Analysis Of The Piano Lesson By Augus August Wilson

The Reconstruction period lasted from 1865 to 1877. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendment were created during the twelve years of rebuilding the country. All of the amendments were made to protect former slaves and their rights but on paper they did not have any rights. The reconstruction period had its successes and failures.

A freedmen is taking part in sharecropping as he gives most of the crops he produced to the land’s owner. He hopes for a better life, but he knows he will be forever indebted to the landowner. While some things changed for the better, the acceptance of African Americans was still scarce. During Reconstruction, the life of freedmen did change politically, but not socially or economically.

Reconstruction was an attempt reconcile the country and bring it back together, however it was not the success Abraham had hoped it to be when initiated before being assassinated. The failure had many effects on African American communities in both the north on the south both negative and positive. Socially black slaves were freed but not really accepted into society. Black codes were utilized which placed pressure on African Americans about things like when to meet with friends and where they should live. Discrimination against black flourished as the Ku Klux Klan a group of people who wore robes and mask went around pretending to be the ghost of Confederate soldiers. They were had no desire for blacks to have rights and felt that they should be slaves. By attacking, burning their homes and killing blacks in the north and

During the time of the 1650’s the Americas were not a part of what is now the United States and other countries in Central America and as well as the Caribbean. During those years European countries who were dominate in exploring the world and conquering new lands were the British, Spanish, French and the Dutch. The world economy was greatly impacted by the production of goods the Americas could provide Europe and even parts of Asia. The America’s were rich in materials that could not be made vastly, like the production of cotton, crops, tobacco and as well as natural gems like gold and silver that would increase wealth of the country who was exploring the region at the time. The British crown at the time was a powerful nation and if not the most powerful in wealth and military with great number of troops and

After Reconstruction, African Americans faced many social, political, and economic issues. The years following the Reconstruction continued to create tension between African Americans and whites. In the south African Americans were still not given the same rights as whites. With this tension, came social, political, and economic issues. During this time, African Americans faced social adversity. A social problem that arose was due Jim Crow Laws. Jim Crow Laws legalized racial segregation in all public facilities in southern states, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for African Americans. These laws were legalized in the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, which stated that “separate but equal” was constitutional. This

One of the main goals of Reconstruction was to require that the South give African-Americans equal rights. With slavery abolished, the Federal Government decided that it was now time to give African-Americans the rights given to the rest of American citizens. This was in the mid 1800s. Needless to say, these plans were not put in place, or at least not properly enforced, for many more years. It took a well-organized uprising by African-Americans about 100 years later to finally make some progress. This uprising was known as the Civil Rights Movement, and because of its common goals, it is also referred to as the Second Reconstruction. Unlike the original Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement is classified by many people as a success. The Civil Rights Movement brought a degree of closure to a problem that was initially addressed many years before.

Before Reconstruction, every African’s life was different. Some Africans worked on plantations, which meant they worked from sunrise to sunset, six days a week. They would even get food that wasn’t capable of being eaten. The plantation slaves lived in small shakes that had a dirt floor and little to no furniture. If there was a cruel overseer, otherwise known as a supervisor, on a large plantation, Africans would be treated like they worked on a small farm that didn’t grow enough crops for them to eat. Overseers were paid to get as much work as they could get out of the Africans, they would do whatever means they had to. If slaves complained to the slaveholder about being treated unfairly,

Some believe it is safe to say that the Reconstruction era was a complete failure. It fell short of achieving it’s goals and was counterproductive. In many ways it created a worse environment for the African American society, they were better of in way prior to the civil war. Many people argue that the Reconstruction era was successful because of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments. The thirteenth amendment “ended” slavery but only in name. Nearly 300 years of servitude created a mindset that African Americans were less than people. In the minds of white men they were property. Slavery continued in America for years after the amendment passed. The fourteenth and fifteenth amendment supposedly secured the rights of slaves

Andrew Johnson, a southerner himself, believed that the blacks should have no role in the reconstruction. Between 1865 and 1867 Johnson ordered new provisional governors to establish new all white governments, that ruled similarly to the racist confederates before them. Some things did change for the former slaves as Universities and primary and secondary schools were established for them by the Freedman’s Bureau. Now the freedman’s bureau didn’t grant the slaves the one thing they wanted most, land. To the blacks, land was as essential part of truly becoming free. Even after some lands were granted to the slaves, President Johnson ordered them to be returned to their original owners which led to sharecropping. During sharecropping, black families

The process of black slavery taking route in colonial Virginia was slow. Black slavery mostly became dominant in the 1680s. Slaves became the main labor system on plantations. The amount of white indentured servants declined so the demand for black slaves became necessary in the mid-1660s. The number of white indentured servants that Virginia had up until the mid 1660s, was enough to meet white peoples labor needs. Slavery was also increasing because you never had to pay the slaves that you owned and the plantations required a lot of labor, so slaves were a lot cheaper than the indentured servants. The profits from tobacco and rice led planters to import enslaved Africans, which made the economy depend on slavery. Although slavery was a morally

The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 declared slaves in the United States as free. This newly free status marked an end to chattel slavery in the United States. Despite this remarkable win for humanity the sudden change brought forth a multitude of issues that the United States was not ready to address. African Americans were the main sufferers of the United States unpreparedness. The timing of emancipation combined with the prominent ideological beliefs of that time resulted in negative health outcomes that set the foundation for health inequalities among African Americans that are still prominent today.

Pertaining to the rights of African Americans a new south did not appear after the reconstruction. While they were “free” they were often treated harshly and kept in a version of economic slavery by either their former masters or other white people in power. Sharecropping and the crop-lien system often had a negative impact on both the black and white tenants keeping them in debt with the owner. Jim Crow laws, vigilantes and various means of disfranchisement became the normal way of life in the South. It was believed that white people were superior to black people and when they moved up in politics or socially they were harassed and threatened. There were various activists that held different beliefs on how to obtain equality some of which

"Now that 's the difference between the colored man and the white man. The colored man can 't fix nothing with the law” (Wilson) is one of the main quotes that really captured my attention because of the racial content it contains. This quote comes from “The Piano Lesson” by August Wilson and even though it isn’t necessarily the main theme of the story, I personally believes it greatly impacts the audience. During this section we get an insight of Wining Boys taught that allow us to assume that he feels as if they are at a disadvantage with the law because the laws weren’t meant for color people and meant only for white people. This quote greatly stood out to me because of everything that is going in the world at this time and is why I

Our society has came far from eliminating racial discrimination and bigotry. Racial discrimination is when a person is treated less than another person in a similar situation because of their race, color, descent, national or ethnic origin or immigrant status. And bigotry is the intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself. Today people still face racial discrimination.

United States Navy. This is an excellent work in an area where little research has