Galveston Island – The Freedom Walk trail in Galveston retraces the footsteps of Major General Gordon Granger and the 2000 federal soldiers who arrived in Galveston on June 19, 1865, to announce that those enslaved were free. This day would become, what we now know as, Juneteenth.
The trail begins at Pier 21 on Harborside Drive in Galveston. Here you will find a plaque placed in remembrance of those forced to traverse The Middle Passage, a treacherous stretch of the Atlantic ocean between Africa and the Americas. Torn from friends and family in Africa and sent into slavery, many died along the way. Those who did survive landed on foreign soil and were forced to work as slaves. By 1860 close to a third of Galveston’s population were people living under slavery.
Houston Life reporter, shares some of the history and shows us the plaque.
If you would like to walk the Freedom Trail, there is an app for that! Download it at VisitGalveston.com