Freedom Vs. Free From Oppression

Slavery is one of the most inhumane acts the world has ever known. Africans were kidnapped and forced into slavery by Europeans; they were separated from their families and forced to work on plantations. They were placed in unbearable conditions and the prevalent racism attached onto this system fueled the mistreatment and oppression of black people for years to come. The origins of the widespread African slavery in America as we know today started in early colonial America when people needed cheap labor to care for cash crops. Slaves were brought to America from Africa on disease-infested ships and became the driving force for prosperity in America through what became known as the slave trade. In the early 1700’s, the race-based slave system that would continue on for centuries to come had officially begun.

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.

True freedom is not something that can be given. It is something that every single person must discover for themselves. If a person were set free, though still thought of themselves as a slave, they are a slave. America is a country that thrives on freedom. Though numerous people throughout the United States take this privilege for granted.

Freedom is defined as the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement. It is the power to determine action without restraint and the exemption from external control, interference, and regulation. Americans, these days, commonly regard their society as the freest and the best in the world. Their understanding of freedom has been shaped and based upon the founding fathers’ belief that all people are equal and that the role of the government is to protect each person’s basic “inalienable” rights. The United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights assures individual rights including freedom of speech, press, and religion. America has changed dramatically from the country our founding fathers discovered. Some could even argue that

Is America really the land of the free? Whether we are really free or not is questionable. We can learn to protect our freedoms by educating ourselves on the advice the founding fathers gave to us. In order to keep our freedoms, we must have a separation of powers, a religious foundation, education and resistance of tyranny, and we must also remain an independent nation.

The United States, which is now perceived as a free country, began as a slave society. Slavery or the legal or economic system under which people are treated as property sprouted in the 1600s when African Americans were brought to Jamestown, Virginia to aid in the production of tobacco. Because we have studied multiple cases dealing with slavery, I was interested in unearthing whether there is a lingering effect today. Slavery was the terrible price that Africans paid to come to America. Europeans turned to African Americans as a cheaper, more plentiful labor source than indentured servants. Slavery was spread through the American colonies, and an estimated 6 to 7 million slaves were imported to the New World during the 18th century alone. America’s westward expansion, along with a growing abolition movement in the North, would provoke a great debate over slavery that would tear the nation apart in the bloody American Civil War (1861-65). Though the Union victory freed the nation’s 4 million slaves, the legacy of slavery continued to influence American history, from the tumultuous years of Reconstruction (1865-77) to the civil right movement that emerged in the 1960s, a century after emancipation.

For as long as the human condition has existed on this planet there has always been a need to exploit a person or people. One of those exploitations comes to us in the form of slavery, a state of physical bondage denying a person their freedom. Slavery has existed on this planet in all regions around the world from ancient Sumer, ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, ancient India, Medieval Islam, the Vikings, to Europe and the Americas in the late 1400s. Humans are not the only species that use slavery. Ants in colonies are known to raid other ant species and force them to work. The country I live in now, the United States of America, has had a long, brutal history of slavery. According to Jacqueline Jones, Peter H. Wood, Thomas Borstelmann, Elaine Tyler May, and Vicki L. Ruiz in Created Equal volume 1 “In 1619, a Dutch warship brought to Virginia more than twenty African men and women acquired as slaves in the Caribbean.” This was the first case of slavery in North America. The Spanish and Portuguese had enslaved Africans a little over a century before in the Caribbean and Latin America to harvest sugar cane, turning it into molasses to be processed into rum in Europe. Only 6% of captured Africans were brought to North America, mostly by the British, but still we share similar struggles to our brothers and sisters in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a common place of origin, Mother Africa. There were 13 colonies first in North America, all slavery was legal but overtime more

Over the development of centuries, the aggressive transportation in enslavement of millions men, women, and children from their African native land to the Americas alternated permanently the outview and aspect of the current world. The slave trade remained remorseless and dreadful, and the enslavement of Africans was painful, and dehumanizing. All together, this horrific event symbolizes as one of the most longest and continuous assaults on the life, and dignity of human beings in American history.

Since the turn of the fifteenth century to around the mid to late nineteenth century, slavery had become the world’s largest international trade crime. The view of slavery has always been about one prospect for business, which is capitalizing on the use of cheap labor to increase bottom line profits. The slave trade was most prevalent in the United States, England and France each with their own form of immigration for new slaves. Even with the outlaw of slavery in America the mid nineteenth century by the end of the colonial period, nearly every fifth American had some type of ties to an African migrant slave. Nonetheless, the introduction of slavery into the United States was one of the major means of immigration for Africans into North America

The African Slave Trade began long ago in the 15th Century, after the Portuguese started exploring the coast of West Africa. It is now six centuries later and we as a human race still cannot say that slavery has ended. Since the onset of African slave trading, trafficking of women and children has since developed and atrociously branched into the trafficking of human organs as well as sex. It wasn 't until several hundreds of years later that the Emancipation Proclamation would be created and signed. President Abraham Lincoln ordered and issued the Emancipation Proclamation as a war measure for the sole purpose of abolishing slavery in the United States during the Civil War. As time passes on, it seems to have been nothing as

Freedom has its different demographics and views it can perceived into in which I don’t think it can ever justify to a deserved definition. I think we certainly live in the theory and allusion of freedom but also compared to a vast amount of countries it is definitely looked upon as a free society. A country could never reach the highest point of freedom because that is something of the unordinary and we as a country are more close to freedom than any other country will be. Being able to express ourselves by voting, voicing opinions, being of whatever sexuality and religion without interference is a remarkable sense of freedom and luxury many wish to attain.

Freedom has a large range of meaning. The encyclopedia Britannica defines freedom as “the quality or state of being free, and the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action” (Britannica). In the American society there is a lot of emphasis on freedom, and the right to be free, but one must question to what extent we are truly “free”.

Is freedom really free? A lot of people argue about this topic, but I believe that freedom is not free because we all as a society fight for our freedom every day. My first example is in the book Fahrenheit 451 the main idea is censored objects and everyone not being avail to have the freedom to believe in books. Another reason why freedom is not free is because how America fought for our freedom,freedom is something that we need to monitor, it is something that is worth fighting for, and it is something that is limited, even in a “free” country. However you may hear America was a “free” country but what about are our limits? Yes I believe that freedom has to be monitored for our safety, but not as individuals we should be available to speak our minds out and say our opinion on what we believe in.

Freedom’s literal meaning or denotation is “The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.” (Oxford Dictionaries) This definition seems pure and extreme. Almost every society in the world limits their occupants’ freedom in some fashion. If a society is truly free, then the members would have the rights described in the literal meaning. In America, for example, people do have the right to act, speak, and think as they want without constraint of the right as a whole. Americans are allowed to act as they want, but they do have restraints on the extent of the right. For example, Americans cannot murder or steal another’s property without punishment from the law. While these laws may in fact take away some freedom, it is an inevitable necessity because without laws hindering murder or theft, there would be no civil society at all. A society that allows for murder and/or theft would hinder the entire society from exercising their freedom. Americans are allowed to speak as they want, but they are not allowed to slander or libel. This is

The meaning of freedom has been a battleground throughout our history, so too has been the definition of those entitled to enjoy its blessings. Freedom has been based on the fundamentals that liberty is an entitlement of all mankind, the United States, from the outset, blatantly deprived many of its own people of freedom. During history freedom has also shown boundaries to who can have the opportunity to obtain that freedom. The meaning of freedom has been a push and pull battle throughout history, as well as the definition of those entitled to enjoy freedom. The United States has based its origin that liberty is an entitlement of all mankind, but has blatantly deprived many of its own American people of that freedom. Freedom has often been defined by its limits throughout history. Looking at slavery, the master's freedom rested on the reality of slavery. On the same hand freedom has been through battles at the boundaries of freedom; including the efforts of racial minorities, women, workers, and other groups to secure freedom as they understood it. The definition of freedom has been both deepened and transformed and the concept extended throughout each era for which it was not originally intended. During this era, the Inited States had specific periods of time that lived up to the idea of freedom such as the Gilded Age. In contrast, the United States has also had periods of time where the ideas of freedom failed to meet the needs of the nation. An example being the late