Characteristics Of The Virginian Luxuries

The United States is a immigrant country, which faces varieties of problems. The African American problem is one of the most serious one. Racial segregation is a deep-rooted social problem, which reflects in every field in the United States. For example, education, labor market and criminal justice system. In the aspect of education, most of black children were not permitted to enter the school, because the white children studied there. In the aspect of labor market, the black people 's average wages were lower than the whites. They did the manual work. In the aspect of criminal justice system, the blacks were easily in jail. Badly, their sentences were also more serious than the whites. In general, the blacks live in the bottom of the American society. Martin Luther King delivered the famous speech I Have a Dream, ' ' I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. ' ' (1) However, it was difficult for African American to get the freedom. The 1776 Declaration of Independence announced that everyone are equal and freedom.But black slavery still occurred in the southern states of America. Then the Civil War broke out, African American kept struggling for land and political rights.

In conclusion, African Americans were denied of their amendments and whites were racist towards them. African Americans were not free even though they had rights that they could live

We live in a country that has a pledge of allegiance that says “freedom for all” however black communities have not received their freedom. Freedom is defined as the power and right to act, speak, or think as one wants without any restraint. African Americans have not been allowed to enjoy any of these luxuries even after the end of slavery. African Americans had to face a variety of issues such as segregation, mass incarceration and poverty. These challenges continue to oppress African Americans, therefore, they still have to struggle to obtain freedom. Freedom in which they feel accepted anywhere and are exposed to the same opportunities and support as any other race. With leaders like, Reverend T. J. Jemison and W. E. B. DuBois, African Americans have been reminded and encouraged to keep striving through their life filled with struggles because they

Count Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) was a part of the French government and held many positions as a magistrate and political observer. Most of his observations were done on political observations and writings workings of the United States. After some time, he became a reliable source for historical and contemporary aspects of American culture. In Origin of Anglo-Americans Tocqueville makes an excellent point,

Relationships of power that featured in “Virginian Luxuries” (Document 1) include the relation between white power and African American slaves. On the left side of the portrait, their seems to be a white male kissing an enslave women, which is very ironic during this time period. On the left side of the portrait, it seems to be a white slave

Blackmon provides many stories in his book about what the slaves to forced laborers went through and how they felt about the new so called “freedom” they gained. The Black Americans prior to the Emancipation Proclamation have never seen the slightest clue to what freedom could even feel like. “Some of the old slaves said they too weren’t sure what “freedom” really was”

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.

The Southern colony of Virginia was considered one of the primary voices for freedom and liberty around the revolutionary period. Many illustrious liberty-driven figure heads such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry, and even George Washington were originally from Virginia. Although the men of Virginia had ideals revolving around freedom and liberty, they ironically had 40% of the population in Virginia enslaved. The idea of equality became apparent for only those of white descent, and people of color were oppressed in order to achieve this “equality” among the white classes. The events in the 16th and 17th century Virginia that lead to equality among white men consisted of the relationship of white and Native Americans in both colonial and revolutionary America, the transition from indentured servants to slavery, oppressing the people of color, deliberately enforcing racism, and the impact of the Declaration of Independence on African-Americans.

The system of institutionalized slavery in the Virginia and South Carolina colonies is the marker point in history of the fearsome dissemination of racial and class stratification. Through the events and laws leading up to the 1760s, Virginia and South Carolina pave the way towards formation of our modern day concepts of "race" and "class". Daniel Noel, creator of the Noel hypothesis, identified the inevitability of racial stratification given that three requirements: ethnocentrism, competition, and a difference in power. The enslavement of Africans during the 1600-1700 's is a prime example of what happens when all three requirements are fulfilled.

After the geographical location in context of America is explored, Tocqueville begins his exploration of the origins of Anglo-American people in society.

The limitation of this book is that this book could only dedicate about 10 pages in the slavery in Virginia. Since it covered so much time period, some details were overlooked.

The relationship of power featured in “Virginian Luxuries” is showing us how the white masters used their slaves. On the left side of the picture, it shows that the white master used its salve to pleasure himself. He has the power to demand what he wants from his slave, and as we can see in this picture, he is forcing her to give him a kiss because his hands show him forcing her face against his. On the right side of the picture, it shows the white master beating its slave. He treats his slave like a wild animal, and the slave obeys and gets beaten for no reason. Overall, this picture shows us how much power the white masters hold against their slaves during the time. They used them as a thing and not as a human.

“Virginian Luxuries” pictures clearly portraits that there are two kinds of persons i.e.; white men and the black people. The white men have possessed the power, and other two black people seem they lack and don’t have any power in front the white men. This picture represents the physical and sexual exploitation of the slaves in the society. The first picture at the left side has shown well-dressed white man kisses to a black woman. But at the right side of the second picture a white man canes a half-naked black man. If we looked in the past era the pictures seem was drawn from the history, which reveals that the white men are on power lawyer and the black people are a slave to those white men. It has shown the clear indication that the white oppressed the black people in the past. In the first left side picture, the black woman is used temporarily for the white man’s pleasure and in the second right side picture, the black man is treated tranny. These two pictures are a clear exemplary to be able to notice the unequal power relationships between the white masters and the black slaves in the past.

With Limitless power and authority Tocqueville felt majority rule would quickly turn into tyranny and that Minority interests would be bypassed because of the majorities’ moral beliefs. Majority tyranny would by empowered over time by a legislation empowered by majority friendly legislators being elected by the majority. Under these circumstances the concerns of the minority would always be dismissed in favor of Majority

Tocqueville’s argument that there is an unreconciled tension between liberty and equality is relatively simple to grasp—the exercise of freedom can ultimately distribute wealth, opportunities, and goods in unequal ways; and vice versa, maintaining equality over time among people can ultimately come to having to limit the freedom of others by redistributing the same wealth, opportunities, and goods. One critical manifestation of this tension between liberty and equality is what Tocqueville calls the “tyranny” or “despotism of the majority.” If all men are equal, then no one person or group of people can rule over any other person or people, meaning that the only choice Americans have is to live according to the will of the largest number of people—tyranny of the majority becomes a harsh reality when that power goes unchecked. While it seems that if “equality” in its most perfect sense were what was being used as a measure, minority opinion could certainly be taken into account to the same degree as the opinion of any other group of people; however, this