PlanetAlbany

Emancipation Proclamation at Capitol

As the NYS legislative session continues past its scheduled end last week, the action is on the second floor, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo has his offices and the "three men in a room" meet. Also on that floor is a public exhibit on the 150th anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln, which I checked out when it opened in April. The highlight is a facsimile of the first version of the Emancipation Proclamation, in the president's handwriting except for pasted-in legislative language.

It was under the authority of that document that most American slaves were freed by the U.S. Army, culminating on Juneteenth. (The rest were liberated upon ratification of the 13th Amendment.) And 150 years later, to the credit of Nikki Haley and other South Carolina leaders, it looks like the Confederate flag will no longer fly at their Capitol.

So check out that moving piece of history if you're at the NYS Capitol -- and if you see our governor, urge him to hang tough for his education tax credit.

Juneteenth 150 years ago

"GENERAL ORDERS,

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF TEXAS, No. 3.

Galveston, Tex., June 19, 1865.

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 freedman are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will 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 and Assistant Adjutant-General."

Gordon Granger had landed in Galveston on June 17 with 1,800 soldiers, under orders from Major-General Philip Sheridan, who was based in New Orleans, to assume command of all U.S. troops in Texas, enforce the Emancipation Proclamation but advise the freed slaves that "they must remain at home," and "take such steps as in your judgment are most conducive to the restoration of law and order and the return of the State to her true allegiance to the United States Government."

Unlike most of the Confederacy, Texas was not conquered during the Civil War, and many of its white residents were hoping that slavery or some form of forced labor would be permitted to continue by federal authorities. The language of Granger's order was designed to disabuse them of such notions, and make the position of the U.S. government clear. So his order differed from Sheridan's in two significant aspects. He advised the freed slaves to remain at home (in large part for their own protection) but did not adopt Sheridan's language that they "must" do so, because Granger recognized that would infringe on their new freedom.

 A yet more important difference was Granger's explanation of what emancipation meant: "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." Those words amounted to a social revolution in post-Civil War Texas, which most white people were not prepared to accept. They also made Granger's order, with the exception of constitutional amendments and other laws, the most significant document of the Reconstruction era.

That significance was immediately recognized in Texas by African-Americans, whose celebrations of "Juneteenth" (from June 19, the date of Granger's order) helped cement their solidarity and enable them to retain more political representation and civil rights after the end of Reconstruction than blacks in the Deep South states to the east. But the promise of Granger's Juneteenth order was not fulfilled until the mid-20th century civil rights movement. Since then, the holiday has come to be celebrated nationwide. 

You can obviously read more about this in my biography of Granger, which picked up a review in the May 2015 Journal of Southern History. And today I did an interview for a story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

 

Pho Yum rules Albany

Pictured is the Classic Ham (Thit Nguoi) Banh Mi sandwich at one of the three Pho Yum restaurants in Albany County. All the Banh Mis have cucumber, cilantro, pickled carrots and radishes, and this one includes house-made paté, butter, black pepper and soy sauce. The excellent baguette, as well as the pate and butter, show the French influence on Vietnamese cuisine. My wife Barbara ate this one and took the photos, while I (on a second visit) had a different Banh Mi, the seasoned shredded pork (Bì), with nuoc mam sauce. It was very good and satisfying. The vegetables have a refreshing taste, as they do in the summer rolls, which have noodles, lettuce, cucumber, bean sprouts, mint, basil and a choice of meats and other fillings, not fried but wrapped in light translucent rice paper.

Then there is the pho itself:

The menu says it's "Our hearty Vietnamese rice noodle soup in a flavorful beef broth.  All Phở is served with a side of bean sprouts, basil, jalapeno, lime, Hoisin sauce and Sriracha spicy sauce. Finished with onions, scallions, cilantro and black pepper. Vegetarian Phở is made with vegetable broth."

You can feel it doing you good, while the sprouts on the side cleanse the palate. On our second visit, they let us split a bowl of Bo Vien (meatball) Pho, and the total cost of that and two Banh Mis, before tip, was $24.03. (But Barb's photo shows Chin -- beef eye round -- Pho from the earlier visit.)

We ate on Central Avenue in Colonie. One of their other locations is Empire State Plaza, providing some indoor competition for the food carts outside. And I haven't even tried the Bun Vermicelli yet.

Time for tax credit

For blog item in Ballston Journal click here.