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The Days After Freedom: Black Union Soldiers and Post-Juneteenth Galveston

• Galveston Unscripted | J.R. Shaw

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Samuel Collins III shares the untold story of Juneteenth, revealing how United States Colored Troops played a crucial but largely erased role in bringing freedom to Texas. He challenges common misconceptions and illuminates how Galveston's Black community grew after emancipation, creating businesses, schools, and generational legacies.

• The news of freedom wasn't actually late to Galveston but arrived as early as fall 1862 when Union forces first controlled the island
• United States Colored Troops made up 75% of soldiers in Texas after Juneteenth but have been intentionally excluded from historical narratives
• Galveston's Black population more than doubled after emancipation as people came to the island for economic opportunities
• Black dockworkers at Galveston's port earned equal pay to white workers, helping establish a thriving middle class
• Education was prioritized with schools established by September 1865, less than three months after emancipation
• Families like the Sculls created 160-year legacies of service and education that continue today
• Juneteenth has evolved from a Texas event to become a national holiday and worldwide celebration of freedom

Come to Galveston Island, the birthplace of Juneteenth, to truly understand this vital chapter in American history. As Samuel says, "it's like reading about swimming or watching a film on swimming. At some point you have to get in the water to learn to swim."


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Speaker 1:

All right, are you ready, sam Born?

Speaker 2:

ready.

Speaker 1:

Born ready. That's what I'm talking about. Can we do just a quick background on kind of what you've been up to the past few years?

Speaker 2:

here in.

Speaker 1:

Galveston and all over. Well, you've been traveling all over the place as well.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So as a member of the Board of Advisors with the National Trust for Historic Preservation going on almost 18 years now, since 2007, I have the opportunity to travel all over the country to learn history and other communities, attending conferences and workshops and projects. And then I get to come back to Galveston and also tell more Galveston stories, not only here to people that are taking tours, but whenever I travel I always try to promote Galveston, texas and American history. So to tell the full story, so as not to take away from what has already been told, but to tell the full story.

Speaker 1:

Right and that's one reason why I want to have you in today is to kind of talk a little bit about Juneteenth which, thanks to the efforts of Galvestonians to Americans all over the US, the past let's say four years or so Juneteenth has been a national holiday here in the United States. So a lot of people are learning the history of Juneteenth, but I want to kind of cover a little bit of that maybe unknown history of Juneteenth, something that often may get left out of the story.

Speaker 2:

Well, juneteenth is a Texas event that became a national holiday and a worldwide celebration of freedom. So when people think about Juneteenth, it's not just an African-American holiday. It's a holiday for all of us to celebrate freedom and opportunity. I think one of the misconceptions is that Juneteenth is only about slavery, but it's also about what happened afterwards and after the announcement of freedom, where individuals were allowed to establish communities and neighborhoods, churches and businesses, schools and institutions. They were able to start building their lives as free people in America.

Speaker 2:

Many of them and their families had been in these areas and spaces for decades and maybe even centuries in some areas, with individuals that have roots back to the 1600s on the East Coast. But specifically to Galveston and Juneteenth, people think the news was late. It was not late, but it was actually here as early as the fall of 1862, when the Union had control of the island, before the Battle of Galveston on January 1st 1863, in which the Confederate Army took back control of the port city, therefore delaying enforcement, not delaying sharing the information. The Confederate States of America citizens had no plans of listening to President Lincoln until it was actually enforced by the army, the Union Army, which included United States colored troops, who were often left out of the narrative.

Speaker 1:

I really didn't know or understand that you even read some books about Juneteenth and the end of the Civil War and you don't hear about the United States Colored Troops very often. So I kind of wanted to dive into that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So the most common narrative and recently I had someone edit my commentary to make it seem like I was only saying this, but what I said is the most common narrative you hear is Major General Gordon Granger coming to Galveston with 2,000 soldiers. But if you imagine having a family reunion or bus field trip or any group of people gathering at one location and you have to have multiple vehicles, so at that time they were on multiple ships. So Granger comes in on a ship with people, soldiers on his ship, but what is ignored is all the ships that had arrived before Granger got hit with Union soldiers and the ships that came after Granger left with the Union soldiers, Many of those ships carrying United States colored troops. So they had been ordered to southern Texas to secure the border. Thousands of soldiers. They ran into some bad weather, like June 14th or 15th, and they had to come up to Galveston for supplies. So Granger was actually surprised to see so many here because many of them had been ordered to South Texas and that's a historical marker there that I think numbers them at 15,000. Now, not all 15,000 came to Galveston but eventually, by January of 1866, there were 6,500 white soldiers in Texas and 19,768 black soldiers.

Speaker 2:

So when you think about 75% of the soldiers in Texas after Juneteenth were primarily United States Colored Troops. How did they get left out of the narrative of our history books? That's very intentional to not include those stories of success and strength of patriots, of Union soldiers that were actually American soldiers, because Confederate soldiers were fighting for a foreign nation in the South, where Union soldiers were fighting for the United States of America wearing uniforms of the United States of America. So when they helped the Union to win, they helped to save America. So when we celebrate America we should celebrate these Union soldiers. They were not the only soldiers so let's not confuse it of the entire Union soldiers. They were not the only soldiers so let's not confuse it Of the entire Union army. They were only 10% of the Union forces.

Speaker 2:

But when you think about the forces sent to Texas they eventually become 75% of those soldiers because many of the white soldiers had been mustered out after Appomattox. So the United States Colored Troops of Black soldiers, number one stayed in the military because they joined later, in late 62 or 63. So if they were serving three years they still had time to serve. They stayed in because they knew they were going to have uniforms, good pay and food, in comparison to just going back to an unknown environment of freedom and you don't know what job you're going to get or as far as who's going to hire you or what the pay is going to be. So you know that is an often left out part of the story that I think individuals need to see, not as competition. With Granger coming here, major General Gordon Granger was absolutely in charge of the state of Texas and he gave the orders to issue General Order no 3. But there were many soldiers with him and they should be recognized. Also Many nameless soldiers.

Speaker 1:

Are there any firsthand accounts that you've read of previously enslaved people coming into contact for the first time with the United States Colored Troop?

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, they are in the Slave Narratives, wpa projects, and there's audio of individuals telling the story of seeing colored troops on their way to San Antonio. You know, we say San Antonio, but I think one of the women her name's Harriet Smith that she tells the story of sitting on a white picket fence and seeing all those colored soldiers on their way to San Antonio. So I mean just the visual of that, the stories of you know, some woman on the plantation jumping on the back of the horse with a soldier and leaving and never coming back you know, seeing a man in uniform and you know, hey, I'm going to go with him.

Speaker 2:

He got a gun and he could protect me, right, and he probably looked good in that suit, you know, because he was probably in shape, right. The one thing I tell individuals you could watch a video on Juneteenth, you could watch a documentary or read about Juneteenth, but it's like reading about swimming or watching a film on swimming. At some point you have to get in the water to learn to swim. So anybody studying the history of Juneteenth must come to Galveston Island and get in the Juneteenth water to really be immersed in the story of freedom and how it was birthed.

Speaker 2:

Here in Galveston, texas, you can walk through the streets, pass some of the historic buildings, like the 1861 US Custom House. You can go by Reedy Chapel, where a lot of history is. You go to Ashton Villa, where many celebrations have been held. So all of these sites and, of course, the most historic corner, the southwest corner of 22nd and Strand, where the general order was issued. The original building is not there, but you can basically stand on hollow ground. That is the place where freedom began for the people of Texas. So we want everybody to come to Galveston Island, the birthplace of Juneteenth.

Speaker 1:

So after June 19th 1865, previously enslaved people are now being freed all across Texas. I kind of want to discuss Galveston post-emancipation. Were there people moving here, previously enslaved people? Because Galveston at that time was the largest city in Texas, one of the most economically prosperous cities in Texas at that time. Can we talk about that timeframe?

Speaker 2:

Oh, absolutely. In the 1860 census I think, galveston's population was 72, 7,300. Of that about 1,200 were enslaved people. By 1870, the population of Galveston had grown to 13,000, and there were 3,000 blacks living on the island. So the black population more than doubled. The city population also almost doubled. To your point, galveston was the major commercial center of the state. It was the largest city in 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880.

Speaker 2:

So many people today don't realize that the population of the state of Texas in 1860 was about 600,000, with 420,000 white citizens and 180,000 enslaved blacks. So when Galveston in 1860 at 7,300 was the largest city in the state, so it was the commercial center and people came here to ship product coming in and out of the Gulf. The shipping business in and out of Galveston led to the prosperity of Galveston. So one misconception is that June 10th was announced and all enslaved people left Galveston on the Emancipation Trail going up to Houston. But the reality, just from the data, shows that people came to Galveston. So this is not a condemnation of the work that's being done to tell the story of people going to Houston, but the reality is growing up. I used to run across the field to go play with my friends in another part of the city or town and they used to run to my house. So we created a trail so the trail goes both ways. So there are people going up to Houston, there are people coming from Houston, there are people coming from Brazoria County, matagorda County, warden County, walla County. So commerce is being transversed between different cities. There are people coming from East Texas to work in Galveston to make money and then take it back to the towns that they were coming from.

Speaker 2:

Because even though enslaved people came into Galveston on ships, oftentimes they left Galveston going to the larger plantations in East Texas or further south into areas like Brazoria, warden County. Brazoria population was 71% Black. Warden County was 80% Black before the Civil War. Fort Bend County was 67% Black. So imagine living in those areas with that heavy concentration, with no elected official or voice. Well, after 1867, when Black men were allowed to register to vote, individuals started electing black elected officials during Reconstruction, that's people like George T Ruby, matthew Gaines and others. Walter Burton, first black sheriff in the United States, was elected in Fort Bend County. One of the reasons was Fort Bend County was 67 percent black. Galveston again was the commercial center of Texas.

Speaker 2:

So post-emancipation there's so much as they're starting to rebuild and not immediately, because they had yellow fever, other things that broke out after the Civil War and you had the challenge of rebuilding after war. But business was starting to come back and as business came back that meant money came back to the island. Prior to 1865, it was a Confederate economy, so you had Confederate currency and things. So you're moving into a US economy and business is coming back. So people are starting to build their lives and take advantage of this business coming into Galveston. That's why the population more than doubled from 1,200 to 3,000 and from 70 to 7,300 to over 13,000, because people were coming to Galveston and then it grew from 13 to 22,000 by 1880 because of all of the opportunity here on the island and as business continued to grow, these populations continued to grow.

Speaker 2:

The establishment of schools period, because the education system today looks very different than back then. They were actually paying to go to school. Even here in Galveston. Less than three months after Juneteenth there were two schools established one in the Baptist Church, which is now Avenue L, on September 4th 1865, and then also on September 6th at Reedy Chapel in 1865. But you also had a school up in Houston in August in 1865, established. So former enslaved people were trying to set up schools so that they could use education for upward mobility. They wanted their children to learn to read and write and they wanted them to take advantage of every opportunity that they had the establishment of the first black high school Central High School in 1886. So then they began establishing colleges and universities.

Speaker 1:

What were some of the things that these previously enslaved people were moving here and doing? What were some of the jobs? Who were some of these people?

Speaker 2:

Working on the port, and Galveston was one of the few places where black men and white men could make the same amount of money working at the port. It made a huge difference and if you think about it, if they're doing the same job can at the port, it made a huge difference and if you think about it, if they're doing the same job, why should they be paid different? So that led to a larger middle class. That led to other opportunities on the island and because of those jobs, they were able to establish businesses that supported their community, as far as newspapers, dry cleaning business, restaurants, as far as newspapers, dry cleaning business, restaurants all types of businesses that were needed to service the community.

Speaker 2:

And you know that prosperity unfortunately was lost with integration and the unintended consequence of a destruction of all many of the black businesses. My maternal grandmother says when she was a young woman in the 40s and 50s that she you could barely walk down Market Street between 25th and 29th because of all the black businesses and all the commerce. When you go to that area today, there's some businesses there, but it's still not the number of people that she talked about being in that area, and not only that area, there were other areas of Galveston too, so immediately afterwards, people were coming here for the opportunity for education and for business. So they were coming here to do business. Commerce, profit leads to prosperity.

Speaker 1:

Are there any individuals that you've studied that moved here maybe just a few years after the Civil War and really became prosperous individuals?

Speaker 2:

Well, you look at the Skull family. Horace Skull moved his family here immediately after Juneteenth in 1865. Reverend Ralph Albert Skull was five years old. He had a ledger where he wrote down a lot of the history of Galveston that his granddaughter eventually published a book Island of Color. Miss Isola Fedford Collins published a book Island of Color Ms Izola Fedford Collins and in that book it talks about black businesses, churches, education, about black life on the island. And so the Skull family, reverend Skull, eventually became a teacher. His daughter, born in 1888, viola Skull, eventually grew up and became a teacher. Her two daughters, ms Izola Collins and her sister Ms Henderson, both became teachers and they had a teacher in their family all the way into the 1980s. So over 100 years of this Skull-Fedford-Collins family on the island educating others.

Speaker 2:

So when we think about prosperity, oftentimes people think only profit and money. But there are many ways that individuals have impact and I think the Skull family is one of the families that are Galveston royalty. So just because there's not a major foundation with millions or billions of dollars, their contribution to the people of Galveston and to the history of the city, state and country is immeasurable in the lives of the individuals that they touched, in the education system in their local church, their family and friends and their lives on this island. Even today and recently, june Collins Pulliam retired, but she was still teaching music on the island. This idea of service to others and sacrificing your time and life to help improve the lives of others is still a tradition being passed down through her and her daughter, janae Pulliam, who is also a descendant of that family. They're still making contributions to this island from 1865 all the way to 2025. So they have a 160-year history here in Galveston.

Speaker 2:

And then you think about the Thomas family, reverend James B Thomas and his family, the late James B Thomas and their contributions. They have history connected back to an enslaved individual in their family being here pre-Juneteenth, so that history is even longer than 160 years. So here again is a family that has continued to work on the island, live on the island, celebrate the island. And we shouldn't measure individuals' impact solely on a dollar value, because Galveston's most famous native son, jack Johnson, that's not a billion dollar foundation that Jack Johnson left, but his impact on world history is so important because he lived freely in a time where many black men were being lynched for even daring to want to live free, so we celebrate him. We don't celebrate his death, but we say his name, john Arthur Johnson, aka Jack Johnson, to remember him and to keep his memory alive.

Speaker 1:

One interesting note that I was reading about Jack Johnson. During World War I, when the Germans were shelling the trenches on the British side, they had these big shells. They were, I mean, giant shells, and they used to call them Jack Johnsons because they would impact with such a force that they would just blow everything up, and at that time Jack Johnson was probably one of the most famous men on the planet. On the planet.

Speaker 2:

The planet that's what I tell individuals that when most people didn't travel more than 50 miles away from their place of birth, jack Johnson went around the world and carried that Galveston history with him. This island of success and accomplishment, this island of prosperity, that's the Galveston giant. You know that was a reason they called him the Galveston giant. You know that was a reason they called him the Galveston giant. And he struck a blow for freedom and for all of us to live our lives free, regardless of what others may try to do to limit us, just making sure that whenever you go into a room, that you never feel less than anyone. So again, I want people to understand that this Texas event that happened right here on Galveston Island has now become a national holiday and a worldwide celebration of freedom.

Speaker 2:

I recently invited Ghanaian Samuel Akwa to write a guest column or editorial talking about how Juneteenth is being celebrated in Ghana, in Accra.

Speaker 2:

There are many activities going on through the month of June in Accra, so think about that. An event that happened on an island in Texas, specifically Galveston Island, is being celebrated not only in Accra. On Juneteenth, at 6 am I'm going to be doing a live broadcast to a group in Nigeria, so they're six hours ahead, so they're going to get together around noon there. They wanted me to speak to them from Galveston, texas, the birthplace of Juneteenth, and when we think about these places in 2015, during the 150th anniversary of Juneteenth, I sent t-shirts and magazines to Nigeria in 2015. So this is not new efforts to promote this history internationally. So, while I love being here for Juneteenth, every year if I receive an opportunity to go there to represent this community, I will go for a week, june 15th through the 22nd, and promote this Galveston history on the worldwide stage. So you know, I want Galveston to celebrate that we have an event in this city that is being celebrated on the worldwide stage.

Speaker 1:

Mr Samuel Collins III. Thank you so much, man, I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Thank you.

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