Slavery during or before the civil war era/ In America

Slavery during or before the civil war era/ In America

What is the book about?

The book being considered is the famous title by Eric Foner; Give me liberty, An American history. It is an amazing piece of literature highlighting the problems and situation of slavery during the civil war. The book revolves around observing the American society and belief of the general public; it would be revealed to us that the notion of freedom is ubiquitous for the general public and society. If we trace the evolvement of the conception of freedom over time, it will reveal a history. In this evolvement, of conception of freedom and slavery one name that is worth mentioning is of Eric Foner. The aim of this paper is to discuss the following statement of Eric Foner related to the meaning of freedom and slavery.

Argument

The main essence of the writer was that while slavery was expanding in British America, so too was freedom. In the context of the heritage identity of the United States, perhaps no idea is as decisive as that of freedom, so essential to define the collective consciousness of American people and stands like no other in their political vocabulary. This statement suggests that the problem was not simply whether abolition required violence and upheaval or proceeded relatively in a peaceful way (as in British Caribbean); it had already become clear that violence and upheaval in some measure attended all emancipations. This implies that the main problem did not underlie with the meaning of slavery and variegated forces that brought its end and demise. The real problem was related to the meaning of freedom in the societies of former slaves (Eric, 2008).

Foner says that the elusiveness of the concept of freedom in American ...