Summary of The Literature of Slavery and Freedom 1746-1865

For my reading assignment I am basically summarizing the introduction part of the reading. While reading the section I have picked up on a few things that I was unaware of before. This was my first time hearing ever being introduced to the book by David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (1829). This book basically mixed slavery in with religion; he thinks that if slavery is not abolished then God will have vengeance on the United States. I became clear that the book states the intention of slavery was to create in the slave a sense of complete alienation from all human ties except those that bound him or her in absolute dependence to the master’s will. I learned a little bit more about Nat Turner, who lead what people call the “greatest revolt ever”. This was my first time reading about a woman name Charlotte Forten, the daughter of an influential Philadelphia civil rights activist and author of the most widely read African American diary of the nineteenth century. Her diary spoke of the Emancipation Proclamation and the hope it brings in her journal. The reading also highlights specific days and events such as December 6, 1865, when the thirteenth amendment was passed and it abolished slavery. It also talks about how Thomas Jefferson’s’ Notes on the State of Virginia greatly influenced racism in America. All together the reading was very detailed about the events that happened between the years of 1746-1865, especially in the area of African American history.