Excellent History Source for the Classroom teacher

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	• Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction Eric Foner Vintage, 2006 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Emancipation, Reconstruction, and Civil Rights

Forever Free, by Eric Foner, is a condensed telling of how African-Americans went from slaves to full citizens. While not as detailed as his book on Reconstruction, or even as detailed as his Short History of Reconstruction, Foner's Forever Free does a good job introducing the reader to the struggles the freed blacks faced after emancipation in the 1860s, and the hardships they faced through a hundred years of Jim Crow and intimidation, north and south, to the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th Century.

An Excellent Primer on Reconstruction

Author Eric Foner's Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction focuses on the period of United States history from before the Civil War through the period of Reconstruction, with an epilogue that speaks to Civil Rights in the modern era. Throughout the text are six essays written and illustrated by Joshua Brown, the executive director of the American Social History Project. Five distinctive areas are highlighted throughout the text which include the following: the period before the Civil War, mainly concentrating on slavery and the lives of slaves; the Civil War itself, including Abraham Lincoln's strategies and the Emancipation Proclamation; Presidential Reconstruction with President Andrew Johnson; Radical Reconstruction directed by Congress and President Ulysses S. Grant; and the aforementioned Civil Rights in the modern era. Essays written by Brown highlight artwork and photography of the era and attempt to show the mood of the print media with regards to racism and the struggle to integrate American society. Noteworthy is the fact that the book was written in the politically correct times of the early twenty-first century when blacks are described as African-Americans, though Caucasians are described as whites and other ethnic groups like Asian-Americans are described as Chinese.

The life of the average slave is correctly described as dismal throughout the opening chapters. "The Peculiar Institution," as it is called, focused on plantations where slave labor "...was far more demanding than in household slavery, and the death rate among slaves much higher." Descriptions of slavery permeate the text, even listing the hardships slaves endured while being transported to the United States from Africa. One such passage states that the decks on the ships were "`...only 18 inches, so that the unfortunate human beings could not turn around, or even on their sides...and here they are usually chained to the decks by their necks and legs.'"

Battles and atrocities of the war itself are not mentioned in much detail; rather the political battles are the point of focus. On the opening page of the text, General William T. Sherman's "March to the Sea" is described thusly: "Less than three weeks earlier, Sherman, at the head...had captured the city [Savannah] completing his March to the Sea, which cut a swath of destruction...." Not mentioned is the mayhem and criminal behavior exerted by his army which most historians regard as fact. Although many believe the Civil War was exclusively about slavery, Foner does point out that even Lincoln was slow to embrace emancipation and could not support a biracial living arrangement post-war with black leaders. He suggested emigration to Central America or the Caribbean and in December 1861 "...signed an agreement with a shady entrepreneur to settle former slaves on an island off the coast of Haiti." Moreover, the Emancipation Proclamation, "...perhaps the most misunderstood important document in American history," does not have a purpose. Due to Constitutional constraints, it only freed slaves who were held in areas controlled by the Confederacy. It did not free slaves in Border States that did not secede from the Union but still practiced slavery.

Following the surrender of Confederate forces in April 1865, the period termed "Presidential Reconstruction" began in 1865 and ran until 1868. This was President Andrew Johnson's, "...promise of a quick restoration of the Union... [and] a return to normality...." Since Johnson was a Southerner and a true federalist, not much changed under his leadership. Johnson's failures led to a period known as "Radical Reconstruction" and lasted until 1877. This tumultuous period was "...the only attempt by a national government in league with emancipated slaves to fashion an interracial democracy from a slave society." During Radical Reconstruction, three Constitutional amendments were passed; the President of the United States was impeached for the first time in the nation's history; and the radical group named the Ku Klux Klan was formed. Furthermore, the federal government gained the ability to override states' rights with regards to the principle of equal civil rights.

Forever Free concludes with an assessment of the failure of the Reconstruction era, saying that blacks briefly left the servitude of slavery, then quietly returned, being only slightly better off than before. Segregation and discrimination still remained throughout the country, but was especially strong in the south. This failure to properly develop the country in a biracial way has caused many of the issues that are still faced by the United States, including segregation that lasted until the 1960s and discrimination that still exists to this day. The author attempts to show that the failures of Reconstruction are the causes of racial tensions and the reasons for failures of blacks to attain equality. Unfortunately, he fails to hold the black community accountable for some of its own shortcomings, like the high out-of-wedlock birthrate, the greater occurrences of fatherless homes, and the increasing high school dropout rate. The "Second Reconstruction" of the mid-1960s was abandoned just as the first Reconstruction was due to economic and political necessity with still more work to be done.

Overall, one cannot help but feel that Reconstruction was an abysmal failure and that many whites in the South were outright racists. It is difficult to imagine how another civil war did not take place, albeit on a smaller scale, during the two years immediately following the cessation of hostilities based upon the climate that existed in the South. Although Forever Free details events during the almost twenty year period from the beginnings of the Civil War to the end of Reconstruction, very little is written about that is positive. Further, fuller explanations of certain events are not included. For example, as mentioned earlier, Sherman's "March to the Sea" is only referred to casually without descriptions of the pure horror his army unleashed on parts of the south that might have affected the behavior by some Southerners after the war. Foner also fails to fully expand upon Andrew Johnson's impeachment, a historically significant event which led to the loss of power by the president and for all practical purposes, the country being run by Congress. This resulted in the election of another corrupt president, Ulysses S. Grant, in 1868. Finally, one is struck by the negative portrayals of black Americans throughout the period. According to Brown, there was little, if any, artwork or photographic images of blacks that did not exploit them or show them as lazy or less than intelligent. The tone of the book was negative and will lead those who are unknowledgeable about Reconstruction to believe that very little good came of it.

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AN EYE OPENER!!!!

As a Civil War Buff, I never read very much about Reconstruction, unless it was an appendage to a book about the Civil War or the years following th Civil War.

However, this book opened my eyes to the true facts of the Reconstruction - in painstaking detail and with much informative narrative, Eric Foner, quoting specific individuals and presenting historical facts about Afro-American conventions and gatherings -- tells us about the part that proud Afro-Americans, newly and joyfully liberated from their former slave years, met, convened, conferred and became leaders in their community -- statesmen, lawmakers and governors of towns, and VOTERS.

However, this freedom, this growth, this liberty was short lived, as President Johnson and the Democratic party of that time effectively put an end to this, not only squashing the Afro-American right to be citizens, but to amend a Constitutional Amendment to further deprive them of their rights and liberty.

The North, as well as the South was to blame for this.

Illustrations, quotes, anecdotes and supporting documentation as well as related input from the early Women Suffrage leaders make for a fascinating historical document that should be in every library and on every reading list.

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Excellent History Source for the Classroom teacher

It is a tough subject to discuss in class, but this book is a very helpful. Our curriculum doesn't allow us to spend alot of time on this time period, so reading excerpts from this book and showing some illustration really adds to my lesson.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

From one of our most distinguished historians comes a groundbreaking new examination of the myths and realities of the period after the Civil War.

Drawing on a wide range of long-neglected documents, Eric Foner places a new emphasis on black experiences and roles during the era. We see African Americans as active agents in overthrowing slavery, in shaping Reconstruction, and creating a legacy long obscured and misunderstood. He compellingly refutes long-standing misconceptions of Reconstruction, and shows how the failures of the time sowed the seeds of the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950s and 60s. Richly illustrated and movingly written, this is an illuminating and essential addition to our understanding of this momentous era.

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