Restrictions on Blacks
Introduction
The blacks suffered much from the slavery, unusual brutality, merciless scourging and their inhumane situation during the slave times. This is due to the reality that the “white race” is considered superior than the black race, and that the whites are believed to ‘own the body and the soul’ of the blacks.
During the slave times, the Negroes or blacks were given all the hard and dirty work, and sold to different white families all over America. However, the time for the whites to disown them came at the time of the Emancipation or the Negroes’ liberation. But Emancipation did not do anything good for the Negroes, instead, the whites were given more power, as they do not only physically punish and scourge the Negroes, but kill them as well. By this time, many blacks were murdered and executed, having no judicial or legal trials. They were accused of different crimes, such as insurrection, condemned as rapists and assailants of womanhood, and eliminated from participation on national elections. Their right for humanity, identity, and respect were taken from them for possessing a different skin color. Their freedom was limited by subjecting them to a low level of social importance.
The issue of “race” is an important concept and debate, and has been given enough priority due to different instances involving discrimination and inequality. More races and cultures, especially the black race, is becoming more affected by different crises, alongside the other races present in the community and society.
This paper discusses the economic, political and social restrictions imposed on blacks during the 1800s. It talks about how the blacks were affected because of their limited rights as blacks and the restrictions’ effect on the black society. This paper also emphasizes how these restrictions triggered the support of the black community or society to leave or migrate to other places to obtain their “freedom”, and the rise of the free blacks and their situation during the 1800s in America.
The Black Migration and Restrictions
It has been reported that migration has been one of the defining characteristics of black life in the United States since the forced migration of African slaves to the New World (“, 2006). Major movements before the Civil War included the Atlantic slave trade, the extension of slavery to the Mississippi Valley from 1820-1850, the manumission and escape of slaves to freedom in the North, the movement of free people of color from the South to the North and Canada, and the immigration of small numbers of black Americans to Africa (“”, 2006).
The migration of blacks was a grass-roots, leaderless movement, and migrants include male laborers, women domestics, and families. The men and women left to settle in eastern coastal cities such as Philadelphia and New York, and moved from the rural areas of the South to the cities of the North during the 1890s. The single largest movement of African-Americans occurred during World War I when approximately 500, 000 people moved from the rural and small-town South into the cities of the North and the Midwest (“”, 2006). This migration was stimulated by the deterioration of the quality of life of Southern blacks in the two decades prior to World War I, coupled with a labor shortage in the industrial North. In relation to these are the reasons for the migration of the black people, for experiencing tremendous discrimination from the whites and restrictions in terms of economic, political and social rights in the community and the society.
Different restrictions were imposed on the black society during the 1800s, and one of them is economic restrictions related to employment and social status. (2006) reports that African-American workers have contributed to the economic development of the United States since the first group of them were kidnapped in Africa and sold into indentured servitude. The whites’ reliance on their services became a feature of American life, and the status of Africans or blacks was downgraded to that of a slave. They perform whatever labor was needed, whether in field, home or factory, and their skills were in all categories, being artisans, craftsmen, and ordinary laborers. In addition, workers did not make an immediate transition to wage labor, and most of them fell into peonage by becoming sharecroppers ( 2006).
The economic status of the black people was further depressed by the appearance of the boll weevil, which destroyed cotton, and by recurrent droughts, and the oppressive existence of racial climate. As reported by (2006), America entered into a period between 1877 and 1901 when the protection promised the freedmen disappeared with the withdrawal of federal troops, the introduction by white supremacists of legislation throughout the South, the growth of lynching, and the formation of the Ku Klux Klan. This triggered the migration of the black people towards the west and the north, looking for an escape for a better life. However, they did not find immediate acceptance by their white colleagues who feared competition for employment and equality among blacks and whites. Due to this, black workers were confined to the lowest economic positions, given smaller wages, subjected to intolerable conditions, given menial jobs and limited opportunities. It can be deduced that the black people by the 1800s are getting poorer and poorer, subjected to harsh environments, poverty, and maltreatment from the whites and not given the chance to grow and utilize their potential to become productive individuals. Due to inequality, the black people have become homeless, were not given inadequate health care, lag incomes, unemployed, discriminated, brutalized and neglected by the government during these times (, 1995), all because of difference in skin color and race.
Moreover, blacks are given only the most difficult and dirtiest jobs in the society. Men work in the field, harvesting crops and treated harshly. While the plight of black women is to work in homes of whites, doing laundry, washing their dishes, cooking food for their masters and doing heavy household chores. This regards the black people as the “work horse” of the whites back in the 1800s and leaves them, in this regard, as members of the lowest class in the society, treated as properties and objects. Their sole purpose is only to serve their white masters, and obey them unquestioningly.
In addition to economic restrictions are political restrictions imposed on the black people during the 1800s. It has been reported that slaves were excluded from the political process in antebellum America, fearing that black people would enter politics in a revolutionary way, through slave uprisings and mass murder (“”, 1988). This led to harsh Southern slave codes, which forbade teaching the black people to read or write and prohibited them from congregating for social or religious purposes without the presence of a white or from leaving their plantations without a pass. In addition, slave marriages enjoyed no legal protection, and slaves had no recourse against being bought or sold. Slave codes were enforced intermittently, to be sure, and the life of the Southern blacks was not defined solely by them, and many planters seriously took their paternal obligations (“”, 1988). However, even on its own terms, paternalism attended slaves only by depriving them of the right to speak and act for themselves, and deprived them of all legal protection. In these terms, whites are given enough rights to take racial matters on their own hands, leaving the blacks under the mercy of the whites. Similar in the North and in the South, free blacks share the same fate as the slaves, having no legal residences. Northern states prohibited blacks from voting, serving on juries, or testifying in court and deprived them of civil rights as well, which lead to the riot of Northern mobs against free blacks, and the destruction of neighborhoods, killing men, women and children (“”, 1988). It has been reported also that the population of the blacks was never given the right to vote and remained disfranchised, and among them were propertyless men, women, slaves, apprentices, indentured laborers, felons, and those considered mentally incompetent (“, 2006). Women were also excluded as they are presumed as incapable for sound reasoning.
In relation to these is the system of segregation, which included the denial of voting rights known as disfranchisement, which prevents blacks from voting in spite of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Because blacks could not vote, they were virtually powerless to prevent whites from segregating all aspects of Southern life, and could do little to stop discrimination in public accommodations, education, economic opportunities, or housing (“”, 2006).
The political and economic restrictions experienced by the black people go hand in hand with the social restrictions and discriminations from the whites in their communities. The discrimination and maltreatment against the black people became extensive, resulting to slaughter of many innocent men, women and children. It has been reported that by the Emancipation of the black people, more were murdered compared to the slavery period, and the barbarism of the whites over the blacks were justified by giving three excuses (, n.d.).
The first excuse given for the murder of unoffending black people was the necessity of the white man to repress and stamp out alleged “race riots” (, n.d.). The Northerners were accused of planning an insurrection against the whites, and resulted to uncontrollable killings of the black people. It is essential to note that in these riots, only the blacks were killed and injured, and that all white men escape the riots unharmed. In addition, the author points out that from 1865 to 1872, hundreds of black people were mercilessly murdered, without any trial, judicial or legal action. However, in reality, no insurrection ever materialized, no black man was ever apprehended and proven guilty, and no dynamite ever recorded as to their protest against oppression (, n.d.).
The second excuse had its birth during the turbulent times of reconstruction, entitling the black man the right of franchise, and participating in elections, as being an invaluable emblem of his or her citizenship. However, the whites, being inconsiderate, would not want to include the black in “their government” and took away their right for elections and political opinion. These left the blacks to become voiceless again in the councils and without the right and freedom to belong to a society that would give them equality. Brutality still continued, they were still scourged, whipped, exiled, shot, and hung whenever it pleased the white man ( n.d.), to show the whole world of the his or her superiority over the blacks.
The last excuse would be the white man’s accusation over the black man of being assailants of womanhood. This accusation has come to its limits and to raise arguments as to how can the white man accuse of a black man as such, when the whites entrust them their households and their families? Most of these blacks are nannies of the whites; they cook the family’s food and are entrusted of their crops, so accusing them of such would be the epitome of injustice. Given their condition, the black people love their womanhood, and have huge respect for that and for their family. This is related to the issue of the black man having a romantic relationship with a white woman, for during these times, the romantic relationship between a slave and his master is forbidden. For that matter, most blacks are charged of rape, even though the relationship between the two was voluntary.
The restrictions that the black people have during their slavery gave rise to their desire for freedom and equality with the whites. These resulted to different options for the black people, either to fight for their freedom and rights, or to look for other countries where they could obtain that freedom and equality they so deserve.
Bondage from Inequality
One crucial step of the black people to obtain their freedom is to fight for their rights by passing laws. This became possible due to the establishment of the Civil Rights Movement in America, as an answer to the excessive discrimination and inhumane treatment of whites to the black people. It has been reported that the Civil Rights Movement was created as their means to political, legal, and social struggle in gaining full citizenship rights and in achieving racial equality (“”, 2006). It has also been called the Black Freedom Movement, the Negro Revolution and the Second Reconstruction, and challenged segregation and discrimination by protest marches, boycotts, and refusal to abide by segregation laws. Segregation is the system of laws and customs separating blacks and whites, and an attempt of the white Southerners to separate the races in every sphere of life and achieve supremacy over blacks. It was often called the system, after a minstrel show character from the 1830s who was an old, crippled, black slave who embodied negative stereotypes of blacks (“, 2006). Segregation followed the end of Reconstruction in 1877, and opened economic and political opportunities for blacks. Local state laws specified certain places, designating the area exclusive only for whites and for blacks. Blacks had separate schools, transportation, restaurants, and parks, many of which were poorly funded and inferior to those of whites (“”, 2006).
Some of the slaves who were not able to endure the hardships of inequality and injustice in America that time opted to migrate to other lands in search of freedom and achieve a position of true equality. The only solution to this problem, they felt, was to establish separate, self-governing societies or nations, and some advocated the establishment of colonies in Africa (“”, 2006). It has been reported that the most enduring consequence of colonization for African Americans was the sense of freedom and liberty the experience provided, for in their letters home, they frequently stressed the deep satisfaction they derived from living free in a non-discriminatory environment (“”, 2006). Emigration represented an opportunity to start new and independent lives, being free from suffering, enslavement and dying in bondage, but some managed to return home, disappointed that Africa was not the Promised Land they hoped for.
Furthermore, the colonists saw themselves as bringing Christianity and Western civilization to the local population, serving to devalue the rights, aspirations, and cultures of the native people, promoting capitalism, Christian missionary zeal and Western cultural penetration. The settlers were able to introduce American political ideas, trade practices, food, diseases, and concepts of land ownership, which are crucial in the development of their country. Another positive effect of emigration of the black people was the establishment of a journalistic tradition in West Africa, which influenced the Africans to demand change in their societies. While in the United States, the emigration movement stimulated political activism among African Americans, which contributed also to the rise of radical abolitionism in the 1830s, particularly in response to the activities of the American Colonization Society (“”, 2006).
Conclusion
The importance of colonization and emigration lies not so much in its numbers, but in the fact that the issue raised the nationalist consciousness of America’s black population. Perhaps its most enduring legacy was the Pan-African movement, which blossomed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A concept pioneered by , and others, it led to the recognition that until Africa was free of oppression, black people around the world could not become free.
We can deduce that both articles cite the injustices that black people suffer from the whites, as they are always wrongly accused, punished and maltreated in different situations. Both articles emphasize the impact of slavery to the blacks and both stress that these injustices did not hinder them from doing and fighting for what is right despite the maltreatments but instead, it helped them to fight for equality and justice in the society. The good Samaritans in their time became their inspiration. These people or missionaries helped them understand Christianity, and this pushed them to hold on to their faith. In the first article, the author mentioned the story of the old wise man, and the plot of two young persons to deceive him. The birds in the story represent the black people and their freedom, as many circumstances test their faith and endurance, but in turn, their fate will still be in their hands; that their freedom from slavery and maltreatment depends on how they will do about it. It is better nowadays, as people are more open now regarding the issue of racism. Racism is a big issue in different parts of the world and racial discrimination has affected many issues present in the society. This article has given us a clear picture of what people think before, and this can be used to re-evaluate our perceptions regarding the culture and race of different individuals. We must always bear in mind that each person is a unique individual, belongs to a specific race and has certain beliefs and practices. With this, we must remember that no race is superior or inferior to another, whatever skin color and type of hair a person has.
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