A Slave Girl

Throughout the antebellum period of the newly founded United States, Americans saw a great need for change in society and sought options for reform that would better individuals as well as society as an entirety. There was a constant desire to change America and those ideals and values strongly impacted what America represents and is known for in today’s society. Specific examples given in the Jill Lepore reading “A is for American” and the Harriet Jacobs novel “Incidents of a Slave Girl”, such as communication and the institutions of slavery played significant roles in the reformation of American society as well as social reforms that were put into place for the betterment of society. The citizens of America at the time were focused on trying to promote individualism and the overall improvement of society. The way that this was done was through social reforms such as

Specifically mentioned in the Lepore reading, Lepore discussed a man named Abd al-Rahman Ibrahima, who happened to be an African prince enslaved in American society. The way that he gained his freedom was very unusual. Instead of working off his freedom which was common at the time, he was freed based on his overwhelming fluency in Arabic and became a well known example that represented the American Colonization Society. The story of Abd al-Rahman Ibrahima shows that literacy was used as a means of importance and shows the status of freed blacks and slaves in the American antebellum society. This is significant to the reformation of antebellum society because it showed the importance of literacy to not only white Americans, but to minorities as well. This newfound appreciation and acceptance of outstanding literacy was not only found in values of high societal Americans, but throughout the entire