Sadly it is here where things went wrong, and the ugly side of human nature reared its face. The residents of the colonies came to the realization that these Africans were a “great” source of cheap labor, thus constituting the institution of slavery. With this by the end of the seventeenth century, the colonies began to establish laws that stated these people that were originally indentured servants were to be slaves for life as well as their children. And this is how slavery got its start in what was to become the “great” country, The United States of America. Not too
African Americans were being sold like properties and treated worse than animals. He promoted Freedom and unity. Blacks and Whites may have not got the same privileges as others, but being free to move on and continue life was granted. Abraham Lincoln was the most influential president, ever known in America. Teaching his self the practice of law, he earned the nick name “Honest Abe”.
And as the noted historian, C. Vann Woodward, in his book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, clearly points out, the segregation of the races was really a political stratagem employed by the emerging Bourbon interests in the South to keep the southern masses divided and southern labor the cheapest in the land. You see, it was a simple thing to keep the poor white masses working for near-starvation wages in the years that followed the Civil War. Why, if the poor white plantation or mill worker became dissatisfied with his low wages, the plantation or mill owner would merely threaten to fire him and hire former Negro slaves and pay him even less. Thus, the southern wage level was kept almost
Prior to the Civil War, African Americans were never treated very humanely. The Whites were the dominant race while the African Americans suffered under their commands as slaves who were treated unequally. Because slavery was such a huge issue, it became the reason of the outbreak of the Civil War. The African American troops in the movie Glory fought with their lives in hopes of winning the war to achieve freedom. Their goal was to abolish slavery completely and prevent it from harming many people.
During the reconstruction era through to the Progressive era much had changed for the African Americans. After the assassination of President Lincoln (April 14, 1865) President Andrew Johnson continued the “ten percent plan”. The African Americans wanted land, voting rights and wanted to be educated which had been denied to them for centuries, they were considered to be economically and racially inferior compared to the whites. During the years of 1867 to 1870 the African Americans were able to increase their amount of social power. However with this increase of power came a group of southerners led by an ex-confederate forming the Ku Klux Klan in 1867.
Mona Kim Black Boy Response Paper Living in the South during the 1900’s for African Americans was an incredibly tough time. As stated in the United States Constitution states that “all men are created equal,” however in the Jim Crow era in the South, blacks were continuously persecuted; killed, beaten, raped, taunted and for many times it was not the fault of the blacks. In Richard Wright’s autobiography of Black Boy he describes near death experiences, extreme hunger and other hardships dealing with the Jim Crow south and the white people who resisted the liberation and change in the African American lives. Wright uses writing to free himself from the prejudice he constantly faces, gradually he finds that writing allows him to explore
Kings mention of the Emancipation Proclamation was to bring the spectators back to 1865 when Lincoln himself, who was not only morally opposed to slavery, however, was a President who defeated the matter of slavery in the south. In King's second paragraph, he states, “One hundred years later, the Negro still is not free." This was a very big message to not only the Negros but more so to the white people who were holding onto their beliefs of segregation. Another example in the use of allusion within this speech is Thomas Jefferson’s quote “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." King was referring to Jefferson stating that everyone has the right to be free from cruelty and to be treated equally; these ethics are the American
Furthermore in the Southern states of USA the abolition movement was resented. Plantation owners were unwilling to end slavery because it provided them with a free labour force. Many white Americans had justified slavery by thinking of slaves as racially inferior, as people without human needs, rights or dignity. The legal system had supported these racist views, and the rights of the plantation owners for many years. After 1890 many Southern governments passed a series of laws that set up a system of segregation that would last until the mid-twentieth century.
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.
The two causes of the civil war were slavery and Abraham Lincoln. Slavery was very big in the South because it helped them with their economy, but the North was completely against slavery. The North and South could not compromise with their issues, and the Election of Abraham Lincoln turned everything sour and led to the civil war. Although, the war was very deadly, at the end, the North side managed to get what they always wanted, this was to abolish