The Hardships Of African Americans

During the mid-1800s, it was challenging being a slave. Belonging to another human being instead of being free brought numerous hardships African Americans had to endure. It brought about unimaginable pain, frustration, disruption, and stress. In America, slavery was glorified, even though, families were separated and destroyed. Slavery made it tedious to have stability in families because of the effects it had on the African American people. After reading “How Affected African American Families” and “Narrative of Jenny Proctor,” slavery caused African American families to cope with separation, unfair marriage stipulations, horrible living condition, mistreatment and labor, and also the ending of slavery.

In the film, Africans in America: “The Terrible Transformation”, the narrator discussed the influence of certain criteria in which slaves had to meet in order to work for land owners in America. These criteria included: being African American, non- European, and non- Christian. The government created this criteria system to build a barrier between the land owners and the slaves. The individuals that owned property treated their slaves as if they were foreign/strange. The white Americans did not want African American people to have the same equality as they did; Therefore, America was ruled by the whites while the blacks were merely just servants to them.

In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass explains, in great detail, how slave master would use a variety of methods to dehumanize slaves located on their plantation. These methods involved both severe physical and psychological trauma. Nevertheless, Douglass remains diligent and finds a way to resist the harsh reality of being a slave. Because of his immovable desire to acquire knowledge to his fighting encounter with Mr. Covey, these experiences help shape Douglass to be the archetype of what it means to go from slavery to freedom. This essay will highlight the physical and psychological tactics used on slaves. In addition, the aspect of how Douglass resists the

Though social problems affect a wide variety of people from all races, classes, and cultures; minorities, specifically African Americans, encounter social problems on a multi-dimensional basis. Poverty, employment rates, discrimination, and other social problems strike African Americans in such a way that it is nearly impossible to separate them; each individual has different background, socially and physically, that would determine in which order his or her social problems need to be solved. Impoverished blacks in the inner city may have difficulty finding or keeping jobs, while others may have jobs, but face troubles with work discrimination that prevent them from moving upward .Underemployment, workplace inequalities, and unbalanced

I do believe that any obstacle or disadvantage can turn into something good. I know this because people learn from their mistakes. Some people give up or lose hope when they are encountering an obstacle. Anything can be make up by thinking or a wise decision.

From 1775 to 1830, many African Americans gained freedom from, yet during the same period the institution towards the southern parts of America to work in plantations. This was the start of new changes that was going to take place that free African Americans and enslaved African Americans. Between 1775 and 1830 was one of the greatest trials that came with many challenges for the African Americans to confront these issues.

With many resources and reasons, African slave experience numerous of punishment during their time period of slavery. As they crossed from Africa towards the West Indies their encounters experience of starvation, mistreated, beaten, sexual harassment and torments from Europeans slave’s dealers, owners, master and their own kind. Breaking the law or even working slow was a punishments. Especially for runaways slaves. Two primary sources advertisement that explained the hardship of slavery is document one. Documents one is an “advertisement come from New London (Connecticut) on March 30, 1764” and Documents 2 is a “Broadside advertisement that

African Americans didn’t know that is was a Great Depression. African Americans have always been poor and knew how to survive. By 1932, approximately half of black Americans were unemployed, blacks always felt unemployed and under paid. Whites attempted to keep blacks out of work by not hiring African Americans. They used racial violence, and discrimination tactics to keep an underprivileged population depressed.

African Americans, among their families, and their communities find themselves in an unceasing battle for survival in a world that has previously, and to this day, brought many hardships and sufferings. Although America has succeeded in abolishing slavery, there are still aspects of racism and economic segregation that occur within residential areas. This being said, many individuals of the African American race become primary targets and victims to devastating economic and social disadvantages. The articles, "Survival and Death in New Orleans: An Empirical Look at the Human Impact of Katrina" written by Patrick Sharkey and "African American Men and the Prison Industrial Complex" by Earl Smith and Angela J. Hattery similarly bring attention to the social injustices that African Americans are forced to endure while offering two different scenarios; the predominantly black communities affected by Hurricane Katrina and mass incarceration of African American men for the selling and abuse of illicit drugs.

Chapter two discusses the inequality, brutality, and disfranchisement done to African Americans. This chapter also displayed the change African Americans made when they realized enough was enough. Ella Ree Jones was a student at Alabama State Teachers College in Montgomery, AL, who acted in the same way Rosa Parks made famous 13 years later. Jones was feeling confined that day but was told to give her seat up for a white man. She refused and argued she was already halfway on the bus where blacks were assigned. The bus driver called the police and they took Jones to City Hall. When they arrived at City Hall the officers beat her with a pipe, kicked her repeatedly, one officer took her head and propelled it into a brick wall, and then pushed her into her cell. Jones was fined and was still obscure on what she had done wrong.

Oppression is a common theme in history. Whether it is based on race or gender the oppressed are inevitably strengthened by the oppression through commitment and perseverance. African Americans were one of the most significant examples of oppression in American history. The emancipation of slavery in 1865 signified the slow fight for freedom and equality for African Americans. Between 1865 and 1905 they suffered extreme oppression, but remained united in their fight to gain independence.

After watching this film, I realized that I could have easily been like anyone else that is facing criminal charges. I’m not an African-American, but because I am a black man, I am automatically placed in that category. The film reminded me a lot about my family, even though we came to this country searching for a better life. However, like most immigrants and refugees, we ran into several speed bumps along the way. Seven of us made it to this country: my father, step mother, uncle, older step sister, older step brother, younger step brother, and me. My older step brother and I are the only ones that have never faced any criminal charges or jail time. When we came to this country in 2000, I was 5 years old and we lived in an apartment complex filled with several other refugee families. It wasn’t the most pleasant place to live, but I felt comfortable because I was around my support group and family. My father and step mother would get into domestic disputes frequently which then led to several police visits. The disputes eventually led to both of them serving several months in jail, which in my opinion, helped lead my siblings to going to jail in their future. My father would then go on to being in and out of jail until he was eventually sentenced to prison for a gun charge. Keith Huff stated “It’s a curse. And where I come from, the neighborhood I come from, most everybody gets locked up. And I mean everybody” (Prison State). That’s why I feel like I could have been

African-American Race has faced many challenges over the years. These challenges that African-Americans face have yet, to be overpowered. African-Americans do not have the same equal opportunity as other races. African-American faces the highest rates among the measured sex, race, origin and age. Black women are more than twice as likely as white girls to become pregnant before they leave adolescence. A most African-American man is incarcerated. These three challenges is something that African-Americans face on daily basis.

The slaves recently brought from agricultural Africa to the industrialize jungles of America had small chances of effectively resisting enslavement enforced by the white men, who made technologies and social order work for them. The recognition of oneself as a slave and adaptation of the Western mode of living and thinking could take a while. It was not until then that a slave could accumulate enough knowledge and resources to dare stand up for himself. However, the historical accounts present a peculiar picture of the black slaves’ values and what they regarded as the major vice of slavery and, consequently as something worth fighting for. As soon as a black slave recovered from the shock of crossing the ocean into a different civilization, he tried hard to reunite with his friends and family.

Back when there was Slavery it was unfair to some people, at least to the African Americans. By unfair I mean the whites, like most of us would torture the Africans. Some of the things the owners did was made the slaves work in fields without pay and they had no control over their own self, their owner did. But, if they were not doing, that the owners would do something bad like whip them with a whip with metal on the end.