Despite being the biggest volcano in the Solar System, you'd barely notice you were climbing it.

With their long trousers, short jacket, and red cap of liberty, the sans-culottes are one of the more distinctive figures commonly associated with the French Revolution. From 1792, the term sans-culottes referred to the most radical supporters of the revolution, demanding political, economic, and social equality. Among the most passionate defenders of the revolutionary ideals during the Reign of Terror, their political influence decreased after Maximilien Robespierre became wary of their radicalism.Origins of the Sans-CulottesPortrait of a sans-culottes, by Louis-Lopold Boilly, c. 1792. Source: Wikimedia Commons / Muse Carnavalet, ParisOn June 20, 1792, a crowd of Parisians broke into the Tuileries Palace, where the French royal family was being held after their arrest the year before. Once inside, the protesters forced King Louis XVI to wear the Phrygian red cap of liberty, a symbol of the French Revolution.According to the eyewitness account by English doctor and travel writer John Moore, the June 20 protest had begun with a procession starting from the site of the former Bastille fortress (famously demolished on July 14, 1789). Headed by the National Guard of the faubourg Saint-Antoine, the crowd carried anti-royal banners. Tremble tyrants, or be just and respect the liberty of the people, read one of the slogans.Among other ingenious emblems, Moore recalled, a pair of old black breeches were carried on a pole, with this comfortable inscription, Libreset sans-culottes (Freeand without breeches). In the following months, the word sans-culottes began to spread through Paris and France, and the sans-culottes became a common sight in popular protests and assemblies. But what does sans-culottes actually mean?As John Moore accurately translated, the French term sans-culottes literally means without breeches. In late 18th century France, fashion was a strong indicator of social status, and appearance was seen as a reflection of a persons inner character. The wealthy elite, whose members could afford fine fabrics and expensive tailoring, usually wore well-fitting suits comprising a coat, waistcoat, and silk knee-length breeches.Cartoon of King Louis XVI wearing knee-length breeches and the red cap of liberty, c. 1792. Source: Wikimedia Commons / Library of Congress, Washington DCWhile the lower classes, who needed looser clothes to carry out their mostly manual jobs, also donned coats and waistcoats (albeit made of less expensive fabrics), they replaced the silk breeches with the pantalons (long trousers). Maximilien Robespierre would later distinguish between the golden breeches and the sans-culottes. During the initial years of the French Revolution, the crowd animating the streets of Paris and gathering in the many assemblies transformed these modest clothes into a badge of pride and a visual representation of their political stance.Their working-class trousers served as shorthand for their radical pride in their humble origins and egalitarian values, remarks fashion historian Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell. French writer Louis-Sbastien Mercier (1740-1814), commenting on the June 20, 1792, revolt in Paris, wrote: The aristocracy has given patriots the name of sans-culottes and they in turn, identifying themselves with the Greeks and Romans, all peoples who wore no breeches, have put a pair of breeches on parade, as if to tell that without us, you wouldnt have any breeches. The weapons used by miserable aristocrats whose sole strength is a play on words ought to be used to combat them.Print showing the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. Source: Gallica / Bibliothque nationale de France, ParisHistorian Michael Sonenscher, in his 2008 Sans-Culottes: An Eighteenth-Century Emblem in the French Revolution, has traced the origins of the word sans-culottes to the early 18th-century salon culture in France, where women matrons used to gift their proteges a pair of breeches (culottes) on New Years Day. As wearing these fashion items signified an authors financial security and literary status, writers without a wealthy patron who could give them a pair of the sought-after breeches were jokingly called sans culottes (without hyphen). According to Sonenscher, this salon society joke was also about a way of thinking about civility, politeness, and morality that resonated to early-modern conceptions of honour, honesty, and honnetete [honesty].The French Revolution challenged the existing link between culture and morality and wealth and justice. Indeed, the pantalons-wearing crowd of the Revolution rejected the political and social system of the Ancien Rgime, claiming active political participation for the lower classes, social equality, and a new set of ideals: liberty, fraternity, and equality.In the early 1790s, the sans-culottes costume, consisting of a short jacket (carmagnole), wooded shoes (sabots), the red cap of liberty (bonnet rouge), and the pantalons, became one the most popular symbols of the French Revolution.Who Were the Sans-Culottes?A sans-culotte holding a pique, by Jean-Baptiste and Pierre-Etienne Lesueur, c. 1793-1794. Source: Wikimedia Commons / Muse Carnavalet, ParisIt is difficult to define the social make-up of the sans-culottes. While it would seem natural to compare them to the working class, the sans-culottes were a far more diversified group. Indeed, scholars cautioned against describing them as a homogeneous social group with a corresponding class consciousness. Famous French historian Jules Michelet simply referred to the Parisian crowd of the French Revolution as the people.In the 1790s, the urban crowd, which made up the rank and files of the sans-culottes, was filled with artisans, small shopkeepers, craftsmen, former servants, wage laborers, and apprentices. On the other hand, wealthier tradesmen, public servants, and professionals from the middle class also donned the signature long trousers and red cap of liberty and took part in protests and riots. During the Reign of Terror, when following the wrong fashion style could lead to arrest, members of the higher classes also identified as sans-culottes.From November 1790, the newspaper Le Pre Duchesne (a popular French comic character) played a key role in turning the sans-culottes into an emblem of the revolution and spreading their ideas. Founded by Jacques Hbert, the main spokesman of the Parisian sans-culottes, Le Pre Duchesne often featured a pantalons-wearing man holding a musket and satirical editorials (written by Jacques Hbert himself with extensive use of swear words) against the aristocracy.Engraving of Jacques Ren Hbert, by Edme Bovinet after a drawing of Franois Bonneville, 1796. Source: Wikimedia Commons / Gallica, Bibliothque nationale de France, ParisThe animosity against the Ancien Rgimes elite and the rejection of the feudal system were key elements of the sans-culottes identity. We know who our friends are: those who freed us from the clergy and from the nobility, from feudalism, from tithes, from royalty and from all the plagues that follow in its wake, declared the members of the sans-culottes society of Beaucaire, a town in southern France.In the words of an arrested revolutionary, a sans-culotte is a man who goes everywhere on his own two feet, who has none of the millions youre all after, no mansions, no lackeys to wait on him. He is useful, because he knows how to plough a field, handle a forge, a saw, a file, to cover a roof, how to make shoes, and to shed his blood to the last drop to save the Republic.What Was the Sans-Culottes Role in the French Revolution?Run on the Tuileries on 10. Aug. 1792 during the French Revolution, by Jacques Bertaux, 1793. Source: Wikimedia Commons / Palace of VersaillesIn the first months of 1792, in Paris and several other French provinces, crowds took to the streets to protest against the rise of food prices. The increase was largely due to the depreciation of the assignats, the bonds issued in 1789 by the National Constitutional Assembly during the nationalization of the Roman Catholic Churchs lands in France. The land transfers were aimed at paying off the high public debt and were made mainly through the assignats.The value of the former churchs land initially guaranteed the value of the bonds. By 1792, however, the assignats, by then the main currency in the country, had fallen to 65% of their former value, leading to widespread inflation.The sans-culottes protesting the food shortages and higher cost of living aimed their resentment against the wholesalers and merchants accused of hoarding supplies and selling the products at higher prices. Breaking into warehouses and shops, the urban crowds called for the introduction of state-controlled prices. In the following months, the establishment of economic measures aimed at achieving social and economic equality became a key demand of the sans-culottes.Engraving depicting the execution of King Louis XVI, by Isidore Stanislas Helman after Charles Monnet, 1794. Source: Wikimedia Commons / Gallica, Bibliothque nationale de France, ParisIn 1792, the sans-culottes were also crucial in the campaign against the Girondins, the moderate faction of the National Convention calling for a bourgeois republic. In May, after the defection of General Charles Dumouriez to the anti-French coalition (France had declared war against Austria in April), the sans-culottes formed a front with the radical left and the Montagnards, the radical Jacobin deputies at the Convention. Together, they responded to Maximilien Robespierres call for an insurrection against the Girondins and for the death penalty for the king.On August 10, 1792, as fear of an imminent invasion spread throughout France, a mob of Parisians broke into the Tuileries Palace, killing several aristocrats and clergymen held there. In September, the National Convention declared the end of the monarchy. In Paris, the revolutionary Commune was established. Louis XVI, accused of treason, would be guillotined at the Place de la Rvolution (present-day Place de la Concorde in central Paris) on January 21, 1793, and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette, on October 16.About a year later, in September 1793, following more food riots in all 48 Parisian sections, the Montagnards-controlled National Convention finally introduced the General Maximum, the ceiling of food prices demanded by the sans-culottes.The Sans-Culottes, Maximilien Robespierre & the TerrorPortrait of Maximilien Robespierre, by anonymous, c. 1790. Source: Wikimedia Commons / Muse Carnavalet, ParisAfter the expulsion of the Girondins from the National Convention, the Montagnards still had to deal with an increasingly volatile situation, with Frances borders threatened by the anti-French coalition and the governments stability weakened by the civil war in the Vende, a region in northwestern France.In this complex landscape, in April 1793, the revolutionary forces set up the Committee of Public Safety to organize the defense against external and internal enemies and oversee the executive branch. In September, the Committee began to introduce harsher measures against the counterrevolution, with Maximilien Robespierre announcing the creation of a revolutionary militia that would be mainly recruited from the sans-culottes. During the subsequent Reign of Terror, the Committee of Public Safety and the local surveillance committee executed thousands of enemies of the revolution.In June, the Convention had incorporated some key demands of the sans-culottes, such as universal male suffrage, annual elections, popular referendum, and the right to a free education, in a new constitution. However, the charter would never come into effect as it was put on hold until the end of the emergency period.Meanwhile, the armes rvolutionnaires (paramilitary forces mainly composed of sans-culottes) created in French provinces began to arrest all those suspected of being aristocrats, an umbrella term that referred to all enemies of the revolution. In May 1793, a local orator described the aristocrats as all the people with money, all the fat merchants, all the monopolists, law students, bankers, pettifoggers and everyone who has something.A sans-culotte (left) holding a sword, print from Zur Geschichte der Kostme (On the History of Costume). Source: Wikimedia CommonsDuring the Terror, even behaving in a way that implied hostility toward the ideals of the revolution could lead to arrest. Paul Bonjour, a former valet of a member of the court, was arrested because his manners supposedly revealed the movements of a heart gangrened with aristocratic sentiments. In October 1793, the revolutionary committee of the Rpublique section justified the arrest of the Duke of Brancas-Creste stating that such men are incapable of bringing themselves to the heights of our revolution; their hearts are always full of pride and we shall never forget their former grandeur and their domination over us.By the end of 1793, however, the relationship between the sans-culottes and the revolutionary government began to worsen as many left-wing political leaders, including Maximilien Robespierre, grew increasingly wary of the sans-culottes radicalism.The Decline of the Sans-CulottesEngraving of a sans-culottes uprising in Paris in May 1793 against the Girondins, by Jean-Joseph-Franois Tassaert after Fulchran-Jean Harriet, c. 1800. Source: Wikimedia Commons / Muse Carnavalet, ParisAs tensions rose and food shortages provoked widespread discontent, on March 4, 1794, Jacques Hbert called for an uprising. Ten days later, the government, supported by the Jacobins, ordered his arrest. After his trial, Hbert was guillotined on March 24 along with a group of his supporters.Hberts execution negatively impacted the sans-culottes, decreasing their political influence. At the same time, the measures against its most radical supporters weakened the stability of the revolutionary government. As internal divisions within the Committee of Public Safety grew, Maximilien Robespierres leadership position was challenged by those who accused him of dictatorship. On July 27, 1794 (Thermidor 9 according to the revolutionary calendar), he was overthrown and arrested. He was guillotined the next day.After Robespierres death, the government abolished some of the most radical measures, including the General Maximum. As the National Convention began working on a new constitution, the royalist forces regrouped in the west and southwest of the country, launching the so-called White Terror. In October, a young Napoleon Bonaparte crushed a royalist coup dtat in Paris.Meanwhile, as the end of the controlled economy led to a surge in prices, the sans-culottes organized their last uprising in the spring of 1795. The protests failure marked the end of the political role of the sans-culottes.

The post-Roman era of Britain is synonymous with the Dark Ages. Due to the very name of this era, many today view it as a time during which society had collapsed and Britain was in chaos. While such a view is not entirely without basis, there was still considerable development and intellectual progress. In fact, the very earliest known center of learning in Britain is often held to have been established in this era. This college, perhaps the first ever founded in the country, was established by a prominent figure named Illtud.Who Was Illtud, Founder of Britains Oldest College?Stained glass depiction of St Illtud, 1949, Church of St Mary, Carmarthenshire, Wales. Source: University of WalesIlltud was one of the most important and influential religious figures in early medieval Britain. He appears in several hagiographies or biographies of the Saints. Due to the immense concentration of saints during this period, the period from roughly 450 to 650 is sometimes known as the Age of the Saints in British history. Yet, of all the saints, Illtud stands out as one of the most important.Furthermore, Illtud is also one of the most firmly historical of all the religious figures of this era. He appears in the earliest surviving hagiography, the Life of St Samson. This was written perhaps as early as the 7th century, long before most of the other hagiographies. He also has a hagiography dedicated to him, the Life of St Illtud.These various sources tell us that Illtud was the wisest, most intelligent, and most educated figure in Britain at that time. He was also believed to have been able to foretell the future, much like the learned figure of Merlin.Illtuds CollegeLlanilltud Fawr, Glamorgan. Source: Philip Halling via GeographGiven Illtuds incredible mind, it is no wonder that he should be responsible for the founding of the oldest college in Britain. According to the Life of St Illtud, the early part of his adulthood was spent as a military man. He served in the court of a certain King Poulentus of Glamorgan. He achieved a very high status within his royal court, becoming the master of the kings whole army. However, he was eventually persuaded to pursue a completely religious life. Upon doing so, he founded a religious site known as Llanilltud Fawr.This was a church, but it also functioned as a center of general learning. The account in the Life of St Illtud states that many people from all over Britain traveled to Llanilltud Fawr to be educated in the seven arts. Thus, people at this school apparently learned grammar, rhetoric, logic, astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, and music. The same seven schools are listed above the entranceways in the quadrangle of Oxford Universitys Bodleian Library.Illustration of Gildas, by William Marshall, c. 17th century. Source: National Portrait Gallery, UKNot only was this Britains oldest college, but it was also an exceptionally popular one. This was not just a center of learning that was used by those in the immediate region. Rather, there is evidence that people from faraway parts of Britain traveled there to receive an education. For example, a 6th-century monk called Gildas appears to refer to Illtud and his college in his De Excidio. One part of this document is a condemnatory message addressed to a powerful king named Maglocunus. Scholars widely agree that this king can be identified with Maelgwn Gwynedd, a king of northwest Wales. Llanilltud Fawr, meanwhile, is in southeast Wales.Gildas refers to Maelgwn as being educated by the most eloquent master of almost all Britain. It is thought that he was probably referring to Illtud. He was by far the most prominent educator in Britain in Maelgwns time. This apparent reference to him in a contemporary document shows just how far-reaching and popular his college was.When Was Illtuds College Founded?Plaque on St Illtuds Church, showing a traditional date for the colleges founding around 500. Source: Llantwit Major Local History SocietyWhen, exactly, was Britains oldest college founded? The answer to that question, without doubt, is some time in the 6th century. However, can we be more specific than that? As it happens, there is some controversy surrounding the dating of Illtud. The reason is that the Life of St Samson, the earliest source for this figure, mentions that Illtud was educated by Germanus. This is generally assumed to be Germanus of Auxerre, who visited Britain in 430 and 446. Due to this, some modern sources conclude that Illtud was predominantly or even entirely a 5th-century figure. This would mean that his college, Llanilltud Fawr, would presumably have been founded in about the mid-to-late 5th century.Since Germanus of Auxerre died in 448, any disciple of his must have already been at least a youth by then. This makes it unlikely that Illtud survived beyond the early 6th century, and his college must have been established for a significant period before his death.Illustration of Germain of Paris in the Book of Hours, by Jean le Tavernier, c. 15th century. Source: Wikimedia CommonsHowever, a further examination of the evidence makes it clear that this chronology is entirely impossible. The very same source that states that Illtud was a disciple of Germanus, the Life of St Samson, makes it clear that Illtud was an older contemporary of Samson. It is Illtud, after all, who educates Samson at Llanilltud Fawr. Samson was a thoroughly 6th-century figure since he was involved in the overthrow of Count Conomor of Brittany. We know that this occurred in 560 because it was described by Gregory of Tours, a contemporary Frankish historian.Therefore, Illtud cannot have been a disciple of Germanus of Auxerre. In reality, the earliest source that specifies which Germanus educated Illtud is the Life of St Brioc, written in the 9th century. This source specifies that Illtud was a disciple of Germanus of Paris, usually known as Germain of Paris. He became a priest in 530, which indicates that the year 530 is the earliest that Illtud could have become his disciple.Evidence From Samson of DolStatue of St Samson of Dol, Caldey Island, Wales. Source: Chris Downer via GeographHowever, a further examination of the Life of St Samson shows that Illtuds college, the oldest in Britain, cannot have been founded much later than that. The reason is that the hagiography tells us specifically that Samson expressed to his parents his desire to go to school when he was just five years old. His parents then sent him to Llanilltud Fawr to be educated by Illtud. Hence, the account makes it clear that Illtuds college already existed when Samson was five years old, or a year or so after that at most.However, Samson is shown to have already been a bishop at the time of Conomors overthrow, which occurred in 560. Therefore, Samson must have been an experienced adult, probably at least 30 years old, when this occurred. It is true that the standard minimum age of bishops in the medieval period was 35. However, due to the paucity of reliable information about religious customs in early Dark Age Britain, there is no basis for knowing the intricacies of religious customs in early Dark Age Britain.Coin of Childebert I, Paris, c. 6th century. Source: Bibliothque Nationale de FranceIn any case, it does seem reasonable to place Samsons birth at least 30 years before Conomors death in 560. That would mean that he would have been five years old in c. 535, meaning that Illtuds college must have already been established by then. However, Illtud is presented as approaching King Childebert I about Conomor, who died in 558. Illtud was already a bishop by then and had been for some time. Therefore, we can likely place the start of his tenure as bishop in 556 or 557 at the very latest.This would mean that Samsons birth should be placed in c. 526 or 527, and the college must have already been founded by about 531 or 532. Therefore, we can conclude that Illtud became a disciple of Germanus of Paris in 530, the same year the latter became a priest. Shortly afterward, he returned to Britain to found his own church.What We Know About Britains Oldest CollegeDark Age inscribed stones inside the present-day Llanilltud Fawr, Glamorgan. Source: Wikimedia CommonsIn conclusion, what do we know about Britains oldest college? The oldest center of learning in Britain appears to have been the church founded by Illtud, known as Llanilltud Fawr. This is in Glamorgan, southeast Wales. It was a center of learning that was frequented by people from all over Britain, including Samson of Dol, Maelgwn Gwynedd, and Gildas. There, people learned rhetoric, grammar, logic, astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, and music. Its founder, Illtud, was remembered as being one of the most intellectually remarkable people of his time.Regarding when exactly Britains oldest college was founded, we can place its establishment in approximately 531 or 532. This conclusion is based on an analysis of the evidence from the contemporary writings of Gregory of Tours, the near-contemporary Life of St Samson, and the later Life of St Brioc. Illtud was evidently a disciple of Germain of Paris, not Germanus of Auxerre, as commonly believed.

The abolition of slavery in the United States is usually associated with the Emancipation Proclamation, issued in its final form by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. Juneteenth, a US federal holiday commemorating the liberation of African-American slaves in Texas, came on June 19, 1865. Read on to find out why it took over two years for Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation to come into effect in Texas.Slavery and the American Civil WarAbraham Lincoln. Photograph by Matthew Brady, 1860. Source: US Library of Congress via Wikimedia CommonsThe American Civil War (1861-1865) was caused by several interrelated factors. Debates about the future of slavery in the United States was one of the main reasons why southern slave-holding states sought to break away from the North.While the institution of slavery was never explicitly mentioned in the US Constitution, the infamous three-fifths clause allowed slaveholding states to count slaves as three-fifths of a free person to increase their congressional representation, even though they did not have any political rights.In 1819-1820, disagreements about the status of slavery in Missouri threatened to break the Union apart. While the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a temporary balm to the sectional tensions, the issue reared its ugly head once again during the 1840s with the annexation of Texas, the conquest of Mexican territory during the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, and the rise of the Free Soil Movement opposing the westward expansion of slavery.Despite the Compromise of 1850 over the admission of California as a free state, slavery remained at the top of the political agenda during the decade. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 led to political violence between pro- and anti-slavery factions in Kansas, the 1857 Dred Scott ruling by the Supreme Court prevented the federal government from banning slavery in any state provoked outrage in the North, while the execution of John Brown following his unsuccessful raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859 created a martyr for the anti-slavery cause.A print of the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861. Source: Library of CongressThe Republican Party was founded in 1854 to resist further expansion of slavery, bringing together the Free Soilers and much of the old Whig Party. In 1860, the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. A hitherto unknown lawyer and one-term congressman from Illinois, Lincoln gained national recognition following a celebrated series of debates against Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas in the 1858 Senate elections.While Lincoln was narrowly defeated by Douglas in the senatorial election, the debates served as a platform for his successful bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1860. With the Democratic Party split between northern and southern factions on the issue of slavery, Lincoln easily won election as president.Lincoln was opposed to further expansion of slavery, but he did not believe he had the authority to abolish slavery in the 15 slaveholding states. While this position was not as radical as some other Republican leaders such as William H. Seward, whom Lincoln would appoint as his Secretary of State, the southerners believed that Lincoln was intent on abolishing slavery entirely.On December 20, South Carolina crossed the Rubicon and seceded from the United States. Six other slave states followed suit and formed the Confederate States of America in February 1861. After the Battle of Fort Sumter in South Carolina marked the outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861, four more states seceded and joined the Confederacy.The Emancipation ProclamationGeorge B. McClellan. Photograph by Matthew Brady, 1861. Source: Wikimedia CommonsLincolns priority in the American Civil War was to defeat the southern rebellion and preserve the Union. During the first year of the war, he was reluctant to support proposals by radical Republicans to emancipate all slaves, fearing a negative reaction from the four slave states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri that remained loyal to the Union.The war began badly for the Union. The small Union garrison at Fort Sumter was forced to surrender, and the Union army was defeated at the First Battle of Bull Run (known by Confederates as Manassas) in July 1861 in northern Virginia, the first major battle of the conflict.In November, Lincoln appointed George B. McClellan as general-in-chief of the Union army. McClellan was a brilliant military organizer and administrator who was idolized by his men as Little Napoleon. However, he lacked Napoleons aggression and was unwilling to go on the offensive, prompting Lincoln to strip him of overall command in March 1862 while retaining him as commander of the Army of the Potomac.When a reluctant McClellan was finally persuaded to take the offensive in summer 1862, he was repeatedly outmaneuvered by the Confederate commander Robert E. Lee and failed to capitalize on tactical successes despite enjoying a healthy numerical advantage during the Seven Days Battles.Lincoln recognized that the Union war effort would be helped by allowing Union armies to confiscate Confederate property and deprive landowners of their slaves, but in the summer of 1862 he was still not prepared to publicly announce the abolition of slavery.Page 1 of Lincolns Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, 1862. Source: Library of CongressOn August 19, 1862, the abolitionist journalist Horace Greeley wrote an editorial in the New York Tribune attacking Lincolns cautious approach to abolition. In a famous reply dated August 22, Lincoln assured Greeley that he personally wanted to free all slaves, but that in his official capacity as President of the United States:My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.Through this carefully crafted letter, Lincoln was signaling that he was prepared to abolish slavery if it enabled him to save the Union. When he wrote the letter to Greeley, Lincoln already had a draft of his Emancipation Proclamation, in which he used his authority as commander-in-chief to declare that slavery would be abolished within the states in rebellion.Unwilling to give the impression that he was forced into emancipation due to the faltering war effort, Lincoln awaited positive news on the battlefield before issuing the proclamation. This came with McClellans victory over Lee at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland on September 17, 1862. While McClellan failed to destroy Lees Army of Northern Virginia on the field, Lees retreat led Lincoln to issue his proclamation.The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862 gave Confederate states the opportunity to return to the Union to avoid being subject to its terms. Since none of them did so, Lincolns final Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863 declared that all slaves in states in rebellion were henceforth considered free.While the proclamation excluded four slave states within the Union as well as Tennessee, now fully under Union control, it covered 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the United States. Since these areas were still under Confederate control, the proclamation could not be enforced immediately, but served as a legal framework for emancipation when Union armies occupied Confederate territory.The Civil War in TexasAn illustration of the Siege of Vicksburg by Thrue de Thulstrup, 1888. Source: Library of Congress via Wikimedia CommonsImmortalized by Lincolns Gettysburg Address, the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863 is one of the most famous battles fought on American soil. General George Meades victory over Lees Army of Northern Virginia caused the latter to abandon his invasion of the North.While Gettysburg led Lincoln and his cabinet to breathe a sigh of relief in Washington, Ulysses S. Grants victory at the Siege of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 was equally significant. At a single stroke, Grant took control of the Mississippi and cut the Confederacy into two, leaving Texas, Arkansas, and part of Louisiana isolated from the rest of the Confederacy.Vicksburg was a bitter blow to the Confederate war effort. Texas had voted to secede from the Union by a three-quarters majority in February 1861, and over the course of the war, some 90,000 Texans served in the ranks of the Confederate Army. While the Confederates were able to bring goods in and out of Texan ports by running the Union naval blockade, the supply of cattle from Texas ranches to Confederate troops east of the Mississippi was severely disrupted by the fall of Vicksburg.General Nathaniel P. Banks. Photograph by Matthew Brady, 1861. Source: Library of Congress via Wikimedia CommonsWhile Texas was now isolated from the rest of the Confederacy, it would take almost two years for Union forces to subdue the Confederates. The Union had captured the Texan port of Galveston in October 1862, only for the Confederates to retake it on New Years Day 1863. Union general Nathaniel Banks made an unsuccessful attempt against Galveston in September 1863, though in November, Banks was more successful in capturing Brownsville on the mouth of the Rio Grande and cutting off Texas trade with Mexico.In 1864, Banks redeployed his men for offensive operations in Louisiana, allowing the Confederates to regain Brownsville. Banks was also defeated in the Red River campaign of April 1864, but Union victories east of the Mississippi, particularly William T. Shermans devastating march through Georgia, drained the morale of Confederate soldiers in Texas.June 19, 1865Major General Gordon Granger. Photograph by Matthew Brady, 1861-1865. Source: Wikimedia CommonsGeneral Lees surrender to General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865 is widely regarded as the end of the American Civil War. Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi, vowed to continue the fight even while Confederate soldiers were deserting en masse.On May 13, Colonel Rip Ford led a Confederate cavalry and artillery force to victory at Palmito Ranch near Brownsville against a Union infantry force that was not expecting any resistance. This minor skirmish proved to be the last battle of the Civil War, and after receiving orders to disband his army General Smith formally surrendered on June 2.On June 10, Major General Gordon Granger was appointed commander of the District of Texas. Upon his arrival at Galveston on June 19, Granger issued General Orders No. 3 enacting the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas: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.While this ensured that June 19 became a significant date in African-American history, Grangers proclamation was largely symbolic as it took weeks and months for Grangers order to be enforced throughout the state.Enforcement and CelebrationEmancipation Day celebration in Austin, Texas, 1900. Source: Smithsonian InstitutionFor Granger, General Order No. 3 was a routine item of business as part of his duties to enforce federal control of a rebellious state, but as news of Grangers order spread through Galveston and across the state, it led to jubilant celebrations among the formerly enslaved men and women who had just won their freedom.At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, Texas had a slave population of around 180,000. This figure increased substantially to 250,000 during the war as many southerners found refuge in Texas and took their slaves with them.Over the coming weeks and months, General Granger and the men under his command circulated the order throughout the state. While the slaveholders were reluctant to let go of their slaves and in many cases forced them to work through one final harvest season, by the end of the year most of them had complied with the order. The newly freed slaves established new communities known as Freedmans Towns in major cities in Texas such as Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio.Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, featuring Abraham Lincolns signature dated February 1, 1865. Source: US National ArchivesSince Texas was the last of the Confederate states to be liberated by Union forces, June 19, 1865 is celebrated as the official end of slavery in the United States. However, slavery remained legal in the Union border states of Delaware and Kentucky. The Thirteenth Amendment, which formally abolished slavery, was ratified and proclaimed in December 1865.The freedmen of Galveston organized a celebration on June 19, 1866, the first anniversary of General Order No. 3. The event was known as Jubilee Day, and served as an opportunity for freedmen to learn about their political and civil rights after emancipation. In 1872, Black leaders in Houston purchased a tract of parkland named Emancipation Park, initially solely reserved for the celebration of Jubilee or Emancipation Day. It was only in the 1890s that the holiday first began to be called Juneteenth, portmanteau of June Nineteenth.Official RecognitionCelebration of Juneteenth in Washington DC during the Poor Peoples March on Washington, 1968. Source: WHYYWhile Juneteenth continued to be a cause of celebration for the Black community in Texas, the freedom that had been granted them by General Order No. 3 did not translate to equality. Freedmen in Texas and across the country continued to face racial discrimination and lacked employment opportunities.Although President Ulysses S. Grant and congressional Republicans sought to protect African-Americans from attacks by white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, an economic downturn known as the Panic of 1873 and accusations of corruption against the Grant administration weakened the federal response.During the latter decades of the 19th century, many Black Texans left the state seeking better economic opportunities and greater political and social freedoms in the northern states. While some of these migrants introduced Juneteenth celebrations to their new homes, most worked factory jobs and no longer had free time to mark the anniversary.Meanwhile, segregationist Jim Crow laws contributed to the decline of the holiday in Texas. Celebrations of Juneteenth were revived at the Texas State Fair during the 1930s, and in 1938 Democratic Governor James V. Allred officially recognized June 20 as Emancipation Day, since June 19 fell on a Sunday that year. During the 1960s, Civil Rights leaders likened the struggle for racial equality with that of emancipation from slavery, encouraging observance of Juneteenth across the country.In 1980, Texas was the first state to recognize Juneteenth as a paid state holiday. Other states gradually followed suit, and by 2008 a majority of US states recognized Juneteenth in some form. By the time President Joe Biden designated Juneteenth a federal holiday in June 2021, all 50 states with the exception of South Dakota had recognized the holiday at a state level.

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The developers of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles have confirmed that the game wont feature any of the new content from The War of the Lions remake on the PSP, save for its altered translation.

Intel looks very much like its about to release a new gaming CPU with a very cheap price, aimed solely at gamers. The new Intel Core 5 120F has recently appeared in a leaked marketing slide, and it looks as though the new budget gaming CPU will also happily work in existing LGA1700 motherboards, as long as they support DDR5 memory.If this leak is genuine, the new Core 5 120F looks very similar to the existing Intel Core i5 12400F, which is currently our tip as the best gaming CPU if youre on a very tight budget I used one for several years, and its surprisingly capable in games. Like the 12400F, this new Intel CPU apparently goes right back to basics, with just six P-Cores and no E-Cores. Continue reading This new budget Intel CPU is the "perfect choice for gamers" according to leakMORE FROM PCGAMESN: Intel Core Ultra 7 265K review, Best gaming CPU, Core i9 14900K review

An incredibly rare Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with 20GB of VRAM has sold on eBay for $1,999, and is apparently in full working order with one critical exception: Nvidia drivers do not support this card. The GPU itself is actually less powerful than most modern cards, but is one of the few to ever surface on the secondhand market.Compared to the best graphics card of the moment, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, the 20GB VRAM variant of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti doesnt measure up to it. The 20GB 3080 Ti model doesnt even have native driver support, with the card's seller stating a third-party driver like Nvidia-patcher is required to get the card running. Despite this, the RTX 3080 Ti 20GB VRAM sold for as much as an RTX 5090, and the reason why will require a very, very brief history lesson. Continue reading Canceled Nvidia GeForce graphics card sells for the same as a brand-new RTX 5090MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 review, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 review, Best graphics cards

Broken Arrow feels like a great middle point between accessible, classic-style RTS games such as Command and Conquer and Total Annihilation, and the more complex, realistic milsim types, like World in Conflict and Warno. One of the most wishlisted new strategy games on Steam, its finally arrived via advanced access, meaning players who purchased the premium edition can play it right now (with the full release date to follow on Thursday June 19). So far, reception is largely positive. But theres one consistent sticking point among players which is dragging the Broken Arrow Steam reviews down. Continue reading New, realistic RTS game Broken Arrow is finally here, but players face a problemMORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best war games, Best tank games, Best strategy games

Want to know which kit to choose in FBC Firebreak? Before you assemble your crack squad of elite Firebreak agents, you first need to pick a crisis kit to tackle every mission. Each kit provides your squad with a different role, and you can strengthen your role with the correct set of weapons and items.Depending on which kit you opt for in FBC Firebreak, you can drastically improve your odds of completing missions with as many Assets and Samples as you carry in the co-op game. Were going to break down the strengths and weaknesses of the Fix, Jump, and Splash Kits to help make your decision considerably easier. Continue reading Best FBC Firebreak kit - which kit to chooseMORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best co-op games, Best FPS games, Best Game Pass games