Freedom expressed the hope of sanity, education opportunities and full citizenship rights
Diana
After reading the Open Stax text, as well as the course packet reading, I believe to freed people, freedom meant an end to whipping and selling the families. Freedom expressed the hope of sanity, education opportunities and full citizenship rights. We can see that portrayed in the letter written by Jourdan Anderson to his previous master. In his letter, Anderson states he wishes no harm upon Colonel H. P. Anderson, regardless of the fact he had attempted to shoot him twice during his escape. The writing came off as a sarcastic forgiveness letter. Anderson recalls how he enjoys life much more with a job that pays $25 a month. During his last paragraph, he even asks his previous master if there have been schools opened for colored children. This was almost like a kick-in-the-face to Colonel H. P. Anderson, where we can see Jourdan ridiculing the situation.
Mingo White shared his story on his slavery during an interview with the U.S Government. Mr. White, along with his mother were able to get a job that paid barley a dollar a day. They had saved enough money to find their own place to stay, rather than stay with the people they were working for. When the Ku Klux started to emerge, they had to move back with Mr.Nelson for protection, being that he was a white man. Only to find out that the Ku Klux were not only harming black people, but white people as well.
During another view with the U.S Government, Charles Davenport stated what freedom meant to him. “Freedom meant us could live where us’d born and bred, but it meant, too, dat us had to scratch for us ownselfs.” Because Davenport and the rest. of the freedmen were not used to making a living on their own for an extended period of time, it was a difficult journey leading to the sacrifices that had to be made. Regardless of his rights to freedom, Davenport stayed with his prior master. They offered him food and shelter alongside with a mule for work. He exempted his knowledge about the Ku Klux Klan during the interview. Nonetheless of his freedom, Davenport stated the hunger of the Ku Klux aimed towards people of color. For example, many black people walked out of the memorial hall after an entertainment show, but is unaware of what happened to them after the Ku Klux had taken them.
second student:
Irene
Freedom to them meant a sense of hope without fear of losing their family or being punished by their masters. The freed people wanted the same rights as the white people such as an education, compensation and those rights of a white citizen. As mentioned in the letter, “LETTER FROM A FREEDMAN TO HIS FORMER MASTER” Jourdon Anderson was considering going back to his old master if the wages were better than what he was currently making at that time and also if there was an opportunity for his daughters to receive an education. In addition, Jourdon wanted to be compensated for the time he had already served his old master and just as important he wanted reassurance that his daughters will not be harmed as other young girls had been harmed in the past. However, freedom was not just the right of not being owned by a master, it was also given the chance to survive as a citizen. Unfortunately, it was not that easy as the Ku Klux made it very difficult for them to survive by harming them or any other white people who were assisting them in any way. As written in the interview of Mingo White, it got to a point where white people were being killed too.
In the case of the Freed People from Edisto Island many found themselves in a worse situation than before as the land they had acquired was going to be taken back from them and given back to their old masters as they had been pardon by the president. This only meant that they were going to be landless and homeless which was no condition for a freemen as they had expressed in their protest letter written to General Howard in 1865. So by returning the land to their original masters and not providing the freedman with land of their own they felt it was a matter of time the state will make laws that will keep them from owing land, a home and the inability to vote. Basically, it defeated the purpose of a freedman.
Answer preview Freedom expressed the hope of sanity, education opportunities and full citizenship rights
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