Slavery And Jim Crow Laws

Although nowadays slavery is considered as illegal in all countries, the number of slaves around the world has reached 45 million – more than in any other time in the history. There are four types of slavery: 1. Chattel slavery – the traditional form of slavery, where people are treated as the personal property of their master. That form of slavery is formally recognized by the law and one is a slave until his death or until the slave is set free by his master. Even slaves' children can not avoid that fate and since the birth, they have been branded as slaves.

When you think of slavery typically your mind wonders to 1800’s during slavery in America, but what many do not realize is that we are currently in the middle of a new slavery system called Mass Incarnation. With the rise of this new system within our Department of Criminal Justice has the biggest injustices between the races and are more divided than ever before. One which corrupts many citizens lives on a daily basis that are stripping away rights to vote, receive assistance, and so much more. Where we have 1 in 3 black men incarcerated compared to 1 in every 17 white men. When did this begin?

This riot tore this city apart. The violence was largely one-sided, with mobs of armed whites buring hundreds of black homes and beating and lynching the black residents. First off, St. Louis’ government was made of corrupt political whites that wanted to break the influence of the growing black community. At the time, St. Louis was nicknamed “ The Land of Milk and Honey” for black people( First 5). Blacks would come to St. Louis and within 24 hours, they could have a job at the factories.

Through Eliza’s life story, this extract shows another aspect of slavery that is unfamiliar to the reader; a lot of families were split due to slavery and never saw each other, because slaves were sold to owners in different states. The techniques and goals of Realism in this extract are to emphasize the Black narrator’s position within the story, the slaves’ freedom being dependent on the ‘White’s’ freedoms, and the boundaries being pushed too far. These aspects make the reader face the facts narrated by a former free black man sold back into slavery. The uniqueness of this book is that it gives the readers a new perspective on the history facts of that time that even a White historian probably could not have giving them. Moreover, the emotions Solomon Northup pours into his text has a bigger impact on the reader because it is hard for the generations after the 19th-20th centuries to imagine the slightest thing about slavery for they have not experienced

In this book he was quick to shatter the myth that slavery ended in 1865. He told the untold that slavery still existed through sharecropping, convict lease systems, peonage and other labor systems that have been put in place to cover up an historical truth. That slavery existed past its time and laws have been put in place to cover them up. Most people wouldn’t comment on the matter even after reading Walters work. Until, recently Gregory Freeman one of a few scholars who spoke on the issues of peonage in the introduction to Lay This Burden Down.

In chapter eighteen, Brother Tarp gifts the narrator chains, calling it a “luck piece” (388). Through these chains, Tarp passes down the fight for freedom and equality to the narrator. The chains embody the struggle of the black race against prejudice and racism and are also a remnant from Tarp’s nineteen years in a chain gang. Although the United States abolished the institution by the time of Brother Tarp’s arrest, chain gangs were extensions of the slave system that the 13th amendment deemed legal. (The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution), Despite breaking free and escaping, Tarp still suffers a limp from being chained for nineteen years.

In the same year, similar kinds of Jim Crow laws came about called which they called ¨black codes¨. Before the Civil War, both races could work side by side, but as long as the slave knew his place. In 1877 the Supreme Court ruled a case called Hall vs. DeCuir which states how blacks could not share common carries such as railroads or streetcars. The Louisiana Separate Car Act marked a remarkable impact for black or mixed-raced citizens in the states of Louisiana. As years went on laws came and gone, but over all blacks and white were finally as equal as white women and white men.

The Bible does give instruction over how to treat and own a slave, and none of these rules were popularly followed in the Civil War Era. In Exodus 21:16 it states that; “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.” Although the stigma between whites and blacks will probably never truly heal because of America’s tainted past, much has been done to restore the relationship between these two races in our own nation. Brutal wars and thousands of deaths finally brought long sought justice to the abolitionists in the

There were many Jim Crow laws to stop blacks from voting. For example, blacks couldn’t vote if their grandfather was a slave. They had to pass a really hard test to vote, and they were taxed when they voted. All of these laws tried to restrict the power of blacks. Not letting them vote means not letting them have free speech, which is their individual

It continued to pass nineteen more laws from then until 1955: six educational laws with the sole purpose to separate colored children from the white children in all school houses, four marriage laws restricting any and all interracial marriages, three railroad laws that required cars meant for only blacks and another for only whites, two that required separate public facilities and services, and finally one that segregated street cars (Tennessee). These laws undoubtedly prove that although african americans were “free” in America they were still slaves in a way. The Jim Crow Laws were a very illusive and mocking way of imprisoning the African Americans, they may have been free but they still weren’t allowed to make decisions by themselves. The Jim Crow Laws gave the impression of equality and freedom but how can someone be

The Fugitive Slave Acts were an act of rebellion against slaves escaping. There was already the fugitive slave act that was created in 1793 to allow slave masters to force slaves back into captivity, but it was not enforced that much. By 1850, there were many slaves that escaped and the since there could not be any more slaves imported, the price of a slave rose exponentially. The new acts in 1850 forced any citizen who saw a runaway slave to catch them, and “It also denied slaves the right to a jury trial and increased the penalty for interfering with the rendition process to $1000 and six months in jail” (History.com). This was a method rebellion against slaves for escaping, but the act fell through quickly because by then, almost no one

Slavery was very cruel, and oppressed. 150 years ago Slavery ended and we are still suffering from the aftermath. Slavery was coursed labor relied upon intimidation, brutality and dehumanization, All slaves labored from sun up to sun down without almost any pay and treated as property. Family was a refuge for slaves dignity that masters thought to stifle. Slaves married out of their plantation.