The Meaning of Freedom Summary and Analysis

In Chapter 3, Foner argues that the making of the modern American black community can be traced to the early years after the Civil War. Emancipation had created many new questions regarding how blacks would be included in the new society. Their new formal standing as free people did nothing to change the attitudes of many white Americans that they were inferior in intellect and social standing and especially in the South, blacks continued to be treated almost as poorly as they had been as slaves.

For many blacks, the basic meaning of "freedom" was the ability to work and make decisions for themselves and they often modeled their behavior on that of the free whites they had observed during slavery. Black women eagerly took up household chores and child rearing while black men worked outside...