Analysis Of Bound For Canaan

Harriet Tubman was among the greatest fighters for justice in her time and was an inspiration to others to fight for what they believe in, but she along with many others who fight experienced it themselves. When she was younger, “She knew that her brothers and sisters, her father and mother, and all the other people who lived in the quarter, men, women and children, were slaves. At the same time, someone had taught her where to look for the North Star, the star that stayed constant, not rising in the east and setting in the west as the other stars appeared to do; and told her that anyone walking toward the North could use that star as a guide. She knew about fear, too. Sometimes at night, or during the day, she heard the furious galloping of horses, not just one horse, several horses, thud of the hoofbeats along the road, jingle of harness. She saw the grown folks freeze into stillness, not moving, scarcely breathing, while they listened. She could not remember who first told her that those furious hoofbeats meant the patrollers were going past, in pursuit of a runaway. Only the slaves said patterollers, whispering the word” (Petry). Living with her family as a slave, she learned all the things she needed to know to do her job in the future as the conductor of the Underground Railroad, she learned about the North star, and she learned about how you should not get caught by the patrollers. Perturbed by the thought of the fate of her family and her future, she escaped to Philadelphia but “Rather than remaining in the safety of the North, Tubman made it her mission to rescue her family and others living in slavery via the Underground Railroad” (Biography.com editors). She made it her mission to save others and take

Gateway to freedom is about the times when the slaves were helped by abolitionists to escape to Canada in hope to find freedom. It is a book authored by Eric Foner, an American Historian. He is well known for writing about the American political history, freedom history, historiographies and about the African-American biography. In 2011 he won the Lincoln Prize, the Bancroft Prize Pulitzer prize for History for his book ‘The Fiery trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery’. Gateway to freedom takes us back to the slave trade period, in New York City which was a significant hub for railway activity. It is also in New York where there was the largest population of blacks, which made it as some sort of haven for fugitives and runaways.

And in the cases of Alabama, there were at least 100,000 African American men between the 1890s and the 1930s were leased or sold by the state of Alabama to coal mines, iron ore mines, sawmills, timber harvesting camps, cotton plantations, turpentine stills, all across the state. And so at least 200,000 African Americans, just in Alabama, were forced into the system, just in the most informal ways. And there are very well documented records of thousands of Black men who died under these circumstances during that period of time. Stories of men like Jonathan Davis, who in the fall of 1901, left his cotton field trying to reach the home of his wife's parents, where she was being cared for and would soon die of an illness. He was trying to reach her before she died. And on his way to the town, which was 15 or 20 miles away where she was being taken care of, he was accosted on the road by a constable, and essentially is kidnapped from the roadway and sold to a white farmer a few days later for $45. This is something that is named in the book to dozens of people that happened to. It's clear some version of that sort of kidnapping happened to hundreds and hundreds of other African Americans. And again, all of that is just in Alabama, and there were versions of this going on in all of the

Slavery was abolished after the Civil War, but the Negro race still was not accepted as equals into American society. To attain a better understanding of the events and struggles faced during this period, one must take a look at its' literature. James Weldon Johnson does an excellent job of vividly depicting an accurate portrait of the adversities faced before the Civil Rights Movement by the black community in his novel “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.” One does not only read this book, but instead one takes a journey alongside a burdened mulatto man as he struggles to claim one race as his own.

As African Americans gained civil rights, a new generation, eager to break away from past horrors, emerged while others remained chained to the specter of past inequality and poverty. The story scrutinizes the intense tensions and trains that were created as these two conflicting worlds came together.

In The Long Emancipation: The Demise of Slavery in the United States, Berlin draws attention to various parts of anti-slavery resistance that often escape consideration. He emphasizes the efforts of African Americans themselves. Berlin brings together main ideas, events, and people who made slave emancipation in the U.S. possible and that American freedom as a complex, disputed process. The author is not focused on speeches, written arguments, and petitions against slavery but with how slaves and free blacks took steps to permanently pull apart forced servitude in the face of crushing hostility. Author Glenn David Brasher of The Peninsula Campaign and the Necessity of Emancipation: African Americans and the Fight for Freedom zooms in and focuses

The Underground Railroad was a path to safety and freedom for thousands of slaves before the Civil War. Escaping from the chains, confinement and abuse of slavery was no easy task and it took the cooperation of many people

However in the novel, The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead, freedom is just a dream every African American character desires. Whether enslaved or free they must navigate the impossible choice between slavery or racism. The stigma of colored people create this idea that Ridgeway believes "If niggers were supposed to have their freedom, they wouldn't be in chains. If the red man was supposed to keep hold of his land, it'd still be his. If the white man wasn't destined to take this new world, he wouldn't own it now." (Whitehead) Similarly, any white person who feels sympathy for the enslaved is confronted with the fact that if they choose to assist enslaved people, they will likely be killed along with their families.

Throughout the book, Robinson distinctively points out African consciousness that informed the commitments, insights, and politics of black radicals. He begins with the discussion of “The Coming to America” which then focuses on 'Blacks and Colonial English America ' and 'The Early Black Movements of Resistance. ' Although freedom is obviously desirable in comparison to a life in chains, free african americans were unfortunately rarely treated with the same respect of their white counterparts. There were several ways African Americans could achieve their freedom. Indentured

The River of no return is an Autobiography of Cleveland Sellers. Throughout the book, we get to read firsthand how times were during the Civil rights movement. In ‘The River of No Return’ readers will also perceive the mindset of both African Americans and Caucasian Americans. This autobiography provides eyewitness reports of the strategies and the conflicts in the south that many people have endured for racial justice. Not only does it show the south but it also shows the movement and how it progressed throughout the nation.

Questions also raised with the praise of the Underground Railroad. When the Underground Railroad was running, some of the northerners, who were abolitionists, did not support the systems. For example, the members of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee refused to send agent to the South to build the secret line for the Railroad (6). In fact, they believed that the Underground Railroad was unwise: it broke the regulation of protecting citizens’ property. They questioned the validation of the Underground Railroad: did it worth people to take the risk of being arrested to help the blacks? Even though they were anti-slavery, they thought that it would be better to change the law and save the slaves than doing it secretly (5,336). In addition, the

A strong and powerful lady said these wise words: “There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive; I should fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me”. The brave women who said these words were Harriet Tubman and she was one of the leaders of the Underground Railroad that helped slaves reach freedom. “Although not an actual railroad of steel rails, locomotives and steam engines, the Underground Railroad was real nevertheless” (encyclopedia The Civil War and African Americans 329) The term “Underground Railroad” referred to the

The Underground Railroad is viewed as simply a series of trails that led slave to freedom. It was more than that. What were the motivations behind the creation of it? Were there political involvements? Was it developed with financial gain in mind? The Underground Railroad is another one of those subjects that gets swept under the proverbial carpet. Slavery happened everywhere, whether people want to admit it or not. The Underground Railroad was a positive and a negative thing. Most people don’t comprehend what it fully entailed or the impact that it had on all people. It is important to review the past, so we can make an attempt to not make the same mistakes. The above questions will be answered in a well rounded account of all parties involved from the abolitionists to the slaves and those who were supporters.

Secondly, Tubman was courageous. She escaped the harsh slave owners alone while only knowing very little about the underground railroad. It would take amazing bravery to leave knowing the consequences of being found. Yet, she did it alone while she was fairly young. Getting to the north didn’t stop her bravery, for she would put her life on the line many more times in her

When it comes to the topic of racial politics very few would agree that Howard fast did a great job of covering the main points of the Reconstruction period and Civil rights movement. The advancement of liberated slaves in the reconstruction period covered in Howard Fast’s Novel, Freedom Road, are more vulnerable over the gains made in civil rights over the course of the past 35 years. In actuality things were much more difficult in the reconstruction period than that of what happened in just the short novel. Also the gains made by minorities in the U.S since 1964 are more significant than the accomplishments of Gideon Jackson and his contemporaries, although the characters did a good job at proposing the issue, the events that took place in this period of history are much more than what was portrayed.