these photos represent the hopes and dreams of a people, who for so long were denied the right to even have hopes and dreams. With freedom came the urgency to find family that had been sold away, to create businesses and community, participate in the political process, and to cast off the vestiges of slavery. When The Kinsey Collection acquired these historical images they came without descriptive documentation on the subjects in the photographs - thus the names of these incredible people have been lost to history. However, when viewed together, these portraits provide a collective snapshot of African Americans seeking to achieve the American Dream, envisioning a better life for themselves and their families shortly after the end of slavery in the United States. On this day especially, we honor our ancestors who did so much, with so little. Happy Juneteenth from @thekinseycollection. #supportblackart #thekinseycollection #kinseyuntold #juneteenth #juneteenth2020 #africanamericanhistory #africanamericanart #blackhistory #mythofabsence #americanhistory #americanart #history #fineart #art #education #museum #exhibition #becauseofthemwecan #blacklivesmatter https://www.instagram.com/p/CBoltAdhLql/?igshid=1hya8g126dqoi