Sarah's Long Walk
The term “Beacon Hill” has been ingrained into the minds of Bostonians and Americans to be a term that is associated with wealth, power, and governance. While that holds true today, Beacon Hill of antebellum America was quite different. Not only did Beacon Hill back then have a wealthy Yankee population, but it was also where the majority of Boston’s black population resided. Paul Kendrick, in his book Sarah’s Long Walk, presents several positive aspects of life for the African American population that lived on the North Slope of Beacon Hill. One positive aspect of life for the African American population was the small geographical size of Beacon Hill. Since the area was small, it brought upon fraternity among members of the black community
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Though the awkward interaction between the two was full of tension, and at times violent, it also brought the two groups together; “Yet as separate as these worlds seemed, each contained within itself certain brave individuals who decided to cross the line of Pinckney Street to work together” (Kendrick, XIX). The most famous white abolitionist who helped out the black community was William Lloyd Garrison. In his newspaper The Liberator, Garrison espoused views that were in favor of the African-American’s community push for change, and helped provide insight to White Northerners about the African-American population. Garrison’s “Ideas ushered in a new era in which there was a shift from a community that strove to form stronger separatist institutions to a community that would work in collation with white reformers for equality through integration” (Kendrick 46). With the black community working in conjunction with white reformers, it brought upon integration in Boston, such as train cars, that would embolden the African-American population before the Civil War. In the end, Paul Kendrick exemplifies in Sarah’s Long Walk how the small geographically area of Beacon Hill and the diversity in it in antebellum America where positive aspects of life for the African-American population on Beacon Hill. The proximity of African-American’s with the Yankee population, and the closeness of the African-Community in the area, fostered upon alliances in Beacon Hill that would push for equality, in a movement predating the end of slavery and the civil rights movement of the
Though the awkward interaction between the two was full of tension, and at times violent, it also brought the two groups together; “Yet as separate as these worlds seemed, each contained within itself certain brave individuals who decided to cross the line of Pinckney Street to work together” (Kendrick, XIX). The most famous white abolitionist who helped out the black community was William Lloyd Garrison. In his newspaper The Liberator, Garrison espoused views that were in favor of the African-American’s community push for change, and helped provide insight to White Northerners about the African-American population. Garrison’s “Ideas ushered in a new era in which there was a shift from a community that strove to form stronger separatist institutions to a community that would work in collation with white reformers for equality through integration” (Kendrick 46). With the black community working in conjunction with white reformers, it brought upon integration in Boston, such as train cars, that would embolden the African-American population before the Civil War. In the end, Paul Kendrick exemplifies in Sarah’s Long Walk how the small geographically area of Beacon Hill and the diversity in it in antebellum America where positive aspects of life for the African-American population on Beacon Hill. The proximity of African-American’s with the Yankee population, and the closeness of the African-Community in the area, fostered upon alliances in Beacon Hill that would push for equality, in a movement predating the end of slavery and the civil rights movement of the