Unit 2 The Freedom Givers

1. Unit 2 The Freedom Givers

2. II. Cultural Background When we learn a foreign language, we must also learn the culture of the speakers of that language. Text A in this unit is a good case in point. Readers need some basic knowledge of Christianity. Some terms in this text are markedly Christian, like “Methodist Minister”, “'Bible”, “Quaker”. Others refer to characters or places from Biblical stories, such as Moses who led the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt, or Bethlehem, a holy city for Christians.

3. Bible and Christianity----Words with religious connotations: the Creator Moses Mission Bethlehem Quaker Bible Methodist Salvation the Lord, the all Mighty, God, He the religious leader in Exodus A religious task The town on the west bank of River Jordan, near Jerusalem, thought to be where Jesus was born A member of the society of Friends, a Christian religious group that meets without any formal ceremony or priests and that is opposed to violence The holy book of Christian religion A member of a Christian group that follows the idea of John Wesley In the Christian religion, the state of being saved from evil

6. The Deep South This refers to the southernmost states of the south-eastern US: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and eastern Texas. They are among the states that once had slaves and left the Union during the Civil War. They still have racial problems and the people there are mostly conservative in their politics and religion.

7. Slavery Slavery played a particularly important role in the history of the US. The first slaves were brought into North America from Africa by the Dutch in 1619. By the time of the American Revolution (1775) there were 500,000 slaves, mostly in the south. After the Revolution the northern states made slavery illegal but the southern states needed cheap labor for the cotton plantations. Gradually the South’s economy became dependent on slaves and by 1860, the year before the Civil War, there were about 4 million slaves.

8. The conflict between the North and the South increased, and it became clear that supporters and opponents of slavery could not continue to be part of the same country. In 1861 the slave states left the US Federal government ( during the war called Union), and formed their own government (called Confederate). This was the beginning of the Civil War. After the North won the Civil War and brought the southern states back into the Union, slavery was ended. But little changed for former slaves. Some moved to the North but there were not enough job vacancies available there and many

9. Suffered prejudice from whites. Those that stayed in the South often worked on the plantations where they had been slaves. They were paid for their work, but had to buy food and clothes. Many had to stay there trying to pay off debts which became larger each year.

10. Time Line • 1501—African Slaves in the New WorldSpanish settlers bring slaves from Africa to Santo Domingo (now the capital of the Dominican Republic). • 1522—Slave Revolt: the CaribbeanSlaves rebel on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which now comprises Haiti and the Dominican Republic. • 1562—Britain Joins Slave TradeJohn Hawkins, the first Briton to take part in the slave trade, makes a huge profit hauling human cargo from Africa to Hispaniola.

11. 1581—Slaves in FloridaSpanish residents in St. Augustine, the first permanent settlement in Florida, import African slaves. • 1619—Slaves in VirginiaAfricans brought to Jamestown are the first slaves imported into Britain’s North American colonies. Like indentured servants, they were probably freed after a fixed period of service. • 1662—Hereditary SlaveryVirginia law decrees that children of black mothers “shall be bond or free according to the condition of the mother.”

12. 1705—Slaves as PropertyDescribing slaves as real estate, Virginia lawmakers allow owners to bequeath their slaves. The same law allowed masters to “kill and destroy” runaways. • 1712—Slave Revolt: New YorkSlaves in New York City kill whites during an uprising, later squelched by the militia. Nineteen rebels are executed. • 1739—Slave Revolt: South CarolinaCrying “Liberty!” some 75 slaves in South Carolina steal weapons and flee toward freedom in Florida (then under Spanish rule). Crushed by the South Carolina militia, the revolt results in the deaths of 40 blacks and 20 whites.

13. 1775—American Revolution BeginsBattles at the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord on April 19 spark the war for American independence from Britain. • 1775—Abolitionist SocietyAnthony Benezet of Philadelphia founds the world’s first abolitionist society. Benjamin Franklin becomes its president in 1787. • 1776—Declaration of IndependenceThe Continental Congress asserts “that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States”.

14. 1783—American Revolution EndsBritain and the infant United States sign the Peace of Paris treaty. • 1784—Abolition EffortCongress narrowly defeats Thomas Jefferson’s proposal to ban slavery in new territories after 1800. • 1790—First United States CensusNearly 700,000 slaves live and toil in a nation of 3.9 million people. • 1793—Fugitive Slave ActThe United States outlaws any efforts to impede the capture of runaway slaves.

15. 1794—Cotton GinEli Whitney patents his device for pulling seeds from cotton. The invention turns cotton into the cash crop of the American South—and creates a huge demand for slave labor. • 1808—United States Bans Slave TradeImporting African slaves is outlawed, but smuggling continues. • 1820—Missouri CompromiseMissouri is admitted to the Union as a slave state, Maine as a free state. Slavery is forbidden in any subsequent territories north of latitude 36°30´.

16. 1822—Slave Revolt: South CarolinaFreed slave Denmark Vesey attempts a rebellion in Charleston. Thirty-five participants in the ill-fated uprising are hanged. • 1831—Slave Revolt: VirginiaSlave preacher Nat Turner leads a two-day uprising against whites, killing about 60. Militiamen crush the revolt then spend two months searching for Turner, who is eventually caught and hanged. Enraged Southerners impose harsher restrictions on their slaves. • 1835—CensorshipSouthern states expel abolitionists and forbid the mailing of antislavery propaganda.

17. 1846-48—Mexican-American WarDefeated, Mexico yields an enormous amount of territory to the United States. Americans then wrestle with a controversial topic: Is slavery permitted in the new lands? • 1847—Frederick Douglass’s NewspaperEscaped slave Frederick Douglass begins publishing the North Star in Rochester, New York. • 1849—Harriet Tubman EscapesAfter fleeing slavery, Tubman returns south at least 15 times to help rescue several hundred others.

18. 1850—Compromise of 1850In exchange for California’s entering the Union as a free state, northern congressmen accept a harsher Fugitive Slave Act. • 1852—Uncle Tom’s Cabin PublishedHarriet Beecher Stowe’s novel about the horrors of slavery sells 300,000 copies within a year of publication. • 1854—Kansas-Nebraska ActSetting aside the Missouri Compromise of 1820, Congress allows these two new territories to choose whether to allow slavery. Violent clashes erupt.

19. 1857—Dred Scott DecisionThe United States Supreme Court decides, seven to two, that blacks can never be citizens and that Congress has no authority to outlaw slavery in any territory. • 1860—Abraham Lincoln ElectedAbraham Lincoln of Illinois becomes the first Republican to win the United States Presidency. • 1860—Southern SecessionSouth Carolina secedes in December. More states follow the next year.

20. 1861-65—United States Civil WarFour years of brutal conflict claim 623,000 lives. • 1863—Emancipation ProclamationPresident Abraham Lincoln decrees that all slaves in Rebel territory are free on January 1, 1863. • 1865—Slavery AbolishedThe 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution outlaws slavery.

21. Introduction • You are a slave.Your body, your time, your very breath belong to a farmer in 1850s Maryland. Six long days a week you tend his fields and make him rich. You have never tasted freedom. You never expect to. • And yet . . . your soul lights up when you hear whispers of attempted escape. Freedom means a hard, dangerous trek. Do you try it?

22. Life for a runaway slave was full of hazards.  The journey to freedom meant traveling only a few miles at night, using the North Star as a map and trying to avoid search parties.  • Often, escaped slaves would hide in homes or on the property of antislavery supporters.  These stops to freedom were called Underground Railroad stations because they resembled stops a train would make between destinations.   "Underground" refers the secret nature of the system.

23. In their flight, slaves used three main routes to cross into freedom:  Madison and Jeffersonville, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio.  From these points, the fugitives were taken to Newport.  Once in the house, the presence of the runaway slaves could be concealed for up to several weeks, until they gained enough strength to continue their journey.

25. The Underground Railroad Definition in the encyclopedia: in U.S. history, loosely organized system for helping fugitive slaves escape to Canada or to areas of safety in free states. It was run by local groups of Northern abolitionists , both white and free blacks. The metaphor first appeared in print in the early 1840s, and other railroad terminology was soon added. The escaping slaves were called passengers; the homes where they were sheltered, stations; and those who guided them, conductors.

26. The Underground Railroad legend: In fact, most of the help given to fugitive slaves on their varied routes north was spontaneously offered and came not only from abolitionists or self-styled members of the Underground Railroad, but from anyone moved to sympathy by the plight of the runaway slave before his eyes.

27. The major part played by free blacks, of both North and South, and by slaves on plantations along the way in helping fugitives escape to freedom was underestimated in nearly all early accounts of the railroad. • Moreover, the resourcefulness and daring of the fleeing slaves themselves, who were usually helped only after the most dangerous part of their journey (i.e., the Southern part) was over, were probably more important factors in the success of their escape than many conductors readily admitted.

28. In some localities, like Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Wilmington, Del., and Newport, Ind. (site of the activities of Levi Coffin ), energetic organizers did manage to loosely systematize the work; Quakers were particularly prominent as conductors, and among the free blacks the exploits of Harriet Tubman stand out.

29. In all cases, however, it is extremely difficult to separate fact from legend, especially since relatively few enslaved blacks, probably no more than a few thousand a year between 1840 and 1860, escaped successfully. • Far from being kept secret, details of escapes on the Underground Railroad were highly publicized and exaggerated in both the North and the South, although for different reasons.

30. The abolitionists used the Underground Railroad as a propaganda device to dramatize the evils of slavery; Southern slaveholders publicized it to illustrate Northern infidelity to the fugitive slave laws . The effect of this publicity, with its repeated tellings and exaggerations of slave escapes, was to create an Underground Railroad legend that correctly represented a humanitarian ideal of the pre-Civil War period, but that strayed far from reality.

31. Cultural Notes: 1. Freedom and rights Freedom of the individual is considered one of the essential features of western civilization, which is itself sometimes called the Free World. This freedom is often expressed in terms of rights to do certain things or to be treated in a particular way. When a person does something that others think strange, British and American people will often say, “It’s a free country,” meaning that although they disagree with the choice they recognize the other person’s right to make it.

32. In Britain and the US the most basic rights include freedom of expression (=freedom to say or write anything), freedom of choice (=freedom to make decisions about your own life) and freedom of worship (=freedom to practice any religion).

33. 2. the civil rights movement In the US, the national campaign by African-Americans for equal rights, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. the campaign included boycotts (=refusals to buy particular products), the actions of freedom riders, and in 1963 a march to Washington led by Martin Luther King. It succeeded in causing the introduction of bussing and affirmative action. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were also introduced as a result of the civil rights movement, which has helped to change the attitudes of many white Americans toward blacks.

34. II. Cultural Background 2. the Civil Rights Movement a timeline 1954 Oliver Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott 1957 Desegregation at Little Rock, Arkansas 1960 Sit-in Campaigns 1961 Freedom Rides 1962 University of Mississippi Riot 1963 Birmingham March on Washington 1965 Bloody Sunday

35. 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott • Rosa Parks, a 43 year old black seamstress, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. The following night, fifty leaders of the Negro community met at Dexter Ave. Baptist Church to discuss the issue. Among them was the young minister, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The leaders organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which would deprive the bus company of 65% of its income, and cost Dr. King a $500 fine or 386 days in jail. He paid the fine, and eight months later, the Supreme Court decided, based on the school segregation cases, that bus segregation violated the constitution.

36. 1957Desegregation at Little Rock, Arkansas • Little Rock Central High School was to begin the 1957 school year desegregated. On September 2, the night before the first day of school, Governor Faubus announced that he had ordered the Arkansas National Guard to monitor the school the next day. When a group of nine black students arrived at Central High on September 3, the were kept from entering by the National Guardsmen. On September 20, judge Davies granted an injunction against Governor Faubus and three days later the group of nine students returned to Central High School. Although the students were not physically injured, a mob of 1,000 townspeople prevented them from remaining at school. Finally, President Eisenhower ordered 1,000 paratroopers and 10,000 National Guardsmen to Little Rock, and on September 25, Central High School was desegregated.

37. 1960 Sit-in Campaigns After having been refused service at the lunch counter of a Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, Joseph McNeill, a Negro college student, returned the next day with three classmates to sit at the counter until they were served. They were not served. The four students returned to the lunch counter each day. When an article in the New York Times drew attention to the students' protest, they were joined by more students, both black and white, and students across the nation were inspired to launch similar protests.

38. 1961Freedom Rides • In 1961, bus loads of people waged a cross-country campaign to try to end the segregation of bus terminals. The nonviolent protest, however, was brutally received at many stops along the way.

39. 1962University of Mississippi Riot • President Kennedy ordered Federal Marshals to escort James Meredith, the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi, to campus. A riot broke out and before the National Guard could arrive to reinforce the marshals, two students were killed.

40. 1963 Birmingham • Birmingham, Alabama was one of the most severly segregated cities in the 1960s. Black men and women held sit-ins at lunch counters where they were refused service, and "kneel-ins" on church steps where they were denied entrance. Hundreds of demonstrators were fined and imprisoned. In 1963, Dr. King, the Reverend Abernathy and the Reverend Shuttlesworth lead a protest march in Birmingham. The protestors were met with policemen and dogs. The three ministers were arrested and taken to Southside Jail.

41. 1963March on Washington • Despite worries that few people would attend and that violence could erupt, A. Philip Randolpf and Bayard Rustin organized the historic event that would come to symbolize the civil rights movement. A reporter from the Times wrote, "no one could ever remember an invading army quite as gentle as the two hundred thousand civil rights marchers who occupied Washington."

42. 1963 March on Washington

43. 1965 Bloody Sunday • March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was set upon with violence when the marchers crossed the Edmund Petus Bridge. Local police used billy clubs, tear gas, cattle prods, and beat the marchers to show their resistance to voter rights and the freedom to petition for those rights on "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965.

44. 1965 Bloody Sunday

45. 3. the Civil Rights Act of 1964 It refers to the US law that forced the southern states to allow African-Americans to enter restaurants, hotels, etc. which had been reserved for white people for white people only and to end the practice of having separate areas for black and white people in theatres, train stations, buses, etc. (segregation). The act was mostly the result of the civil rights movement and was strongly supported by President Lyndon Johnson. It was followed the next year by the Voting Rights Act.

46. 4. Quaker It refers to any member of the Society of Friends, a religious group established in England in the 1950s by George Fox. They were originally called Quakers because members were thought to “quake” or shake with religious excitement. Quakers worship Christ without any formal ceremony or fixed beliefs, and their meetings often involve silent thought or prayer. They are strongly opposed to violence and war, and are active in education and charity work.

47. 5. Grand Central Terminal This is the best-known railway station in the US. It is on East 42nd Street in New York and was completed in 1913 in the American Beaux Arts Style. The Main area is very large, and the trains enter and leave the station on 123 tracks, arranged on two levels. The station is often very crowded: You can’t move in there—it’s like Grand Central Station!

48. 6. Methodist This term refers to a member of the Methodist Church, the largest of the Protestant Free Churches in Britain and the US. It was established in 1739 by John Wesley as part of the Church of England but it became separate from it in 1795. It was introduced into the US in the 18th century and today has over 50 million members around the world. It emphasized the importance of moral issues, both personal and social.

49. III. Text Analysis 1. Detailed explanation Para 1 1) … Ontario, was home to a hero in American history. 2) Barbara Carter, my guide back to a time when … Josiah Henson: a freedom fighter 3) the Creator

50. Josiah Henson