What is Freedom? (1800s-1900s)
During the 1800s period of the centuries we will learn about historical figures and answer “What is Freedom?” We will have many discussions around this question regarding these figures and we will determine their contributions to freedom of enslaved African Americans. Life in the United States in early 1800s was rapidly changing as enslaved people expected to gain freedom for fighting in the Revolutionary War, and only some achieved it. Certain states began to change legislation for more slave-owners to have the ability to free their enslaved workers, while other states (particularly in the South) fought to keep people enslaved.52 Fugitive acts, auctions, violence and separation, meant to undercut any attempts of liberation.53 African Americans of this century such became some of the most prominent voices of abolition and the anti-slavery movement leading up to the Civil War.54
Nat Turner
Nat Turner (1800) was born into the condition of enslavement in Virginia.55 Turner was born in the county of South Hampton and came into the world only a short time before the hanging of Gabriel Prosser.56 To show the links between the acts of opposition from African Americans across the centuries, it is important to teach about Nat Turner, as well as the overlap of his life with others who were starting rebellions. Turner was a religious man who frequently felt called to a higher power, which let him to commit several small acts of rebellion before his major rebellion in 1831.57 Around sixty white people were killed as a result of the rebellion.58 Turner was eventually tried and executed for the rebellion.59 This happened exactly one lifetime after Gabriel Prosser attempted to lead his rebellion. It is vitally important to show the longevity of these rebellions. This displays people fighting back in defense, and the African American experience during this era was not one of non-violence and submission.
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth, formerly Isabella Bomfree, was born at the beginning of the 19th century.60 For teaching about strength and hope during this time period, Sojourner Truth is a perfect example. In reading the book The Narrative of the Life of Sojourner Truth, it is a vivid illustration of the pain and abuse she endured as an enslaved African American woman. In the Narrative, you learn Truth lost her parents to the cruelties of slavery and had her child taken away from her.61 Truth had incredible intrinsic self-discipline; she found it necessary to work hard and was a deeply religious individual.62 Her master denied her freedom and her son was sold away from her; she fought to reclaim her lost child.63 Truth spoke in court and fight for custody.64 Teaching about Truth can help link historical figures who also fought for their freedom or the freedom of their loved ones in court such as Dred Scott, and others who fought and exposed racism in the justice system. Once Truth regained custody, she left with her children, eventually arriving in New York City, where she became “an itinerant preacher”65 and met Fredrick Douglass.66 According to the National Women’s History Museum, “While in Washington, DC, she lobbied against segregation, and in the mid-1860s, when a streetcar conductor tried to violently block her from riding, she ensured his arrest and won her subsequent case”.67 Sojourner Truth is a truly inspiring figure in American history and a picture of strength amidst struggle in a human life. Teaching truth helps us showcase those who not only rose against oppression and violence physically but also with their inner strength.
Fredrick Douglass
Fredrick Douglass (1818-1895) was a man born into the condition of slavery who fled to obtain his freedom and became a writer and abolitionist.68 Much like Truth, Douglass witnessed the horrors of enslavement. Upon reading his autobiography: Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, the reader cannot help but be deeply disturbed in reading the accounts of pure violence and inhumanity enacted upon Douglass and other enslaved people around him.69 Some of his accounts of watching slave-owners abuse their slaves are truly traumatic. After living through the horrors of slavery during this century, Douglass never forgot living in the condition of chattel slavery.70 “I would allow myself to suffer under the greatest imputations…rather than exculpate myself, and thereby run the hazard of closing the slightest avenue by which a brother slave might clear himself of the chains and fetters of slavery”.71 By the end of his narrative, Douglass achieves his freedom and the remainder of his story lies in his work as a writer, a politician after working with Abraham Lincoln and his work as an abolitionist over all.72 It is important to teach the different stories of people gaining freedom to show the different stories of strength and struggle of African Americans across the centuries.
Elizabeth Jennings
Elizabeth Jennings (1827 to 1901), was a schoolteacher in New York who refused to leave a white passenger car and wait for a “colored trolley” to free up; this occurred one century before Rosa Parks planned and executed the Bus Boycott in 1950.73 Teaching about Jennings, shows how connected the various movements and boycotts were in terms of centuries. Jennings did not plan the encounter, she was however prepared to handle racial injustice due to other encounters over the course of her life.74 Jennings went to court and fighting for payment of damages, as she was forcibly removed from the trolley, she had tried to ride on.75 According to an article in the New York Times by Sam Roberts, “Jennings sought $500 in damages…The jury decided that amount was too much for an black person and instead awarded $225…”.76 It is important to note, her story received much coverage, as it was written about by Fredrick Douglass.77
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman, whose original name was Aminta or “Minty” Ross, was born into enslavement and escaped to freedom in the 1840s.78 It would simply be unjust to teach the African American Freedom struggle, without teaching about the contributions of Tubman. Although she is taught in our curriculum, many of the little-known facts about her are not addressed. According to a collaborative article by Facinate named Little Known Facts about Harriet Tubman, she gained her freedom but went back through the underground railroad nineteen times to rescue others from slavery; she rescued three-hundred people and never lost one.79 Her life’s work was a clear depiction of someone who had experienced the trauma of being enslaved in the United States. Tubman was attacked by an overseer, an experience where she was hit on the head with a metal heap; this left her dealing with issues sleeping and with her head.80 Tubman became something of a savior and a legend. She would obtain the name “Moses” for freeing so many and earned the name “General Tubman” by John Brown.81 Tubman would go on to earn many more titles. By the end of her life, Tubman was a war hero (for her work in leading and rescuing people in the Civil War), she was named a saint, an Abolitionist and a speaker for Women’s Rights and Suffrage.82 Harriet Tubman lived a remarkable life of service. She focused on helping other people escape to be free, once she gained her own freedom. There were others like John Parker who focused on this same goal. We must teach about her in full truth. Tubman’s story should be done justice by highlighting her famous acts, but also the little-known facts about her story which highlight so much of her life and works.
Robert Smalls and The Civil War
The Civil War became a defining piece of this century as the South tried to keep slavery, and Abraham Lincoln became President causing much tension leading up to the war.83 During this time, there were individuals doing remarkable things to achieve their freedom.
Robert Smalls was an enslaved man who decided to obtain his freedom and the freedom of his family through a courageous act.84 Teaching about stories like Robert Smalls show the bravery and the lengths to which people were willing to go to in order to gain their freedom. Smalls captained a ship called the Planter into Naval waters towards a Confederate port with the goal of escaping to freedom.85 According to an article from PBS, “the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1862, passed a private bill authorizing the Navy to appraise the Planter and award Smalls and his crew half the proceeds for “rescuing her from the enemies of the Government” …”.86 Smalls went on to be noted as a courageous hero for his act to find freedom for himself and others, he acted in many more military operations and went on to become a politician.87 It is important to teach the significance in time period of Robert Smalls, to highlight the relentless spirit to achieve freedom.
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