“Emancipation wasn’t a gift bestowed on the slaves; it was something they took for themselves, the culmination of their long struggle for freedom.” nytimes.com/2020/06/18/opi…
None of this is to discount or downplay the contributions of white abolitionists, but simply to say that black Americans, enslaved and free, were at the center of the story.
I reference them in the column, but shoutout to @ProfMSinha and @marthasjones_, whose books are indispensable.
