Liberty in America 1

Liberty in America

Sabrina Kinsey

History 1483
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History in America has been centered around Liberty since the beginning. Freedom is the

most important concept in life. Although freedom is enjoyed by most people in America today, it

has not always been enjoyed for some. For some, freedom was a long fought battle that at times

was almost unreachable. Many people have fought and bled for freedom. Many have laid down

their lives for the freedoms that we enjoy today. At times, freedom was denied to people and

some fought just as hard to deny freedom to others. From slavery to abolition, Black codes to

civil rights and African Americans winning suffrage while women were denied, freedom has

never been guaranteed but something that must be fought for. The most cruel and devastating

denial of freedom came in the form of slavery.

African Americans were subjected to horrific treatment while being bound by slavery for

many years. Beginning in the 1660s, legislators in Virginia and Maryland introduce chattel

slavery, the ownership of human beings as property. Slaves had no rights, they were the property

of their masters. African American were rounded up and marched in chains to the South to be

sold to plantation owners. Professional slave traders earned substantial profits by buying and

selling human beings. Slavery was a system of forced labor. To force slaves to work, masters

often whipped them. Some slaves were whipped so bad, they were permanently injured and even

killed at times. Having no legal rights, slaves’ marriages were not recognized by the law. Slaves

could be sold and traded away from their families and nothing could be done to stop in. Children

could be ripped away from their mothers and sold with the mothers having no knowledge of

where they went. Slaves families were destroyed often. While enslaved men were subjected to

hard work, sometimes being worked to death, the enslaved women and girls were subjected to

rape. White masters fathered many children from their enslaved women. When slaves tried to
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escape, they were rounded up and returned to bondage. When people tried to protect runaway

slaves, they could receive prison sentences. Slave owners and supporters worked and succeeded

in contracting liberty from thousands upon thousands of human beings in this country for many

years. There were many people that were very against slavery. The abolition of slavery was a

battle that eventually led to war.

The Northern states slowly ended slavery. Slavery was so important to planters in the

south though they literally tried to succeed from the nation. The free labor they received from

slavery made them rich, especially during the cotton boom. It would take a substantial war to get

them to give up their slaves. Thankfully, abolition minded people including President Lincoln

were willing to do just that. One of the most determined white advocates of abolition of slavery

was William Loyd Garrison. After serving time in prison for libeling a New England merchant

engaged in the domestic slave trade, he started his own newspaper, The Liberator. He was

inspired by a pamphlet written by an English Quaker. Garrison demanded immediate abolition

without compensation to slaveholders. In 1833 Garrison and sixty other abolitionists formed the

American Anti-Slavery Society. Women abolitionist also established separate groups.

Abolitionists also helped build the Underground Railroad, an informal network of blacks and

whites that help fugitive slaves. People like Harriet Tubman risked imprisonment and death by

returning repeatedly to the South to rescue other slaves. Many people died fighting in the Civil

War to end slavery. President Lincoln led a blood and extremely deadly war that lasted four long

years that ended in the abolishment of slavery. President Lincoln was assassinated immediately

after hearing of the Union victory. Though many died fighting for abolition, abolitionist efforts

to extend freedom to African Americans was starting to pay off. Although African Americans

had gained some freedom after the Civil War, their struggle was not over.
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After the South was defeated, it was hoped that the South would except post war reforms.

This was not to be. Ex-Confederates resisted through violence and political action. They enacted

black codes. These were designed to force former slaves back to plantation labor. They imposed

strict penalties on African Americans that did not have full time labor contracts. They also set up

procedures to take black children away from their parents and apprentice them to former slave

masters. Not only were the Ex-Confederates contracting African American freedoms, groups like

the Klu Klux Klan reigned down terror on African American communities. The Klan burned

freedman’s schools, beat teachers, attacked Republican gatherings and murdered political

opponents. Lawmakers had left emancipated slaves in a condition of semi-citizenship, with no

voting rights. Slaves also had little to no protection under the law. Congressional Republicans

concluded that the federal government had to intervene.

Congress established the Freedman’s Bureau. It aided displaced black and war refugees,

A year later congress voted to extend the bureau. They gave the bureau direct funding for the

first time. The bureau was now able to authorize it’s agents to investigate southern abuses. Even

better, the Civil Rights act of 1866 declared formerly enslaved people citizens and granted them

equal protection and rights of contract, with full access to the courts. These angered southerners

and Johnson vetoed both. Anxious to protect freed people and reassert Republican power in the

South, congress took further measures to sustain civil rights. In what became the Fourteenth

Amendment, ratified in July 1868, it declared that all persons born or naturalize in the United

States were citizens. No states could abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the

United States. No state could deprive any person life, liberty,or property without due process of

the law. No person could be denied equal protection. The fourteenth amendment declared that
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when people’s essential rights were at stake, national citizenship took priority over citizenship in

a state.

In February 1869, the last amendment of the era was passed. The fifteenth amendment

gave all male citizens the right to vote irrespective of race, color, or previous condition of

servitude. One year later it was ratified. Before this, lawmakers had left emancipated slaves in a

condition of semi-citizenship with no rights to vote. Luckily, like most Americans, congressional

Republicans had extraordinary faith in the power of the vote. The fifteenth amendment definitely

expanded freedom for African Americans. Women in America were not as lucky.

During the civil war, many women took on roles of men. They staffed the postal service,

worked in factories, took over farm work, and filled jobs in hospitals and school. Some women

even worked as spies and scouts for the army. Surprisingly, some even dressed as men and

fought alongside soldiers. Women had hoped that the fifteenth amendment would read race,

color, sex, or previous condition of servitude. The word sex would prove impossible to obtain.

Although many fought for women’s suffrage, organizing associations and fight for their rights,

women were ultimately denied the right to vote. It seemed as though freedoms were being

expanded for African Americans but despite bravery and hard work freedom to vote was not to

be for women.

From slavery to abolition, black codes to civil rights, and African Americans winning

suffrage while women were denied, freedom has never been guaranteed but something that must

be fought for. Slavery was horrible and though many people disagreed with it, it took a war and

thousands upon thousands of deaths to stop it. Even after the war that ended slavery, some still

tried to hold African Americans in the bonds of slavery. President Lincoln lost his life. Although

suffrage was extended to African American men, it would take many more years for that
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freedom to be extended to women. Liberty has been fought and died for since the beginning of

time. Although no one alive today was present for any of these events, everyone should learn

about them. Liberty is never as safe as some people may think. Most importantly, freedom has

never been free.

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Sources

America’s History Volume 1: To 1877

Edwards, Hinderaker,Self Henrette