Climbing Up To Glory Summary

Another economic progress which occurred is the establishment of the Freedmen’s Savings Bank according to Professor Jenkins, lectures notes and his book Climbing Up to Glory the Freed man bank was created by Congress along with the Freedmen’s Bureau to aid Freedmen in their transition from freedom to slavery. Africans Americans wanted to show the whites that they were not “lazy” by depositing small amount of money in the bank. In this book, it depicts that “the Freedman Savings Bank was a morale booster and source of inspiration for blacks,” because when they arrived to the bank, they would be greeted by African American tellers, in addition at one point Frederick Douglas was the President of that said bank. In most cases whatever money was made by African Americans it was deposited into the

The church was seen as a moral for the African American society during the reconstruction era stated Professor Jenkins. The church influenced couples to get married and divorced. For instance in Climbing Up To Glory it was referenced that in 1849 a charge was made against Julia Nalen, an African American woman for leaving her husband and marrying again, she was later expelled from the church where she worshipped. Further, Jenkins illustrated that some African Americans that attended these biracial services found the services to be very boring and hypocritical because the white ministers will tell the African Americans to follow and obey the ten commandments, when the ministers themselves are committing sinful acts such as; murder, theft, rape. African Americans did not feel that they were receiving anything substantial out of the sermons. In addition, it was also mentioned that sometimes, African Americans would keep their own services in the field where they will sing, shout and pray (Jenkins,