Courtney Hartgrove

1. Immediately after the Civil War the slaves became former slaves and were now newly freed
men, women, and children. As free people, many blacks like Gideon Jackson of Howard Fasts
Freedom Road remained on the plantations abandoned by former plantation owners. It was the
place they grew up and the only land they had ever worked on. Intimate knowledge of the land
and personal attachments prevented blacks from traveling far from the land they worked on as
slaves. Now that the blacks of the South were free they were able to sell their labor instead of
being exploited for free the natural next step was to obtain some land on which to sustain
themselves.
Therefore acquiring land became a priority among the newly freed blacks. Document 3
historically relates the problem of land after the Civil War. Written by Richard H. Cain, the
minister proposed that Congress provide land for freed blacks or at the very least give them the
opportunity to purchase land. Land for blacks would lead to the United States becoming an
industrious nation. When people are working they are happy; the nation would benefit from this
productive society as a whole. On the other hand, without land for blacks, Cain suggests that
America would be promoting insolence throughout its nation among the practically homeless
blacks. It would be advantageous for both blacks and whites if the former slaves received land.
The South Carolina Constitutional Convention did not agree with Cains proposal. The same
was portrayed in Freedom Road. Gideons service at the Convention allowed him to accomplish
several measures with the other delegate such as outlawing dueling and imprisonment for debt
(Fast, 75), but redistribution of land was not one of them. After the first day at the Convention
Gideon met Anderson Clay, a white yeomen farmer from the mountains elected to also be a

delegate by his peers. On the street Clay was discussing the issue of land in a group of delegates.
Clay adamantly stated that the other delegates should not expect a simple redistribution of land
(Fast 59-61). If we want land, were going to work and sweat and buy it (Fast 60). This
proved to be the sentiment of the Convention as no land was given out this day or the next.
The Carwell plantation resolved this issue by developing a makeshift community. Together both
black and white families worked to save money in order to purchase the land at auction. Gideon
was able to recruit more families along the way (Fast 118-120). The majority of the collective
money was earned by working on the railroad (Fast 106, 111). As similarly stated by Cain, the
prospect of owning land in the future stimulated the poor to renewed efforts (Fast 269). To
own land for the blacks meant independence and to become the literal representation of a free
man.
State conventions were organized throughout the South to create new state constitutions after the
Civil War; these were the first steps of Reconstruction. However, not everyone in the South was
working towards the same goal in Reconstruction. Even though Gideon and his fellow delegates
were able to accomplish certain progressions on the political level, there were organizations
counteracting the state conventions on a local level.
Organized violence on behalf of the southern whites was utilized as a deterrent to
Reconstruction. Groups, principally the Ku Klux Klan, used horrible scare tactics to prevent the
advent of racial equality in America. In Document 6 there is a testimony of the dreadful panic
and anxiety the KKK caused a black legislator in Georgia. This incident, according to Abraham
Colbys witness, included breaking and entering, kidnapping, assault, and psychological scarring
(Fast 272-273).

This too was accurately portrayed throughout Freedom Road. After Gideon returned home from
the convention there were several incidents similar to the one described by Colby committed on
the Carwell plantation. For example the murder of an innocent Zeke Hale on his way home from
town one day caused those of Carwell to go back to the railroads that next day armed (Fast 215).
Not even the whites of Carwell were immune to the attacks of the KKK. After the establishment
of the Carwell community the KKK attacks intensified. Fred McHugh, a white of Carwell, was
whipped in the middle of the night by this underground organization and his wife tortured to
death (Fast 200). It was a warning to both the blacks and whites of Carwell to play their
individual part in the coming revolution.
Towards the end of the novel, those of the Carwell community were forced to flee into the
abandoned Carwell plantation house for protection. They could no longer live in their house, on
their land because of the white threat looming over them. Retreating into the plantation house
ultimately proved fruitless for the entire Carwell community as the Klansman charged the house
with the same senseless malevolence in Document 6, killing everyone (Fast 259-261).

Works Cited
Fast, Howard. Freedom Road. New York, NY: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce, 1994.