Fact Check: Bill Nye Claims Last Slaves Were Freed on Juneteenth
Posted on AllSides June 22nd, 2022
From The Right
FACT CHECK
CLAIM: Bill Nye, the “Science Guy,” claimed in a recent tweet that the last slaves weren’t officially freed until June 19, 1865, or on “Juneteenth.”
VERDICT: FALSE. The last slaves were freed upon the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery and other forms of involuntary servitude throughout the U.S. The ratification took place December 6, 1865.
President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in the Confederacy with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. But the proclamation didn’t apply to slaves in border states, which Lincoln didn’t want to alienate in...