In Going Against the Grain there was a story of a woman named Charlotte Forten. She came from a respected Black abolitionist family. Forten made history when she went to Port Royal to teach freed African-American slaves. This place is of significance because of Port Royal’s history. In 1862 the Union and the Confederate was at war with each other. They fought one their battles on Port Royal, which drove slave owners out of the island. When people first heard that the island was “abandoned” (144) people like Edward L. Pierce, a Boston attorney, wanted to take over the lands because it was full of two things: a “valuable variety of cotton” (144) and “contraband” (144), otherwise known as African-Americans. This was stopped by Abraham Lincoln’s letter to the Board of Tax Commissioners for the District of South Carolina, saying that the land will be used for school purposes. This letter “marked the very first federal funding for educational opportunities for African-Americans”(145). Moving ahead in time, Charlotte Forten moved to Port Royal. She came to Port Royal with great knowledge of writing and of class distinction. She was able to teach African-Americans so well because she did not “view freed slaves as either contraband or unequals” (146). I believe this is what made her so great in people’s eyes. It is hard to try to fit into peoples’ lives when the lives are so very different than your own, and instead of just getting the people to conform she was able to conform a little of herself so that African-Americans can learn properly.