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Essay On African Americans Freedom

971 Words4 Pages

Freedom can mean different things for different people, but most African Americans felt the same after the Civil War as they hoped for freedom. During the reconstruction period following the Civil War, blacks got a taste of that freedom, before it was snatched from their grasps when the reconstruction period ended. African Americans faced hated groups like the KKK, harsh rules like the Black Codes and the Jim Crow Laws and the impossible task of trying to earn money for themselves through sharecropping. Despite being classified as free men, African Americans cannot be considered free because of the oppression and unequal treatment they faced. When the reconstruction era ended, Southerners jumped at the opportunity to take away the rights …show more content…

These rules include things like segregation, laws on voting and many more. African Americans were not allowed to “rent or keep a house within the limits of the town under any circumstances” or “permitted to preach, exhort, or otherwise declaim to congregations of colored people without a special permission” (Black Codes from Opelousas). These laws show the limitations blacks faced in the South because of the rules imposed by the white Southerners. The later formed Jim Crow Laws, first passed in Tennessee in 1881, were a more formal set of regulations that stopped African Americans from having full access to their freedoms. African Americans were forced to go through obsard tests that they almost never passed when attempting to register to vote. The whites in town however, either easily passed the test or didn't have to take it at all. Not only that, but the Jim Crow Laws also enforced segregation in the US, by forcing blacks and whites onto separate train cars, those dedicated to the blacks were in poor condition and much less clean (Textbook section 13.4). All laws included in the Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws, limited the freedoms of African Americans and made it impossible for them to decide anything

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African Americans During Reconstruction Dbq Essay

213 Words | 1 Pages

African Americans weren’t actually free during Reconstruction because they were initially not accorded the full rights of citizenship under the constitution, they were forced into submission by violence and intimidation, and were abridged the rights they had later gained by Black Codes. Despite the fact that African Americans were liberated from slavery, during the early years of Reconstruction, they were not equal citizens under the law. Even though blacks had fought loyally for the union, they were initially denied the right to vote (Doc a). The President of the United States, President Johnson, regarded black suffrage as something to radical that would “change the entire structure and character of the State governments,” (Doc b).

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The recently freed African Americans plead to receive citizenship and equal rights, they expected to be treated as any other human being. After many years of slavery, the African Americans were finally freed from slavery by president Lincoln. Many of them were granted freedom for serving loyally in the Union army, along with certain rights, such as the right to buy land. The freed slaves were then allowed to purchase land, and received help from the government in the form of establishments such as Freedman’s Bureau and Freedmen’s Aid Society. The former slaves were now allowed to attend certain churches, schools, and were also allowed to socialize in public, although only in certain places.

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As the Civil War represented the fight between labor systems and the shift of power, Africans Americans weren’t really free. As an immediate result after the war, they were subjugated to several laws and racism swept the

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Reconstruction Dbq Essay

836 Words | 4 Pages

An example of a set of these laws that were followed and created mainly in the south are the Black Codes, or laws meant to establish racism in one southern town named Opelousas. A few of the laws in the Black Codes are listed in Document B and are as follows: “No freedman shall sell or exchange any article of merchandise within the limits of Opelousas without permission in writing from his employer; every negro is to be in the service of some white person, or former owner; no public meetings of negroes or freedmen shall be allowed within the town; and no negro or freedman shall be permitted to rent or keep a house in town under any circumstances.” How could African Americans be considered free if official laws said otherwise? Someone without the same rights as another can not be free. The only change that came after the Civil War for African Americans was that they no longer were slaves to people, rather just to specific laws and to most of America at that time.

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732 Words | 3 Pages

In the southern states, politicians came up with Black Code Laws which laid out what freed African Americans were and weren’t allowed to do. These laws made African American’s First and Second Amendments very limited and were used to target people because of the color of their skin even though they were technically ‘free’. According to my notebook, while taking notes on Document B: Black Codes, laws were placed that, “No black person shall be allowed to go within the limits of the town of Opelousas without permission from his employers”, “No black person is allowed to be able to rent or keep a house within the limits of the town under any circumstances” and “Black People aren't allowed to hold public meetings within the limits of the town Opelousas -- unless they get permission of the mayor/president of the board of police” (Document B: Black Codes [History Notebook]). Even though amendments were placed they weren’t necessarily protected or enforced, as many Southerners created laws that worked against these amendments. For instance there was still segregation in schools, public transportation, voting rights, and property rights.

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539 Words | 3 Pages

The African Americans were “free” but were still being treated like slaves. They were given rights but had them taken away and were working for very little pay which was unfair compared to how whites were working for more. The blacks couldn’t even own a house or even rent unless they worked for a white man. They couldn’t even work unless it was for some white person or former owner. This is why reconstruction in the south after the civil war was a big

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877 Words | 4 Pages

In Esi Edugyan's novel, Washington Black, the protagonist discovers what the true meaning of freedom is through the pursuit of his passion. Throughout the novel, Wash experienced many forms of slavery. Whether that be physical, like a slave in shackles, or more modernly, like working a job you don't like. To begin, Wash's early life on the plantation hinders his perspective of seeking freedom. Wash was born into slavery, and as a child could not comprehend another lifestyle.

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Although Jim Crow laws were a terror in the south, they were rarely enforced in the north, making northern states a safe haven for African Americans. Some of these laws were extremely obscure and completely abused the government's power against blacks. Blacks were not allowed to associate with whites in public. Blacks couldn’t use the same water fountains and restrooms as whites, and black children had to attend separate schools with little heat, supplies, and classrooms. Jim Crow laws also segregated African Americans on buses, trains, and in restaurants.

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608 Words | 3 Pages

African Americans are free now, but they are still fighting to become equals with the whites in society. The white men are backlashing the African Americans, trying to keep them under the whites, especially since they are the majority population in the south, the whites are fearful of the result in African American

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Is it fair that an African American man is sentenced up to life in prison for possession of drugs when Brock Turner is sentenced to only 14 years, later to be reduced to six months for sexually assaulting an unconscious women. The judiciary system are believed to have a high african american incarceration rate as a result of discrimination. At a presidential debate on Martin Luther King Day, President Barack Obama said that “Blacks and whites are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates, and receive very different sentences… for the same crime.” Hillary Clinton said the “disgrace of a criminal-justice system that incarcerates so many more african americans proportionately than whites.”

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364 Words | 2 Pages

Freedom is the right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Everyone in the world has the right to do whatever they want whenever they want, without having to answer to nobody. Unfortunately there was a time when African Americans were enslaved to work fields by the white man. But thanks to the civil war freedom was blessed onto them. The Reconstruction Era was a time of rebuilding the aftermath of the civil war.

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595 Words | 3 Pages

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718 Words | 3 Pages

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