Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History)

Foner's work is, of course, an excellent, if brief, summary of comparative research on emancipation. He shows, without doubt, that the same sorts of issues and struggles were faced whenever emancipation happened in the Americas. Former slaves wanted similar things, and planters, who largely remained planters, wanted similar things no matter where an emancipation event happened.Still, this similarity in the struggles of former slaves and planters creates a certain jaundiced view for Foner. It is not quite a pessimistic view. It does though make Foner suspicious of the literature which heralds Lincoln as the great emancipator. Since no other societies made blacks at the time fully liberated in any sense, Foner doubts that Lincoln could have either, or even that he wanted to. In that lies Foner's suspicion too of American exceptionalism. America failed to make emancipation real just like the other societies that experienced emancipation revolutions.That said, I believe Foner does not give full credence to just how close the US came and how devestating a blow was the death of Lincoln. To paraphrase one freedman whom Foner quotes in another of his books, it sure caused a problem when Lincoln got killed.

Foner's loose Marxist interpretation of Emancipation leaves much to be desired. This can be forgiven because the chapters are really lectures and the workings of what would become a book. Although the book is well organized and well written and the tales of economics and class are slightly compelling they leave a lot of holes behind, and a lot to be desired and the finished product feels incomplete.

"Nothing but Freedom" is a short book written by Eric Foner about Reconstruction. The book is composed of three essays, which are titled: The Anatomy of Emancipation, the Politics of Freedom, and the Emancipated Worker. The title phrase comes from an 1865 comment from an eyewitness to Emancipation, "The emancipated slaves own nothing, because nothing but freedom has been given to them."Foner takes this quote and uses it as the thesis of the book. He focuses on the radical changes which occurred during American Reconstruction, and how different it was from similar situations elsewhere in the world. Foner compares the American experience to those in Haiti, the British Caribbean, and south eastern Africa. The first chapter is a case study comparison. The other chapters cover the unique American approach to emancipation and the 1876 strikes in South Carolina and Georgia on rice plantations. The differences between black controlled South Carolina and Democrat "Redeemed" Georgia are clearly illustrated. In areas where Blacks managed to gain and retain political power they had much more freedom and autonomy than in areas where they were reduced to almost slavery-like conditions and poverty due to low wages and the whims of the planter. A good quick read about the American emancipation process.

I had to read this for my history class at Columbia. Foner was a colleague of my professor. Loved it. 5 stars.

Foner dilligently attempts to describe post-slavery America and Carribean Islands. Bravo Eric!