OHIO — While many across the country are celebrating Juneteenth, the holiday has special significance in Ohio when it comes to the freedom of slaves. 

What You Need To Know

  • The State of Ohio has a legacy of a history of civil disobedience, towards the laws of enslavement

  • Places like Yellow Springs, have a history of helping freedom seekers

  • There are hopes that people will learn the authentic truth about Juneteenth

Christopher Miller, Senior Director of Media Engagement and Education at the Cincinnati Museum Center, explained.

“Yellow Springs and many enclaves of different areas throughout the state of Ohio has this legacy of (a) history of civil disobedience, towards the laws of enslavement that were taking place,” Miller said.

Five years after Texas joined the United States in 1845, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made it a crime to escape and made it a crime to help anyone be free.

“Pocket areas throughout the state of Ohio, like Yellow Springs, has this wonderful history of helping freedom seekers along their way towards a better life,” said Miller. 

Now that Juneteenth is a federal holiday, Miller said this is a chance for people to become fully educated on what Juneteenth is about while celebrating the human spirit.

That includes understanding that even though the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, there was a war going on between the United States and the Confederate States of America.

“Texas was a part of those Confederate States. So adhering to a president that they did not acknowledge or pledge any allegiance did not impact them in that way,” Miller said. “But what it did was, it incentivized those who were enslaved to not only to fight vigorously for their own freedom but also to bear arms in that room to participate as Union forces.”