The New York Conspiracy Trials 1741

These horrible acts happened not only because masters owned their slaves as property, but also because men held all the power in the patriarchal society which gave men the indication that consent did not apply to slave women. The system of slavery didn’t deal with human beings in the eyes of the masters, but instead objects or property. Once you bought a slave, they were yours according to the terms (Piquet, 20). Male slave owners took advantage of their power to coerce them into sexual acts. Mr. Williams, Piquet’s master, used his power to convince Piquet that she was not committing adultery because she was only having sex with one man (Piquet, 14). Mr. William told Louisa that if she behaved well, he’d treat her well, but if she misbehaved, he’d whip her almost to death (Piquet, 11). That threat of having a slave’s life in their master’s hand made it virtually impossible to protect slave women against sexual violence because it was a method of compliance towards your property. Patriarchy reinforced the domination of the male slave owner not only over the female slaves, but also over the male slaves by showing them who was in charge of their wives, sisters, daughters, or female friends. Men’s sexual freedom to do what they pleased in their world subliminally showed power to all the people below

In every culture, there are the strong and there are the weak, the oppressor and the oppressed. Sometimes they are of the same race and sometimes not, but they all rely on a difference in power. Socrates, Frederick Douglass, and WEB Du Bois each experience this power differential through the course of their lives. Socrates experiences this through his experience with the jury of Athens and his trial; Douglass through his life as a slave and his eventual escape. Du Bois experiences it through being a black man in the time of Reconstruction and being well of in comparison to other African-Americans at the time. Each man’s unique perspective on equality can illuminate why authority is so instrumental in the development of equality.

One of the key arguments in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” as well as in other narratives about slaves is inequality. Douglass attempts to show us how African American slaves were still human beings like their white counterparts, there have been numerous instances where it is shown that many whites did not want to accept slaves as true humans. Frederick

The new society has offered people the principle of opportunity equality for all white men. Thus, traditional forms of privileges and elitism were set under attack (Brands et al.). Such development of relations allowing even people not belonging to aristocracy

The Salem witchcraft trials were a particularly dark and mysterious time in the history of America. These trials that were arranged upon the belief of witchcraft could have multiple explanations. In my opinion these trials began as a combination between religious factors, boredom, social issues and all coming together in a mess of suspicion and deceit. Although these trials did start because of the Puritan’s imagination, their true religious belief in witchcraft, childish antics, and their hatred for their neighbors helped to fuel their imagination. The people’s imagination began to lead the people in the town of Salem, Massachusetts into a deadly witch hunt.

The Trials began soon after a few young girls living in Salem began throwing unexplainable and spontaneous tantrums that consisted of sudden falling, screaming and crying in agony, and a loss of voice. After the girls had been questioned by their parents

separation and a socioeconomic separation between the rich and the poor existed in the gilded

Race was socially constructed through white worker’s ideologies of distinguishing themselves from Native Americans and black folks, or simply the “others”. As Roediger states:

Since the birth of the nation powerful whites have shaped the ideas on race that produced a larger system of white supremacy. They are the titans that dominate social, economical, and political ventures, that negatively affect people of “color”. Ebony magazine helps grasp the progression of race relations in American history. It demonstrates the slow evolution on racial ideals and changes that occur throughout the United States.

The infamous Salem witch trials of colonial Massachusetts took place between 1692 and 1693. They involved the execution of fourteen women and five men within the brief time period. What is now the New England region had been established by a homogenous Puritan population, which emigrated from England. Abiding by a strict set of beliefs, the Puritans did not accept people of other backgrounds,therefore it might follow that the Salem Witch Trials of New England were a result of the strict Puritan society, which was actually primarily untrue. The Salem Witch Trials were not enacted as a result of Puritanism, but rather as a result of circumstance surrounding Rye.

Slaves’ future lives all depended on who would “win” them and buy them. For Douglass, it was unbearable to observe human beings cry in desperation and pain. Frederick’s mistress was the only person, besides himself, that was able to experience pure dismay; causing them to ache together and understand the terror.

You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man (Douglass, 65). Figuratively meaning that although he was born a slave, this was not how he was destined to live. He knew he was put on this Earth for a greater purpose. Through his experiences as a slave he was not a man but merely property. However, after escaping slavery and working jobs of his own choosing, he became the man he wanted to be in his own right. Considered merely as a narrative, we have never read one more simple, true, coherent, and warm with genuine feeling. It is an excellent piece of writing, and on that score to be prized as a specimen of the powers of the Black Race, which Prejudice persists in disputing (Fuller 21). Now this narrative is considered one of the most important and influential writings of the abolitionist movement of the early nineteenth Century in the United

Before the American revolution, women, African slaves, and Native Americans all had little rights and after the war, either continued with these rights or lost even more. Women before the war were treated like property and were not allowed to own land or inherit her family’s wealth. African slaves were treated like this as well, although they were also bound in slavery for life, as were any children they had. For Native Americans, they continued to lose their land and fight against the colonists to keep it. White males on the other hand, experienced many advantages over these minorities, since they believed them to be inferior. In the newly independent colonies, white males experienced both continuity and change with their rights and most were positive, giving them more freedoms and rights. However, women, African slaves, and Native Americans experienced continuity and change in a more negative way, their small amount of rights being kept the same or lessened and given no social mobility or influence over the new, independent country.

Class, gender, and race are just a few of the classifications that have directly impacted one’s financial, legal, and personal freedoms throughout history. There are several examples in Charles Waddell Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition and Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth that will shed light to the many situations in which the characters find themselves that display the sort of inequality that was quite common in the 20th century.

The lower class consisted primarily of Native Americans, African Americans, and impoverished whites. Author, Howard Zinn revealed many examples that showed the congregation of lower class individuals, in spite of their differences “ In spite of such seventeenth century, there is evidence that where whites and blacks found themselves with common problems, common work, common enemy in their master, they behaved toward one another as equals. As one scholar of slavery, Kenneth Stampp, has put it, Negro and white servants of the seventeenth century were “remarkably unconcerned about the visible physical differences” (Zinn 68).When it came down to real talk, the lower class rose above their differences and worked together to achieve one common goal, freedom. However, the upper class knew they wouldn't be able to withhold all the power with the lower class citizens joining forces. The upperclass attempted to divide the lower class by the separation of race, sexuality, and wars and ideas of war. In between this conflict lied the middle class, who struggled to chose, as they were tempted by the upper class wealth. Although early settlers envisioned a country of liberty and equality, the upper class used their wealth and power to obstruct the lower class from achieving complete freedom, which lead to the oppression of lower class individuals.