Freedom
In 1865, the 13th Amendment was ratified and adopted into the Constitution—thus abolishing the institution of slavery in the United States. At the close of the Civil War, nearly four million enslaved people were freed and could pursue life, liberty, and happiness, the core tenets of American citizenship. While newly emancipated freed women and men made advancements, freedom still proved to be largely nominal; white violence, voter disenfranchisement, and racialized forms of labor continued to hinder Black people’s claims to freedom. The items in this exhibit section ask you to consider the significance of the historic moment of Emancipation, but also how African Americans throughout the 19th century fought to make freedom a reality for themselves and their families and communities.
Click images below to view full size documents.
Citizenship Oath Sworn by Peter Elizardi
New Orleans, Louisiana, 1865.
During the reintegration process of rebellious states back into the Union following the Civil War, private individuals were required to take a citizenship oath affirming their allegiance to the United States. A part of this oath was agreeing to release any enslaved person from bondage.
Correspondence between Henry Jardine to Joseph E. Smith, 1821
Letter from Henry Jardine, a free Black man in Maryland, to Joseph E. Smith about a teaching position in an African American community.
Correspondence about the establishment of a Black church, 1821
Letter from Henry Jardine, a free Black man, to J.E. Smith about the establishment of a Black Protestant church in Baltimore, Maryland. Jardine will serve as rector.
Indentureship agreement between printer John Mosely Dunham and David Taunton
Indentureship of printer John Mosely Dunham and David Taunton for five years to perform various duties.
Higher Education in the 19th Century
Through the assistance of missionary associations and philanthropic organizations, and with support from Black communities, dozens of Black institutions of higher learning were established throughout the 19th century. Access to highquality education was an urgent demand of newly emancipated women and men. Three prominent African American graduates of Northwestern University – Ferdinand Lee Barnett (1878), Daniel Hale Williams (1883), and Emma Ann Reynolds (1895) – demonstrate how universities were opening, even if slowly or unevenly, new avenues for aspiring Black professionals.
Ferdinand Lee Barnett
Portrait circa 1900.
Ferdinand Lee Barnett was an attorney and journalist. He was born in 1859 in Nashville, Tennessee to free parents. His family relocated to Windsor, Canada in 1859, directly across the Detroit River, because slave catchers often kidnapped free Blacks and sold them into slavery. Following the end of the Civil War, the Barnett family returned to the United States moving
to Chicago.
After graduating from Central High School in 1874, Barnett enrolled at Union College of Law (now the Northwestern Law School) and was admitted into the Illinois bar in 1878. He organized the Conservator with other co-editors; this semi-monthly publication was Chicago’s first Black newspaper. In 1895, Barnett married famed African American journalist and activist Ida B. Wells. From 1896 to 1910, Barnett served as the assistant state’s attorney; he was the first African American to hold this position.
Daniel Hale Williams III
Portrait circa 1900.
Daniel Hale Williams III was born in 1856 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. In 1883, he became Northwestern’s first African American medical school graduate. He later served as an instructor in the medical school. In 1891, Williams founded Provident Hospital and Nursing Training School, Chicago’s first Black-owned hospital.
In July of 1893, Williams performed the first successful open-heart surgery. Later that year, President Grover Cleveland appointed Williams to the position of Surgeon-in-Chief at the Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. He served in that position until 1898.
Later that year, Williams married Alice Johnson, a school teacher in Washington, D.C. The newly married couple relocated back to Chicago. Williams returned to Provident as its Chief of Surgery and remained involved in the city’s community affairs.
Emma Ann Reynolds
Portrait 
circa 1900.
Emma Ann Reynolds was born in 1862 in Frankfort, Ohio. After completing her education at Wilberforce University, Reynolds relocated to Kansas City, Missouri and lived with her brother Rev. Louis H. Reynolds, pastor of St. Stephens
A.M.E. Church. Reynolds and her brother traveled to Chicago in December of 1890 to meet Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. Reynolds wanted to discuss the lack of training schools for Black women aspiring to become a nurse.
According to Helen Buckler, this conversation prompted Williams to start the Provident Hospital and Nursing Training School. Reynolds graduated from the nursing program at Provident in 1892, and enrolled in the medical degree program at the Northwestern University Women’s Medical School in 1895. She held an appointment as the resident physician of Paul Quinn College in 1896. She took a temporary position as the Head Nurse at the Freedmen’s Hospital in 1900. Reynolds established a practice in Sulphur Lick, Ohio that she operated until her death in 1917.
WPA Slave Narratives
From The Library of Congress
The Federal Writers’ Project, funded through the New Deal, provided employment opportunities for Americans to collect oral histories of formerly enslaved people. Although some historians criticize interviewers’ overly simplistic and distorted view of slavery, these narratives provide some insight on the lives led by formerly enslaved people. The oral history excerpts in this case describe what the moment of Emancipation meant for some enslaved people — particularly as racialized forms of labor continued to stifle African Americans’ claim to prosperity and freedom.
“I ’member dat surrender day. He call us round him. I can see him now, like I watches him come to de yard, with he hands clasp ’hind him and he head bowed. I know what he says, ‘I likes every one of you. You been faithful but I has to give you up. I hates to do it, not ’cause I don’t want to free you, but ’cause I don’t want to lose you all.’ Us see de tears in he eyes.”
—Louise Matthews, circa 1936
“Freedom wasn’t no diff’rence I knows of. (Marse John) say one mornin, ‘John, you can go out in de field iffen you wants to, or you can git out iffen you wants to, ’cause de gov’ment say you is free. If you wants to work I’ll feed you and give you clothes but can’t pay you no money. I ain’t got none.’ Humph, I didn’t know nothin’ what money was, nohow, but I knows I’ll git plenty victuals to eat so I stays till old Marse die.”
—John McCoy, circa 1936
“Massa didn’t tell us we was free for three or four days after freedom. Then he said, ‘You is free; don’t leave, I’ll pay you.’
[We] didn’t know what he meant at first, then someone say, ‘We is free—no more whippings and beatings.’ You ought to see ’em jump and clap their hands and pop them heels.”
—Martin Ruffin, circa 1936
More Information
This collection is housed in the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections and University Archives of Northwestern University Libraries.