Freedom

Reconstruction

During reconstruction, the idea of freedom floated around the United States. This idea of freedom was found to have three different identities each depending on a certain type of American. The Southern White population found freedom to be a born right, meanwhile the African Americans found it to be an earned right. The Southern Whites wanted to do everything in their power to bring back the old south, a south filled with African American Slaves and a ruling White society. The African Americans wanted to keep their freedom and gain more rights. African Americans would exercise their new freedom by doing things that were once forbidden to them by their owners. For example, formal slaves would flaunt their ability to hold mass meetings without a white officer present, travel without passes, and purchase liquor and guns. They would even change the surname that was given to them by their pervious owner. A big plus was the ability to marry who they wanted and the quest of reuniting families. However, what the African Americans held as one of their most sacred rights as a freed people is the right to education. With education and churches along with the formation of Union Leagues, African Americans would soon become a powerful political force, often enjoying Republican meetings. The third view on freedom comes from the Victorious North. This belief held true in the Republican Party. These people read freedom through their free-labor ideology. They believed that freedom is the ability to move up the social ladder after working jobs that pay a wage, where in the end you can make your own business and live off it. Often times during Reconstruction, these definitions of freedom would come in conflict with one another.

African American freedom and the Victorious North’s freedom ideals clashed. In the eyes of the North, the African Americans were asking too much. Meanwhile, in the eyes of the African American Society, the North had betrayed them on multiple...