In a distracted land where slavery had hardly fallen, to keep the strong from wanton abuse of the weak, and the weak from gloating insolently over the half-shorn strength of the strong, was a thankless, hopeless task.
Reflecting on the challenges faced by the Freedmen's Bureau, this passage describes the inherent difficulty of maintaining order and justice in the post-Civil War South.
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In song and exhortation swelled one refrain—Liberty; in his tears and curses the God he implored had Freedom in his right hand.
A million black men started with renewed zeal to vote themselves into the kingdom.
They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at…
Through history, the powers of single black men flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness.