Was America The Land Of The Free Essay

Where the blacks really free after the civil war? NO, not quite there were Jim Crow laws- separation of colored and whites segregation, that was a huge problem it made conflict between black and whites and the whites disrespected the colored in many different ways. Black codes were a big problem as I explained in the last paragraph they basically make different raced people not able to vote. The government was trying to create obstacles for them at the time and treated them unfairly if the 14th Amendment States that all people of any race in the U.S are citizens.Later the slaves fought back, the U.S Supreme court case established the “Separate-But-Equal” doctrine. It made black and whites go to separate schools and still have the same education.Blacks also had to sit in the back of city buses and whites had reserved “white only seats’’ and if there were no seats left up front someone from the back of the bus would have to leave.But one day, a black women named Rosa Parks wouldn’t leave her seat when there wasn’t enough seats for the white man and got sent to

By April 1865, most knew that the South had lost the war. As a result, white Northerners and Southerners as well as free blacks and freed slaves began to assert their own ideas of freedom. The North, the South and freed slaves all have a different view of the word “freedom”.

African Americans living in the North, as well as those in the South, faced multiple challenges. In 1860, tension grew between the North and South. Most southern states still held onto slavery, because their slaves were worth money, while the North was trying to abolish it. The North had many free African Americans, but the question is, were they actually free? Free Africans Americans in the North before the civil war were not actually free because, they had little to none political right, they were not allowed to associate with whites, and making a living, no matter what, was hard.

Overall, America was truly not the “land of the free” between the 1600’s and 1865. Life on the plantation for slaves was not easy, for they were treated poorly. Slaves were given nothing else but what they needed to live and work. They lived in log cabins with no floor or waterproof ceilings. They were given winter and spring clothes and only got one pair of each a year.

Truly america was not the land of the free when this statement was written. Blacks were not free and the civil war was not a great way to show how our country can thrive. Not everyone during this time period had equal rights making people fight for them causing havoc leading to war.

Langston Hughes does a great job of explaining this in,” Let America Be America Again”. “Let America Be America Again” is a poem that explains how america is not what it should be. America is supposed to be the land of the free. But it was definitely not the land of the free during slavery. Langston Hughes believes that america is not what it used to be.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861 the North prided themselves in being progressive and respectful towards African Americans, however, they aren’t the saints history made them out to be. While blacks in the North were no longer slaves at this time (the 1860’s), they were still heavily discriminated against and didn’t have nearly as many rights as white people. On top of that, the population of whites vastly outnumbered the population of blacks, which would make it easier to oppress blacks. So the question remains, were African Americans in the North really and truly free? The answer: they weren’t.

While many historians may argue that slaves got their freedom because Congress passed laws, such as the Thirteenth Amendment, their impact on slavery did not go beyond them signing papers. Some may also argue that Lincoln’s Emancipation proclamation freed the slaves, but this act did not free any slaves because it proclaimed to free slaves that were in the South, a place where slavery was legal. And while some may also argue that the military freed the slaves, African Americans were part of the military and were sometimes put in the front lines where they would die.

During the period from colonial times to the Civil War, the United States was not truly a “land of the free.” During early colonial times before the American Revolution, the colonies were under the rule of Britain. Not only were the colonists not free from Britain, they weren’t free from themselves. The new Americans put every citizen in a social class. Being under a class meant that you could not do anything that your class was not allowed to do.

During the American Revolution there were promised ideas of equality, freedom and justice, as well as the signing of the declaration of independence years after stating, “All men are created equal” and the abolishment of slavery in 1865. Although these historical times were marked in history, the struggle of freedom and equality remained for many years after the Revolution. African Americans fought for their freedom during the American Revolution, many were freed, while others reverted back to their owners. Not only did African Americans face inequality, but also women did not have equal rights and some whites felt disadvantaged against free blacks. The American Revolution did little to provide initial sense of freedom and equality for those

Slavery, defined in Webster’s dictionary as the “condition in which one human being is owned by another”, was a heinous crime against humanity that was legal and considered a normality in America from 1619 to 1865. In 1865, the Union won the Civil War against the Confederates and declared that African American slaves be emancipated. Before their emancipation, African American families were split up, never to see each other again. Their rights of political and social freedoms were also stripped away from them, and they were “reduced to a bare life [,] stripped of every right by virtue of the fact that anyone can kill him [or her] without committing homicide… and yet he [or she] is in a continuous relationship with the power that is banished him [or her]” (Agamben). Slaves were kept under strict rule in the South, making their chances of gaining freedom very slim. State governments in slave states enforced anti-literacy laws, outlawing African Americans from writing, or learning to read and write. These laws helped ensure that slaves stayed slaves for life and were unable to escape. This form of bare life, that slaves were subjected to, can be compared to a less extreme version of Hitler and the Jews. Instead of a mass killing spree, however, African Americans were exploited and oppressed as a labor force.

The most common phrase in America today is “Home of the Free”. When America first started out in the Colonies the above quote was probably very true. As time has passed through the centuries, America has felt the need to regulate and reduce the freedom that our founding fathers had intentionally planned for us. Such things as religion, reproductive rights, Native Americans and their rights, and marriage rights are being marginalized. These rights could be considered private matters that the government shouldn’t get involved with and probably rightly so.

Randy Hoang 12/1/2017 The Land of the Not So Free The end to slavery after the civil war was bittersweet to some. It didn’t necessarily mean that there would be total freedom for African Americans in the United States. Their freedom would essentially be controlled by white people, almost making it like that of slavery but not as severe.

Enslaved African Americans were treated like animals in the south, without any rights, received no pay for their long hours of daily work, could not have a day off unless their master allowed them to therefore they were very irritated, angry, rebellious, and attacked their masters for this. This is why the African Americans fled up north early before all blacks were granted

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.