{"product_id":"9781101575192","title":"More Than Freedom: Fighting for Black Citizenship in a White Republic, 1829-1889","description":"\u003ci\u003eA major new narrative account of the long struggle of Northern  activists-both black and white, famous and obscure-to establish African  Americans as free citizens, from abolitionism through the Civil War,  Reconstruction, and its demise \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003eAbraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation is generally understood as  the moment African Americans became free, and Reconstruction as the  ultimately unsuccessful effort to extend that victory by establishing  equal citizenship. In \u003ci\u003eMore Than Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e, award-winning historian  Stephen Kantrowitz boldly redefines our understanding of this entire era  by showing that the fight to abolish slavery was always part of a much  broader campaign to establish full citizenship for African Americans and  find a place to belong in a white republic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eMore Than Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e chronicles this epic struggle through the  lived experiences of black and white activists in and around Boston,  including both famous reformers such as Frederick Douglass and Charles  Sumner and lesser-known but equally important figures like the journalist  William Cooper Nell and the ex-slaves Lewis and Harriet Hayden. While  these freedom fighters have traditionally been called abolitionists,  their goals and achievements went far beyond emancipation. They mobilized  long before they had white allies to rely on and remained militant long  after the Civil War ended.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese black freedmen called themselves \"colored citizens\" and fought  to establish themselves in American public life, both by building their  own networks and institutions and by fiercely, often violently,  challenging proslavery and inegalitarian laws and prejudice. But as  Kantrowitz explains, they also knew that until the white majority  recognized them as equal participants in common projects they would  remain a suspect class. Equal citizenship meant something far beyond  freedom: not only full legal and political rights, but also acceptance,  inclusion and respect across the color line.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEven though these reformers ultimately failed to remake the nation in  the way they hoped, their struggle catalyzed the arrival of Civil War and  left the social and political landscape of the Union forever altered.  Without their efforts, war and Reconstruction could hardly have begun.  Bringing a bold new perspective to one of our nation's defining  moments, \u003ci\u003eMore Than Freedom\u003c\/i\u003e helps to explain the extent and the  limits of the so-called freedom achieved in 1865 and the legacy that  endures today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47072756367600,"sku":"9781101575192","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781101575192_p0.jpg?v=1763688465","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781101575192","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}