Benjamin Franklin Informative Essay

But towards the end, he was the same boy who helped a slave get his freedom and

In An Imperfect God, Henry Wiencek presents George Washington as a specific case through which to study what he calls the great “paradox” of American history: how a nation founded on the philosophies of liberty and equality also kept human beings in chains. Washington was a slave-owner his entire life and he took the role of managing the slaves who lived and worked at Mount Vernon including their purchase and sale. Prior to the Revolution, Washington “was just another striving young planter, blithely ordering breeding wenches for his slave trade, blithely exiling a man to a likely death at hard labor” (Wiencek 133) The fortune produced by Washington’s slaves kept him in the ranks of Virginia’s planter elite, securing the social and political prestige that helped lead the Second Continental Congress to appoint him commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1775.

For over hundreds of years, slavery has been one of the most controversial subjects discussed in history. Society is still taught about the wonders of the phenomenon because of the major impact it has had on the world. Symbolic, historical figures such as Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass, Phillis Wheatley, Harriet Jacobs, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Louisa May Alcott have shared their personal accounts on bondage with the world in their own way. These six figures have written their own pieces of literature, so that people can understand the life of enslavement through persecution to freedom. Furthermore, slave narratives or literature opposes to slavery in a multitude of ways based on that slave’s own journey to freedom.

Both King and Douglass were advocating for the same thing: their constitutional sanction of freedom. Both men, in their respective letters touch upon parallel thoughts and beliefs that revolve around the much bigger topic of racial inequality and discrimination. Both men were discriminated against and they talk about their experiences and plight in their very distinctive yet special styles. Born in the year 1817, in an era of open and unashamed slave trade, Frederick Douglass’s story begins as a serf to Mrs. Hugh in the city of Maryland.

Slavery has been around for decades in English history, first beginning in 1562 spreading drastically throughout the colonies. African slaves helped build the new nation into an economic powerhouse through the production of very profitable crops such as tobacco and cotton. Although slavery mostly deals with the discrimination of African Americans, there is also an aspect of slavery that includes the mistreatment of animals. This period in history included a vast majority of animals that were bought, or stolen, by plantation owners to assist them in doing the dirty work on the fields. Animals who were enslaved did not get water to hydrate nor did they get food to eat.

In fact, many famous debates were triggered that "condemned Lincoln 's position as the equivalent of hostility to the Constitution itself" (Paulsen 3). Though the Constitution had nothing against slavery, Lincoln stood firm and worked to end slavery, while other politicians disagreed. In addition, Lincoln also struggled with serious depressive episodes. Depression was in Lincoln 's family history. He had many losses of people that were close to him, such as his mother, siblings, and friend (Carson and Wakely 2).

There were many different varieties of abolitionism during the nineteenth century. For many years, the only disapproval of slavery came from the Quakers, free blacks and slave. Most white Americans that wanted to abolish slavery also supported the deportation of freed slaves to the Central America, the Caribbean or Africa. In 1816, supporters created the American Colonization Society, this organization encouraged the slow abolishment of slavery and the colonization black in Americans in Africa. They later created Liberia on the coast of West Africa, where some free blacks did leave to.

Frederick Douglass was a former slave who became a an abolitionist and reformer. Douglass supported equality among all people and gave speeches supporting the cause. Douglass himself has stated “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Douglass talked about reforms and abolition of slavery throughout his life after escaping slavery but just his speeches alone did not get the government to pass laws eliminating the practice. It was not until the Civil War that President Lincoln abolished slavery.

George also wished Harry had never been born. so he would be saved from the things his father suffered from

Many people in the North started to oppose slavery, and by the late 1700’s many states in the North had outlawed it. Slavery went on in the South for almost another century until it was finally banned. This did not make free blacks free to live like everybody else, though. Free blacks in the North were not very free because of their limited freedoms in politics, economics, and in their social lives. Blacks in the North were not very free because they had very little social freedom.

Yet in the North, the Union, slavery was being abolished state by state, and most people didn 't agree with owning people as property. However, some well known people, such as William Harrison or Thomas Jefferson, actually owned slaves. So, there was the South, who wanted to keep slavery, and the North who wanted to abolish slavery. Anyway, among other problems, war broke out among the newly established country. After the war ended, on May 9,1865, and slavery was slowly being abolished and there were some differences seen between slavery before and after the war.

With the ending of slavery former slaves could now enjoy what it meant to be an American. Sadly, for many former slaves this was worse since the united states government didn’t pass a law to help protect them instead they just ended slavery. Many found it tough to find jobs to support themselves. Those who found jobs often found they were underpaid and were even taken advantage of. Sadly, they couldn’t do anything about it since they weren’t a law in place that said that it could happen.

In spite of his popularity, his policies did little to improve the lives of working Americans. In 1796 Andrew Jackson was elected as Tennessee 's delegate to the United States House of Representatives. The next year he was called upon to fill the unexpired term of

Thomas Paine was opposed to slavery due to the quote he said. "Slave, who is proper owner of his freedom, has the right to reclaim it, however often sold." He goes on to say the African slaves were forced into the slavery due to the Europeans bring liquor to there land, bribing one against another, and hiring tribes to fight other tribes. Thomas Paine was an original member of the Anti Slavery formed in Philadelphia.

During this time, America was filled with “irony”. Douglass mentions that, “The manhood of the slave is conceded” (Douglass), and it was. The white owners took away the only thing African Americans had left, which was their own