Emancipation Day
In much of the formerly British territories in the Caribbean Emancipation Day is marked on 1 August, commemorating the anniversary of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
On 1 August 1985, Trinidad and Tobago became the first independent country to declare Emancipation Day as a public holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery.
Historically, 1 August was known as West Indian Emancipation Day and it became a key mobilisation tool and holiday for the antislavery movement in the United States.
On 1 August 1985, Trinidad and Tobago, as an independent country, became the first former British territory to declare a national holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery.
Enslaved people older than six years of age were redesignated as "apprentices" and required to work, 40 hours per week without pay, as part of compensation payment to their former owners.
The first Monday and Tuesday in August was observed as a bank holiday so the populace can celebrate Emancipation Day.
Anguilla: In addition to commemorating emancipation, it is the first day of "August Week", the Anguillian Carnival celebrations.
Cup Match started when members of Friendly Societies and Lodges in Somerset in the west and St. George's Parish, in the east, gathered to mark the anniversary of the abolition of slavery.
In March 2021, the Canadian House of Commons voted unanimously on a motion to recognize 1 August as Emancipation Day across Canada.
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Arthur LeBlanc said in 2022, "as a province, we come together to renew our commitment to equity, peace, and dignity for all.
The province also recognizes 23 August as the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, in recognition of people of African descent in Haiti and the Dominican Republic fighting for their freedom in 1791.
It is also important to recall the ongoing international struggle for human rights and freedom from repression for persons of all races, which can be best personified by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe and Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
"[19] Notable Emancipation Day commemoriation include The Big Picnic, organised by the Toronto Division of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which attracted thousands of attendees from the 1920s through to the 1950s.
Organized by Walter Perry, the parade and festival boasted famous guests like Martin Luther King Jr, Mary McLeod Bethune, Stevie Wonder, Benjamin Mays, Fred Shuttlesworth, Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Though Perry's death in 1968 had a significant influence on the end of the tradition, fears over the Detroit Riot of 1967 caused the city's councillors to deny organizers necessary permits to stage an Emancipation Day celebration.
Started in 1967, it is a two-week celebration culminating in the long weekend, with the Kings and Queens Festival, Caribana parade, and Olympic Island activities.
Guyana: The first of August is celebrated as Emancipation Day with Cultural activities, and events; including family gathering where they cook traditional food such as cook-up.
[9][25][26] Traditionally people would keep at vigil on 31 July and at midnight ring church bell and play drums in parks and public squares to re-enact the first moments of freedom for enslaved Africans.
[30] [31] The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into full effect in the Cape Colony on the 1 December 1838, after a four-year period of forced apprenticeship.
The day also remembers that enslaved people in Suriname would not be fully free until 1873, after a mandatory 10-year transition period during which time they were required to work on the plantations for minimal pay and with state sanctioned force.
[50] The Act, introduced by Massachusetts senator and ardent abolitionist Henry Wilson, freed about 3,100 slaves in the District of Columbia nine months before President Lincoln issued his broader Emancipation Proclamation.
[52] On 4 January 2005, Mayor Anthony A. Williams signed legislation making Emancipation Day an official public holiday in the District.
[54] This affects the Internal Revenue Service's due date for tax returns, which traditionally must be submitted by 15 April.
[66] The observance commemorates the 1783 decision in the freedom suit of Quock Walker, which found slavery to be an unenforceable legal arrangement under the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution.
Massachusetts became the first state to record zero slaves in the federal census of 1790, as slavery was abandoned in favor of indentured servitude or paid employment.
As in other southern states, the local celebration commemorates the date in 1865 when African Americans in eastern Mississippi learned of their freedom.
3 April marks the day, in 1865, that Richmond fell to the Union Army, who were led by the United States Colored Troops.
It commemorates the Danish Governor Peter von Scholten's 1848 proclamation that "all unfree in the Danish West Indies are from today emancipated," following a slave rebellion led by John Gottlieb (Moses Gottlieb, General Buddhoe) in Frederiksted, Saint Croix.
[75] Emancipation Day, Freedom Week, and the culmination of St. John Festival are celebrated throughout the U.S. Virgin Islands with concerts, dancing, workshops, a historical skit, and a reenactment of the walk to Fort Frederik.
