I Am Being Mentally Enslaved by the Government

Many people dream of being able to live the American Dream and sadly, many people fall in the wrong hands and get cheated on a fake American dream. Although, America is always advertised as “The Land of the Free” slavery is still going on and no one seems to be aware of it or concerned about it. Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter talk about slavery in The United States, in their article, Slavery In The Land of the Free. In this article, Bales and Soodalter talk about how slavery is still happening in the country, but in many different ways. Bales and Soodalter use stories, statics, and comparisons of every slavery case there is in America. However, most of the stories they told were about Hispanics being in slaved, and did not really include stories of other races

Through our current world, we are able to see how our ancestors were able to shape the world we live in today. From where state lines are drawn to the political views of that state to finally the culture of each state, can be drawn back to one issue. An issue that is still showing it face, but in a different form, today. That is the topic of slavery. The issue of slavery is an issue that shaped the development of the United States, and is the cause of the political unrest we can see in our everyday lives. Slavery has shaped the development of the American Republic by establishing clear political boundaries for each state,

Imagine if you couldn’t control your own fate? Ever since you were little, your fate has already been decided for you. Any dream that you had, consider it gone. Going to school, finding a job, creating a family, take those lifetime goals and throw them out the window. You are forced to work for the rest of your life as a slave. That’s what life was like as an African American prior to Civil War. If you were African American, or even “one-drop” black, you were qualified to be part of the slave trade. Slaves didn’t know when their next meal was going to be or if they were even going to get one. Slaves, especially those in the field, worked from the time the sun would rise until sunset. Hours were long; men, woman, and children were worked to the bone and were expected to perform hard but not be given the proper food or sleep needed to refuel themselves. That’s what made the slave trade so horrible, African Americans weren’t looked at as human beings in society, and they were looked at as property. Even small children and the elderly were not exempt from these long work hours; there were no excuses for anyone who was African American. In class we talked about the United States Constitution and it’s significant to our nations history. It talks about the proper rights given to the people and the rules set forth for everyone to

Slavery has always been one of the most, if not the most, shocking phenomenons of our world. Slavery, by itself seems very unnatural and entices mixed feelings various different people especially in our country during the 1800s which had been divided into the north and south due to this controversial issue. In the north, for the most part, people had believed that slaves had the right to be free and slavery was unjust which is why it was abolished in 1804. This differed from the south in that generally, it was believed that the slaves were incapable of doing anything other than slavery and thus should be kept as they are that is until 1865 when the 13th amendment ended slavery in the south. Some people, however, are descendants of those who used to be slaves years ago. Some faced “slavery”, or forced labor that would classify as the equivalent of slavery, even in the contemporary times. While others simply do not understand the possibility of one human being considering another human being its slave. By definition, slavery is one of the first historical forms of exploitation, under which a slave becomes the private property of the slave owner. In other words slavery converts an individual human being into a “belonging”, if you could call it that. This phenomenon has done a lot of harm to millions of people, in that it takes away lives and destroys the fate of the people who could have otherwise been happy. It is common knowledge that slavery was

If I asked you how does it feel to be beaten and forced to be sold away from your wife and children, would you know? You wouldn’t because you weren’t a slave. Just as Theodore Dwight Weld had written: “Suppose I should seize you, rob you of your liberty, drive you into the field, and make you work without pay as long as you live, would that be justice and kindness, or monstrous injustice and cruelty.” -Theodore Dwight Weld: American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses. When you are educated and privileged with the right to freedom, slaves who are chained, struck over and over with whips, and have no proper education, have to deal with their suffering because they are

When Americans today consider the term “slavery,” they recall a dark time in their nation's past, when an entire race of people were subjugated solely for the color of their skin, a travesty of civil rights that progressive thinking has striven to heal, insofar as paving the way to the election of an African-American president. Slavery is an antiquated practice from a draconian past, and it has no relevance in this modern, enlightened age. What Americans fail to comprehend is that slavery is not only alive and well, but thriving, and fueling the global economy at the expense of human lives. The International Labour Organization (ILO), a United Nations agency dedicated to protecting the human rights of laborers world-wide, estimates that

While reading the ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’ it became apparent that slave owners used a lack of education to suppress enslaved persons. To have a lack of education created a lesser understanding of the world and gave the enslaved persons no way to know how terrible the conditions they were put under. This made enslaved persons to be dependent on slave owners because they don’t know any better or different.

What does it mean to be a slave? Ask any human being, and they will state that they too have been a slave. Being a slave to addiction, to a slave in a relationship, a slave to anxiety, a slave to work, maybe a slave to mental illness, and a slave to one's self-being. Sure, there may be moments in one's life that makes them feel like they have no other choice but to give in. However, there are some things that these people have that is a privilege, the right to say "no," the liberty to decide, and the freedom to act on decisions, to prohibit the temporary entrapment of, obstacles. African American slavery twisted the definition of what it was to be a slave. It meant that one is a product, and a tiny element apart of a more significant something,

Metal clanks against metal as the chains rub on old scars issuing in another day of toil in the heat with head-down and blood streaming as each new lash is inflicted. This is usually the picture envisioned when one thinks of slavery. While often this is an accurate depiction, there are also many other forms of slavery. The Webster’s Dictionary describes slavery as, “submission to a dominating influence.” Everyone has influences that shape who they are and what they do, but a problem arises when a person’s entire life is spent abiding under a certain, destructive influence. Often this is done willingly and a sort of addiction occurs in maintaining the hold the authority has in one’s

Slavery has always been one of the most appalling experiences within our race. Slavery by itself seems very rebellious and provokes people to have mixed feelings about the subject. Majority of African Americans, blacks that are in America are descendants of former slaves. There are also some many people who have faced slavery in today’s society. As history tells us, slavery has done a lot of harm to millions of people, taking away lives and even destroying the faith of the many people who believe in something different. What does a contemporary person know about slavery? The answer will not be very difficult. Nevertheless, there is still much to say about it and a lot of things to remember.

Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary wrote a novel by the name of Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing, it is the PTSD of slavery and it still affects African Americans today. “...In spite of all our forbears who worked to survive and gain their freedom; in spite of the efforts of all those who fought for civil rights’ we are continually being socialized by this society to undervalue ourselves, to undermine our own efforts and, ultimately,

In American history, every event and person plays a part in the future. For example, rich plantation owners helped America advance their economy. However, that would not have been at all possible without the help of their slaves. The time and institution of slavery is a time of historical remembrance. It played a primary role during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. The treatment, labor conditions, and personal stories of these slaves’ treatment and labor conditions are all widely discussed around the world to this day.

Now a day we bypass valuable freedom opportunities in everyday life and we see them as nothing. For example, being able to even walk in your backyard in the evening, or taking your own kids to school, matter of fact even the privilege to attend school, calling your family members in no time, being able to relax, have an easy day and working at a place of your liking. All these things are part of our freedom that we normally don’t think about or how these things would greatly impact our life. These were small things that greatly impacted a slave’s life in the 1930s, not being able to choose their own life path, always being the use of everybody else, never having the opportunity to take a deep breath of fresh air. This was my life as a slave

I find your points very fascinating and interesting, especially towards the end of your post. Of course your points in the beginning of your posts, where you believed that it would be preferable to be an indentured servant rather than a slave, I agree with wholeheartedly. It's pretty clear that the rest of the students in this course agree with it as well, having read most of the original posts and replies to them, there doesn't seem to be very much differentiation in it, which sometimes makes it difficult to have a discussion or reply on a post, because one doesn't want to just reiterate the same idea or post that one is replying to, or simply feel like one is echoing everyone else's thoughts. However, perhaps the fact that we all agree is a good thing and a sign that, especially in the 21st Century in the United States, it's a positive aspect and result and sign that so many of us agree that slavery was horrible, awful, and unjust, and the thought or idea that a lifetime of servitude and harsh mistreatment of not only yourself, but also your family and even your children, is reprehensible, shows the progress we have made over the past few centuries in our country and

Since my birth, I have been working for masters that hardly consider me human, much less respect me. When my previous master found her way to the graveyard, a Loyalist couple bought my sister and me. Like property, I was shipped from Rhode Island to the city of New York. My master, like so many others, lacks concern of my well being as long as I work. My master, like so many others, does not care for my baby sister, and sold her away to almost certain death at the age of 6. Literacy is liberating, and access to literature is liberty. After reading “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine, your Declaration of Independence, and learning of Philis Wheatley, I now know why independence is a right that all enslaved people deserve.