Books: Fiction

Freedom Road

Book — Fiction. By Howard Fast. 1944. 294 pages.
The politics and economics of Reconstruction told through memorable historical fiction.

Time Periods: 19th Century, 1865
Themes: Reconstruction, Economics
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feedomroadThis edition restores to print Howard Fast’s great historical novel about the Reconstruction period in U.S. history. First published in 1944, the book has sold millions of copies worldwide and has been translated into more than two dozen languages.

Included is a foreword by W. E. B. Du Bois and a new introduction by Eric Foner. This edition also contains primary source documents from the Reconstruction period. [Publisher’s description.]

A historical novel that vividly brings alive the experiences of people freed from slavery after the Civil War.

Review

“Howard Fast makes superb use of his material. . . . Aside from its social and historical implications, Freedom Road is a high-geared story, told with that peculiar dramatic intensity of which Fast is a master.”  — Chicago Daily News

ISBN: 9781563244407 | M.E. Sharpe

Learn more in the Zinn Education Project national report, “Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction,” and find teaching resources on Reconstruction below.

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Related Resources
Teaching Activities (Free)

Reconstructing the South: A Role Play

Lesson. By Bill Bigelow. 17 pages.
This role play engages students in thinking about what freedpeople needed in order to achieve — and sustain — real freedom following the Civil War. It’s followed by a chapter from the book Freedom’s Unfinished Revolution.

News

National Report on the Teaching of Reconstruction

The Zinn Education Project produced a national report on the teaching of the Reconstruction era. The report examines state standards, course requirements, frameworks, and support for teachers in each state. It also includes stories about creative efforts by districts and/or individual teachers in each state to teach outside the textbook about Reconstruction.

“Mrs. Francis E. W. Harper,” portrait with Frances Harper’s name misspelled, taken from page 748 in The Underground Railroad: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters… printed by Porter & Coates (Philadelphia, 1872).
This Day in History

April 14, 1875: Frances Harper on Grassroots Organizing During Reconstruction

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper spoke in Philadelphia at the Centennial Anniversary of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, urging African Americans to continue organizing for justice.