To What Extent Have Legal Rights Are Protected By The Constitution Of The United States

Frederick Douglass was an African American who rose from slavery to become a leading voice in the abolitionist movement; he was also known to be a public speaker and writer who published many works. Frederick Douglass then went on to write an autobiography titled “My Bondage and My Freedom”, discussing in great detail the struggles of being a slave. Throughout his autobiography, Douglass argues very boldly that slavery was in institution that victimized not only slaves, but also slave owners and non-slave owning whites. Frederick’s statement is true in the sense that slavery dehumanized slaves, it destroyed the natural good in slave owners, and slavery robbed non-slave owning whites.

“These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty – to wit, the white man’s power to enslave black men. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom” (20).

To further strengthen the rights of the people, The Bill of Rights was ratified on December 15, 1791. With only the first ten amendments, it is no accident that two amendments, 9 and 10, specifically define the Constitutions purpose to protect rights, given to the government from the people; and the powers of the government are “only those delegated to it by the Constitution on behalf of the people” (Spalding, Page 145).

The creation of the US constitution was prompted my many different things going on. What established America’s national government and fundamental laws is the U.S constitution. It also guarantees basic rights for its citizens. The U.S constitution was signed on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia, Pa. The first document before the U.S constitution was the Articles of Confederation, with that the government wasn’t very strong and the states didn’t act like they do today. In 1787, at the 1787 convention, delegates made a decision to make a stronger federal government that consisted of the executive, legislative, and the judicial branches. That wasn’t it either, it also had a system of checks and balances because they did not want one branch to be able to overpower another branch. The ten amendments of the Bill of Rights guarantees protections for people like religion and freedom of speech. In total, there are twenty-seven constitutional amendments.

The United States Constitution was ratified and made law September 17, 1789. For Americas yet-to-be history the Framers knew the Constitution had to have a way to grow and change with the people, and their needs. This paper will cover the amendment process, the need for the Bill of Rights, how the Bill of Rights has affected America, what the Bill of Rights have granted American’s, discuss the later amendments, and what effect the later amendments have had.

When our Nation had regarded themselves as thirteen newly colonies and to separate themselves from Great Britain. Congress had imparted to the state legislature twelve amendments to the Constitution. These Amendments later became the Bill of Rights, the first basic rights that the country was founded to provide. The whole point that the Bill of Rights were made was so that new Federal Government were prevented from impairing human rights and freedom. However, these rights are being undermined through extreme liberalism that happens in the education system predominantly the First Amendment.

The United States Constitution was recognized to Americans as a vague statement in clarifying the privileges and the rights of individuals and centralizing the power within the government itself. With the passing of the Bill of Rights and the first ten amendments, it grants the people to what is said to be their “natural rights” following additional rights that have significantly changed our society.

Blackmon provides many stories in his book about what the slaves to forced laborers went through and how they felt about the new so called “freedom” they gained. The Black Americans prior to the Emancipation Proclamation have never seen the slightest clue to what freedom could even feel like. “Some of the old slaves said they too weren’t sure what “freedom” really was”

“What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” (Coates). This powerful quote exemplifies the mistreatment of blacks in America as something that has been prevalent throughout our nation’s history and is still present in our contemporary world. Our national founding document promised that “All men are created equal”. As a nation we have never achieved the goal of equality largely because of the institution of slavery and its continuing repercussions on American society.

The U.S. Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787, by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, headed over by George Washington. Under America’s first governing document, the Articles of Confederation, the national government was weak and states operated like independent countries. At the 1787, delegates planned a plan for a stronger government with three branches executive, legislative and judicial with this no branch has more power than the others. The Bill of Rights 10 amendments guaranteeing basic individual protections such as freedom of speech and religion became part of the Constitution in 1791. Then after that the American Revolution, after that they realize that they needed to retain this law so everything can be “normal” for them.

After reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, it is clear to see the true horrors behind the entirety of slavery. It is one thing to learn about it from a textbook or to sit through a lecture, but it is a completely different experience to get an account of how grossly inhumane, frightening, and appalling slavery really was from someone who experienced the terrors first-hand. Reading this narrative provided extremely descriptive details of how slaves truly were treated. Douglass recounted the time where he had often:

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

Over two hundred years ago, the founding fathers of this great nation signed their names to the Declaration of Independence, sending a message to Great Britain that they were tired of being subservient to a monarch who had no respect for his people. These extraordinary men understood the concept of liberty and embraced it with great passion. They were all too familiar with the consequences of a government with excess power. In order to prevent America from returning to the ways of Great Britain, they crafted one of the greatest documents ever written, the Constitution of the United States of America. Contained in the Constitution is the Bill of Rights which details the rights the citizens of the United States of America are guaranteed.

Even though freedom has been our nation’s identity for its entire existence, our nation has suffered “dark ages” when the freedoms of African Americans were repressed. During the period of slavery, African Americans were forced to labor under often cruel and gruesome conditions, for their white masters. Solomon Northup, a free man forcefully made a slave, describes his thoughts on slavery in his 12 Years a Slave:

A persons property is often what they take pride in, which makes it easy to see why the saying “a mans home is his castle” is so popular and widely understood. So when the gates of their castle get knocked down and their treasures taken; the king of the castle is left with nothing to hold as his own. Americans right to be secure is the moat surrounding their castle, it guarantees Americans protection against unreasonable search and seizure. The right to be secure is guaranteed in the 4th amendment of the Bill of Rights, which is a section of the U.S. Constitution listing a citizens guaranteed rights. The U.S. Constitution was written in 1787 but lacked the support required to be ratified; as it needed support from 9 of the 13 states prior to its ratification. The constitution received the backing of its 9th state after adding the Bill of Rights to the Constitution. The addition of a Bill of Rights was required for the support of many states as one of the largest concerns the states had with the Constitution was that the Government would have too much power and control over citizens. So the addition of a Bill or Rights stating what the Government may or may not do as well as guaranteeing the freedoms and rights of citizens helped end the states concerns. The support after the addition of the Bill of Rights led to the Constitutions ratification on March 4th, 1789.