Participate in Juneteenth at Sylvester Manor and honor the enslaved workers who labored here, contributing to our Island’s shared history.
Archivist/Curator Donnamarie Barnes will speak with visitors to Manor’s Afro-Indigenous Burial Ground. She’ll be onsite on Saturday, June 19 between 11 AM and 2 PM.
She’ll discuss the history of the enslaved at Sylvester Manor, talk about the upcoming burial ground rehabilitation project and answer questions.
All are invited to pay their respects throughout the day; Sylvester Manor is open daily from dawn to dusk. A new parking area for Burial Ground visitors has been established. Bear right at the fork in the Manor driveway and find the new parking area on left-hand side just past the burial ground. Walk up the new wood-chipped pathway leading to observation area.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when the news of liberation came to Texas more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863. African Americans across the state were made aware of their right to freedom on this day when Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston with federal troops and read General Order No. 3 announcing the end of the Civil War and that all enslaved were now free.
It has been celebrated in Black communities around the country since the late 1800s. In October 2020, New York State made it an official holiday for state workers.
[Learn more about Juneteenth and other ways to honor it here on Shelter Island in this post.]
