A week of celebration commemorating Juneteenth is still underway. While the holiday is known to bring people together through music, food, and events- Historic Stagville shares the hard truths of the past and why this day is being remembered.
Juneteenth marks the end of slavery in the United States. Specifically, it marks the anniversary of the day in 1865 when union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce that all people were free as per the Emancipation Proclamation issued two years prior.
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“We want to remember the stories of people who were seeking freedom long before 1865 and the way that people continued to struggle for freedom even after they were legally free from slavery,” said Vera Cecelski, the site manager of Historic Stagville.
“People continued to struggle for citizenship, for voting rights, access to land ownership, safety for themselves and their families after the end of enslavement,” she added.
People from near and far visit and walk through Historic Stagville for guided tours.
“Every time you kind of step on one, it feels like you're in a time machine, you know, you kind of look at like the suffering that people went through,” said Caqks Madu, who is visiting Raleigh from Chicago.
During the week of Juneteenth, the staff have led the free tours, guiding people through a row of two-story wooden houses that held 20 to 30 enslaved people each, painting the picture of pain and perseverance.
“The conditions like the slave quarters, just hot weather, cold weather, there's no insulation in there. And it just, like makes you just really go through a deep sense of emotions,” Madu added.
Stagville, a Cameron family-owned plantation, was home to about 1,000 enslaved people at its peak.
The now historical site is commemorating the moment they were set free. During emancipation, one in three people in the state were still enslaved.
“The first months and year of freedom was a time of celebration and also a time of turmoil and conflict," Cecelski said. "For people who were emancipated, they faced dangerous backlash to their new found freedom, but they also had hopes and dreams of new safety, new opportunities, new possibilities.”
Those new possibilities are represented in Durham today from the African American businesses to neighborhoods descendants began building and thriving in. It’s another reason why historians find it crucial to magnify the intimate local stories, too.
“This history really wasn't that long ago. We still have here in Durham, for example, elders who remember sitting with their great grandparents and speaking with someone firsthand who lived through emancipation, and these stories shape our communities and our state still today,” Cecelski said.
In 2025, the struggle and resilience is on display with celebrations around the globe.
“I think one thing about Juneteenth, especially growing up in Chicago, and a lot of people from Chicago have the Mississippi connection.. is I feel like it’s one of those authentic stories that get told in black culture,” Madu said.
“What we learn in the elementary books and stuff they kind of give us the watered down, gentrified version but this is like the true raw stuff,” he said while standing in front of a former dwelling for enslaved people.
Juneteenth has become an opportunity for reflection and growth, highlighting why this part of history still matters today.
“It’s one thing to read about these stories in a textbook. It’s another thing actually come and bear witness to the places where history happened,” Cecelski added.
This year is the 19th annual Juneteenth program at Historic Stagville.
WRAL has a full list of Juneteenth events and celebrations taking place across the Triangle this weekend online.