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Consider the meaning and significance of “FREEDOM” for blacks before the Civil War. At the end of Chapter 7, the primary documents “testify to African Americans’ deepening sense of unity as a people, regardless of their location or status.” First, at the end of Chapter 7, please take a careful look at the speeches of Sarah Mapps Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, and Frederick Douglass (this is one of my personal favorites). What are some similarities? How did they differ? How did they express their ideas of “FREEDOM” represented in their speeches?

Then, take a look at the visual documents of Escaping Slavery via the Underground Railroad and Jim Crow. How do they “highlight important aspects of the developing antebellum African American liberation struggle?” Consider how resistance (fighting against and within the system of slavery) helped to undermine the legality of slavery itself and racism in America during this period.

Next, examine the primary documents of Chapter 8 by Alfred M. Green, Isaiah C. Wears, and Susie King Taylor. Then, read the Emancipation Proclamation, 1863 and take a look at William Tolman Carlton’s Watch Meeting, the “Before and After” photographs of Private Hubbard Pryor, and the Freedmen’s Memorial, 1876. What were the choices and/or opportunities of Black men and women during and after the Civil War? What challenges limited or restricted these choices and/or opportunities? How did the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation as well as the actual Emancipation Proclamation help or hinder the “freedom” of Blacks? How is emancipation represented similarly and differently among whites and blacks?

NOTE: As you think carefully and thoughtfully about the above questions, please make sure to include a clear thesis statement that presents your analysis of “freedom” for African Americans during and after the Civil War. Please also make sure to include direct references to at least two (2) primary sources from Chapters 7 and 8 and at least one (1) direct reference to a secondary source from each chapter posted in iCollege. Please also make sure to check your spelling, grammar, and sentence structures and carefully proof your essay prior to submission.