IT seems like so long ago. The American Civil War ended in 1865. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved people in the Southern states back in 1863, but it took the end of the war to turn the words into law. This was the day that slavery ended in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 (two years later). General Order Number 3 from General Gordon Granger said, in part: "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free." 

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