First I will be introducing Mary Armstrong 91 years old, who now lives in Houston Texas at 3326 Pierce Ave. also known as Aunt Mary, was born in St. Louis. Her mother whose name was Siby, belonged to Old William Cleveland and his wife Old Polly Cleveland. The Cleveland’s were known to be very hard on their slaves, always beating their slaves. Polly Cleveland beat Aunt Mary’s baby sisters to death at the very young age of nine months because the baby would not stop crying. Aunt Mary mentioned that, “She came and took the diaper offen my little sister and whipped till the blood jes’ ran” Polly Cleveland did this while Aunt Mary was in the same room, Mary had to witness her baby sister be beaten to death at the age of four and there was nothing she could do to stop it. After seeing this Aunt Mary had a name she called Polly Cleveland, it was …show more content…
He would lie and tell other slave owners that the slaves he had not completely paid off (slaves in custom) supposedly had run off, when in reality he was selling those slaves making profits and never paying his proper dues. Slaves in custom would be taken down to Texas to eventually be sold for the best offer. Old Cleveland, Aunt Mary’s family owner never took into consideration of her family being split up during these business trips to Texas. He would intentionally split up her parents, her father Sam Adams and Siby. So not only was he hard on his slaves chaining them to trees, beating them with whips and then even putting salt and pepper to “spice em up” is what Aunt Mary said William use to say but he was not trustworthy towards other slave owners amongst him. Old William Cleveland was a very selfish cold hearted man selling slaves that he knew were in very unhealthy conditions to other whites in Texas, he would use grease to moisturize the slave’s lips and face to make it appears they were in good health, strong and being well taken care
In his book, An Imperfect God, Henry Wiencek argues in favor of Washington being the first true president to set the precedent for the emancipation of African-American slaves. Wiencek delves into the evil paradox of how a nation conceived on the principles of liberty and dedicated to the statement that all men are created equal was in a state that still preserved slavery for over seven decades following the construction of the nation. Washington’s grandeur estate at Mount Vernon at its peak had the upkeep of over 300 slaves 126 of which were owned by Washington. First, it must be understood that Washington was raised on slavery receiving ownership of 10 slaves at the age of 11 years old and that Washington was a man of his time. However, it must also be understood that Washington’s business with slavery was in the context of a constrained social and political environment. Weincek maintains that this does not exonerate the fact that Washington maintained slavery however; it does help to quantify the moral shortcoming by which Washington carried until his last year of life.
"We are told by his biographers, and apologists, that he hated slavery with a passion. But since he participated fully in the plantation slavery system, buying and selling slaves on occasion, and because he could not bring himself to free his own slaves, who often numbered upward of 200-250 on his plantations, one has to either question the verity of this passion or speculate that it was merely the abstract idea of slavery that he hated." (Smedley 189) Thomas Jefferson was always aware of the fact that slavery would soon one day be abolished but he made no efforts during his lifetime to accelerate the process. Jefferson was a wealthy plantation owner and politician that would speak out about slavery on a regular basis but would still employ slaves for his own use.
Thomas Jefferson was a slave holder and the primary writer of the Declaration of Independence. Many will assume he was a racist and pro-slavery, but unless one were to look deeper into why Jefferson would even own slaves, this assumption is very believable. I would say Thomas Jefferson was a hypocrite, but he was justified hypocrite. As I think about why would Jefferson would want the abolishing of slaves, but on the other hand own slaves, it seems a bit hypocritical, but we must take a moment and really think was his hypocrisy justifiable? During this era nearly every successful white man owned slaves, so why would Jefferson not own them himself? Slaves were not just considered property, but they had valuable characteristics about them. They
One of the leading black female activists of the 20th century, during her life, Mary Church Terrell worked as a writer, lecturer and educator. She is remembered best for her contribution to the struggle for the rights of women of African descent. Mary Terrell was born in Memphis, Tennessee at the close of the Civil War. Her parents, former slaves who later became millionaires, tried to shelter her from the harsh reality of racism. However, as her awareness of the problem developed, she became an ardent supporter of civil rights. Her life was one of privilege but the wealth of her family did not prevent her from experiencing segregation and the humiliation of Jim Crow laws. While traveling on a train her family was sent to the Jim Crow car. This experience, along with others led her to realize that racial injustice was evil. She saw that racial injustice and all other forms of injustice must be fought.
The article “Interracial Rape Cases in North Carolina” reminds me one of Harper Lee’s famous novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” as Tom Robinson was accused from raping Mayella. The entire trial, to the guilty verdict, were all racially biased. Yet, there is a long way to go for the world to get rids of its injustices, and injustices will comply with the society for many years to come. Race and inequality are often related together because of the racial segregation in the 1800s. During that time, racial inequalities had increased dramatically. To study this scenario, the article “Interracial Rape Cases in North Carolina” portrayed several evidences of how blacks slaves were falsely accused rape; they seem hopeless and eventually sentenced to death. Yet they did have evidences to prove them innocent, however, everything does not go as was hoped. What it was like
Deborah Gray White was one of the first persons to vigorously attempt to examine the abounding trials and tribulations that the slave women in the south were faced with. Mrs. White used her background skills acquired from participating in the Board of Governors Professor of History and Professor of Women 's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University to research the abundance of stories that she could gather insight from. It was during her studies that she pulled her title from the famous Ain’t I A Woman speech given by Sojourner Truth. In order to accurately report the discriminations that these women endured, White had to research whether the “stories” she was writing about were true or not.
Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, and Olaudah Equiano all have extremely interesting slave narratives. During their lives, they faced plenty of racist discrimination and troubling moments. They were all forced into slavery at an awfully young age and they all had to fight for their freedom. In 1797, Truth was born into slavery in New York with the name of Isabella Van Wagener. She was a slave for most of her life and eventually got emancipated. Truth was an immense women’s suffrage activist. She went on to preach about her religious life, become apart of the abolitionist movement, and give public speeches. Truth wrote a well-known personal experience called An Account of an Experience with Discrimination, and she gave a few famous speech called Ain’t I a Woman? and Speech at New York City Convention. In 1818, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery in Tuckahoe, Maryland. When he was older, he made an escape plan by disguising himself as a sailor and going on a train to New York. When he became a free man, he changed his name to Frederick Douglass and married Anna Murray. He went on to give many speeches and he became apart of the Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass wrote his story From My Bondage and My Freedom and became a publisher for a newspaper. In 1745, Olaudah Equiano was born in Essaka, Nigeria. Equiano and his sister were both kidnapped and put on the middle passage from Africa to Barbados and then finally to Virginia. He eventually saved enough money to buy his freedom and got married to Susanna Cullen. Equiano wrote his story down and named it From the Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. He spent the rest of his life promoting the abolition movement. Throughout the personal slave narra...
Ida was had purchased a first class bus ticket but she was later asked to move to the African American section of the train. Ida refused to move and continued to fight with the crew until she was effected from the train and but a man on the hand. Ida sued the railroad and won a $500 settlement in a circuit court case (Biography.com). Later the Supreme Court of Tennessee overturned the verdict. This chain of events caused Ida to write about her experience. She wrote many articles for African Americans and their struggles in everyday life. In 1889 Ida became a partial owner of the Memphis Free Spe...
In Abbeville, Alabama 1944 the investigation into the horrific gang-rape of Recy Taylor, a young black mother by six white assailants is one of the crimes that began with a vivid description of Recy Taylor’s rape and Rosa Parks’ investigation of the incident. After the investigation, Parks, with the help of other local Alabama black women, organized the Committee for Equal Justice, which raised money and fought for a fair prosecution of Taylor’s attackers. The Taylor case politically charged scores of African American men and women on a national level and set the stage for “sexual violence and interracial rape [to become] the battleground upon which African Americans sought to destroy white supremacy and gain personal ...
With the help of T. Thomas Fortune of the New York Age and Fredrick Douglas, she was able to work in the U.S and Britain where the press and public were considered to more enlightened with her point of view. Her audience for the first time learned in detail about all the gruesome tortures, burnings, and hangings done in the South. Her goal was to shame newspapers and other voices of media into acknowledging the truth about lynch mobs, “They are not heroes but cowardly criminals”. The Great Migration of African Americans during the 20th century showed that the terror of lynching was not just confined to its immediate victims but affected the lives of all blacks of all ages. Particularly frightening were the so-called “spectacle lynching’s” that were held right next to the revival meetings; the largest public events in the South prior to World War
Wells was a fearless anti-lynching crusader, women’s rights advocate, journalist, and speaker. After her parents passed away she became a teacher and received a job to teach at a nearby school. With this job she was able to support the needs of her siblings. In 1844 in Memphis, Tennessee, she was asked by the conductor of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company to give up her seat on the train to a white man. Wells refused, but was forcefully removed from the train and all the white passengers applauded. Wells was angered by this and sued the company and won her case in the local courts; the local court appealed to the Supreme Court of Tennessee. The Supreme Court reversed the court’s ruling. In Chicago, she helped to develop numerous African American women and reform organizations. Wells still remained hard-working in her anti-lynching crusade by ...
It would be simply inappropriate to explore Clifton’s childhood without first looking at her great-great-grandmother, Caroline Donald, or Mammy Ca’line, a slave brought from Africa to Virginia. Clifton’s great-grandmother “was the first African American woman legally hanged in Virginia for killing the white father of her son” (Pettis 1). Many tales about Mammy Ca’line and Clifton’s great-grandmother were told throughout Clifton’s lifetime and influenced her as well.
Slavery is a term that can create a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. During the hardships faced by the African Americans, hundreds of accounts were documented. Harriet Jacobs, Charles Ball and Kate Drumgoold each shared their perspectives of being caught up in the world of slavery. There were reoccurring themes throughout the books as well as varying angles that each author either left out or never experienced. Taking two women’s views as well as a man’s, we can begin to delve deeper into what their everyday lives would have been like. Charles Ball’s Fifty Years in Chains and Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl were both published in the early 1860’s while Kate Drumgoold’s A Slave Girl’s Story came almost forty years later
In the story of George Stinney Jr, were he was giving poor legal representation in court, He became the first youngest African American boy in the United States to be executed for a crime in the 20th century. March 23, 1994 a pair of young Caucasian females are declared missing, their names were Betty June Binnicker, who was 11 and Mary Emma Themes, who was 8. The girls were out riding their bikes and were looking for maypops. George was brought in for questioning because on their way there they stopped by the Stinney home where George and his younger sister were out playing and asked if they knew where to find the flowers and George knew where to find them. He was accused of beating them and dragging their bodies to a ditch. Once arrested without a trial being taken place George’s father was fired from his job and his family was forced to move out of the city for the fear of being lynched by angry Ca...
Betty Owens was kidnapped on her way to a school formal, raped repeatedly by four white males, and worse might have happened it it had been for her friends getting help from a young white police officer (Lecture 4/13 ). Officer Joe D. Cooke Jr. was on duty when the friends of Betty Owens came running for his help, and instead of doing what many white policeman before had done, he ran to her aid (McGuire, p. 163). What is amazing about this case is the fact that not only were these men arrested and jailed by a white man but that they were threatened on the seen with being shot for their offenses against miss. Owens (McGuire, p. 163). The fact that the white boys were arrested on the spot and spent the days leading up to their trial in jail was also something that this case had happened that had never occurred prior in Southern states. This all being said Miss. Betty Owens was extremely lucky that officer Cooke was on duty and not the chief of police since it was common knowledge that the only reason why he stayed in power was by igniting race tensions (McGuire, p. 161). In Florida this case was the first of it’s kind in that it was the first all white jury to convict a white man, let alone four, of raping a Black woman, this was yet another important step in the Civil Rights Movement but more importantly a step in the right direction for the feminist movements. Rape of white women had always been such an outrage and meant death for the perpetrator, but with each of these very public cases the outrage against any man who committed violence against women, of any race grew, culminating with the Joan Little case which broke down the last of remnants of the Jim Crow law (Lecture