In the 1770's, the 'United States of America' was only the thirteen colonies, and they were still under the protection of Great Britain. They recieved many rights and enjoyed trade from Britain, at little cost to them. However, when Britain started taxing them to pay off their war debt, they decided it wasn't fair. Thus, some of the colonists made it their goal to become independent from Britain, and instead run their own government. Not all of the colonists agreed with this, though. While they weren't a fan of the taxes, they still wanted to be apart of Britain, for reasons previously mentioned. A hundred years later, the thirteen colonies were free from Britain and were named the United States of America. So many things changed within one …show more content…
In 1776, it consisted of thirteen colonies that lined the east coast. By the 1850's, the US spanned from the east coast to the west coast. They bought land in Arizona and New Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, which allowed them to create transcontinental raiload tracks. As mentioned before, the US also grew in population. In the late 1700's, about half of the people living in the colonies were from Africa, and the other half were from European countries. Immigrants were drawn to the middle colonies, and slaves (or servants) were gaining popularity in the southern colonies. As slavery grew in popularity, the amount of African Americans imported to the colonies went through the roof. The growth in the size of America, as well as the colassal amount of African Americans being sent over for slavery, meant a rise in …show more content…
The fact that slaves were so abundant in the South meant that southern states would have more representation in legislature. So, in order to even out the playing field, they reduced each slave down to three-fifths of a person. They were treated so inhumanely, and were definitely not considered citizens at that point. Barely any African American had the right to vote, and the few that did were in the North where slavery was eventually frowned upon. For the South though, their economy relied heavily on agriculture, and therefore they could not easily give up slavery even if they wanted to. By the end of the reconstruction era, African Americans had been granted citizenship and voting rights. Although, in the south, they had limited voting rights. Slavery evolved, and systems like sharecropping and tenant farming became popular. This way, they were able to provide for themselves because they were able to keep a portion of the crop. However, they ended up in a lot of debt due to the fact that their landlords had them paying a lot of the costs. Because of this, they would always owe money to their landlord, and the landlord would always owe money to the supplier. Although African Americans were still treated terribly by many white southerners, the rise in acceptance for them represents a major turning point in the United
Groups of people soon received new rights. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. It gave black Americans full citizenship and guaranteed them equal treatment. Also, it passed the Fourteenth Amendment to make sure that the Supreme Court couldn’t declare the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. The amendment made blacks citizens of the United States and the states in which they lived. Also, states were forbidden to deprive blacks of life, liberty, or property without due process. Additionally, blacks could not be discriminated by the law. If a state would deprive blacks of their rights as citizens, it’s number of congressional representatives would be reduced. The Civil Rights Act as well as the Fourteenth Amendment affected both the North and the South.
The thirteen American colonies were under the British control until they declared their independence from British in 1776. A year after the declaration of independence, the continental congress established the Article Of Confederation, which was the first constitution in the United States. According to manythings.org, “During that war, the colonies were united by an agreement called the Articles of Confederation”. It was later ratified in 1781, but it had many negatives because it was very weak. According to manythings.org, the Articles Of Confederation did not: organize a central government, create courts or decide laws, nor provide an executive to carry out the laws, and all it did was just create a Congress. This congress was very useless
We saw the Thirteenth Amendment occur to abolish slavery. We also saw the Civil Rights Acts which gave full citizenship, as well as the prohibiting the denial of due process, etc. Having the civil rights laws enabled African Americans to new freedoms which they did not used to have. There was positive change occurring in the lives of African Americans. However, there was still a fight to suppress African Americans and maintain the racial hierarchy by poll taxes and lengthy and expensive court proceedings. Sadly, this is when Jim Crow laws appeared. During this time African Americans were losing their stride, there was an increase in prison populations and convict labor, and the convicts were
In 1619, slaves from Africa started being shipped to America. In the years that followed, the slave population grew and the southern states became more dependent on the slaves for their plantations. Then in the 1800s slavery began to divide America, and this became a national conflict which lead to the Civil War. Throughout history, groups in the minority have risen up to fight for their freedom. In the United States, at the time of the Civil War African Americans had to fight for their freedom. African Americans used various methods to fight for their freedom during the Civil War such as passing information and supplies to the Union Army, escaping to Union territory, and serving in the Union’s army. These actions affected the African Americans and the United States by helping the African Americans earn citizenship and abolishing slavery in the United States.
In 1863 to 1877 Reconstruction brought an end to slavery, it paved the way for the former slaves to become citizens. The African Americans wanted complete freedom. However, that right became a setback and were seen as second class citizens. Before the end of the Reconstruction, a legislation was passed called the Jim Crow law. The law enforced the segregation of people of African descent. The legislation was a system to ensure the exclusion of racial groups in the Southern States. For example, separate transportation law, school division, different waiting rooms both at the bus terminals and hospitals, separate accommodations, marriage law and voting rights. The Jim Crow law was supposed to help in racial segregation in the South. Instead,
After the emancipation of slaves in 1862, the status of African-Americans in post civil war America up until the beginning of the twentieth century did not go through a great deal of change. Much legislation was passed to help blacks in this period. The Civil Rights act of 1875 prohibited segregation in public facilities and various government amendments gave African-Americans even more guaranteed rights. Even with this government legislation, the newly dubbed 'freedmen' were still discriminated against by most people and, ironically, they were soon to be restricted and segregated once again under government rulings in important court cases of the era.
In 1776 when the Colonies declared their independence from Great Britain with the Declaration of Independence they had one clear goal in mind: become a sovereign nation and avoid the tyranny of Great Britain. What they did not know, however, is that they had to face many more issues beyond simply cutting the ties with Great Britain; they also had to create and maintain a working system of rules which could guide them into becoming the United States of America. Once Independence was gained in 1783, the Articles of Confederation were created, but with many deep flaws in the system. The Federal government had no power, and the states were loosely held together and hardly acted as if they were a single united nation. After recognizing that these problems were too large to overcome easily, several of the greatest men in the nation gathered together to rectify these problems.
Not many people think of how much the thirteen colonies impacted our nation present day. Well all the colonies, some more than others, impacted our life today. The colony that played the largest role in impacting the future of our nation is Plymouth, Massachusetts because Plymouth was the first colony to establish an example of self government, was one of the few to become friends with the indians, and formed our holiday Thanksgiving.
African Americans have a history of struggles because of racism and prejudices. Ever since the end of the Civil War, they struggled to benefit from their full rights that the Constitution promised. The fourteenth Amendment, which defined national citizenship, was passed in 1866. Even though African Americans were promised citizenship, they were still treated as if they were unequal. The South had an extremely difficult time accepting African Americans as equals, and did anything they could to prevent the desegregation of all races. During the Reconstruction Era, there were plans to end segregation; however, past prejudices and personal beliefs elongated the process.
So, when African Americans began to migrate up to the Northern states, as slavery in the North became less in numbers, they were able to acquire some freedoms. While African Americans during this time would never be seen an equal to the Anglo-Saxon White American, in the North they were able to owe land, and build homes. They began to become educated to a certain degree and lived with their families. However, in the South, African Americans were not granted those amenities, in fact, African Americans in the South during this time, barely received a bar of soap from their slave
I want to start with the history of slavery in America. For most African Americans, the journey America began with African ancestors that were kidnapped and forced into slavery. In America, this event was first recorded in 1619. The first documented African slaves that were brought to America were through Jamestown, Virginia. This is historically considered as the Colonial America. In Colonial America, African slaves were held as indentured servants. At this time, the African slaves were released from slavery after a certain number of years of being held in captivity. This period lasted until 1776, when history records the beginning of the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage showed the increased of African slaves were bought into America. The increase demand for slaves was because of the increased production of cotton in the south. So, plantation owners demanded more African slaves for purchas...
But as time progressed, things were done in order to attempt to change this. For example, the Freedman's Bureau was a federal government agency that helped African Americans get their help they needed, with things such as implementing over 3,000 schools for them. This change continued with the passing of the 14th Amendment being passed, making any person born in the United States a citizen with the state not having any power to deny citizens equal protection of the law. There is then the 15th Amendment being passed as well which made the right to vote not being denied based on race, color and previous state of servitude. Change for the African American community seems hopeful with even an African American being in the Senate for the first time, that being Hiram Revels. However, this change really goes away over the years. With the Compromise of 1877 being issued after Republican Rutherford B. Hayes wins a contested election, there is a removal of federal troops from the South. This removal allowed the South to be a bit more flexible with the way things were run politically, resulting in things such as poll tax being issued, as well as literacy tests to keep African Americans from voting. It even went to the extreme with people such as Senator Ben Tillman saying, “We do our best to keep negroes from voting. The best way to keep a negro from voting is visiting
After the American Revolution, each of the original 13 colonies operated under its own rules of government. Most states were against any form of centralized rule from the government. They feared that what happened in England would happen again. They decided to write the Articles of Confederation, which was ratified in 1781. It was not effective and it led to many problems.
With Abraham’s Emancipation of Proclamation 1863 and Thirteenth amendment (ratified in 1865 )that outlawed slavery, many African American were set free from slavery. However, African American lived in the Southern United States still was in the system of slavery. This happened because the South passed Black Codes laws and vagrancy laws that enforced the labor contracts to freed people. The purpose of Black Codes and vagrancy laws to “‘teach the negro that if he goes to work, keeps his place, and behaves himself, he will be protected by our white law ‘”(Deborah, et al. 386). In fact, slavery never disappeared and they just changed their name and shape. This means African
It wasn’t easy being an African American, back then they had to fight in order to achieve where they are today, from slavery and discrimination, there was a very slim chance of hope for freedom or even citizenship. This longing for hope began to shift around the 1950’s. During the Civil Rights Movement, where discrimination still took place, it was the time when African Americans started to defend their rights and honor to become freemen like every other citizen of the United States. African Americans were beginning to gain recognition after the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, which declared all people born natural in the United States and included the slaves that were previously declared free. However, this didn’t prevent the people from disputing against the constitutional law, especially the people in the South who continued to retaliate against African Americans and the idea of integration in white schools....