Opression of the Constitution
In the 1800’s slavery was the most treacherous degrading and spiteful act ever forced on any human being in the United States. Stripping an individual of equality, education, and freedom because of their skin color is something that America was accustomed to during this time. The idea of educating the slaves was simply un heard of. The everlasting effects of slavery would be embed on blacks, spiritually, psychologically, and politically, but were not taken into consideration. It was not only black slaves brought over from Africa and stripped of their African identity, but also Native Americans, and the women of the very white men that took liberty and justice from blacks and Native Americans. These three different groups of people all shared a part in the oppression of the Constitution, that was supposed to set everyone free. Slaves were not thought of as human beings, but merely animals that perform a task of working hard, and had no feelings what so ever. President Thomas Jefferson wrote a speech addressed to the Administration of Justice called Notes on Virginia. In this speech Jefferson thought that blacks by nature were inferior to whites. He states: “They have less hair on the face and body. The secrete less by t . . .
”(181) This synopsis allows Jefferson to justify the fact that African Americans were to be completely submissive to whites and ultimately become slaves because their bodies were built for slave labor. In the end of Jefferson’s speech he states, “The slave when free, might mix with, without staining the blood of his master… when freed, he is to be removed beyond the reach of mixture…” (186) Jefferson is afraid of what would happen if these “slaves gain freedom. Jefferson often would try to justify the treatment of slaves in the United States by saying their treatment is far better than the slaves in Rome. “I had reached the point, at which I was not afraid to die…when a slave cannot be flogged his more than half free” (247). Sophia told her husband the great news that she taught Frederick to read, Master Auld told her that what she did was wrong and would inevitably hurt Douglass. I know if I was forced to leave my own land and have my resources such as animals we thought of as food killed for sport I would be pretty upset. Once slaves were actually allowed to read the actual Constitution of the United States, they would learn of the 13th Amendment that states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction” (The Bill of Rights). ” Anything a women inherits will go to her husband to take care of. During this era women weren’t allowed to vote, own land, and if divorced from their husband, he would get any children that they had. Women and Native Americans didn’t have any rights and were for leagal purposes forgotten that they are human beings and have the right to think and have their own happiness. Douglass knew that being afraid of his master and slavery would render him a victim of torment for the rest of his life, so he decided to stand up for himself by any means necessary. The more Douglass read, the more he learned that it was the white man’s total scheme to keep black indigent. Hopefully by now we understand that these injustices are wrong and that history never repeats itself.
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Acceptance Essays
