We know half the story of Juneteenth. On June 19th, 1865, emancipation reached enslaved Africans in Galveston, Texas. That’s one half of today’s holiday. The other half includes accounts of former enslavers choosing to die by suicide on the day of Jubilee. They couldn’t fathom living without the exploitation of African labor and perceived death as the comfortable alternative. Their decisions indicated the value of African bodies. Masters assessed slaves as priceless. If we co