Freedom And African American History Essay

After the emancipation of slaves, many things changed throughout the south. The slaves had the title of freed people, but these freed people didn't have the same rights and privileges as their white counterparts. Even though the freed slaves were suppose to be able to live an equal life with the whites, the whites still found ways to keep the African-Americans from being equal with them on all levels. The whites imposed all kinds of hidden rules towards the blacks and the consequence of breaking those laws was death. The whites did not want the ex slaves to be equal and even after the white men's mistress failed at assuming the jobs of their ex slaves, the slave masters still didn't give blacks credit for being able to do the work that

During my early years of school, I remember being taught white accomplishments and wondering if blacks and other people of color had made any significant contributions to today's world. I noticed that television consist of all white people. Throughout my research paper I hope to cover certain aspects of African American heritage. Aspects such as blacks making up the largest minority group in the United States, although Mexican-Americans are rapidly changing that. The contributions blacks have provided to our country are immeasurable. Unfortunately though rather than recognizing these contributions, white America would rather focus on oppressing and degrading these people. As a consequence American

America is the universal symbol of freedom. But is it really free? Does the history of the United States stay true to the ideas of our forefathers? Or has the definition been altered to fit American policies? Has freedom defined America? Or has America defined freedom? I believe America was at first defined by freedom, then after time, America defined freedom, altering the definition to fit the niche it fits in, but still keeping key components so it still seems to be staying true to the ideas of America’s founding fathers.

Slavery began in the late 16th century to early 18th century. Africans were brought to American colonies by white masters to come and work on their plantations in the South. They were treated harshly with no payments for all their hard work. In addition, they lived under harsh living conditions, and this led to their resistance against these harsh conditions. The racism towards the African Americans who were slaves was at its extreme as they did not have any rights; no civil nor political rights.

The American Dream and the African Negro written by Baldwin, covers looking at the reality of the segregation throughout the south. The majority of the white community thought it almost insane for the black community to act out against the structure of society in any way. In fact, they thought that the black people owed them their lives and should be thankful for what they have. The country that they worked for did not work for them. At times fighting for freedom seemed hopeless because nothing ever changed. But the fight continued in hopes that the lives of their children would be better. Even a Black man who has worked hard to make a somewhat decent life is looked to be below a poor white male or female. If something were to happen to the white community, action would happen immediately to correct it. Everyone on this earth is equal and deserves to live a happy life. In all races there are good and bad people. No race is superior to the other. To think you are superior would no only go against our constitution but God as well.

African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated; that is 60% of 30% of the African American population. African Americas are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites. “Between 6.6% and 7.5% of all black males ages 25 to 39 were imprisoned in 2011, which were the highest imprisonment rates among the measured sex, race, Hispanic origin, and age groups." (Carson, E. Ann, and Sabol, William J. 2011.) Stated on Americanprogram.org “ The Sentencing Project reports that African Americans are 21 percent more likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants and are 20 percent more likely to be sentenced to prison.” Hispanics and African Americans make up 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US population. (Henderson 2000). Slightly 15% of the inmate population is made up of 283,000 Hispanic prisoners.

Edmund S. Morgan’s famous novel American Slavery, American Freedom was published by Norton in 1975, and since then has been a compelling scholarship in which he portrays how the first stages of America began to develop and prosper. Within his researched narrative, Morgan displays the question of how society with the influence of the leaders of the American Revolution, could have grown so devoted to human freedom while at the same time conformed to a system of labor that fully revoked human dignity and liberty. Using colonial Virginia, Morgan endeavors how American perceptions of independence gave way to the upswing of slavery. At such a time of underdevelopment and exiguity, cultivation and production of commodities were at a high demand. Resources were of monumental importance not just in Virginia, but all over North America, for they helped immensely in maintaining and enriching individuals and families lives. In different ways, people in colonies like Virginia’s took advantage of these commodities to ultimately establish or reestablish their societies.

During the year of 1865, after the North’s victory in the Civil War, the Republican Party began to pass national legislation in order to secure free blacks’ rights.

As we have learned about all the civil problems that Africans Americans have faced upon building this nation, our class has been able to track the slow but gradual steps taken towards the progress for freedom. From our reading where Equiano’s describes America as “having little or no law for free Negros” (Equaino.123) meaning that when he came here around the same Elizabeth Freeman was emancipated the free black population was so little there wasn’t even laws for them to abide by too. Elizabeth Freeman correlates to the learning of our class because once Mum Bett was announced free legally, Massachusetts

Slavery, especially in America, has been an age old topic of riveting discussions. Specialist and other researchers have been digging around for countless years looking for answers to the many questions that such an activity provided. They have looked into the economics of slavery, slave demography, slave culture, slave treatment, and slave-owner ideology (p. ix). Despite slavery being a global issue, the main focus is always on American slavery. Peter Kolchin effectively illustrates in his book, American Slavery how slavery evolved alongside of historical controversy, the slave-owner relationship, how slavery changed over time, and how America compared to other slave nations around the world.

The black freedom struggle has not yet come to an end – there are still prejudiced and racist radicals that try to negotiate white supremacy and dominance in order to prevent the blacks from their long wait for equality. Consequently, the movement has progressed very sluggishly in the past few centuries. Nevertheless, the campaign for equal rights has led to the triumph over slavery and has led to the accrual of suffrage rights. However, this is still not enough, not after centuries of enslavement, lynching, segregation, and discrimination. Oftentimes, there is still no justice in court houses, especially when black people are accused and convicted, even for the simplest of crimes – as compared to the white and powerful who are charged for heinous misconducts and get away scratch free. Hence, throughout the period of the Blacks’ long fight for freedom and equality, several Black intellectuals have come front with ideas that could administer better treatment for their people. A good strategy to encourage the black populace to fight for their freedom and their rights is by inverting popular ideas so that there is a clear distinction between the reasonable and unreasonable notions of equality and justice. Thus, it was not uncommon for these literati to undermine dominant discourses in order to bolster their own analyses. Among the discussed black intellectuals who inverted prevailing dissertations, three that stood out the most are Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, and

The history of African-Americans has been a paradox of incredible triumph in the face of tremendous human tragedy. African-American persons were shown much discrimination and were treated as second class citizens in the colonies during the development of the nation. The first set men, women, and children to work in the colonies were indentured servants, meaning they were only required to work for a set amount of years before they received their freedom. Then, in 1619 the first black Africans came to Virginia. With no slave laws in place, they were initially treated as indentured servants, a source of free labor, and given the same opportunities for freedom dues as whites. However, slave laws were soon passed – in Massachusetts in

Knowledge is a primary factor in the attainment of personal freedom. This includes not only scholarly education but also awareness of historical heritage and familial legacy. The fact that African-Americans were held in human bondage cannot

Today African Americans still face discrimination, poverty, and bad education system. 580,000 black men are incarcerated and many unemployed. So at time black are still treated as second-class citizens. Rights are not equal jobs and opportunities are limited.

There are many reasons why African Americans have had difficult time achieving equality; the most notorious events that are factors of their inequality can be trace back to the past five or six centuries. As a result of these events, people brought from Africa have lost their culture identity and/or heritage; as Alain Locke gives a brief explanation on how did they lost their heritage "There is one great historical reason; incidentally one that, tragically enough, explains much about the Negro. Slavery is the answer. Slavery not only physically transplanted the Negro, it cut him off sharply from his cultural roots "(ALAIN LOCKE) When their "cultural roots" where "cut off" different aspects of the Negro culture where affected, which include but are not limited to family life, religion, music and/or Art. But despite all the endeavors African Americans have always been fighting for dignity and justice, over the centuries the situation with equality have improved and African Americans have been able to maintain certain sense of their cultural identity in the aspects mention before which are family life, religion, music and/or Art.