General Orders No. 3 (1865)

General Orders No. 3 (1865)

AP African American Studies Guide

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Topic 2.24

General Gordon Granger, “General Orders, No. 3” (1865)

[Official.]

Headquarters District of Texas,

Galveston, Texas, June 19th, 1865.

General Orders, No. 3.

The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States “all slaves are free.” This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.

The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they wil[l] not be allowed to collect at military posts, and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere. By order of

Major General GRANGER.

F.W. Emery, Major, A.A. General

Source: Flake's Tri-Weekly Bulletin (Galveston, Tex.), June 20, 1865, p. 2, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, accessed on the Portal to Texas History, University of North Texas Libraries.