Zinn Chapter 9 Discussion Question Homework

After reading the Chapter 9 in A People's History "Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom," answer the following question using examples from the text (and, if you would like, from other sources you may be familiar with). You may use bullets in your answer, you don't have to write in paragraph form.


QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION: What were some of the ways that enslaved African Americans fought for freedom before, during, and after the Civil War? What were some of the ways that whites and blacks worked together to ensure such freedom? What were the ways that whites tried to block that freedom?

1) The events before, during and after the Civil War, continue to shape race relations in the United States today.
2) The Emancipation Proclamation declared slaves in the Confederate states still fighting against the Union to be free but failed to free slaves living behind Union lines
3) The end of institutionalized slavery led to a reconstruction of national politics and economics that was both safe and profitable for the Northern and Southern elite who supported the war.
4) Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation only when many of his supporters began to act against slavery.
5) While the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments promised previously enslaved African Americans their freedom and equality, that promise was negated by the end of Reconstruction (1877).

- aboloitionist movements and protests pressured the government from the North to end slavery; in the South, slavery only came to an end with the conclusion of the cicvil war, forcing southern ranchers revindicate their slaves and grant them freedom.
- Abraham Lincoln was one of the major leaders and force behind the abolition of slavery.
- to prevent this freedom from becoming concrtete, white men would segregate blacks as well as using menas such as lynching and violent repressio to subjugate and abuse of former and current slaves.
- the underground rail road was a system to free and bring southern slaves to safety.
- strict measures were often taken against whites which fraternized with blacks, preventing mutual trust and understanding from developing.
- Former slaves from the south would make pamphlets and lectures concerning the inhuman nature of slavery and why it sould be abolshed to pressure southeners into giving slaves freedom.
- freedom in the NOrth was limited by ones finacial stature and property.

Leitz
- even after the emancipation act, the north still had great racism towards blacks as is seen in the lower pay they recieved in the army, as well as the fact that many were killed and beaten to death on the streets.
- many slaves became semi slaves or serfs after being freed.
- the KKK killed many blacks in the south to limit their power.

QUESTION FOR DISCUSSION: What were some of the ways that enslaved African Americans fought for freedom before, during, and after the Civil War? What were some of the ways that whites and blacks worked together to ensure such freedom? What were the ways that whites tried to block that freedom?

African Americans fought for freedom before the Civil War by primarily rebelling against their enslavers as by stopping to work, running away from the plantations where they lived, and obviously by uniting themselves and attacking their owners. As revealed by Howard Zinn, the largest slave revolt in the US took place near New Orleans, in 1811, when 500 slaves gathered and killed their master (Major Andry). The slaves began marching to other plantations and more of them gathered the group. US army and militia eventually attacked them, leading to the death of 66 slaves.

This is just one example of the innumerable attempt towards freedom. Furthermore, African Americans also endeavored to achieve freedom by becoming part of the Union's army, and also by promoting their voices throught journals and newspapers. A variety of them, as Walker's Appeal, The Colored Peoples Press, the Liberator, North Star, Freedom's Journal, etc. symbolized served as a means of advertising and promoting freedom and it was a particularly useful tool considering how the written form of rebellion frustrated the Southern Communities/Authorities to an extent where it came to be forbiden. African Americans as Frederick Douglass and J.W. Loguen were very important figures of antislavery considering how Douglass believed that "for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns witout a rival" and how Loguen, when referring to the Fugitive Slave Act openly admitted that it "outlaws me, and I outlaw it."

Whites helped blacks ensure their freedom by cooperating with black troops as for example when Harriet Tubamn raided plantations, leading black and white troops, and being able to, in one of these rebellions, free 750 slaves. Whites as John Brown were willing to sacrifice themselves in the struggle for freedom of the slaves. On the other hand, whites were also infuriated with laws that granted African Americans the right to own propertry depending on their aquistive power and also because of how African Americans, as free citizens, had the right to work and all of these rights granted to them would mean competition and even more social and economic struggle to the poor whites as well. Considering this, the formation of terrorist groups as the Ku Klux Klan led to the deaths of innumerable blacks. The African Americans suffered fundamentally because even if they struggled to ensure that laws that granted them rights as human beings these laws were still not enough to prevent them from being assaulted considering how, as put by Howard Zinn, there were cases where a negroe would be sentenced to death or sentenced to unreasonable punishments for stealing something while a white person who had killed a black one was free of charge or sentenced to light punishment.

In case you missed this point, the previous homework discussion question had to be answered ON THE FORUM. Please post your answers before Friday. Those of you who posted before today (when it was due) will get an additional 10 points. The rest of you who didn´t do your homework and studied chemistry instead...shame on you! You´re lucky I was feeling magnanimous today :-)

For tomorrow, Friday, December 5th. Please answer the following questions on a piece of paper and bring it to class. Do not post on Forum. They also involve Chapter 9 of Zinn.

1. How and why have some historians tried to downplay or dismiss the effects of slavery?

2. How do Zinn´s descriptions of Abraham Lincoln compare and contrast with your previous knowledge of Lincoln ("The Great Emancipator," "Honest Abe")?

3. What were some of the accomplishments of African Americans and their allies during Reconstruction?

4. How would you describe the "New South! that emerged after Reconstruction? Do you really think it was "new"? Explain.

ADDITIONAL HOMEWORK:

Keep a vocabulary notebook, list the word in one column, meaning in another, and your own personal connection in the third column. I will give you a completion grade for your own notebook. Please post your word list in the vocabulary notebook thread. I will try to compile a master list.

Ok garettchi
last HW (i showed it to you, just didn't post--didn't know we had to)
-Abolitionist movements and protests happened in the North. An important figure of these movements was Sojourner Truth, who fought for women's rights and blacks'. her words: "I have plowed n' planted and gathered into barns and no man could head me." "Tell me, where did your Crist come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman!"
-Lincoln was an abolitionist. However, had to take into account the opposing desires of the American people. He knew that the subject of slavery would "tear the country apart"
-Segregation: separate seats, fountains, restaurants, etc.
-Lynching and repression of blacks
-No fraternization btw. blacks and whites allowed. Strict consequences.
-US "revolts"/rebellions not as frequent as in Caribbean or South America
-The Underground Railroads was used by fugitive slaves. "You'll either be free or die" , were the words Harriet Tubman (born a slave, injured by overseer at 15 and freed herself alone), spoke to the various fugitives she helped through the escape route.
-Fugitive Act 1850- facilitated the re-capturing of fugitive slaves and gave the slave owner and gov. more liberty and power and the fugitives less chance
-Emancipation Act freed slaves, but racism was still strong and the segregation was strong (previously listed)
-KKK killed many blacks (as said by Leitz)
-Blacks received lower pay in the army
-The payment system for blacks (they mostly continued to work in the farms, since they had no education) was very similar to the one used with immigrants (at least in Brasil). They did not receive money; their payment was in "orders" which had to be used in farmowner's store. Obviously, they were always in debt and had almost no hope of having a different life.

Some of the ways that enslaved African Americans fought for freedom before, during, and after the Civil War
-The slave began to revolt to fight for their freedom, for example: “Probably the largest slave revolt in the US took place near New Orleans in 1811. Four to five hundred slaves gathered after a rising at the plantation of a Major Andry.” It’s a major example of how they would work together to fight for their freedom.
-Another example of the slaves fighting for their freedom was when Denmark Vessey wanted to plan burning Charleston, South Carolina. He was a freed Negro and was also helping the slaves be freed.
-Nat Turner’s gathered 70 slaves to rampage from plantation to plantation and they killed many women, men, and children. By rampaging they gathered a lot of supporters.
-Many saves resisted by stealing property, sabotage, and slowness, killing, buring down plantation buildings, and running away.

Some of the ways that whites and blacks worked together to ensure such freedom
-Vessey a free Negro help the slaves fight for freedom.
-Support from the abolitionists like James Hammond.
-The blacks would team up and fight together because they all shared the common goal.
-There were many instances where a black would team up with a white to insure freedom for example when a slave brought food for a poor and sick white woman.
-Some white would give aid to the blacks to plan attacks.
-Through out the blacks became more powerful and was confidence about their position for instance the letter written about being a shamed because of the white stealing the blacks when they were young and how it was published in the newspaper.

Some of the ways that whites tried to block that freedom
-The south collaborated to keep abolitionists literature out of the mails in the south because it might of cause the Southerns to change their minds about slavery.
-The KKK was formed to that killed a numerous amt of blacks ( as said before )

-Less slaves’ rebellions in North America than South. Slaves attempted to revolt against their white owners by killing them, gathering in massive mobs; revolts are repressed by the army, and slaves tried, such as in the New Orleans revolt in 1811.

- Underground Railroad: Harriet Tubman, leading in secret groups of slaves from Southern states to Northern.

- Slave resistance through Civil Disobedience: refuse to work (efficient during the Civil War, where the southern states’ armies suffered from food shortages) -- Du Bois, The Gift of the Black Folks: “the slave refused to work or sought to refuse when he did not find the spiritual returns adequate … easily accused of laziness”

-stern police measures to discourage white-black cooperation; poor whites paid for overseering of Black slaves, thus threatening inter-racial coalition (vocab word!)

- Strong Black community identity “music, magic, art, religion were ways for slaves to hold on their humanity” (Levine) against white society pressure; destruction of nucleus family by slavery, cooperation between Black people to reach freedom

-Free slave, such as David Walker, wrote a pamphlet “Walker’s Appeal”, deprecated slavery “our sufferings will come to an end”

-A crowd freed a slave from trial in Syracuse (also home station of Underground Railroad), using “crowbars, and a batteram to break into the court house”

-Patronizing attitude of Abolitionnists toward black: black willingness to “it is our battle – no one else can fight it for us” in response of white abolitionist disbelief in racial equality.

- John Brown’s insurrection (radical example of white abolitionist rebellion – symbolic meaning for southern plantation owners and slaves) “I, John Brown, am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood”

-“Lincoln could argue with lucidity and passion against slavery on moral grounds, while acting cautiously in pratical politics” – Lincoln met the interest of both white rich and black slaves, but did not believe in racial equality

=> Emancipation Proclamation 1863

-Postwar south black speaker “Am I a man? If I am such, I claim the rights of a man” strong segregation in south (KKK, hungings, lynchings) many slaves flew North.

Okay, this is my homework due today. The first one:

• slaves made campaigns showing how they lived and suffered with abuses and inequalities.

• they used the American Constitution in favor of them, by useing the statement "all men are equal".

• they didn't say they were slaves or victims oppressed by farmers, they rather based their arguments on equality.

• Abraham Lincoln was awhite man who fought for slaves; fought with other groups, politicians, and Northern idealists in favor of freedom.

• protests and abolitionists occured mostly in the North, fro the people to the government.

• segregation = common during the civil war

• violence and oppression agaisnt slaves

• extremist groups like the KKK were formed during the civil war

• the prevention of the blending of whitesand blacks were also common, avoiding friendships an common ideals.

• slaves were not ordinary or equal, they were just slaves (what people against the slave's freedom believed)

• repression continued after the civil war and African Americans fought for their rights

•Abolitionist movements and protests began on the North where people were really racist towards the slaves and blacks.
•Slavery ended after slaves rebelling against their owners and with the help of abolitionists the slave owners had to free the slaves.
•In 1811, there was the biggest slave revolt near New Orleans which 500 slaves gathered and killed Major Andry.
•Abraham Lincoln was an important leader which fought the abolition of slavery.
•Segregation-separating blacks from whites on public places
•Blacks had almost no rights compared to the whites
•Extremists such as the KKK was formed during the Civil War
•Black salaries were very low and they worked on farms, much of them ended with debt and had to use the owner’s farm shop.

1.) Before:
After the slave importation became illegal in 1808, rebellions founded by both slaves and freed Negroes were recurring throughout various states in the country. There were boycotts and the communal idea of “not working so hard,” plus the already existing revolts against white crop farmers and slave owners, specifically in the south.

During:
The black abolitionists engage in armed insurrections against the white troops fighting against the insurgent militias composed of Negroes, most freed slaves. Colored soldiers were originally restricted to labor works by the Union during the Civil War, however, after the successful battles of 1862 they proved their capacity to fight in combat situations. General Ulysses S. Grant even wrote to Lincoln that “by arming the Negro we have added a powerful ally” indicating that they could only benefit with the now employed and got equal pay in 1864. Black women also played important roles towards the end of the war, as well as Sojourner Truth and Josephine Ruffin who both recruited Negro troops fro the Union army and Harriet Tubman who raided plantations during the conflicts. Additionally, there was also the case of Robert Smalls who took over a steamship that had been patrolling on the coast line and gave it to the Union navy.

After:
One of the issues that the both white and black, slave or freeman, had to deal with after the end of the war was the fact that the freed slaves had no money and no land to start afresh and build their houses with their families. In 1865 the “Special Field Order number 35” stated that there would be 30 miles inland along the border lines for Negro settlements to take place.

2.) The whites and blacks worked together during the Civil War, the Union troops were all fighting in the name of the abolitionist movement. However, the white abolitionists were unconsciously racist towards the Negros, and these started feeling like they should be the “leader of the rebellion instead of the supporter” and they should strive to maintain their own independent voice instead of having to follow along with the ideals of others.

Enslaved African American fighting for freedom
-Robert Smalls, was a slave who became a national hero when he freed himself and his family from slavery on May 13, 1862 by commanding a Confederate transport ship, The Planter, to freedom in Charleston harbor.
-Harriet Tubman, slave, famous for conducting on the Underground Railroad, where she disguised and sent three hundred slaves to freedom. “You’ll be free or die.”
-David Walker, son of slave who wrote a pamphlet to infuriate southern slaveholders. Believed that Blacks must fight for their freedom. “There was no slavery in history, even that of the Israelites in Egypt, worse than the slavery of the black man in America.
-Frederick Douglass, slave who learn how to read and write. He then escaped from owner and became the most famous black man writer. “Why am I a slave? Why are some people slaves, and other masters? Was there ever a time when this was not so? How did the relation commence?”

Whites and Blacks working for freedom
Abololitionists:
- Abraham Lincoln, introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery
- Wendell’s Phillips, opposed slavery and sent slaves back to Africa
-Harriet Tubman raided plantations and led to the freedom of 750 slaves.

Whites Blocking FREEDOM
-Segregation
-Ku Klux Klan, terrorist groups who planned riots against blacks.
-Violence and bad treatment towards blacks: “I myself and three or four others, have received two hundred lashes in the day and had our feet in fetters.”

• Before and during the civil war slaves made several rebellions against their leaders
• Fugitive slaves joined together with other slaves and influenced them to try to escape or create a revolt
• North and South had distinct slavery issues, only after the civil war slaves achieved freedom
• The blacks planned attacks together, strategically creating rebellions
• White abolitionist supported the blacks by giving aid
• Abraham Lincoln was one of the main contributors of the abolitionist movement, helping cooperating with several blacks,
• As a way to “block the blacks”, their owners didn’t pay them money. For their work, they receive credit so they can buy things from the owner, therefore not giving opportunity to the black to grow
• The blacks were excluded, and humiliated, they had different public places and were not respected by the whites
• The “unfortunately famous” KKK made several crimes against the blacks, killing some of them
• Whites where afraid to help the slaves, since they can be punished by doing it,
• The fugitive act was a stategy to increase the white power and diminish the chances of the escapee slave
• A escape route was usually used by the south slaves, it was the only way to achieve freedom,

"Levine refers to slave resistance as "pre-political", expressed in countless ways in daily life and culture. Music, magic, art, religion, were all ways, he says for slaves to hold on to their humanity."

The quote says it all. The antislavery movement had several forms of manifestation, going from the Freedom's Journal to the innumerous slave revolts. Some of these manifestations were:

- The largest revolt in the US, taking place in New Orleans around 1811;
- The conspiracy of Denmark Vesey, which planned to burn a city of South Carolina down;
- Nat Turner's rebellion;
- Running away from the South and moving to the North (Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman);
- David Walker's famous appeal in a pamphlet, in which he furiously attacked the whites and the slave cause;
- Blacks from the North organizing uproars to the Fugitive Slave Act -- and denouncing its supporters (President Fillmore)

For those whites who did not have any slaves, they contributed to the antislavery movement by encouraging uproars and disobedience, as well as providing assistance for those who wished to run away to the North. Among those whites who did have slaves, they sought religious education as one strong way to stabilize the revolts, claiming that it would bring "a btter state of things amongst the Negroes."

By 1860 there were 4 million slaves
Ending of slavery led to a reconstruction of national politics and economics
Slave importation illegal in 1808
250,000 slaves imported ilegally before Civil War
The largest slave revolt took place near New Orleans in 1811. Slaves armed with cane knives, axes, wounded their master and killed his son.
Denmark Vesey Conspirasse (burn Charleston, South Carolina, initiate a slave revolt)
Slaves stole properties, killed masters, burned plantations
About 200.000 slaves in the North waited for abolition.
Religion was a form to control slaves.
Fugitive Slave Act: slaveowners recapture ex-slaves or pick up blacks they claimed had run away.
United States Supreme Court declared that the slave Dred Scott would not be freed because he was not a person, but property.
National government will not abolish slavery due to rebelion. It would end slavery under conditions controlled by whites.
Abraham Lincoln
10th amendment could not exclude slavery in the US.
Confiscation Act: freeing slaves fighting the Union.
Emancipation Proclamation: South had four months to halt rebelling, threatning to emancipate their slaves if they continued fighting.
1864: 400,000 signatures asking legislation to end slavery.
13th amendment declared end of slavery.
Union army was opened to blacks.
During the Civil War, most blacks remained at the plantations.
Mississippi slaves responded the Emancipation Proclamation by killing their overseers and partitioning the land between them.
Negro Soldier Law: elistment of slaves as soldeis, to be freed by the consent of their owners and their state govt.
15th amendment
Black Voting resulted in 2 Negro members of the US senate.

worked together:

- Pamphlets and conferences were made in relation to the depracating lives imposed to slaves ( to shock the population)
- North helped South to abolish slavery; even though this only happened "de facto" during the Civil War
- underground road sistem for Southern slaves

Didn't work together:

- segragation of blacks ( violant acts)
- Abraham Liconl, manipulating as a leader---> that slavery should not be abolished
- most people ignored and punished whites who talked or had any relation with blacks
- the rich ( elite) "owned the state" and made it difficult for blacks to have property and "conditions"
- groups were created to kill blacks, KKK ( still acting and present in 8 states)

In what ways did the enslaved Afircan Americans fight for freedom before, during and after the Civil War?

- Slave revolts
o New Orleans in 1811 – largest one – slaves with canes, knives, axes, killed Major’s son, marched from plantation to plantation
o 1822 – Conspiracy of Denmark Vesey: burnt down Charleston
o 1831 – Nat Turner Rebellion: from plantation to plantation murdering 55 men, women and children
o Rebellions, even though few, brought fear to slave owners- Even though few, rebellions and slave revolts brought great fear to slave owners
- Stealing property, sabotage, slowness (not working hard), killing, burning plantation buildings and running away
- Underground railroad (Harriet Tubman)
- Music, art, magic, religion and family ties improved the black “conscience”

What were some of the ways that whites and blacks worked together to ensure such freedom?

- The Fugitive Slave Act – 1850
- England helped against slavery in the USA
- Abolitionist magazine (help of whites)
- Emancipation
- The Union (army that helped slaves)

What were ways the whites tried to block that freedom?

- Whipping (among other punishments)
- Armies to stop them
- When having a runaway slave tracking them down with dogs (which would usually kill them)
- Kill slave if he, judged by the way he is whipped at first, acts resistant
- Tighten security system
- Religion (separating African Americans from whites in churches for example)
- The KKK