How Did African Americans Fight For Freedom?

Great Essays
The history of African Americans in the United States is a sad, but crucial part of understanding American history as a whole. The institution of slavery in North America set back African Americans in many different ways, creating a social divide between races that is sometimes present in todays society. But in turn, many great efforts have been put forth by African Americans to help win their equality and freedom that they deserve. Finding equality and freedom for African Americans is easier said that done, especially if we still grapple with racial divides in certain parts of our nation. Many great abolitionists and advocates for freedom did miraculous things to help African Americans find freedom in the nineteenth century, but there was …show more content…
Grouping together as a slave communities during rebellion against the white masters gave the slaves a better chance of running away to freedom. On a hot August day in Virginia in 1831, a group of about 70 slaves came together, led by an enslaved preacher named Nat Turner. They rebelled against their masters, killing 55 whites. Several days passed before the violence stopped, leading to hundreds of slaves being put to death, even some that were not involved. Here is a quote from Turner when asked about his motives for the rebellion, “You have asked me to give a history of the motives which induced me to undertake the late insurrection. To do so I must go back to the days of my infancy, and even before I was born.” You can see how deep the wounds of slavery really go for an enslaved individual. The atrocities surrounding slavery did not only effect one person, but generations of people. This collective act of resistance was one of the largest the South had seen from slaves at the time, and that came at the expense of African Americans in a time where institutionalized racism was gaining popularity and power. After this rebellion, the Virginia General Assembly passed laws making it illegal for slaves or free blacks to be taught to read or write, and also enacted a law where religious gatherings required the presence of a white minister. After Virginia passed these laws, other Southern states …show more content…
“She caught a shovel and struck two of her children on the had, and then took a knife and cut the throat of the third, and tried them all—that with regard to herself, she cared but little; but she was unwilling to have her children suffer as she had done.” These are the words of a news reporter in the State of Kentucky in 1856 from an article titled: A Slave Mother Murders her Child rather than see it Returned to Slavery. This mid-nineteenth century article detailed the unfortunate story of Margaret Garner, an enslaved African American mother who would have rather taken her own child’s life than see the child enter into a life of endless slavery. In the American South in 1856, the institution of slavery was relied upon by many and also ruined lives of many as well. Being Black in the South made life so hard that it was impossible to find equality, and that is exactly what Garner had realized. Garner’s children were Mulatto, had one white parent and one black parent, and living in a plantation atmosphere these mixed-race children were destined for a life of hardship and despair. This unfortunate event is an example of the true realities of an individual living in an enslaved communities and the measures people will take to protect their families in any way they see fit. In 2016 it seems almost impossible to understand what

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Ever since 1787, and even before, African-Americans have struggled to gain political, legal, social, and economic equality. Although some national and state government programs were constructed to help African-Americans with this perpetual problem, it is also the same state and national government policies that expanded this problem. In fact, this is still a problem that persists today. The national and state governments definitely have gone a long way in providing African Americans with political, legal and social opportunities; however constant setbacks have lessened their effectiveness. Beginning in 1787 there was an unspoken guarantee that all states had the option to decide whether or not they wanted to be slave sates.…

    • 1951 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    After the Civil War, the African Americans had finally received their freedom. Even though this might be known as the bloodiest battle in the U.S., it got the African Americans its freedom and the U.S. to recall how they got it. Regardless of status or the faithfulness in them, African Americans were treated poorly compared to an average White man; they were less important than dirt. Despite all the racial prejudice they constantly face, African Americans are persistent and brave individuals and help shape the history of America. have contributed so much in the Civil…

    • 1471 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Around the 1830’s many Americans were in conflict with the controversial idea of letting African American slaves free. As the idea become more complex, it resulted in bitter hatred between the north and south part of America, the north resprestning anti-slavery and the south Pro- slavery. In many situations the two sides conflicted in violence. Since the first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, slavery has been practiced throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. As shown in (Document C), slavery is a cruel and painful thing to witness, as the African American women is chained to the ground, unable to fight for her rights, that she truly deserves.…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    she assesses the profound issues and burdens female slaves had to undergo in the Antebellum South. The hardships that they faced were binary in the aspect that they included ideas of racism and sexism. Throughout their daily lives, slave women took on duties in their families and communities that were in sharp contrast to female roles within American society. White’s studies explore the experiences of slave women who struggled to keep their families together,…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Harlem Renaissance was the first pro-black movement that was not criticized or shamed upon by whites. It was the upcoming of African Americans' heritage after slavery. It also outlined the bravery of blacks, the conquering of oppression, and the presence of individuality during the 1920s. It transformed black culture as a whole and is worthy of recognition throughout history. This was the turning point in African American heritage in America , celebrating black culture.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Black Codes Dbq

    • 240 Words
    • 1 Pages

    The “new birth of freedom” for African Americans, addressed by Lincoln’s Gettysburg address did not held true for African Americans during the 19th century. After the Civil War, African Americans did not have the freedom they were supposed to be given because of political, social, and economical reasons. African Americans did not have the freedom to do what they wanted because they were targeted. Socially, African Americans were tied to rules they had to obey or else they would of been punished harshly. After the Civil War, southern states passed laws that restricted African American’s rights.…

    • 240 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine being born in the 1840s while slavery was happening around America. While we are imagining this also imagine that you are the black child born into this slavery and having to go through the beating and mistreatment while growing up. Later in life as an African American you must go through segregation, Jim crow laws, fugitive slave act, the civil war, the 14th and 15th amendment and lastly the black codes. Now no one wants to ever go through this as child or as an adult, but there was a person that did and his name was Allen Allensworth. Through his struggle as a young child and later as an adult he would later find a town or better known as a community that African Americans could live in peacefully.…

    • 1500 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The reconstruction era was a highly anticipated period for former African American slaves. After the north won the Civil War, questions remained as to how to unify the country, and what rights should be ascribed to former slaves. Yet, former slaves further questioned how this period would influence their newly acquired freedoms. Despite the anticipations of newly freed African American slaves, the reconstruction era failed to create conditions that would allow African Americans to achieve equal rights. The failures of the reconstruction era, and the decision to allow former African American slaves to remain in the south will be explored in order to determine how these decisions influenced the lives of African Americans.…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Four Freedoms have been the go to phrase-freedom of speech, freedom of worship, and freedom from want and freedom from fear (Wesley). I think that the Reconstruction Era was an innovative movement in the African American history. World War I but mainly the Reconstruction Era really set the stage for the African American Movement. There was also the Reconstruction Era, which is where it all began. So it follows, the Reconstruction Era to World War I, then last but not least the whole Civil Rights Movement.…

    • 1366 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The lives’ of African Americans were altered considerably after the Civil War ended in 1865. Before the Civil War began in 1861, slavery and the limitations placed on both free and enslaved black people was part of life, but when slavery was abolished in 1865 by the passing of the 13th amendment; a new era was arriving. The Era of Reconstruction after the Civil War presented impacted the lives of African Americans positively in many ways, but it must be recognized that there were negative consequences as well. In this essay, both the positive and negative impacts of the changes brought about after the Civil War will be examined. When the Civil War concluded, and Slavery abolished in 1865, the African American people, who lived in the South, were ushered into an era where they had the opportunity to choose their destiny.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Building Freedom: The Freedmen and Their Quest for Egalitarianism The foundation of the United States of America was constructed upon the corpses of Native Americans. Cemented by institutionalized white superiority and racism, African American slaves were the bricks by which were used to erect this great nation.…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    African Americans have a long and difficult history in the United States. They were once property that could be bought and sold. They once had separate water fountains, bathrooms, and schools than whites. They had to fight for their rights in America and even though they have as many rights as every other American under the letter of the law, there are areas in which they still have to deal with undo ridicule, harassment, and injustices in our society.…

    • 1501 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    African Americans have had a long and burdened history in the United States, beginning with the institution of slavery and continuing on to the widespread racial injustice that they persevered and still endure today. As we look deep into the historical backdrop of America we cannot deny that African Americans have had a profound effect on the character of the United States of America. They helped to change the face of not just America, but of themselves. They called out for liberty and equality wherever the opportunity had arisen; battling ardently for the proclaimed equality that the Declaration of Independence decreed. This fight has been going on even before the U.S. was formed, through violent and bloody slave revolts to passionate and…

    • 1303 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    African Americans play a vitally important role in the United States today, but how can we image how they have suffered countless oppressions for a long time in the twentieth century. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was published for a long time, the genuine equality was not being achieved by countless black people (Goodheart). Some of them were still segregated by white people just because of racism. What we should give attention to is that black people still lived in the bottom of the American society. The society had completely divided human beings into two categories at that time.…

    • 2074 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There once was a boy that was born on a plantation in Alabama in 1852 into a slave family. Slavery was stronger than ever in the south with all the money plantation owners were making off the labor of enslaved African Americans. The little boy’s master sent him to work on the cotton fields at the young age of six, and he had to work to sunrise to sunset under the supervision of slave masters. The slave masters were cruel to the slaves, and they would enjoy humiliating and beating the slaves. One day the plantation owner invited his slaves to have thanksgiving dinner with his family, and the boy saw a book in the plantation owner’s house.…

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays