America’s Failure To Ensure Equality For All Citizens

United States has gone through many changes to get to where there are today. Starting from the time of slavery, African-American went through many hardships as well as the poor. The poor had it better than the African-American but their condition was no better either. Women were considered lower class, therefore, they had no rights their place was at home where they were expected to bear children, take care of them, as well as, the house and their husband. In this essay, the focus is going to be about the dialogue surrounding America’s failure to ensure freedom or equality to all its citizens, focusing on African-Americans, women, and the poor.

Slavery was a major issue in America. Americans depended on slaves to do the job that other people did not want to do. They liked the idea of having slaves around because they were there for a lifetime and they were passed from generation to generation. In the “Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass, he talks about his horrifying ordeal that he and the rest of the African-Americans slaves were subjected to in America. Starting from the beginning he says “by far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday” (931). Americans were scared that if African-Americans were to have knowledge of things that they might want to revolt and speak out against their masters. Therefore, they figure that the only way that they could tie them down was to suppress them and keep them ignorant in order to control them. Douglass states: “Frequently, before the child has reached its t...

... middle of paper ...

...

2008. 1238. Print.

Baym, Nina. "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass." The Norton Anthology of American

Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. 931. Print.

Baym, Nina. "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass." The Norton Anthology of American

Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. 934. Print.

Baym, Nina. "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass." The Norton Anthology of American

Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. 941. Print.

Baym, Nina. "The Great Lawsuit: Man versus Men. Woman versus Women." The Norton Anthology of

American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. 742. Print.

Baym, Nina. "The Great Lawsuit: Man versus Men. Woman versus Women." The Norton Anthology of

American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. 744. Print.