Cassandra and her family have moved to her parents' hometown in Texas, but it doesn't feel like home to Cassandra until she experiences Juneteenth, a Texas tradition celebrating the end of slavery.

Cassandra and her family have moved to her parents' hometown in Texas, but it does not feel like home to Cassandra until she experiences Juneteenth, a Texas tradition celebrating the end of slavery.

In 1865, members of a family start their day as slaves, working in a Texas cotton field, and end it celebrating their freedom on what came to be known as Juneteenth.

Discusses the origin and present-day celebration of Juneteenth, a holiday marking the day, June 19, 1865, Texan slaves realized they were free.

Provides information on the origin of Juneteenth and some of the ways in which it is celebrated.

In his book The Legacy of the Civil War, Robert Penn Warren remarked that "the Civil War is, for the American imagination, the great single event of our history." This volume reconsiders whether, fifty years later, Warren's influential claim still holds true. Essays from scholars in art, literature, and history examine how the Civil War is represented and interpreted in contemporary culture. They look at the works of more than thirty artists and writers as well as multiple political movements to reveal the many and provocative ways in which Americans engage the Civil War today, including chapters on the importance of Abraham Lincoln to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, controversies over the Confederate flag, and the proliferation of "Juneteenth" observances. Special attention is paid to the works of African Americans and white southerners, for whom the Civil War was a revolutionary and defining moment. Such prominent scholars as Robert H. Brinkmeyer Jr., W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Kirk Savage, and Elizabeth Young explore the works of major artists and less well-known figures, including Bobbie Ann Mason, Kara Walker, Dario Robleto, and John Huddleston. The authors repeatedly find that Americans today openly and playfully manipulate familiar images of the Civil War to explore the malleability of traditional social categories such as national identity, gender, and race. With the sesquicentennial of the Civil War upon us, this collection continues the conversation Warren began fifty years ago, albeit in unorthodox and challenging ways, to offer fresh and stimulating perspectives on the war's presence in the collective imagination of the nation.

Juneteenth is usually celebrated on June 19. It honors the day in 1865 when Union troops swept into Galveston, Texas, and told the elated slaves there that they were free. This accessible volume delves into the American Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the events that led to this special holiday for African Americans and everyone who celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. Carefully chosen photographs reflect this special commemoration, both in the past and today.