New Freedom essays

New Freedom essays After the end of the American Civil War and the failures of Reconstruction African-Americans had finally been granted the freedom of which they had long dreamed. There was great optimism and hope amongst the former slaves as they had long been ready for independence. But the euphoria was short lived as Booker T. Washington wrote, The great responsibility of being free, or having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children, seemed to take possession of them (Bailey, 6). African-Americans were quick to realize that freedom was a more serious thing than they had expected to find it (Bailey, 6). Freedom had not come with instructions and most white Americans were unwilling to help ease the growing pains these new citizens were about to experience. In fact many whites would do everything they could, including murder and terrorism, to knock the African-Americans back down every time they tried to stretch their wings. From local lynchings to seg regationist rulings by the Supreme Court almost every attempt by blacks to exercise their liberty was hindered and fought. Frederick Douglass wrote since poverty has, and can have, no chance against wealth, the landless against the landowner, the ignorant against the intelligent, the freedman was powerless (Bailey, 25). With little or no help coming from white America, including the Federal government, blacks would have to develop their own communities, institutions, and strategies to help themselves. The African-American responses to their position in an oppressive white dominated society generally took one of three forms. The first form was accommodation to the white dominated systems. This view was championed by Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute. Washington felt that if black Americans were too vocal or violent then the white response would be even more violent. His Tuskegee Inst...