Today, most Americans take their freedom for granted, but during the reconstruction period of the 1860s, the idea of freedom was extremely important for all Americans—especially freed slaves. In The Meaning of Freedom, Eric Foner analyzes how freedom for slaves after the Civil War affected themselves, the institutions, and the societies they made up, as their idea of “freedom” evolved once they became integrated into society. Overall, Foner examines this from three predominant angles: the social, the economic, and the political. Socially, freedmen viewed freedom as their ability to construct their own families, black communities, and other institutions without interference. Economically, freedmen viewed freedom as their ability to control how