Bound for Canaan The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America’s first Civil Rights Movement Author: Fergus M. Bordewich Written By; Noel Lemley In this book the author, Fergus M. Bordewich, describes several stories in regards to how the Underground Railroad became established. He goes on to talking about how some whites helped slaves become free just because they believed it was the right thing to do, such as; Isaac Hopper, Levi Coffin, John Rankin. All of these men have contributed in their own way in order to keep the Underground Railroad running. These men went through obstacles, jeopardized their own lives and their families lives for the sake of what was right and what everybody should have; in their eyes. They differed from other whites because of their belief that God created everyone equal, no matter the color of their skin.
Stand Up! As we look throughout history, one could argue, that we couldn’t find a more appalling and unjust act as that of slavery. Slavery played a major part of not only history but of an innumerable amount of American people. In David Walker’s “Appeal in Four Articles” and Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”, two men of African American descent struggle with the reality of slavery and the cruel results and effect it had on people like themselves. Walker was a free black man living in Boston who had a unique view of slavery.
Derrick Williams Prof. Sackley History 199 9/30/2011 “For my own part, I felt indifferent to my fate. It appeared to me that the worst had come (the separation of him and his family), that could come, and that no change of fortune could harm me.” Charles Ball was born into slavery. He encountered the same punishment and had to live the same hard and cruel life similar to any other slave. However, Balls story differs due to his never ending ambition to be active in his attempts to expose, change, and better the lives of slaves. As a young man, Ball was sold and separated from his wife and children to a slave trader.
Newspapers and literature in general had a very influential impact on society's view of slavery. The “Liberator,” written by Garrison, influenced the opposition to slavery by providing everyone with a piece that touched them and presented them with ideas about slavery. Garrison himself was a very strict and harsh man, criticizing the Constitution for even condoning slavery when the Declaration of Independence states otherwise. He appealed to society (via the American Anti-Slavery Society) with such passion to refute slavery that it sparked the interest of many. His refusal to give up and even die for the sake of this “holy cause” is very moving and brought people to oppose slavery.
He said God wanted him to settle situations by holy wars. John Browns goal in life was to set enslaved slaves free. When he was little he saw black kids his age getting whipped for little things. He did not like this at all. People would say that he was insane because he tried to help African American escape to their freedom.
Danielle Farmery Race and Poverty in America Section 1 February 24, 2015 Summary and Response Paper #5 In the reading “the Empire Strikes Back: Resistance to Racial Rule” by Winant, the main them is how enslaved people resisted the rule of their masters. Whites had resorted to racialized structures in order to conquer and enslave, and the Natives and Blacks also, learned to operate within the confines of the color-line in order to develop strategies of resistance. These resistance practices were largely continuous and took many different forms. All of the forms of resistance had one shared purpose- to inform and guide the pursuit of freedom for the enslaved. Many slaves practiced resistance just as an effort to recapture time from the slave-owner’s control, they wanted their “non-working” time to increase.
When Frederick Douglass addressed the audience with his speech, it was very emotional and straight from his heart. As we all know, he was a freed slave and mainly considered his “slavery” as not being able to read and write, until his white master’s wife taught him to do so. With Douglass becoming a freed man and moved up North to pursue the life he dreamed to live, all he wanted was for the rest of the African American slave population to be free as well. Douglass believed that everybody had the right to succeed in society; he never understood how our country was founded on freedom but not everybody was free. Throughout Frederick’s speech, he repeatedly would ask the crowd uncomfortable questions and somewhat “guilt-trap” the people, example being “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine.
A lot of these leaders were born into slavery and escaped, passing on powerful messages to the people to come together and fight for their rights. I found Fredrick Douglas to be a good example of one who was born into slavery. He had a slave mom and a white dad that resulted in him being sent to another plantation to be a servant because of his color. In 1838, Douglas escaped and became part of an Anti-Slavery Society in 1841. He gave a powerful speech on the fourth of July addressing his fellow African Americans called ‘What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July.’ He portrays how all of America celebrates Independence Day with their political freedom.
The slave era can be agreed it was a terrible atrocity upon our fellow man, and it cannot be brought into a light of just, but it did give birth to some true characters who we can look up to and live alike. The characters in both Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass are ideal examples of true characters as they pushed through slavery and gained freedom but did not stop there. Jacobs’ spent her freedom getting her families’ freedom and Douglass went on to help others escape and spread knowledge on the cruelty of slavery. The last thing, and most powerful thing this book left me with is that each slave was an individual unalike any other, and these individuals were in fact an individual, individuals who lived their life for the betterment of others and accomplished an impossible
Living, Eating, and Working as Slaves In the early 1865, slavery had come to the United States of America. Millions of slaves were told that they were free, and therefore many of them had been interviewed to share both of their happy and awful conditions they had during their slavery. The various conditions related to food, living, and work influenced whether or not slaves challenged their owners in the late 1800s. Some slaves were pretty satisfied with their owners but the others had lived the lives that people nowadays could ever imagine. The desire of being free resembled the awful conditions that some of them had.