Hist 110 Final Essay

“Freedom is not a fixed, timeless category with a single unchanging definition” (Foner, GML, xxiv) This statement made by Eric Foner shows that throughout history, perception and ideas are shifted in many ways towards a constant change in the definition of freedom. From era to era, freedom has a new meaning due to the change in political, economic and cultural structure that the United States goes through. Through further investigation into the Reconstruction era, the Second Industrial Revolution, the Age of Roosevelt, Postwar America, and recent America one can understand the most significant meanings of freedom and that shift of meaning towards modern day America.

The Reconstruction era was the start of the definition of freedom being spread throughout Americans, although not fully connected with the word justice. America prior to the Reconstruction era, was a place where whites were entitled to everything compared to black Americans. The government from this point gave black Americans citizenship and equality before the law, with the right to vote, education and established institutions (Foner, GML, 442). Although black Americans were granted these rights, it did not mean that they were able to embrace a full type of freedom in conjunction with justice. Through a ‘view from the bottom rail’, one can see the unbiased viewpoint of the lives that black Americans were living. A raw look into these lives filled with poverty and a chase to bring back what was theirs, “Former slaves traveled in order to reunite families separated through previous sales” (Davidson, Lytle, AFTER THE FACT, 195). The meaning of freedom during the Reconstruction era meant a freedom that was new to black Americans, but not a fully free life compared to white Americans at that time.

Looking into the second industrial revolution, the definition of freedom shifted from a societal focus to an economic focus, with constricting outcomes. The second industrial revolution was a booming time for economic autonomy and explosive economic growth (Foner, GML, 476). New laws were implemented that added political rights and the idea of free labor to the overall definition of freedom. But despite these new laws, monopolies arose out of this era from the likes of John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie (Foner, GML, 481). With the rise of these monopolies, the idea of economic autonomy through personal businesses became almost impossible to achieve. Rather than relying on ownership of tools and shops, people had to rely on technical skill to thrive in this economy (Foner, GML, 482). This made Americans constrained to the labor needs of the top 1% of America. During this time, freedom represented a meaning of diminished economic autonomy through certain entrepreneurial avenues.