The Story of American Freedom

Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia in 1743. He served as the first Secretary of State, in the Washington Administration, and served as vice president to John Adams before winning the presidency himself in 1800. Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and is considered one of the Founding Fathers of the nation. His presidency is mostly associated with the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the land area of the United States but also forced the relocation of Native American tribes. Foner writes of Jefferson that he “owned over one hundred enslaved people at the time he wrote the immortal lines affirming the inalienable right to liberty, and everything he cherished in his own manner of life, from lavish entertainments to the leisure that made possible the pursuit of arts and sciences, ultimately rested on slave labor” (32).

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland in the early 19th century but escaped to freedom by train when he was 20 years old. As a free man, he became one of the most prominent abolitionists in the nation because of his intellectual and oratory skills and because he could speak of slavery from personal, firsthand experience. In 1847, Douglass wrote “he who has endured the cruel pangs of slavery is the man to advocate liberty” (87). Foner explains that Douglass, in pointing out the hypocrisy of celebrating Independence Day, “laid claim to the founders’ legacy” (89).

Born in Kentucky in 1861, Abraham Lincoln became the 16th President of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. In his early political career, Lincoln was a strong proponent of the free labor ideology of the North and thus became a strong opponent of institutionalized slavery. However, although his speeches and writings show that he consistently believed that slavery was morally unjust, he also grappled with it as a political problem, to which he had no easy answers. Upon his election in 1860, southern states began seceding from the Union in an attempt to preserve slavery, and when Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, the Civil War broke out. Foner argues, “In his speeches opposing the expansion of slavery, he hammered away at the theme that slavery was incompatible with the founders’ ideals and the nation’s world-historical mission” (90-91). With the victory in the Civil War and the preservation of the Union, Lincoln is widely considered one of the greatest American presidents.

Born in 1815, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a major figure in the early women’s rights movement of the 19th century. She was the primary organizer of the historic Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, the first such gathering to discuss the issue of women’s rights. According to Foner, “to the end of her long life, [she] maintained that woman, like man, was ultimately the 'arbiter of her own destiny,' and must rely on her own inner resources for self-realization" (81).

Eugene V. Debs was an American union leader and political activist who was born in 1855. He was one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the head of the American Railway Union. Debs ran for president five times as the nominee of the Socialist Party of America and is widely considered one of the most important figures in the history of organized labor. Foner writes of Debs that “no one was more effective at appropriating the language of American freedom for labor’s cause” (126).

Born in Virginia in 1856, Woodrow Wilson served as the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. Wilson’s presidency is most closely associated with America’s involvement in World War I and the numerous progressive reforms that took place with his administration’s backing. Foner writes of Wilson, “Though representing a party thoroughly steeped in states’ rights and laissez-faire ideology, Wilson was deeply imbued with Progressive ideas” (159).

Born in New York in 1882, Franklin Delano Roosevelt served as the 32nd President of the United States, from 1933 until his death in office in 1945. Roosevelt won a record four presidential elections and is widely considered one of the greatest presidents in American history. He took office during the Great Depression and implemented widespread, sweeping economic and social reforms to guide the nation through the crisis. The broad recovery programs, agencies, and laws that he implemented became collectively known as the New Deal. Roosevelt’s presidency is most closely associated with the greatly expanded size and scope of the federal government, the success of the New Deal programs, and the victory in World War II.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta in 1929 and became a Baptist minister at the age of 25. He rose to national prominence as the chief spokesman for the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956 and became the de facto leader of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, emulating the techniques of nonviolence and civil disobedience pioneered by Mahatma Gandhi. Foner explains that the Civil Rights movement forced people to rethink the very definition of freedom. According to Foner, "It was in the soaring oratory of Martin Luther King Jr., who more than any single individual came to lead and symbolize the movement, that the protestors' many understandings of freedom fused into a coherent whole" (279). King was assassinated in 1968.

Lyndon B. Johnson was born in Texas in 1908 and served as the 36th President of the United States, from 1963 to 1967. As the sitting vice president, Johnson assumed the presidency upon the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and won reelection in a landslide the following year. Johnson’s time in office is typically associated with his Great Society agenda, which greatly expanded the size and scope of government but also implemented successful programs, agencies, and laws that focused on racial equality and the eradication of poverty.