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Slavery since the beginning of time
Discrimination in american society
Prejudice in our society today
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Throughout history, blacks have been treated the poorest out of all races. Although everyone under God is to be treated equal, whites thought of themselves as being the superior race. In 1619 a Dutch ship brought 20 slaves to America and it took nearly 240 years for slavery to end in 1865(Ronald, , para. 3).These helpless slaves were taken to America and put to work growing anything from cotton to tobacco. Slaves had absolutely no rights. They were simply property of their “Massa’.” Being disrespectful to a white man could get a Negro killed and they just accepted the facts of the matter. The south was the most notorious in its treatment of slaves and slaves would run away. It was a big risk, but a slave that made it to a free state without getting caught had the possibility of being free for once. Yet, if a slave were to flee his description would be in an ad in the newspaper and the consequences when he returned would not be delightful. Under constant control, slaves struggled for centuries only to hope for a day when they could be treated as equals rather than always being inferior to the white man.
Freed Slaves
Some historians believe approximately 50,000 slaves ran away each year between 1830 and 1860(Ronald, , para. 44).This was a major issue in south because the southern slave masters were the most brutal. But, some slaves found it difficult being on their own and either came back or were captured due to advertisements in the newspaper. Most of these runaways wanted to find their families but found it nearly impossible due to slave trading during that time. Women were also unlikely to run away because the men would be the ones trying to escape to find their wives. The Underground Railroad was a series of loosely organiz...
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... group in which he found that not all white people are against blacks. On February 21, 1965, three gunmen assassinated Malcolm X in Manhattan New York(Biography of Malcolm X, 2001, para. 11).
Conclusion
Although we have come a long way in the black community, there are still racial prejudices out there. These prejudices lie in the deep in America in which some whites still hold on to the idea of white supremacy. For example, the noose that was hung in a tree in which African-American students would sit. This happened in a college in Indiana where there is not much racial diversity because of the prejudice there. People throughout America recognize prejudices but now more than ever they are hidden because majority of people are not racist or as racist anymore. Slavery is no longer an issue for blacks; being fully accepted into predominantly white communities is.
Many slaves found an escape system that led them to freedom. Although the Fugitive Slave Act was passed which meant that it was harder for former slaves to live in the United States (Crewe 8). This confidential system was called the Underground Railroad and the system circulated rapidly from plantation to plantation and from one slave to another (Ray 45). The Underground Railroad was a system which assisted fugitives to flee to the north, ran by genuine townspeople (Ray 46). The helpers on the Railroad provided nourishment, clothing and protection from the slave catchers (Ray 46). They illegally transported fugitives in wagons through threatening regions and led them along the independence path. The most brave among them was Harriet Tubman who fled to independence in 1849 (Ray 46). Tubman would voyage the north by night and would hide every time she heard sounds of horses (Ray 46). She assisted for ten years and helped free slaves (Ray 46). Time after time, she would go back to the South to guide more than three hundred blacks on a unpredictable get away path (Ray 46). Harriet never gave up because at one point, slave hunters proposed twelve thousand dollars for the catch of the heroic "Railroad conductor" (Ray 46). Of course, that didn't stop her. This led to Harriet carrying a gun to prevent scared slaves from going back (Ray 46). At once, Tubman got asked if she would really shoot a fugitive who endangered the other
What is freedom? This question is easy enough to answer today. To many, the concept of freedom we have now is a quality of life free from the constraints of a person or a government. In America today, the thought of living a life in which one was “owned” by another person, seems incomprehensible. Until 1865 however, freedom was a concept that many African Americans only dreamed of. Throughout early American Literature freedom and the desire to be free has been written and spoken about by many. Insight into how an African-American slave views freedom and what sparks their desire to receive it can be found in any of the “Slave Narratives” of early American literature, from Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustav Vassa, the African published in 1789, to Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself which was published in 1845. Phillis Wheatley’s poetry and letters and Martin R. Delany’s speech Political Destiny of the Colored Race in the American Continent also contain examples of the African-American slaves’ concepts of freedom; all the similarities and differences among them.
When Malcolm returned to the United States he became more optimistic about a peaceful resolution to America’s race problems. Malcolm stated, “The true brotherhood I had seen had influenced me to recognize that anger can blind human vision.” On February 21, 1965 Malcolm X was delivering a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, when three gunmen shot him fifteen times. He was 39 years old. The three men who shot Malcolm were convicted and were found to all be members of the Nation of
Being African American has never been easy. At birth, we are born with a target on our backs for simply being a different color and whites are born privileged. One would think that when slavery was abolished that the target would be removed but that isn’t so. King states in his article that “…white supremacy saturated public culture...”
Slavery was an issue in early America that plagued the African Americans who were forced into the position. It was believed, in the beginning, that the African Americans were happy to be enslaved, that it was their natural place. Many of the slaves that were taken from Africa couldn’t be more distraught with being sold into slavery but overtime as the older generation that had memories of freedom were replaced by the generation that only knew servitude. This generation was socialized into their position of enslavement, a lack of self-worth, and no access to education gave the illusion of happiness. Luckily around this time white Americans, mostly Northern, saw how wrong these inequalities were and began demanding the abolition of slavery. This
Racism has been an issue in society since the beginning of the idea of race itself. Though African-American slaves were emancipated after the Civil War in 1865, they are still continuously discriminated against for their skin color. For years, black Americans were not allowed to vote, sit in the front of public transportation vehicles, or eat and receive an education at the same establishments as white Americans. Eventually
As time goes on, people have gone to great lengths to try to improve relations with blacks, and to fix the errors of the past. Laws have been made to try to give African Americans the same opportunities as whites, but as hard as people try, there is always going to be some ignorant people who will not obey these laws and make no efforts to be friends with them. If parents teach their children at young ages about racism, there might be a chance for the upcoming generations to live in a society where people are not judged by the color of their skin.
In the beginning of colonial America people used religion and wealth to define status. As the years progressed fewer people migrated to America. This resulted in a labor shortage of indentured servants. Farmers turned to the transatlantic slave trade, and started replacing indentured servants with African slaves. African slaves worked for nothing, could be easily identified by their skin separating them from indentured servants, and were valued for their farming skill. Plantation owners found what they an ideal and endless labor supply and developed the first slave system where all slaves shared a common appearance and ancestry. The abundance of this new labor source brought poor whites new rights, opportunities, and a sense of superiority for whiteness. Many were elevated to manager’s plantations and bounty hunters. White societies for the first time started to identify themselves with each other not based on wealth or status because they were white. As slave labor increased, slavery became inherently identified with blackness. This perpetuated white Americans belief that Africans were a different kind of person and stimulated the theory that Africans maintained a "natural" inferiority.
In order to understand why the African American population was treated like second class citizens during the Jim Crow Era, it is important to understand why slavery started in the south. Slaves were first brought to the United States in the early 17th century from Africa, because they were cheaper and could provide plentiful amounts of labor fo...
Slavery is the idea and practice that one person is inferior to another. What made the institution of slavery in America significantly different from previous institutions was that “slavery developed as an institution based upon race.” Slavery based upon race is what made slavery an issue within the United States, in fact, it was a race issue. In addition, “to know whether certain men possessed natural rights one had only to inquire whether they were human beings.” Slaves were not even viewed as human beings; instead, they were dehumanized and were viewed as property or animals. During this era of slavery in the New World, many African slaves would prefer to die than live a life of forced servitude to the white man. Moreover, the problem of slavery was that an African born in the United States never knew what freedom was. According to Winthrop D. Jordan, “the concept of Negro slavery there was neither borrowed from foreigners, nor extracted from books, nor invented out of whole cloth, nor extrapolated from servitude, nor generated by English reaction to Negroes as such, nor necessitated by the exigencies of the New World. Not any one of these made the Negro a slave, but all.” American colonists fought a long and bloody war for independence that both white men and black men fought together, but it only seemed to serve the white man’s independence to continue their complete dominance over the African slave. The white man must carry a heavy
By the early 19th century, slavery had grown and become interwoven with all social and political institutions, and was considered by many to be a vital part of our nation. As many of the northern states began to change their policies on the enslavement of Africans, the South became aware that those areas might become a haven of refuge for runaway slaves. In an effort to appease southern slave owners, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1793, which allowed slave owners to apprehend fugitives in any state or territory and only required them to apply for custody from a circuit or district judge. Due to the act’s ambiguity and lack of uniform enforcement, slaveholders became increasingly agitated. The growing movement of abolitionists to smuggle and rescue fugitive slaves compounded this frustration; the best known organization being the Underground Railroad.
Undoubtedly the greatest injustice in the United States to this day is the white's treatment of African-Americans, specifically slavery. The vast majority of non-black people of that time believed that blacks were not equal to other races. White Americans of the slavery period specifically held this view. It was nearly impossible for a black to live free in America, and it was even more difficult for a black to find a job. As time passed, however, many people began to change their views on race relations in America. After slavery was abolished, fewer and fewer people believed that they were supreme over the African-American race. Not only were blacks free, they were becoming accepted as people in our society. They were even becoming accepted in the workplace. Many employers were no longer bothered by giving a job to an African-American. America seemed to finally be turning around for the better.
With that being said, racism is much deeper than slavery and segregation. Though the chains, whips, and shackles were removed 100 years ago, mental slavery still persists, especially within the black community. There are so many issues that are overlooked and not discussed. For example, many fail to acknowledge the internalized prejudice that prevails within the subconscious of the black community. Growing up as a black female, I’ve faced numerous challenges.
In order to justify keeping an entire race of people enslaved, slaveholders claimed that blacks were inferior to whites, placing them on the same level as livestock and other animals. “There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the scale of being, and were all subjected to the same narrow examination” (73). The fact is, whites are not naturally superior over blacks. Therefore, slaveholders used a variety of contrived strategies to make their case that blacks were inherently inferior to whites. To...
...mmunication there is still an underlying prejudice against the black person. Things haven't changed enough to say we are equal. Time is the main component in changing this. Something that has been rooted in white backgrounds and common laws for hundreds of years doesn't change in a few decades. Here at UW-La Crosse students are required to take a minority studies class and similar programs are underway at other colleges. Education is the first step to closing the gap. The second step is changing how one perceives another who is different from them. Will the world ever be able to do away with prejudice? Or is prejudice something that is like second nature. Everyone is entitled to their own thoughts, so wouldn't that entitle everyone to having a prejudice?