Black Reparation Argumentatory Essay

In 1619, when slavery began in America, slaves were used as a force of labor to build and work on the new land. Unfortunately, slavery continued on for the next three centuries in the United States. Today, people view slavery as an inhumane and cruel way of treating people, but back then many people saw nothing wrong with the holding of slaves. For the most part, slavery was morally and ethically wrong since the enslavement of people was terrible. In general, slavery is unfitting because Thomas Jefferson once said “...that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights...” (Declaration of Independence).

If slaves never disobeyed the former laws defending slavery, there would still be slavery in America. As a human being, one disobeys purposely to make an impact on certain issues or events that society disagrees on and that is how progress is made. Disobedience is indeed a valuable trait that promotes social progress. In order to change or make an impact there has to be some form of disobedience. Early America consisted of rebellion when the triangular trade brought thousands of enslaved Africans into the U.S. not thinking of the thousands of lives they were destroying.

This document alone was the root of the Civil War. It is the reason an estimated count of 620, 000 men gave their lives and fought countless for what they all believed in. (Faust) Conclusion It is important to understand the true meaning of the Emancipation Proclamation; a document created just to aid in ending the war that would cause havoc in our country in a time when America needed to stick together the most. A man’s decision to assist his ego created the beginning of a meaningful journey for all slaves. Slaves would not exactly have an easy road ahead of them, but at least a road of hope to live for was something to look forward to.

African Americans were not treated fairly during slavery. African Americans are just like everyone else and deserve the same right as everyone else, no one should be treated differently by their skin color. Frederick Douglass and Paul Dunbar both talk about slaves and being treated unfair. They both use personal experience to support their ideas. Paul Laurence Dunbar uses conflict in “we wear the mask” to get his point across about African Americans being treated unfairly after slavery ended.

After being separated from his mother at a young age, Frederick Douglass fights back against slavery and human rights. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, the author, Frederick Douglass, uses powerful rhetoric to disprove the Pragmatic and the Scientific pro-slavery arguments of Pre-Civil War America. The Pragmatic Argument is about how many people believe that if all black slaves were to be freed, then this would result in convulsions which would then lead to extermination of the one or other race. Many people also believed that black slavery was necessary for American history. Douglass disproves this argument in many ways.

This journey of pain and perseverance is portrayed through the Langston Hughes poem, “ Let America Be America.” Hughes uses the inequality that still stands in the “free” America to voice that everyone should be equal. Hughes uses various allusions to portray the didactic meaning of the poem that the statements of a free America for everyone, is far from the truth. Making allusions to certain instances, in African American history provided a way for Hughes’ audience to understand his underlying thought. Throughout the formation of the America today, African Americans have been discriminated starting from their beginning as slaves. Hughes describes African Americans during this time period as, “the Negro(s) bearing slavery’s scars.”(20) and, “ the

It is the common flaw of Huck’s companions, role models, and even of him to condone slavery. Many people attempt to civilize Huck by teaching social rules and stable beliefs, but nothing is more uncivilized than the act of owning and dehumanizing another human being. It is the shameless and institutionalized hypocrisy that shapes the moral critique of this novel. Racism in America is an ongoing struggle that has manifested itself differently throughout each generation, and although the existence of racism is no longer legislative, oppression of African Americans remains a relevant issue, and thus The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’s analysis of racism remains relevant as well. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been read by everyone from the casual reader to the impassioned intellectual over the last 130 years.

The rise of slavery in early America was inevitable. African Americas began to arrive in America as early as 1619, but not all of these people were put directly into slave work. As indentured servitude became less and less popular, life began to change from a society with slaves into a slave society. This offered more opportunities and power for poor white men which moreover introduced a nation of race-based slavery. The abolitionist movement in the United States sought to destroy slavery.

America the free, land of opportunity--but only if you fit a specific mold. Slaves, especially women, were certainly not included. Even after their emancipation, African Americans struggled with exclusion, whether it be direct, indirect, political, social or other. James Baldwin, an African American man, contrasts the types of oppression he, and others, have faced in “A Letter to my Nephew” , drawing parallels from slavery to the discrimination of the 60’s. He explains how many think blacks must assimilate into “white” culture, but, in reality, it must be those who think that way who must escape from the mentality of needing to assimilate.

Many slaves lost everything when they were sold into slavery such as their family, their home, their name, and their freedom. Slaves were only allowed to do what their owners would let them do and we have come so much further from even one hundred years ago. “...the stubborn race gaps that remain, especially in opportunity, tarnishing the idea of the American dream.” (Rodrigue, Five Bleak Facts on Black Opportunity.) Even though our country has come far, there is still many segregation throughout the nation. This shows how much more work America still must do to have equal rights for all races.

Are reparations a just way to manage a multicultural society? The purpose of reparations is to compensate for the harm that blacks have experienced throughout history. For what blacks have gone through, reparations don 't come close to compensating for the history of abuses and suffering that blacks have had to face by the US government. For what blacks have gone through; cannot be simply written off with a check. Sure, reparations from the government show that they acknowledge that blacks have suffered for many generations.

Although, some or a lot of African Americans in our society still suffer from the slavery sequela, and the burden of racism, but we cannot disagree that their remarkable progress and integrity in such a short time is astonishing, and the best example is having a first African American president in the history of the United States. It is not surprising for the ancestors that came from the birthplace of humanity, and endure a harrowing journey of torture to be brave enough and overcome the injustice by preparing the ground of freedom to the upcoming generations, because when it comes to African Americans, what does not kill you make you stronger is a reality, and the best is yet to

If the slave were white, they could escape the fated damnation of their skin color. If the slave were black, they would be held unaccountable for their heritage and at least take refuge in some vestige of African or slave identity. By being part of both worlds, mulattos and mixed slaves were denied not only the privileges of whiteness and freedom, but also the mournful solidarity and sense of community of other African-American slaves. Even today, Whiteness permeates culture with subtle privileges. While copious steps have been taken towards the achievement of racial equality, racial discrimination and hate crimes are still massively prevalent issues in the United States.

During the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln; it declared that “All person’s held as slaves within the rebellious states henceforward shall be free”, but blacks still felt that they were being treated unfairly. Slaves responded to the Emancipation Proclamation by leaving their overseers and dividing the land and implements among themselves. When opportunity came, two-hundred thousand blacks joined the Union army, Historian James McPheron says: “Without their help, the North could not have won the war as soon as it did, and perhaps it could not have won at all” (194), but when blacks were in the Union army and the northern cities during the war, it gave hints of how limited the emancipation would be. Black