18+ Eric Foner Quotes On Freedom, Education And Slavery

Eric Foner is an American historian who specializes in the history of the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries, with a particular focus on the Civil War and Reconstruction. He is a professor of history at Columbia University and has written numerous books on the topic, including Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. Foner is considered one of the preeminent historians of the Reconstruction period and has been awarded numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for History. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Eric Foner on freedom, education, slavery.

Who owns history? Everyone and no one--which is why the study of the past is a constantly evolving, never-ending journey of discovery. — Eric Foner

If you are going to abolish slavery, that opens up all these other questions: what system of labor is going to replace slave labor? What system of race relations is going to replace the race relations of slavery? Who is going to have power in the post-war South? The Emancipation Proclamation doesn't answer that question, but it throws [it] open. — Eric Foner

A man working for wages his whole life is not really free. That is why Jefferson said, you have to own land. Southerners said, - and they weren't being hypocritical - they said slavery is the foundation of freedom because if you own slaves, you are freer yourself. — Eric Foner

For historians, hindsight can be a treacherous ally. Enabling us to trace the hidden patterns of past events, it beguiles us with the mirage of inevitability, the assumption that different outcomes lay beyond the limits of the possible. — Eric Foner

A new future requires a new past. — Eric Foner

I think here is the irony of American history. We don't have an established church. When you have an established church nobody takes religion as seriously as we do here. We have a free market in religion. The religious groups are competing with each other. — Eric Foner

In the Shadow of Slavery covers two and a half centuries of black life in New York City, and skillfully interweaves the categories of race and class as they affected the formation of African American identity. Leslie Harris has made a major contribution to our understanding of the black experience. — Eric Foner

Lincoln sees slavery in some ways as a theft of labor. A slave is a laborer who is being denied the fruits of his labor. — Eric Foner

Colonization was the idea that once slavery ended African-Americans should be encouraged - or required, in some people's view - required to leave the country. It's part of an attitude toward the abolition of slavery which says America should not be a slave society, but it can never be a multiracial society. You can never have free black and white people living together. — Eric Foner

Lincoln was a modernizer, so to speak. He believed in economic development. As a Whig before the war he favored what we would call infrastructure spending, government appropriation for canals, railroads, river and harbor improvements, and a tariff to protect industry. He believed in this market revolution that was sweeping across Northern society. He himself benefited from it in his own life. — Eric Foner

In a democratic society, as Max Weber said, what is possible is only possible because some people have demanded the impossible. The abolitionists helped to create a public discourse in which men like Lincoln become possible. That doesn't mean Lincoln is an abolitionist. It means there is a public opinion out there which is being influenced by antislavery sentiment. — Eric Foner

Whatever Lincoln's racial views, which are not totally modern and egalitarian in many ways, he believes blacks should have this natural right to improve their condition in life and slavery denies that to them. — Eric Foner

There are those who view the abolitionists as just maniacs, apolitical fanatics who helped to cause the war, and Lincoln is the model of responsible statesmanship. I think that is a misconception, the idea that Lincoln knows what's possible and the abolitionists don't. — Eric Foner

Whenever you think of Lincoln as a historian, in his own mind, he becomes the Great Emancipator. This is his role in history henceforth. He was an ambitious man who wanted to make an impact on history, and this is how he did it. — Eric Foner

I admire Lincoln enormously and I think what's interesting about Lincoln is how he changes, it's not that he held the same view throughout his life. — Eric Foner

You pick up very well-known books on Lincoln [and] you will find almost no reference to his long-term belief in colonization. Why? Because it doesn't fit the image of the Great Emancipator. It doesn't fit the retrospective view we want to have of Lincoln as the man who was the moralist in politics, who came into office committed to ending slavery and waited to sign this document. — Eric Foner

I don't [even] know the number of books on Abraham Lincoln. Ten thousand, twelve thousand? I have seen various numbers. It seems like every generation is always trying to come to terms with Lincoln. — Eric Foner

Freedom has been privatized - it is how you dress, what your sexual orientation is, choosing your own life. That's fine. But that is not what Thomas Jefferson was talking about. — Eric Foner

Life Lessons by Eric Foner

1. Eric Foner's work emphasizes the importance of understanding the past in order to better understand the present. He encourages readers to be critical of accepted historical narratives and to challenge prevailing interpretations of history. He emphasizes the importance of considering the perspectives of marginalized groups when studying history in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the past.
2. Eric Foner's work emphasizes the importance of understanding the complexities of history in order to gain a more holistic understanding of the past. He encourages readers to consider the perspectives of those who have been left out of traditional historical narratives in order to gain a more complete picture of the past.
3. Eric Foner's work emphasizes the importance of understanding the connections between the past and the present. He encourages readers to consider how the past shapes