After the Fact: Bottom Rail on Top
AAfter The Fact: The View From the Bottom Rail
Chris Bean
Bl: A
5/29/12
Mr. Penza
Summary of Chapter: With the sound of cannons and gunshots firing in the air, slaves in the south knew that freedom was coming to a nation of four million slaves. Union soldiers would be portrayed as bad foreigners from their masters, with, “ long horns on their heads, and tushes in their mouths, and eyes sticking out like a cow.” (Page 171) Some slaves were overjoyed with rumors of emancipation and leaving their plantations to head north, but many slaves sided with their masters because they were afraid of what might happen later on. To newly freed blacks it was as if the world was turned upside down. One slave who was surprised and delighted to find his former master among prisoners he was guarding said, “Hello Massa! Bottom rail top dis time!” (Page 173) The new outcomes to be for slaves during and at the end of the Civil War were major in American history and were answered prayers from blacks. The chance for freedom was right around the corner, and on January 1, 1865 the 13’Th Amendment of the constitution was officially passed, the abolition of the institution of slavery. Newly freed slaves were called by whites as “freedmen” or “freedpeople” with their new status being raised from slave to a free person now. Reconstructing the perspective of enslaved African Americans has proved particularly challenging stated the author, because the people who were able to keep record of events and personal occurrences were done by middle and upper class people. Almost all the information gathered about slavery came from the journals and diaries of whites that wrote about the life of slaves. The major problem with this is that the vantage point of white Americans observing slavery was emphatically not that of the slaves who actually lived under the institution. Most blacks were illiterate, and were not even allowed to be educated. Before the Civil War, slaves were not only discouraged to
Chris Bean
Bl: A
5/29/12
Mr. Penza
Summary of Chapter: With the sound of cannons and gunshots firing in the air, slaves in the south knew that freedom was coming to a nation of four million slaves. Union soldiers would be portrayed as bad foreigners from their masters, with, “ long horns on their heads, and tushes in their mouths, and eyes sticking out like a cow.” (Page 171) Some slaves were overjoyed with rumors of emancipation and leaving their plantations to head north, but many slaves sided with their masters because they were afraid of what might happen later on. To newly freed blacks it was as if the world was turned upside down. One slave who was surprised and delighted to find his former master among prisoners he was guarding said, “Hello Massa! Bottom rail top dis time!” (Page 173) The new outcomes to be for slaves during and at the end of the Civil War were major in American history and were answered prayers from blacks. The chance for freedom was right around the corner, and on January 1, 1865 the 13’Th Amendment of the constitution was officially passed, the abolition of the institution of slavery. Newly freed slaves were called by whites as “freedmen” or “freedpeople” with their new status being raised from slave to a free person now. Reconstructing the perspective of enslaved African Americans has proved particularly challenging stated the author, because the people who were able to keep record of events and personal occurrences were done by middle and upper class people. Almost all the information gathered about slavery came from the journals and diaries of whites that wrote about the life of slaves. The major problem with this is that the vantage point of white Americans observing slavery was emphatically not that of the slaves who actually lived under the institution. Most blacks were illiterate, and were not even allowed to be educated. Before the Civil War, slaves were not only discouraged to