The country was divided into two very separate areas of belief. The northern part of America, known as the Union, was against slavery and thought it should be abolished while the southern half, the Confederates, believed the exact opposite and practiced slavery. Almost a century after the signing of the constitution, on Independence Day in 1854 “the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison observed [this day] by burning a copy of the United States constitution” (Vorenberg 2001, 8). He did this because he believed that the constitution was not complete. In Garrison’s opinion, without the freedom of every individual in America, the constitution should be revised. Many other abolitionists also felt that the in constitution the framers made “no single compromise over slavery . . . rather, there was a series of agreements” (9-10). The Union and Confederates fought against each other because some people thought the constitution needed to be rewritten or amended while others believed it was perfectly fine the way it was. The four years that the war took place were very bloody and tore the nation apart. According to Vorenburg (2001, 23), “the war that ended slavery began only as a war to restore the union”. The Union and Confederacy could not agree and the nation needed to be reunited. The popular belief that the constitution should remain unchanged and continue to reflect the framer’s Anglo-Saxon views of slavery made it a difficult …show more content…
Negros still were not given the same freedom as Caucasians. Segregation occurred which resulted in the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws determined that “persons having one-eighth, one sixteenth, or any ascertainable Negro blood are Negros in the eyes of the law” (Kennedy 1959, 47). To be Negro meant having stipulations on marriage, location of property, studying locations, and work availability. At this time, in 29 states it was “against the law for persons of different race to make love, marry, or have children” . . . and if you were to break this law, “your marriage would be void; . . . your children by the interracial marriage would be branded illegitimate and might also be denied their rights of inheritance” (Kennedy 1959, 58). You would also endure the legal punishment of being charged with multiple crimes or imprisonment. Congress even tried to change certain Jim Crow Laws such as equal freedom of property and location of living, “but that law was repealed in 1894” (Kennedy 1959, 72). Negros also were very unlikely to get any job that was not strenuous such as working in farm labor, as a servant, working in sawmills, in forestry, and brickyards. The Jim Crow Laws did not allow African Americans the same freedom as Causations. It was an unfair and highly racist time that lasted for 98