Freedom Day In The 1800's

Although today equality is one of the main aspects of the American government, during the foundation period groups that were not given many freedoms used their rights to fight for greater equality. In 1977, African-American activists signed the Slave Petition for Freedom in an attempt to free slaves and give them freedoms. In America, slaves were treated very badly under the control of white aristocrats. Slaves were put under very strict guidelines and if those instructions were not met, they would be punished. Slaves were “Unjustly Dragged by the hand of cruel Power from their Derest (Dearest) friends and sum (some) of them Even torn from the Embraces of their tender Parents” and “Deprived of Every social privilege of Every thing Requisit

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.

For many immigrants who emigrated from Europe, the New World was an opportunity to escape the oppressive reign of monarchs and the papacy for a better life, and a way to experience what they believed to be true freedom. Although, not everyone expressed, or experience freedom in the same way.

Rebellion has always been the cornerstone of change. Wherever a rebellion has surfaced a change has soon followed, whether it is political change such as an overthrow of a government or just the overthrow of an oppressor such as a slaver. Some rebellions however are less justified than others; none more so than slave rebellions. Slavery in America was one of our biggest mistakes as a nation and was by far the most terrible time in African American history. However most slaves although poorly treated were given places to live and enough food to survive. They weren’t treated as people but as property and had about as many rights as a sack of potatoes. This led to most, if not all, slaves feeling a lot of animosity towards their owners. The more educated of slaves tried to find ways to get out of their servitude. When all peaceful means of getting out of their servitude had failed they went to flat out rebellion. Slave rebellions tended to be extremely violent and usually very rash. And when the rebellions were better planned they tended to be even more violent and disturbing. These rebellions however were completely unjustified and the slaves had no right to revolt the way they did.

Slaves first and foremost effort at freedom came from attempting to flee. Blacks have been running away from their masters since their introduction

With increased education and European ideals bleeding over to America people started to change and see that everyone, blacks, and whites, were the same and following the Christian ideals of the time saw that slavery of another person, not the property was wrong.

The movement began first in the North. From 1777 to 1804, there was early emancipation in the North (Document A). Those that lived in the North were definitely more supportive and willing to put a change to slavery as it currently existed. The people were strongly opposed to the evils they felt slavery was. The last census shows the number of the free people of color of the United States, and their rapid increase..We cannot believe that such an evil, universally acknowledged and deprecated, has been irremovably fixed upon us ( Document D). Those dedicated to the abolishment movement, wanted to rid the people of all the bad things that slavery consisted of. There were also very influential individuals who were committed to this movement. David Wilmot states that, “I would preserve for free White labor a fair country, a rich inheritance, where the sons of toil, of my own race and own color, can live without the disgrace which association with negro slavery brings upon free labor.” (Document H). He felt that slavery was a disgrace to the people. The point of view of this document comes from an outside point of view, since Wilmot was not himself a slave, but actually a white person who really was on the other side of things when it came to this

How were blacks set free? Some bought their own freedom from their masters, but as time passed, this type of exchange became quite rare. Most became

Slavery in the United States of America started with the arrival of the first slaves from Africa in 1619. Slavery continued even after it was abolished; it greatly influenced the events in the country. From the very beginning, anti-slavery movement and slave resistance played a big role in the efforts to uphold the values of the new, rising nation and its belief that all men are equal. Advocates for the anti-slavery movement were not united from the start; some supported gradual emancipation of slaves, others were for immediate and radical abolishment, while free-soil activists argued for restriction of slavery to certain areas in order to prevent its spread across the country. Radical abolition movement was part of the reform movements related to religious revivals in an effort to create a righteous society that would fulfill the high ideals of America. These reforms were a response to economic and social changes which historians termed as “the market revolution” and the “transportation revolution”. After the 1812 war, a tremendous development occurred; improved roads improved transport and increased profits among many farm entrepreneurs, artisans, and manufacturers. In the eyes of many religious leaders, America was dominated and obsessed with materialism and greed and they started to question the fundamentals of human life, justice, and sinful motives. Before the 1930s, the anti-slavery movement was not what one would consider well-organized. However, at that time

The anti-slavery movement in the early 1800s had people with religious beliefs led them to oppose slavery and the reason being is that Quakers had taught that it was a sin to own another human being. Then it continues to the American Colonization Society proposed to end slavery by setting up an independent colony in Africa for freed slaves in 1822. After that a growing number of reformers, known as abolitionists, wanted to end slavery completely in the United States. And in the 1820s free African Americans played a key role and held speeches, conventions, and so much more. Just to get the listeners to get a better understanding to why slavery is wrong. In 1838 Frederick Douglass and a white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison helped people

The power or right to act, speak or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. A word created by man to escape the bonds of tyranny to express the idea of what it means to persist one's own ambitions. Freedom. Freedom is not the absence of confinement but the will to achieve freedom when imprisoned. After carefully concluding the reading done over this semester one is able to clearly understand the confinement these early Americans felt and their decision to achieve a form of freedom. Freedom has always existed but it is the history of this nation that will define what actions freedom takes.

In 1831, northern free slaves began to try to free slaves from forced captivity of southern slave owners, which began the movement of the Underground Railroad. In 1865, the victory of the civil war, freed four million black slaves, but white southerners were not happy with the idea of slaves having freedom so they designed laws to restrict freed slaves from civility and ensure that they did not lose their labor force. As the years went on and new laws were passed for citizenship, white southerners continued to come up with ways to restrict Blacks from many social activities in which they were already granted through the laws of the Constitution.

Even though only a few were successful, slave revolts did occur. Nat Turner's slave revolt group was most terrifying for white slave holders. This occurred in 1831, which was a violent rampage that lead to fifty five caucasians dying. It ended up having more slave codes enforced and Nat Turner being hanged. Multiple people were abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass. Their goal was to abolish slavery. They believed based on a religious belief that slaveholding was a sin. Then others on a non religious aspect believed slave holding was: regressive, inefficient, and little economic sense. However, for the

How would your life be if you weren’t free? On February1, 1895 President Abraham Lincoln approved the 13th amendment to the U.S. constitution which abolished slavery. This day is celebrated as national Freedom Day.

Carter introduced his definition of what it meant to have integrity in “The Rules about the Rules” Integrity can have so many meaning to the word, so can the meanings of freedom, equality and what it means to be an American. July forth, 1776 Thomas Jefferson signed the Declaration of Independence, He proclaimed that all men are created equal. And to this came the big debate as to what it’s meant to be an American, have freedom and live equally among other Americans. July fifth, 1852, sum seventy six years later, Frederick Douglass addresses the public after the day of what today is called Fourth of July, a day for celebrating the nation’s freedom; criticizing so called American for enslaving colored people and the abused that went along with it. He called it a day for mourning, a harsh reminder that even though Negros were Americans living in America, they weren’t treated as so, contradicting the Declaration of Independence, that all Americans do not live by the thought that all men were created equal. 1963, one hundred and eleven years after Douglass’s speech came Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” written after being arrested for what he calls a peaceful protest. Protesting integration, he too felt that even though after many years of blacks fighting for their rights; because of Jefferson’s alleged “all men are created equal” they were still being treated as the clergyman stated “outsiders”. King, a father, minister and activist uses this letter to