During The Reconstruction Era Analysis

Even though Douglass bounced from master to master he would never give up on searching for a loop whole that would somehow lead him to his true desire, his dream, his freedom. Fredrick tried to escape certain times but keeps on failing but that did not stop him to look for the key to his dream, to his desire, to his freedom. After several attempts and failure, his wish was finally granted he got his ticket to freedom also known as New York City but his journey does not end here but this was just the beginning. Fredrick tasted freedom as he desired and his dream did get granted but even though he was free and is living his long life dream he discovered that his journey is not over that this is not his final epiphany, although he got his freedom he knew that with him living freely there were other people suffering from the harshness and cruelty of

The post-war Reconstruction period was a time of social and political revolution, when a newly emancipated population needed to be integrated into a hostile southern society. Hahn describes how former slaves tended to live with their families, and enter into sharecropping contracts. He then describes the variety of experiences former slaves had with politics after enfranchisement: some gained political knowledge through groups like the Union League, others held seats in congress, while others still failed to even understand registration. Hahn highlights the determination with which freedmen tried to shape their destiny, and paints a very optimistic picture, which, while uplifting, is somewhat biased. The Mississippi Black Code, on the other

I believe that Jourdan Anderson’s letter was reasonably forgiving but he is not going to forget the trauma that he dealt with for thirty-two years. For example, he will never forget the times his master shot him and how he handled his children in the past. The letter he wrote is very well stated with decent English for a former slave. He mentioned some excellent points explaining why he would or would not come back to work at his previous living quarters. Although he misses the family he was a servant for he is still wary and unsure about if he can trust them.

When Douglass is finally free of slavery, he tries to find a job in the Free State. Frederick Douglass was willing to “do any kind of work I could get to do” just to provide for himself and his family (146). Douglass is even going to work “with a glad heart and a willing hand” (145). He is happy to be his own master and to be able to work for himself and his new family. Frederick Douglass

Until then, he decides to “try to bear up under the yoke”. Douglass also drops the abrupt pacing from just moments before, removing the sense of anger and discord. This sudden switch from unquenchable rage to complacency is unnerving and hints that he is not quite in the right state of mind. Douglass, who advocates so strongly for seizing liberty wherever it is available, dares to suggest that he “reconcile [himself] to [his] wretched lot” until an opportunity presents itself. Here, this change in attitude stresses how discouraged Douglass is that, instead of maintaining his burning fury, he is left to placate himself with vague promises of “a better day

The American civil war led to the reunion of the South and the North. But, its consequences led the Republicans to take the lead of reconstructing what the war had destroyed especially in the South because it contained larger numbers of newly freed slaves. Just after the civil war, America entered into what was called as the reconstruction era. Reconstruction refers to when “the federal government established the terms on which rebellious Southern states would be integrated back into the Union” (Watts 246). As a further matter, it also meant “the process of helping the 4 million freed slaves after the civil war [to] make the transition to freedom” (DeFord and Schwarz 96).

In his letter he described his life as an indentured servant as one where he has nothing to comfort him but sickness and death. The life that he was living in colonial Virginia was one where you couldn’t escape or else you will be captured. Attempting it could of cause him to die, therefore he hoped his parents brought his escape but with his parents being poor there was no way of escaping the life of an indentured servant. Having no escape as an indentured servant, he wrote to his parents a letter asking that his parents bought out the indenture. In his letter, he wrote that he was trapped in a place filled of diseases that can make any body weak and leave you with lack of comfort and rattled with guilt.

He points out personal facts about how he feels when he says, “I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself or done something foe which I should have been killed”. The words that he uses explains the emotions that he was going through and to build an appeal to emotions. Throughout the time that he has been expanding his knowledge he runs across the word “abolitionist” which means it’s a movement to end slavery. He was always eager for someone to speak about it and he was ready to listen he says, “I did not dare ask anyone about its meaning, for I was satisfied that it was something they wanted me to know very little about”. He says this because he realized that the word is spoken very rarely and he knew if he spoke that word and someone heard him, he could get penalized.

The Reconstruction period lasted from 1865 to 1877. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendment were created during the twelve years of rebuilding the country. All of the amendments were made to protect former slaves and their rights but on paper they did not have any rights. The reconstruction period had its successes and failures.

Both King and Douglass were advocating for the same thing: their constitutional sanction of freedom. Both men, in their respective letters touch upon parallel thoughts and beliefs that revolve around the much bigger topic of racial inequality and discrimination. Both men were discriminated against and they talk about their experiences and plight in their very distinctive yet special styles. Born in the year 1817, in an era of open and unashamed slave trade, Frederick Douglass’s story begins as a serf to Mrs. Hugh in the city of Maryland.

First Douglass writes about his relatives who were still being held by his old master. He begs Thomas Auld to tell him how they are doing and set them free. However, this is not enough so he asks his master how he would "look upon me, were I, some dark night, in company with a band of hardened villains, to enter the precincts of your elegant dwelling, and seize the person of your own lovely daughter, Amanda, and carry her … make her … compel her … place her … disregard her … feed her … and so on" (105). This is an important rebuttal which asks not only his master, but oppressors in general to imagine the reverse, where they are the ones being treated like that. It allows them to think about what it would be like were they in the same position as Frederick Douglass and his fellows.

"To My Old Master" is an incredible letter penned by former slave Jordan Anderson to his old master, who apparently wanted Jordan to come back to the plantation to work. With clever irony Anderson compares and contrasts his new life as a free man to his days as a slave as he basically gives his old master the finger. He begins his letter in a friendly manner saying that he was glad that his old master had not forgotten him and that he was glad that he wanted him to come back and live with him again, contrasting it with the admission that he had often felt uneasy about him and continues to describe his master harbouring Rebels and murdering a Union soldier. His letter outlines the life of dignity that he was leading in Ohio- school, wages,

“Yes, sir, he gives me enough, such as it is.” The colonel, after ascertaining where the slave belonged, rode on; the man also went on about his business, not dreaming that he had been conversing with his master. He thought, said, and heard nothing more of the matter, until two or three weeks afterwards. The poor man was then informed by his overseer that, for having found fault with his master, he was now to be sold to a Georgia trader. He was immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus, without a moment’s warning, he was snatched away, and forever sundered, from his family and friends, by a hand more unrelenting than death.”

“Letter to My Master, Thomas Auld” explores Frederick Douglass’ view of slavery and Thomas Auld, his former slave master, in a smart and emotionally charged letter originally written in 1848 and published in the abolitionist newspaper North Star. Throughout the letter, Douglass uses his own experience as a slave to drive his views, often using sarcasm and a dark recognition of his trials to drive his own view of slavery; that slavery should be abolished and that it is inhumane and cruel. Douglass’ decision to publish this paper in the North Star allowed him to bring to light his experiences to push other readers of the newspaper towards an abolitionist stand point by bringing his first-hand accounts of slavery forward and explaining, at times

Deshanna Glenn ENG 1300 Letter to my old master, Thomas Auld “Yon bright sun beheld me a slave - a poor degraded chattel - trembling at the sound of your voice, lamenting that I was a man”(Frederick Douglass). Mr. Frederick Douglass spoke intelligently and articulately in this well-written letter to his old master, Thomas Auld. Douglass used metaphors, wit, and irony in this sentence to his master, He sounded, “removed” and placid as he spoke very straightforward, bold, yet respectful way about the degradation of being treated as personal property instead of a human being. There is a little melodrama in there