The Reconstruction Period: A Narrative Analysis

During the Reconstruction period, the meaning of freedom became a point of conflict. African-Americans had different notions about freedom than whites because their experiences as slaves shaped the way they perceived freedom. For African-Americans in the South, freedom meant escaping the injustices that went with slavery and having access to all of the opportunities of American citizens. Slaves expressed their newfound freedom in many ways, including religious services without white supervision, formation of mass meeting, and the ability to acquire guns, dogs, and liquor. Southern planters and farmers sought to introduce a different meaning of freedom than slaves, not wanting to accept that freedom meant the same for slaves as it did for whites.