“We Wear the Mask” Analysis Essay Imagine living a life of seclusion to the outside world. The only people that know your struggles and injustices put upon you are your immediate family. This was Paul Laurence Dunbar’s existence and many other African Americans at the time when he wrote, “We Wear the Mask." The poem was written eleven years after the Civil War in 1896. The victory of the Union (Northern States) over the Confederate (Southern States) freed the Negroid’s from slavery, and gave them the right to vote, and own property.
These accounts, supported by memoirs such as Oladuah Equiano's, who survived the journey, informed the masses and catalyzed the destruction of slavery. The atrocities continued once the Africans arrived in the West Indies, but resistance began to grow once on the plantation. Great debate exists even today over just how and why the British Parliament voted to abolish the slave trade. By the late 1700's, the abolition movement had become strong enough to exert considerable pressure on Parliament, and an array of differing arguments were being made for abolition. Former slave Olaudah Equiano presented both a moral and an economic case for abolition, in the latter sounding a great deal like Adam Smith.
The Promised Land was another term used during the anti-slavery movement to help disguise their destination. Ontario, Canada served as the final stop on the Underground Railway. Once they crossed the border and entered Canada the slaves were now free to travel wherever they would like. Many estimates say anywhere from 30,000 to over 100,000 slaves escaped into Canada from the Underground Railway. Although they were now freed from slavery many refugees were disappointed.
Slavery has been a part of our history for hundreds of years. Eventually abolitionist movements helped outlaw slavery, but still today it is a controversial topic in society. Gary Collison, who is a Caucasian English professor at Pennsylvania State University, wrote the novel Shadrach Minkins: From Fugitive Slave to Citizen. He wrote this book to voice the truth about hardships of slavery and discrimination. Collison follows Minkins throughout the continent as he is a slave in Norfolk, VA, a fugitive in Boston, and a free black man in Montreal.
The author of these pages wanted us to focus our attention on all the hardship that African Americans had to endure whether slave or free. The author stayed to the facts of the Fugitive Slave Acts. I have picked this subject matter to write about because I can’t put myself in this time of history. Going to school in Ohio, we studied about Oberlin and Wellington. These two places helped a slave escape a federal marshal so he couldn’t return the slave back to the South.
Forrest Tappan Professor Blodgett HIST 271 T/Thr Hour 1:30 14 March 2013 Birth of a Nation Alas By 1863 the Civil War had ended, Abraham Lincoln had given his now famous Emancipation Proclamation and the 14th amendment—which made slavery legal in the United states of America—had been ratified. To many Americans, with the end of the war meant the reunion of the states and peace between brothers. Yet over 50 years later the hate of racism is still strong. In fact for many American blacks are no more excepted as slaves then as “free”. Wild and savage, African American were an issue, and with the government on the side of these savages it was left to the public to solve the problem for
Brendan Mantey Mr. Foster AP Lit 12 September 31st, 2014 Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau is best known for his writings on Natural history and philosophy, his belief in the destruction society and government have on the individual, being an abolitionist, giving a basis for revolutionaries to come, and his creativity of writing in a way that promoted integrity. Thoreau was born on July 12th, 1817 in Concord Massachusetts. His father, John, was a shopkeeper and his mother, Cynthia, took in boarders to help support the family. His father eventually opened up a pencil making job to bring financial stability to the family. His brother and sister, Helen and John, both became schoolteachers (Witherell 2).
He married into an abolitionist family, and was greatly effected by his father-in-law and well-known abolitionists such as Frederick Douglas. After slavery was abolished, he began to write books pertaining to the discrimination and prejudice against not only blacks, but also Chinese and other immigrant groups. Books such as Disgraceful Persecution of a Boy detail and condemn such pejorative actions and feelings towards people unfairly deemed inferior. He wrote an anti-lynching editorial called Only a Nigger in 1869, further denouncing the racism in the country at the time. His idea of slavery had changed very much by the time he wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Many people that read “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” became abolitionist and helped fight against slavery. There were other factors to the beginning of the civil war such as Dread Scott Case in 1857. When the Supreme Courts ruled that all slaves were property and they could be taken anywhere no matter the 36-30 line. Other factors were John Brown raid and Bleeding Kansas. Both angered the southern states closer to secession.
‘The work of the white, middle-class campaigners was the main reason why the slave trade was abolished’ The slave trade was abolished as an act of parliament, passed on the 25th March 1807 with the title-‘An act for the abolition of the slave trade’. This abolished the slave trade in the British Empire but not slavery itself; slavery was not completely abolished until 1833. A number of groups helped immensely to get the slave trade banned in the British Empire, and these groups were; the white middle class, the white working class and the ex-slaves themselves. The white middle-class campaigners consisted of many different people, some in parliament, and some with other high positions. There is one in particular who is recognised, called William Wilberforce, who campaigned against slavery in parliament.