The American Revolution: Freedom for the White Man :: Essays on American Revolution

The American Revolution was a glorious war fought to free theAmerican colonies from the British rule. Although we won that war,there were becalm many people who were not free from our rule. One group ofpeople were the shadowy slaves. The black people had manystruggles to freedom which helped shape our American culture today. Three different periods characterized there struggles the slaves beforethe Civil War, during Reconstruction, and during the civil rightsmovements. These three eras mark a pivotal point in the movement andadvancement of the black race to social equality. During the time before the Civil War, it was not easy for slaves toorganize and rebel against their slaveholders or whites in general. There were numerous laws that specifically took international slaves rights asmen. Slaves also feared the whip and even death if they were to act outagainst their owners. The Declaration of Independence did not apply tomany groups and the black race was angiotensin-conve rting enzyme of those excluded groups. Wehold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness(Primus295). doubting Thomas Jefferson, having slaves himself, recognized the fact thathe could not free the slaves himself in that document. It was difficultenough for him to get the Declaration approved by all of the colonies initself. In fact the last man to sign the Declaration of Independencedid not do so until the year 1778. The slaves were kept in ignorance ofany knowledge which mightiness have led to their freedom. Laws forbadereading and writing for slaves. They also forbade anyone to teach aslave to read. To keep the slaves obedient, slaveholders often made anexample of a slave by beating him with the cow skin, or even killinghim. HeGore gave Denby but few stripes the latter broke away fromhim and plunged into the creek, a nd, standing there to the depth of his fill out in water, he refused to come out at the order of the overseerwhereupon, for this refusal, Gore shot him dead(My Bondage and MyFreedom 122). This era was definitely a period were the black peoplehad little voice in their future and society. Most people in the north felt differently however. These peoplewere called the abolitionists, and they were employ to freeing theslaves. The southern states, strongly disagreed with their views and