Slavery In America

739 Words3 Pages
The United States of America is a nation that has faced multiple obstacles and self evaluation throughout its tumultuous history. There has always been tension amongst the people who makeup the Americas. One of the biggest obstacles that American's have had to face and still face is the issue of race. Since the early 1700's, race has controlled the cognitive and emotional outlook on peoples perspectives towards one another. It is very well known that African Americans were heavily scrutinized and discriminated against in American History. However, Chinese, Japanese, and Latino's also played a crucial part in the racism from White American men. White American men were considered the "dominant" force in America for hundreds of years. Therefore,…show more content…
Slavery in the United States was a form of slave labor which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, millions of slaves were shipped to the Americas. These slaves were owned by white men and worked endless hours of hard labor without receiving any type of compensations. They were considered property and most were treated terribly and none of them had rights. This continued until the civil war erupted in which slavery was a reason the war was fought. The North ended up winning the war and Lincoln abolished slavery. The era of reconstruction followed , as did the 14th and 15th amendments. Theses amendments gave African Americans the right to vote and basic civil rights. You would think life would get better for African Americans with these achievements however it did anything but that. As for women, they did not have the right to vote and still were searching of there own equality in…show more content…
Andrew Johnson's first objective was to dismantle the freedmen's bureau and make things the way they were before the civil war. Living as a freed slave post civil war was very difficult culturally, socially and politically. The issuing of Black Codes which restricted rights of Blacks in a harsh manner. In the novel Southern Horrors, Ida B. Wells was a black women on the run to the North to make a life for herself. There are several stories that explain what was going on during that time and how white men treated African Americans. There were several "rape" cases in which a white women accused a black man of raping her when in fact the women was just as responsible for the relationship between them. The Henry Smith incident with him being lynched in front of 10,000 people including women and children. The KKK was formed which was a protestant white man association in which discriminated against blacks and many other ethnicities. MAny African Americans who owned small businesses would find them burned down to the ground. Also, the creation of the grandfather clause and literacy tests were intended to keep blacks from voting. Not only were blacks were discriminated harsh but chinese exclusion act and several other immigration
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