new is and the idea of freedom rich people in some southern states by the time major general gordon granger took command of the department of texas lincoln was dead and the thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery was about to be ratified the last of the. holdouts people who just wouldn't go of their desire to enslave human beings needed to be told once again that the days of slavery were over on june one thousand eight hundred sixty five mayor major granger dispatched this now famous order number three in which he declared the people of texas are informed that in accordance with the 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 here too for existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor but it wasn't easy transition from a country that built its foundations on slave labor and indentured servitude to put it behind them in fact we still haven't managed to remove slavery of their policies and ideology from all of our g