“Whatever its origin, the phrase soon became ubiquitous…. By 1853, the New York Times could observe that ‘the underground railroad’ had ‘come into very general use to describe the organized arrangements made in various sections of the country, to aid fugitives from slavery.’ “That same year, a North Carolina newspaper [the Raleigh Daily Register] offered […]
Posts Tagged ‘eric foner’
‘Underground railroad,’ as defined by Raleigh Register
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged eric foner, gateway to freedom, raleigh register, underground railroad on February 26, 2015 | Leave a Comment »
Former slaves built schoolhouse whites never did
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged beaufort nc, black education, eric foner, nc reconstruction, reconstruction: america's unfinished revolution on January 14, 2015 | 1 Comment »
“Throughout the South, blacks in 1865 and 1866 formed societies and raised money among themselves to purchase land, build schoolhouses, and pay teachers’ salaries. Some communities voluntarily taxed themselves, while in others black schools charged tuition, although often a certain number of the poorest families were allowed to enroll their children free of charge…. “Contemporaries […]
It took a lot of deference to satisfy Southern whites
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged eric foner, freedmen's bureau, reconstruction in nc, reconstruction: america's unfinished revolution on March 3, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
” ‘Southern whites,’ a Freedmen’s Bureau agent observed, ‘are quite indignant if they are not treated with the same deference that they were accustomed to’ under slavery, and behavior that departed from the etiquette of antebellum race relations frequently provoked violence…. “One North Carolina planter complained bitterly to a Union officer that a black soldier […]
White elite feared rule by ‘dregs of society’
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged eric foner, nc reconstruction, reconstruction: america's unfinished revolution on February 28, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
“[In the early days of Reconstruction] North Carolina Conservatives harped upon the specter of integration in the new public schools, where white children would ‘take in all the base and lowly instincts of the African.’ “Racial appeals, however, often went hand in hand with revulsion at the prospect of governments controlled by what North Carolina […]
Freedmen’s Bureau more valued than Union army
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged eric foner, freedmen's bureau, john steedman, joseph s fullerton, reconstruction in nc, reconstruction: america's unfinished revolution, wilmington nc on February 13, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
“To the very end of Reconstruction, blacks would insist that ‘those who freed them shall protect that freedom.’ The strength of their commitment to this principle, and to the [Freedmen’s] Bureau as an embodiment of the nation’s responsibility, became clear in 1866 when President Johnson sent generals John Steedman and Joseph S. Fullerton on an […]
Against ‘bombastic, high-falutin aristocratic fools’
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged alexander h jones, american heritage, carolina quaker belt, eric foner, gov william h holden, hendersonville nc, heroes of america, underground railroad, zebulon vance on March 31, 2012 | 1 Comment »
“Outside of East Tennessee the most extensive antiwar organizing took place in western and central North Carolina, whose residents had largely supported the Confederacy in 1861. Here the secret Heroes of America, numbering perhaps 10,000 men, established an ‘underground railroad’ to enable Unionists to escape to Federal lines. “The Heroes originated in North Carolina’s Quaker […]
The high cost of refusing to educate blacks
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged black education, eric foner, gov jonathan worth, reconstruction on September 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
“Gov. Jonathan Worth, elected in 1865, had earlier in his career steered to passage the bill establishing public education in North Carolina, but he now persuaded the legislature to abolish the state school system altogether…. The governor feared that if white children were educated at public expense, ‘we will be required to educate the negroes […]
Wilmington church displayed racial schism
Posted in Just A Bite, tagged eric foner, front street methodist church, gen. john m. schofield, reconstruction, rev. l. s. burkhead, wilmington nc on April 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“The ownership of church property provoked bitter controversy [during Reconstruction]. A case in point: the Front Street Methodist Church in Wilmington, North Carolina, whose congregation before the war numbered about 1,400, two-thirds of them black. “When Union soldiers occupied the city early in 1865, the black members informed Rev. L. S. Burkhead ‘that they did […]