History Analysis
Lunna Zamarron
HIST 2112-208
Analysis Paper One
Woodrum
What is Freedom? If you were to ask a freedmen or freedwoman during the age of Reconstruction in 1865, the answer would be land, stability, religious liberty and education. African Americans’ understanding of freedom was shaped by their experience as slaves and observation of the free society around them1; they were eager to demonstrate their liberation from the harsh living situations, and extreme rules and regulations they were accustomed to while going through slavery. Goals were set to become farmers or/also called “Yeoman Farmers,” meaning a small independent farmer through family owned labor. A Baptist minister by the name of Garrison Frazier, who purchased the freedom of himself and his wife in 1856, was chosen to express the common sentiments upon the matters of freedmen in the State of Georgia. Frazier states that “The best way we can take care of ourselves is to have land, and turn in and till it by our labor- and we can soon maintain ourselves and have something to spare; and to assist Government, …We want to be placed on land until we are able to buy it and make it our own.” 2 Like rural people throughout the world, former slaves’ ideas of freedom were directly related to land ownership. The newly freed peoples sought literacy, which was used to openly express freedom. More education was seen as more opportunity, more hope. The education revolution during the Dawn of Freedom showed the efforts of the freed African American citizens to learn to read and write to improve their own well being. When Frazier was asked if he thought that there was enough intelligence among the slaves of the South to maintain themselves under the Government of the United States, and the equal protection of its laws, and maintain good and peaceable relations among themselves and with their neighbors, he responded, “I think there is sufficient intelligence among us to do so.” 3 With slavery dead, institutions
HIST 2112-208
Analysis Paper One
Woodrum
What is Freedom? If you were to ask a freedmen or freedwoman during the age of Reconstruction in 1865, the answer would be land, stability, religious liberty and education. African Americans’ understanding of freedom was shaped by their experience as slaves and observation of the free society around them1; they were eager to demonstrate their liberation from the harsh living situations, and extreme rules and regulations they were accustomed to while going through slavery. Goals were set to become farmers or/also called “Yeoman Farmers,” meaning a small independent farmer through family owned labor. A Baptist minister by the name of Garrison Frazier, who purchased the freedom of himself and his wife in 1856, was chosen to express the common sentiments upon the matters of freedmen in the State of Georgia. Frazier states that “The best way we can take care of ourselves is to have land, and turn in and till it by our labor- and we can soon maintain ourselves and have something to spare; and to assist Government, …We want to be placed on land until we are able to buy it and make it our own.” 2 Like rural people throughout the world, former slaves’ ideas of freedom were directly related to land ownership. The newly freed peoples sought literacy, which was used to openly express freedom. More education was seen as more opportunity, more hope. The education revolution during the Dawn of Freedom showed the efforts of the freed African American citizens to learn to read and write to improve their own well being. When Frazier was asked if he thought that there was enough intelligence among the slaves of the South to maintain themselves under the Government of the United States, and the equal protection of its laws, and maintain good and peaceable relations among themselves and with their neighbors, he responded, “I think there is sufficient intelligence among us to do so.” 3 With slavery dead, institutions