Was Reconstruction A Failure Or Success

Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison were the most famous abolitionists who spoke out publicity against slavery, racial discrimination, and were strong supporters of women’s rights. Douglass himself escaped from slavery and went from courage to freedom. He published his autobiography “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” that is considered works of the narrative slave tradition and life learning lessons that he encountered. The narrative illustrates instances of Douglass courage on his journey. Freedom was not something that was given to him.

Zora Neale Hurston’s outward self-confidence reflects her ancestors push for social change in America. During slavery, an African American could never speak in this way. However, the Reconstruction resulted in the Great Migration, a time when African Americans moved North to find jobs, pursue what they love, and have freedom like evryone anyone else. The Harlem Renaissance occurred where African Americans such as Aaron Douglas, Zora Neale Hurston, and Claude Mckay influenced others to realize the importance of their culture which led to social change.

In fact, in Brenda Barrett’s novel The Pull of Freedom, the author details the struggles two fictional characters who were treated with cruelty and violence, and escaped their plantation to start a new journey in a different country. Those characters would do anything just to get freedom. Brenda Barrett’s novel “The Pull of Freedom” is an accurate representation of Jamaica in the 1700’s because it describes plantation life, slavery, social status and illegal immigration. Brenda Barrett connected the novel “The Pull of Freedom” plantation life to the real aspects of Jamaica in the 1700’s. The first way she developed an authentic plantation life is because “by the early 1700’s, sugar estates worked by black slaves were established throughout the island”(Veront Satchell).

Many of the social changes involved the South because the Union had been fighting for emancipation of slaves, so the social changes weren’t as drastic. Meanwhile, in the ex-confederacy, they were still fighting to keep slavery alive and still viewed blacks as property. Near the end of the Civil War, when it looked like confederates were losing anti-black groups started forming. In fact, in Harper’s Weekly in 1874, an image was featured and it depicted two people, one from the kkk and one from the white league, holding a banner that had black in fear and said worse than slavery. Their audience were those who agreed with emancipation, and more specifically blacks who had just been free.

Franklin wasn’t exempt from the typical misconceptions and pre-conceived notions about people of color, though. When he visited a school where African children were being educated, he began change his feelings about race. This experience would change him so much so that he would later become the President of the Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. Even though he owned 2 slaves for much of his adult life, he would later let them go free. Like his passion for women’s education, he proposed the idea that freed slaves were in need of education and would have a difficult time contributing to society without it (PBS, Benjamin Franklin Abolitionist, 2012).

Franklin’s abolitionist society asked him to bring the topic of slavery to the

Black abolitionism was a movement that targets an end to slavery. The key similarities between civil right movement and Black abolitionism were the struggle to free Black people and give equal status like Whites. The difference between Black abolitionism and Civil Right were civil Rights was movement that was based on nonviolent approached led by Dr Martin Luther king, Jr. Civil Right movement was a spirit of black unity.

As one begins their journey on the open road, discoveries are made, new people are met, and life is fully changed. The thought of freedom comes to mind when describing the United States but comparing modern times to the past would not be effective. Freedom did not occur until after slavery passes through. There were many individuals who made an impact. Fredrick Douglass was an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman who wrote My Bondage and Freedom which expressed his struggles and reflections about slavery.

Douglass understood this after the end of the Civil war, when blacks were treated just as poorly by whites in the south, and through the passage of the Jim Crow laws and segregation. However, he instead of fighting for the black vote, supported women’s suffrage. He even spoke on several occasions for Suffragette and friend Susan B. Anthony. Douglass understood that with more voters out there, albeit white, female, voters, this would pave the way for the eventual black

A big part of our history is the challenges different races had to face when fighting for their rights. There are groups in today’s society that are still battling oppression, even though they were granted rights by our government. It seems like when one door opens, another closes right in their face. One race that had to deal with oppression, and is still dealing with it today, is African Americans. Africans Americans were brought over to the United States to be slaves for Caucasian people.

After the Underground Railroad, moral code came into question, and with the Constitution demanding all people be equal, the people in the North could no longer bear to uphold slavery. The Underground Railroad was risky and dangerous, but it furthered racial equality by creating a coalition against slavery and by freeing African

Robert Smalls is one of those African Americans who tried everything they can just to get freedom during the Civil War. He, however, is still unknown to this day. Smalls was born in 1839 in Beaufort, South Carolina. His mother, Lydia, was a slave while his father, John McKee, was a slave owner. Because of this advantage, Smalls was different from other slaves.

In the antebellum period, star subjugation strengths moved from safeguarding bondage as an essential malice to explaining it as a positive decent. Some demanded that African Americans were youngster like individuals needing insurance and that servitude gave an acculturating impact (Merino, 2009). Others contended that dark individuals were naturally sub-par compared to white individuals and were unequipped for acclimatizing in the free society. Still others guaranteed that slaves were important to keep up the advancement of white society. Southern Diaries of the prewar time were loaded with guidance for slaveholders.

  Throughout her early life, Ida was born during the civil war, which according to historian James West Davidson, "During a civil war which we have used to define one another, slave versus free, which is being eliminated from the United States"(12).   The civil war also meant the Emancipation proclamation which meant a lot to the Wells family. The proclamation helped free slaves during Lincolns presidency. The proclamation only applied to the slaves living behind the confederate line. The confederate line included Holly Springs.

During the Age of Reform in New Jersey, the African Methodist Episcopal Church as well as black and white citizens established an unofficial Underground Railroad to facilitate fugitives with escape routes and safe houses (Thesis). During the time period before the Civil War, tensions were rising between abolitionists and slave owners. The free African-American community, whether it’s Quakers, or members of the AME Church, wanted to end slavery and help slaves escape from their cruel and abusive masters. Some members of the white community were also against slavery, including Quakers and other Christian religious groups. Doctor John Grimes and the Grimes family were Quakers and active members of the anti-slavery movement.