The Gateway Freedom Summary

669 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Abolitionism essay

Eric Foner is the prestige author behind the Gateway Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad novel. This influential researcher, writer, and historian attended Oriel College, Oxford from 1963-1965 and Columbia University from 1965 until his graduation 1969. He graduated with his doctoral degree from the University of Columbia and later went on to teach as a professor at the University. He is a well-known and important author who has published many novels on the American political history. One of the most significant topics discussed and analyzed in the novel is the abolitionist movement and the efforts made to end slavery in the America. He aimed to educate and to reveal the truth behind the underground railroad. New York City was a norther state; however, they were known to be a popular trading ground for slavery. Many slaves trying to escape the terror they slaved had to be sold back into their or a new owner. People known as “abolitionists” began to shed light to the issue and began to form organizations intended to decline these senseless actions. The Manumission Society was one of the groups who “actively [campaigned] for an end of slavery” and “offered legal assistance to blacks seeking freedom” (Foner, 2015, pg.41). One …show more content…

This act authorized the for the capture and return of runaway slaves causing more tension between the north and the south. It sates “required citizens to assist in the capture of fugitives” (Fonner, 2015, P. 25). It became extremely hard for them to escape and be free. It also states, “slave hunters… were lurking about the city” (Foner, 2015, P.164). Many wanted the reward that was given if they returned a runaway slave, so many African Americans would be terrorized every day. With the slave catchers on the lookout it made the fugitives be more discrete and made them have more elaborate plans to not get

Show More
Related

  • Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery

    901 Words  | 2 Pages

    The North is popularly considered the catalyst of the abolitionist movement in antebellum America and is often glorified in its struggle against slavery; however, a lesser-known installment of the Northern involvement during this era is one of its complicity in the development of a “science” of race that helped to rationalize and justify slavery and racism throughout America. The economic livelihood of the North was dependent on the fruits of slave labor and thus the North, albeit with some reluctance, inherently conceded to tolerate slavery and moreover embarked on a quest to sustain and legitimize the institution through scientific research. Racism began to progress significantly following the American Revolution after which Thomas Jefferson himself penned Notes on the State of Virginia, a document in which he voiced his philosophy on black inferiority, suggesting that not even the laws of nature could alter it. Subsequent to Jefferson’s notes, breakthroughs in phrenological and ethnological study became fundamental in bolstering and substantiating the apologue of racial inadequacy directed at blacks. Throughout history, slavery was indiscriminate of race and the prospect acquiring freedom not impossible; America, both North and South, became an exception to the perennial system virtually guaranteeing perpetual helotry for not only current slaves but also their progeny.

    Read More

  • Gilbert Osofsky’s Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “Part One: The Negro and the City,” Osofsky describes the early Black neighborhoods of New York City, in the lower parts of Manhattan: from Five Points, San Juan Hill, and the Tenderloin. He describes the state of Black community of New York in the antebellum and postbellum, and uses the greater United States, including the Deep South, as his backdrop for his microanalysis of the Blacks in New York. He paints a grim picture of little hope for Black Americans living in New York City, and reminds the reader that despite emancipation in the north long before the Civil War, racism and prejudices were still widespread in a city where blacks made up a small portion of the population.

    Read More

  • Signs, Symbols and Signals of the Underground Railroad

    3218 Words  | 7 Pages

    Siebert, Wilbur H. - The Underground Railroad From Slavery to Freedom , pp. 125, 156.

    Read More

  • Manifest Destiny: The Abolitionist Movement

    747 Words  | 2 Pages

    Abolitionists thoughts became progressively conspicuous in Northern places of worship and politics in the 1830’s which contributed to the territorial ill will amongst the North and South, essentially dividing the nation in two. The southern economy grew increasingly dependent on “king cotton” and the system of slaves that sustained it.

    Read More

  • Abolitionist Movement after the 1930s

    712 Words  | 2 Pages

    In early nineteenth century there was the antislavery movement which was a failure. This people who were fighting for antislavery did not have a great support. They were nice gentle people who argued with an expression of moral disapproval but did not participate in an exert of activities. Organizations were formed to help support the freeing of slaves but these organizations did not have enough economical support to help with the thousands and thousands of slaves reproducing in America. They were able to free some slaves and tried returning some of them to their home lands in Africa but that was a failure because the amount of money need it to ship the Africans back to Africa was a high cost compared to the economical support that they had. There was even resistance from some Afr...

    Read More

  • The Legend Of The Underground Railroad Analysis

    1099 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Underground Railroad was an extremely complex organization whose mission was to free slaves from southern states in the mid-19th century. It was a collaborative organization comprised of white homeowners, freed blacks, captive slaves, or anyone else who would help. This vast network was fragile because it was entirely dependent on the absolute discretion of everyone involved. A slave was the legal property of his owner, so attempting escape or aiding a fugitive slave was illegal and dangerous, for both the slave and the abolitionist. In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass understands that he can only reveal so many details about his escape from servitude, saying, “I deeply regret the necessity that impels

    Read More

  • The Compromise of 1850

    385 Words  | 1 Pages

    One item in the Compromise of 1850 was the provision for a stronger Fugitive Slave Law. This new law made it a federal crime to not return a runaway slave to the south. The law also established that any suspected runaway slave was to be tried by a single judge, not by a jury. Also, these judges were compensated by a system that provided them with more money for deciding that the slave was guilty than innocent. This law obviously encouraged people not to harbor runaway slaves, and when they were caught, it provided the judge an incentive to have them returned to the south.

    Read More

  • The Civil War: Reconstruction

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the time of reconstruction, the 13th amendment abolished slavery. As the Nation was attempting to pick up their broken pieces and mend the brokenness of the states, former slaves were getting the opportunity to start their new, free lives. This however, created tension between the Northerners and the Southerners once again. The Southerners hated the fact that their slaves were being freed and did not belong to them anymore. The plantations were suffering without the slaves laboring and the owners were running out of solutions. This created tension between the Southern planation owners and the now freed African Americans. There were many laws throughout the North and the South that were made purposely to discriminate the African Americans.

    Read More

  • Events Leading To The Civil War

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Fugitive Slave Act was part of the Compromise of 1850. This act required that authorities in the North had to assist southern slave catchers to retrieve and return slaves to their owners. Southerners favored this act because they saw no slavery in the territories to the west, by the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act it would help preserve slavery in the south. This act allowed southern slave owners to get their slaves back when they escaped to the North that is why this act was important and critical to southern survival. The view of this act by the North was the opposite, especially from those who were black, they feared this act. The blacks in the North were terrified that this act would make it so they could be ushered back to the south even if they were innocent. This led to the creation of resistance groups in the North.

    Read More

  • Casue Of The Civil War

    821 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1850, a document called the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. Primarily, this document dealt with the reclaiming of runaway slaves. This law allowed southerners to call upon the federal government to capture runaway slaves who had fled the South and may be living in the North. The Fugitive Slave Act and the laws that went with it only caused controversy in the North. This split the North and South. In reaction to this, some northern states passed laws forbidding state officials to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law, which only angered the southern states. Northerners had become aware of the hypocrisy of slavery and became resolved to end slavery. Many abolitionists started to take action to help slaves escape. This major controversy over the runaway slaves sparked the beginning of the Civil War.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Underground Railroad

    942 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Underground Railroad despite occurring centuries ago continues to be an “enduring and popular thread in the fabric of America’s national historical memory” as Bright puts it. Throughout history, thousands of slaves managed to escape the clutches of slavery by using a system meant to liberate. In Colson Whitehead’s novel, The Underground Railroad, he manages to blend slave narrative and history creating a book that goes beyond literary or historical fiction. Whitehead based his book off a question, “what if the Underground Railroad was a real railroad?” The story follows two runaway slaves, Cora and Caesar, who are pursued by the relentless slave catcher Ridgeway. Their journey on the railroad takes them to new and unfamiliar locations,

    Read More

  • 13th Amendment Essay

    1609 Words  | 4 Pages

    The 13th amendment was adopted speedily in the aftermath of the Civil War, with the simple direct purpose of forbidding slavery anywhere in the United States. The 13th Amendment took authority away from the states, so that no state could institute slavery, and it attempted to constitutional grant the natural right of liberty. Think that this amendment would suffice, Congressional Republicans pushed the amendment through. To counter the amendment, a series of laws called the Black Codes were enacted by the former Confederate states, which

    Read More

  • Black Codes Effect

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    After the 13th amendment was passed, there was a severe shortage of workers on plantations and they needed help. The black codes were partially created because of economic worries of not having labor in the south. They helped reconstruction because it ensured that wealthy southern landowners would have a cheap and steady workforce they needed, because some of the codes forced African Americans to sign contracts that required them to work for meager wages. The government was also scared that the freed slaves would try to get revenge on their owners. The black codes helped regain control and inhibit the freedoms over the freed slaves, prevent black uprisings, ensure the continued and steady supply of cheap labor, and maintain segregation and white supremacy. Also, without the black codes, many amendments granting African Americans equal rights wouldn’t have been passed. The black codes forced congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th amendment. The northerners reaction to black codes helped produce radical reconstruction and the 14th and 15th

    Read More

  • The Supreme Court Case that Fueled the Beginning of the Civil War

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...er B. Taney sent shockwaves through the nation. Taney believed that this would once and for all settle the issue of slavery and whether or not they were considered humans or propriety. Politely it farther divided the north and the south and was thought by many to be a move by the court to expand slavery to territories in the west.

    Read More

  • The Emancipation Proclamation Rhetorical Analysis

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    About 3,000 enslaved people who had been living in the shadows of the capital and the White House were freed. Their former masters were compensated from a government fund. They received up to $300 per slave, at the time considered very generous (History.com). The Act had three very interesting provisions. One, anyone who had fought for the Confederacy or given aid and comfort to Confederate soldiers could not make a claim for compensation (History.com). Two, kidnapping a citizen of the District back into slavery was deemed a felony. Anyone found guilty of that crime would serve a sentence of 5 to 20 years in prison (History.com). And three, a separate fund was set up to help newly-freed persons emigrate to Liberia, Haiti, or such other country beyond the limits of the United States as the president might determine (History.com). On April 19, three days after Lincoln signed the Act, the District 's African American population celebrated with a huge parade. Historians estimate that half the city 's black population participated and 10,000 people lined the streets to watch the joyous marchers

    Read More

More about The Gateway Freedom Summary

Open Document