Folktale: The People Could Fly By Virginia Hamilton

Certainly, freedom was supposed to be “freer”” for those slaves that had fought for their rights after years of submissionn, but, unfortunately, many white Southern people continued to ignore the law by not showing any respect for Africans-Americans. Because of the radical reconstruction in the south, the African-Americans were a step closer from the same political

Although Hamilton exhibits behavior

In this statement, the white men threaten to beat Henry Adams and every other negro that said they didn't belong to anyone. If they were truly free the slaves would not have to worry about anything like this. This is just further proof that slaves were not actually

However in the novel, The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead, freedom is just a dream every African American character desires. Whether enslaved or free they must navigate the impossible choice between slavery or racism. The stigma of colored people create this idea that Ridgeway believes "If niggers were supposed to have their freedom, they wouldn't be in chains. If the red man was supposed to keep hold of his land, it'd still be his. If the white man wasn't destined to take this new world, he wouldn't own it now." (Whitehead) Similarly, any white person who feels sympathy for the enslaved is confronted with the fact that if they choose to assist enslaved people, they will likely be killed along with their families.

In Western culture we are born with the right of autonomy. It is believed that this right can never be taken away from us. We are born into this privilege of liberty and are given opportunities to grow and make our own choices without being oppressed or discouraged for them. We are free, or so we think we are. In the book Slave My True Story by Mende Nazer and Damien Lewis (2003), Mende a 12 year old girl, is stripped of her happiness, childhood and most of all, her freedom.

Injustice is a prevailing theme in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Tubman, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, Spider Woman 's Web by Susan Hazen-Hammond and Great Speeches by Native Americans by Bob Blaisdell; the diligence of several characters have made it possible for them to preserve and overcome injustices. America has not always been a land of the free for colored people; white settlers destroyed the meaning of freedom when they robbed the land from the indigenous people. Freedom was also destroyed when slaves in America were not treated as full human beings. Despite of many obstacles the oppressed faced, their thirst for freedom and determination helped them in reaching their goals.

The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present… In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our

According to Document 5, (Anti-Slavery Almanac,1839) ¨Peter John Lee, a free colored man of Westchester Co., N.Y, was kidnapped by Tobias Boudinot, E. K. Waddy, John Lyon, and Daniel D. Nash of N.Y.,city, and hurried away from his wife and children into slavery.¨.This quote demonstrates that African Americans were not treated as free men, but still being kidnapped and forced back into slavery. As stated in the Preamble of the United States Declaration of Independence, ´´We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. ´´¨This shows that the Declaration of Independence fulfills the Ideals of freedom not for every man, but for white males.

“Enslaved African Americans had almost no rights or even hope for liberty. After being brought to America in chains”(DN-Life in the Colonies). This quote alone

Even though freedom and liberty are a fairly new concept for many, they mean a lot to numerous amounts of people. In the novel “Chains”, by Laurie Halse Anderson, it shows what freedom and liberty meant to a slave, Isabel, living and working during the American Revolution. In that time period, many people wanted freedom, slaves didn’t want to be owned by anyone and patriots didn’t want to be ruled by the King anymore. Slaves and patriots during the American Revolution longed for freedom and liberty because it meant rights, respect and independence for them and many more from the loyalists and King. Most slaves were ready to do anything for the chance of freedom from the owners or masters.

Most people understand that slavery was a terrible thing, but most might not fully understand the struggles that free colored men and women endured as well. While slavery was legal, free men would often be kidnapped and forced into slavery, and sometimes slaves actually escape to freedom. If an African American was considered a free man, he or she had to get official documentations stating so. Even after the documents were given to them, some of them still found themselves as slaves. There are many different stories about slavery, but just because a slave escapes from slavery, does not mean he or she is free from a slave’s mindset. Although they were in different positions in life, slaves and free African Americans experienced the same hardships, fears, and daily struggles.

The colonies of British North America were a very unequal place in which different classes and races were treated very differently. Despite this, ideas of freedom still developed because the colonists believed that they were being treated unfairly by the British parliament. Two documents that convey that these ideas of freedom were able to develop in a place where the citizens were not treated equally are the “Virginia Slave Code of 1705” and “The Declaration of Independence”.

King spoke of the limited freedom of the African Americans in “I have a Dream,” “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free”(King, Para. 3).

Truth described this belief as, “over beings designed by God to be as free as kings; and at the perfect stupidity of the slave, in admitting for one moment the validity of these claims.” This race found themselves subdued by the nation when they objected and this lead to many young children being raised to believe the statement to be true. Truth comments on how silly she feels now looking back, as accepting her status as a slave and failing to fight for her own free will. They were not viewed as human beings and at one time the law read, ““Whereas the teaching of slaves to read and write, has a tendency to excite dissatisfaction in their minds, and to produce insurrection and rebellion,” This stripping of the freedom to pursue an education showed that for African Americans to truly be released from slavery they must be seen as equals. They would have to be able to be given a fair chance in the nation to pursue happiness whether that was knowledge for some, religion for others or family. Freedom was the ability to become a respected member of the community and no longer a piece of property as they were treated.

Even though freedom has been our nation’s identity for its entire existence, our nation has suffered “dark ages” when the freedoms of African Americans were repressed. During the period of slavery, African Americans were forced to labor under often cruel and gruesome conditions, for their white masters. Solomon Northup, a free man forcefully made a slave, describes his thoughts on slavery in his 12 Years a Slave: