Freedom For Everyone

On June 17, 2021, Ms. Opal Lee, a 94-year-old Texas educator and activist, spoke about what she considered a “marvelous day” in the history of the United States. After leading campaigns for decades to make Juneteenth (June 19) a recognized holiday, Mrs. Lee was invited to the White House as President Joe Biden signed Senate Bill 475, turning her advocacy to reality. Biden noted this act as “one of the greatest honors” of his presidency. Nearly five months later, in an effort to “advance racial and social justice” at Northwestern, the Board of Trustees voted to recognize Juneteenth as a university-wide holiday. In both instances, the United States government and Northwestern declared a commitment to addressing racial inequality and acknowledging slavery’s insidious past as a crucial first step.

This exhibition highlights some of the Libraries’ holdings about American slavery and abolition in the 19th century, a period I decided to center for several reasons. First, the number of enslaved people in the U.S. increased from about 900,000 in 1800 to nearly 4 million by 1860. Second, the fate of slavery in the U.S. was among the most intense debates of the 19th century, prompting the nation to engage in its first Civil War. Lastly, the abolition of slavery presented nearly four million formerly enslaved people with the opportunity to pursue freedom, equality, and happiness — the fundamental rights conferred to American citizens. I organized these materials into four themes, none of which are discrete from one another, but rather overlapping: Slavery, Frederick Douglass, Freedom, and Abolition. A crucial aspect of this exhibition is the note on the Reparative Description Project completed by university library staff in 2021.

Ms. Lee described Juneteenth as a moment of reflection for the United States, because it symbolizes “freedom for everyone.” If Black people, who were codified into law as property, were to be free, then in theory everyone would be free. Thus, with Ms. Lee’s words giving this exhibition its name, I hope to tell this story of American slavery as a complex and a “barbarous institution that had blighted the lives of millions”¹ while demonstrating what “freedom for everyone” means, particularly for Black people in the United States.

Marquis Taylor
PhD History candidate

¹Annette Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth (New York & London: Liveright Publishing Corp., 2021), 9.