by Eric Foner
First published 2011
The Emancipation Proclamation freed millions of enslaved people in 1863, but liberation brought new forms of suffering. Three prominent historians examine what happened when the promise of freedom met the reality of white resistance. They investigate how former slaves responded to their new status and how white southerners worked to maintain racial control. The authors analyze individual choices made by both enslaved and free Americans during slavery and Reconstruction. They explore local political dynamics and the language that shaped debates about black freedom. The book reveals how African Americans gained and then lost freedoms throughout the nineteenth century. These scholars force readers to confront uncomfortable truths about emancipation's limits. They show how deeply rooted racial prejudice created ongoing obstacles for freed people. The work examines the gap between the celebration of liberation and the harsh realities that followed. Through wide-ranging analysis, the historians demonstrate how slavery's influence persisted long after legal abolition.
Genres: history, american-civil-war, american-fiction, 20th-century, african-american, biographical-fiction, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-fiction, social-justice
Setting: United States
Period: 19th Century
128 pages · Kindle Edition · Johns Hopkins University Press
Content warnings: racism, slavery