Understanding Justice and Human Rights

From 1641 up until 1865 Africans were captured by slavers and sold into slavery on Southern American plantations. British colonials viewed them as no more than personal property, as the Africans were not under British rule and were not protected under British law (History). Thus, during this time period blacks in slavery did not hold any rights at all (History). Those who were able to buy their freedom were treated as second-class

Unit 1 Long Essay Question From 1600 to 1763, British North America established trans-Atlantic interactions with Europe and Africa. British North America traded goods with Europeans and Africans in exchange for other goods and people. The trans-Atlantic interactions from 1600 to 1763 contributed greatly to fostering change in labor systems, through slave trade and the decrease in transportation of indentured servants, while still somewhat maintaining continuity in labor systems, through a continued sense of superiority in settlers and harsh treatment of slaves and indentured servants. Trans-Atlantic interactions from 1600 to 1763 fostered change in labor systems through an increase in slave trade.

Nathaniel Bacon was a wealthy colonist of the Virginia Colony, he was famous as the instigator of Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676-1677. The rebellion was an uprising of virginia farmers and indentured servants led by Bacon. In the beginning it was initially a response to Governor William Berkeley’s refusal to protect backcountry

Colonists felt they were slaves to the British country being taxed at unreasonable prices and being abided to very restrictive laws. The actual slaves under the colonists were the neglected people. Colonists ironically used the metaphor of slavery to justify their rights as colonists who felt like they were slaves. An example being given by the book is introducing James Otis who wrote The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved. In this selection he tries to compare colonists to black slaves being restricted by chain. This shows on the silences present in the early years of colonization, no one recognized or even acknowledged the idea of actual slavery as a problem, but the metaphor of slavery being imposed on the colonists. The author explains, "It was impossible for the colonists to be the subjects of subjects. That's what slaves were legally: the subjects of subjects. If the white colonists were to be simply governed, or forced to behave, they were being treated like

Slaves in the colonies during the revolution were faced with no real options and little liberty. The slaves’ lot in life varied greatly between individual experiences. Those slave owners who had only a few slaves generally treated their slaves better than those with large numbers of slaves. Even if they were treated well, the slaves had little in the way of freedom. They would be required to work throughout the day at the bidding of their masters and had no recourse to whatever punishment was given at their master’s hands. The slaves also had little hope of ever obtaining freedom for themselves and their children (Pavao, n.d.).

This demonstrates that slaves didn’t go to school to learn how to read and write unless they escaped to the North and they didn’t even know how to read or write their names. If slaves were allowed to learn how to read and write the owners thought that they might revoke against them. In the text, it states, “Fearing that black literacy would prove a threat to the slave system whites in the Deep South passed laws forbidding slaves to learn to read or write and making it a crime for others to teach them” (Simkin ). This demonstrates that in order to make sure that the slaves didn’t try to revoke against their owners it was illegal for them to learn how to read and write.

It was not abnormal for an ex slave to continue to live on the same plantation he’d spent his life farming. These plantations were the only homes most slaves knew and thus were a safety zone despite the mistreatment many had received there. Though they spent the beginning of their free lives in the same places they spent the end of their slave lives, nearly every freedman’s life was changed by their new rights. The most important of these changes was the education the freedman could now receive. Rumored to be the biggest most important aspect of civilization, education was the ultimate goal to the slaves. The law that prohibited the education of slaves only increased their thirst for knowledge. When they finally were taught professionally, they took it more seriously than many of their white counterparts. Education was not simply a pastime or a necessary evil to the Freedman, but an object to be yearned for, and treasured when

As Douglass told “ Some years ago, when you were beginning to tell me your real name and birthplace, you may remember I stopped you, and preferred to remain ignorant of all”,only in this case to the upcoming generations of the slaves and their children as they grow older, were prevented from learning how to read and write, as literacy would give them a sense of self‑sufficiency and capability. Ignorance was severely displayed throughout the narrative. The slave owners believed that there is no need to give privileges to the slaves because they don't have a future in where they can put these privileges to use.The slaves are required to behave in a particular manner when they are interacting with their masters. Slave masters regulate fears among the slaves, since it keeps the slaves under ‘control’. When they speak the truth, they are punished by their owners.

The colonies of British North America were a very unequal place in which different classes and races were treated very differently. Despite this, ideas of freedom still developed because the colonists believed that they were being treated unfairly by the British parliament. Two documents that convey that these ideas of freedom were able to develop in a place where the citizens were not treated equally are the “Virginia Slave Code of 1705” and “The Declaration of Independence”.

“The system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect.” (Vann R. Newkirk II) In 1619, slaves were taken against their will on a Dutch ship to Jamestown, Virginia. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries slavery was practiced in the American colonies. Slaves made up about one-third of the southern population, living on huge farms or small plantations. Slaves were seen as nothing more than property to be kept and used. Most owners were intent on making the slaves they owned completely dependent on them. With the fear of not being able to survive on their own they were less likely to rebel. Forbidden from any form of education, they were not allowed to learn how to read or write. As they were not seen as humans no one cared whether or not

The film “Slavery and The Making Of America” covered the beginning of American slavery in the British colonies until the end of slavery in the southern states and post-civil war reconstruction. This film shows viewers remarkable stories of individual slaves, providing new perspectives on how unjust the slaves experiences were, and besides all the trouble they were facing still having to survive and shape their own lives. The British colonies in North America had an abundance of land and a scarcity of labor ended up producing money crops with the forced labor of African slaves, literally being treated as if they were machines for production.

The notion of justice is existence of proper balance of rights and its access under the laws of land. It refers to not depriving any person from availing privileges, opportunities etc. John Rawls writes, "Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override"It means that the interaction in a society must be free from any sort of discrimination such as religion, race, color, caste or sex. It ensures fair distribution of assets and equal opportunity. José P. Laurel defines Social Justice as “Social justice is neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy, but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by the state so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at least be approximated.”

The United States, Africa, the Middle East and mostly all of the countries around the world have been known to in some shape or form to inhabit slaves and to engage in the business of slave trading. According to the text, in 1619 there were a small group of people, 32 to be exact that reached the shores of America in the Chesapeake (D. Hine, W. Hine and Harrold, 55). It has been long believed that this was the first group of African Americans in British North America; apart of a group who was taken from their home in Angola. Unfortunately during this time, it became apparent that the slaves and those of African descent would be apart of “chattel slavery,” a term coined by the British in the Chesapeake in reference to the enslaved being treated equally to that of the livestock and thus legally treated as property (57). Though the Emancipation Proclamation wouldn’t be a key event until 1863 that would ultimately “free the slaves,” there was a revolt thousands of years earlier by slaves that would lay the ground work for those like them in the future.

Over the decades, the concept of justice has been continually evolving. This is occurring based upon different moral or legal interpretations. Evidence of this can be seen with observations from Burke (2011) who said, "Few things are of more importance to a society than its concept of justice. This is because it is justice that provides criterion for the legitimate use of force. In the name of justice people are detained, arrested, handcuffed, put on trial and punished. This concept is used to provide every society with some kind of social order. Over the last 200 years, a revolution has taken place with these principles. Our idea of it is what we employ, when dealing with ordinary individuals in daily life including: making agreements, paying bills, resolving disputes and putting criminals in jail. This is a concept that is as old as recorded history and it is familiar to people everywhere. What makes it so unique is that these ideas are constantly changing which focuses on society as a whole and how people are interacting with each other. " (Burke)

Glendon, Mary Ann (2002). A world made new: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Random House. ISBN