The Political And Economic Rights Of The African American Slaves

The emancipation proclamation was what seemed like the beginning of freedom for African Americans. African Americans fought hard and valiantly in the American Civil war and with the Unions win freedom and peace for blacks seemed to be assured. As most people would quote," Freedom isn 't free." It almost always has a cost. Africans Americans since the origin of this country have literally laid down their lives for the cost of freedom and opportunity in the US. One of the most coveted freedom 's both past and present is the right to suffrage. My paper discusses the many factors leading to and the trials and tribulations involving black 's right to vote. In this paper, I will discuss the constitutional amendments as well as the landmark supreme court cases that affected both the lives and voting rights of African Americans during the time period of 1865 through 1900.

In this assignment I will be taking a further look into the history of slavery. When thinking of slavery the immediate thought that comes to mind is all the negative aspects of the system. Prior to this research, I was unaware of slave systems that were not based on the long labor hours and the torture of slaves. Granted, there were still forms of slavery that practiced these brutal rituals, where slaves were treated as animals and were malnourished. One prime example of this, is the book titled “Am I Not A Woman And A Sister”, looks at the history of a Bermudan slave named Mary Prince. Another example of slavery that will be incorporated in this paper will come from a source about a woman slave named Semsigul, born in Caucasus an area that

In the United States, slavery had an overwhelming impact on their political, social, and economical. Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, the first African slaves were brought into the United States. Reasons were because the tobacco, sugar, rice, and coffee fields were expanding which led to increasing the demand for labor. The Atlantic slave trade was an inhuman systematic importation of slaves between the African traders, American planters, and the European merchants bargaining over human lives which led to the Middle Passage. 1675-1775, the slaves were the backbone of monoculture labor and so it was put into law to keep the Africans as slaves. “So prevalent was this Italian-operated slave trade that the word “slave” was derived from the word “Slav,” name for people from Slavic countries” (Williams 3). In both seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation.

It is easy to see that slavery affected the agriculture in the United Sates, and how the labor of slaves was important to the growing crop of the Unites States, especially the South. The South was notorious for its vigorous production of tobacco, rice, sugar and cotton, as well as other world agriculture as well. Although the population of the south was a mere 30% the size of the north, in 1861 they grew more than one third of the corn, one sixth the wheat, four fifths the peas and beans and over half of the tobacco in the United Sates. That amount of production in the South was phenomenal, which made it simple to overlook the labor that they used. Despite the Emancipation Proclamation revolutionizing the country, the economy of the South remained stunted and the emancipated slaves were unable to fain economic freedom.

As the plantation system developed in the southern colonies in the latter half of the 17th century, the number of Africans imported as agricultural slave laborers increased greatly, and several northern coastal cities became centers of the slave traffic. Generally, in the northern colonies, slaves were used as domestics and in trade; in the Middle Atlantic colonies they were used more in agriculture; and in the southern colonies, where plantation agriculture was the primary occupation, almost all slaves were used to work the

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.

A black African-American that was one of the many few who was born free in Wilmington, North Carolina went by the name of David Walker. Walker’s father whom died before his birth was a slave but his mother was a free woman. In the state’s laws Walker inherited his mother’s liberated status although, being free did not keep him from witnessing slavery. Walker traveled throughout his time in his younger days in the South, noticing the injustices of the slave system that the whites had going on. Even though Walker was a free slave he still seen and knew what slavery and racism was. Charleston, South Carolina is where he settled and eventually found a church home that goes by the name of African Methodist Episcopal church. A large population of free African Americans lived there at the time. In the year of 1822, a revolutionary plot was uncovered that resulted in severe cruelty of black churches which made things very difficult for the blacks during those times. Walker up and moved to Boston in the year of 1825 where he married a fugitive slave that went by the name Emily. He established a profitable secondhand clothing business and very active in helping the poor and needy even including the runaway slaves. During that time he joined a political organized black community group. Walker became involved with the nation 's first African American newspaper, that went by the name Freedom 's Journal out of New York City, in which Walker contributed some. He spent a lot of time

Unfortunately, inequality has not completely ceased to exist in the United States of America. As a country, we have had a long history of injustice among our people. From the enslavement of African Americans, to the mistreatment of Native Americans on the Trail of Tears, and the subtle and sometimes overt discrimination oppressing American women today, there has been a long and continuing history of discrimination and unfair action against our fellow citizens. It would be deceitful for us to think that our nation has lived up to the ideals of the words “all men are created equal” since the day the Constitution was written by the Founders. Slavery comes in many forms, and inequality has existed among many kinds of people, whether the issue

Enslavement of African Americans was a common and legal practice in the United States from the 18th to the 19th century. Slavery of African Americans began in the American colonies when the British colonies in America bought slaves from Africa. It was a practice that was used as well as legal in all 13 colonies. It lasted in many states up until the end of the American Civil War. Slavery lasted longer in some states then it did in others. In the north slavery was abolished earlier then it was in the south. Reason being is in the south, there was more plantations and farms that needed tending to. Many young slaves were exposed to harsh conditions, having to pick cotton on farms or work in the plantations for their owners who treated them poorly.

In todays’ society many African Americans’ including myself do not know where there furthest ancestor came from let alone existed; to be honest, the only people of African descent that really know where they come from are those who were born and raised in Africa due to their family not moving. All we know or assume is that our ancestor was brought from Africa; however, that is as much as we know, most African Americans including myself embrace Africa as the motherland but we tend to wonder how deep is our ancestral lineage is rooted within this illustrious continent of Africa. It is no surprise that the slave trade is the reason to blame for our broken connection back to Africa; one can say that the slave trade was economically beneficial to society at that point; however, everything about this unethical and morally repugnant trade, has plagued the African American community till this day. We as a people were set up to be disunited when our ancestor were put in shackles and put on a boat that sailed to the new world .And to this day the constant oppressive nature purposely continue to try to divide and conquer our race, so that we continue to erase any notion of Africa. If disunity is the key of the oppressor; then we must be that strong and resistant door that does not open or budge, which ultimately symbolizes unity we must displayed day in and day out.

Slavery has always remained one of the essential part of American History and its constitution. Status of African American and issues related to slavery has played a major role in destroying and affecting the life of individuals in the American region. Lincoln to Luther, everyone was against slavery and worked for the equality of black and white (State Gov). According to Lincoln, slavery was an injustice monster and his major concern was to maintain a union between black and white on the basis of equal rights. For this reason America faced a number of challenges since its discovery and the migration of Mexicans and Africans in America and hence lead to a long history of transition of slavery of former slaves into mainstream of modern society.

The British came up with many laws that restricted and oppressed the slaves for their benefit, some of these laws included, that slaves couldn’t own land, couldn’t leave their masters’ houses, and couldn’t gather in a group of more than 3, and if they did, they would be abused, killed or have their limbs cut off. However, the most important law that essentially ended freeing enslaved people was this, “no enslaved person could be freed without the master paying a £200 bond and promising to pay the enslaved person £20 a year for life,” (UNIT THREE: NEW YORK Resource 21: Laws Affecting Black Colonials in British New York). This basically assured that the slave’s freedom was determined by the master, which practically made it impossible. According to, Looking at Slavery in New York, Table 3, New York under the English was the third largest slaveholding colony, containing 16% of all the

Slaves; people who are the property of and wholly subject to another. Why did it begin in the first place? It was not until December 6th of 1865 when congress finally ratified a law to abolish slavery. However, words of the law still had not spread and it would take around a year for the slave owners to finally set the slaves free. The process of freeing the slaves was full of misery, pain, and constant insults by the majority of the white population. However, despite discouragement from the whites, the black people (with the support of some whites) pulled through and achieved the main goal of being independent. That event took a while to occur, the real question is how did blacks and whites resist slavery until it was finally abolished. How did the slaves counter the abuse and harassment of the slave owners? I hypothesized that the blacks were able to withstand the punishment and slowly undermine slavery due to their intelligence. And at the end of slavery, both races would be intellectually equal.

Lincoln did not accomplish this in the manner sometimes symbolically portrayed, by breaking the chains of helpless and passive bondsmen with the stroke of a pen. (1995:10)

As human beings, we are able to remember events from past and cherish them as important memories. At the same time, we can also grudge the past events that negatively affected us. As long as the event is deeply carved in people’s memories, the feelings that was created during the event will last for many generations. One example of such an event is slavery. For more than 200 years, the brutal memories of slavery were passed down through African Americans. It is obvious that the memories that were passed down for generations would not end and be forgotten immediately after the end of slavery. Similarly, white owners would not be able to get out of the owner mindset because they were owners since the start of slavery. Although slavery itself