Free Story Of An Hour Essays: What Motivates People To Change

In 1865, slavery was abolished, by the Thirteenth amendment. This Amendment brought humongous changes and a large number of problems. (Lecture 1) After the destruction of slavery, it left nearly four million African American with no property, little training, and few rights; which made the definition of freedom for African Americans the central question on the nation’s agenda. The big question of the time period was, “what was freedom for African Americans?” (Give me liberty! An American 550)

In the years 1863-1877, blacks were able to make their first successful efforts in terms of empowerment, creating the foundation for future African American movements. During reconstruction, African Americans, through collaboration and politics, began to work at equal rights. By empowering themselves politically, building communities and fighting against the lynching efforts of the KKK and other anti-black terrorist groups, African Americans began a movement to combat racism in the United States.

Following the Civil War, America was in shambles. There were many groups with strong, conflicting ideas of how things should be. However, most groups had one idea in common: reducing the rights of African Americans as much as possible. Freed slaves had very little freedom under the law, were treated like a lesser species by those around them, and faced dangerous environments everywhere they went. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation may have legally freed slaves, but African Americans were barely more than paid slaves.

to which the president of the United States has signed his name,” (Dudley 181). Just by demanding that all slavery be abolished in certain areas, this considerably changed the ways of the African American people. With this new feeling of freedom, many African Americans began to fight for other rights to accompany this. (Dudley 180-183)

Even after the hurdle of being enslaved was passed, there were many more and difficult hurdles ahead. For example, the black codes were an earlier major hurdle. The codes prevented African Americans from owning weapons, votes, and land. While the Black Codes were quickly abolish; a group emerged called the Ku Klux Klan which aimed to bring down African Americans to be seen as less than then human. However, the Jim Crow laws caused separation, and that separation led to African Americans having unequal opportunities. These laws were claimed to be constitutional, because they didn't deprive any person of life, liberty, or property; or trying to include slavery. From the Black codes to Jim Crow laws, African Americans had, and have many hurdles to overcome.

The right to vote for African American became difficult during the time because the northern didn’t want to consider the blacks as equal to the society. As Frederick Douglass, has once stated “Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot.” African American fought their way to gain their right to vote is by coming together, free blacks and emancipated slaves, to create parades, petition drives to demand, and to organize their own “freedom ballots.” As a free African American, they except the same respect as the whites and nothing

Frederick Douglass once said, “No man can be truly free whose liberty is dependent upon the thought, feeling and action of others, and who has himself no means in his own hands for guarding, protecting, defending and maintaining that liberty.” Throughout the history of America his words have proven true seeing that those of African descent have been faced with a tremendous amount of prejudice. Whether that be in terms of the basic rights vital to African americans, or the freedom of expression that should be allotted to every human being. They were subjected to endless economic and social prejudice. While at the same time being refused the decencies all American citizen deserved. But most importantly, African Americans were denied the right to decide how their country was controlled and in turn their “liberty”. These atrocities prove that the reform introduced during the Reconstruction era did little to resolve the problems plaguing African Americans or improve their quality of life.

African Americans challenged Lincoln and forced him to leave colonization, and to accept both abolition and black rights

Blacks were treated as lower than whites and were stripped of the rights others had, which included voting. “…Blacks bent on remaining in America would naturally seek the right to vote and, equally as a matter of course…blacks contended that denying them equal franchise [suffrage] with whites contravened [contradicted] the principles of the Declaration of Independence.” (Doc. 2) African Americans had no civil rights, especially as slaves. In 1840, a rally in support of the Liberty Party took place in New York and they stood up for what was right. They told the statement of how all humans should have equal rights (including blacks) and those would deny the right would be going against the Declaration of Independence. During 1861- 1865, one of the bloodiest clashes in America took place, the Civil War. This was a battle between the North and the South. With the North’s victory, three amendments took almost immediate effect, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment. These resulted in the abolition of slavery, civil rights, and Black suffrage (Doc. 3). If the South were to win, these amendments would most likely not exist and would result in the opposite direction. Without the North’s efforts to win the war, there would have probably still have been racial issues with slavery, unequal civil rights, and also no voting privileges for the African

Although, the issue later became a goal for the Union. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all the slaves in states that were still rebelling against the United States. It didn’t, however, give blacks civil rights such as voting. African Americans at the Union of Tennessee (which has been exempt from the proclamation due to much of it being in the Union) claimed in 1865 that they should have basic rights, such as suffrage. They argued that African Americans as a group had been loyal to the national government throughout the war.

African Americans were fighting for freedom for centuries. They were treated very badly and they had supposedly going to have a better way of life after WWII. Keep reading to find out how African Americans struggled for equality in voting and the opportunity for a good quality education.

As many people are aware, African Americans struggled a lot when trying to receive equal rights. Even though the Civil War that took place from 1861 to 1865 had accomplished to abolish slavery in 1865, African Americans were still being treated poorly and weren’t receiving civil rights. “Civil Rights are the rights of all Americans to equal protection under the law, as provided by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution” (Bardes, Schmidt, Shelley 92).

In 1865, the United States government implemented what was known as Reconstruction. Its’ purpose was to remove slavery from the south, and give African-American’s the freedom in which they deserved. However, the freedom that they deserved was not the freedom that they received. With documents like The Black Codes restricting them from numerous privileges that white people had and the terroristic organization known as the Klu Klux Klan attacking and killing them, African-American’s were still being oppressed by their government as well as their fellow man. Slavery may have been abolished, but African-American’s were not yet given the freedom and rights that their white counterparts took for granted.

After the Civil War African-American expected to have their freedom, but this was not really the case. Even though the approval of the 13th Amendment freed them from their Southern masters, they were still far from being free. The 13th amendment to the United States Constitution provides that

After the Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were added to the Constitution, these amendments freed African Americans from slavery, made them American citizens, and gave African American males the ability to vote. The United States seemed to be making a step toward equality for all. However, After the approval of the Jim Crow laws by the Supreme court(separate but, “equal”), many African Americans became frustrated. As lynchings and race riots increased, in addition to, unequal job opportunities and disenfranchisement, African Americans sought to find new ways of securing equal rights and fighting national discrimination.