Douglass was, naturally, outraged at Lincoln’s suppression of the slavery issue, which made him even more “determined to change his mind”25 and “in 1862, the job for [his] elegant vocal instrument was agitation.”26 At that moment, he was enraged with the Lincoln administration, criticizing it whenever he had the chance …

Douglass writes that Lincoln “was emphatically the black man’s President: the first to show any respect to their rights as men.”

1. Slavery. In his three narratives, and his numerous articles, speeches, and letters, Douglass vigorously argued against slavery. He sought to demonstrate that it was cruel, unnatural, ungodly, immoral, and unjust.

After the Civil War, with the protection of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, African Americans enjoyed a period when they were allowed to vote, actively participate in the political process, acquire the land of former owners, seek their own …

Enslaved African Americans resisted slavery in a variety of active and passive ways. Breaking tools, feigning illness, staging slowdowns, and committing acts of arson and sabotage–all were forms of resistance and expression of slaves’ alienation from their masters. Running away was another form of resistance.

In the 1930s, ex-slave Martin Jackson explained why he chose his last name after Emancipation: The master’s name was usually adopted by a slave after he was set free. This was done more because it was the logical thing to do and the easiest way to be identified than it was through affection for the master.

At best, captives were fed beans, corn, yams, rice, and palm oil. Slaves were fed one meal a day with water, if at all. When food was scarce, slaveholders would get priority over the slaves.