Reconstruction And Reparations

Racism and hate have played a major role in United States history. These words have been the fuel behind slavery, inhuman treatment, and genocides. The Kosovo, Native Americans, Japanese, and African Americans are some of the prominent races that have been affected by racism and hate. The U.S. have given reparations to the victims of Kosovo, Native American, and Japanese, but no reparation have been given to African Americans. For five hundred years, the U.S. forced African Americans into slavery. As an African American woman in 2013, the question “ What ever happen to reparations for African Americans?” lingers in my mind. Don’t we deserve reparation just as the Native

Today’s slavery is one of the most diabolical strains to emerge in the thousands of years in which humans have been enslaving their fellows. In the modern global society, there are not just only one kind of human race that specifically victim of human traffic, today it come in all races, all types, and all ethnicities, which became the “Equal Opportunity Slavery” that Bales and Soodalter were mentioned in their book, The Slave Next Door. It is proving itself to be worse than the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade that historically took place from the 1500s to the 1800s.

Reparations for slavery have been a topic among scholars and regular people for years now. During the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War many freed slaves were promised 40 acres of land, as a form of reparations.(Staff www.The Root.com) However, this became an empty promise and nothing was enforced to help African Americans become socially, economically, or politically leveled with white Americans since. African Americans were enslaved to work for big corporations and never received any form of wages after the abolishment of slavery. Businesses that thrived off slave labor continued to succeed after the Slavery Abolition Act, while freed slaves were stuck without any assets to properly function in society. To

Former slaveowners would still demand to be addressed as “master” or “missus” instead of “boss”. General hatred of freedmen was detrimental to African-American’s safety, which was unfortunately very common. (Document C) Henry Adams witnessed this abuse and recorded the prejudice, writing “they were going to kill me and every other Negro who told them that they did not belong to anyone”, even though this was now illegal. Town, city, and state governments went so far as to produce the black codes, which severely limited African-American’s rights to live outside of their white ownership. (Document B) Violence during this time was prevalent, as white Southerners threatened to “kill everyone they found leaving their masters” (Document C) and breach their basic rights in the

The article, “The Case for Reparations”, presents itself with a commendable representation on how the need for reparations is essential when combined with the brutal history of slavery and progression of blacks in American Society after slavery. Ta- Nehisi Coates argues that the relationship between racial identity and reparations is based upon America’s debt to blacks for the countless years of injustice. With this he demonstrates how white supremacy has ultimately used impractical measures to maintain what they consider social stability for those who were not African American.

The answer; while Europe had abolished slavery, the racism dating back to the days of slavery still existed. The conference in reality had no intention of freeing Africa of its negatives, but instead, exploited the circumstances/situations of Africa to fuel the European commercial machine.

The Freedmen Bureau was agency to help former slaves and some white people in the southerners. The Freedmen agency started by the congress in the 1865. This agency was very helpful and it gave many good opportunities for African American. The agency was protecting their civil rights and the agency said “civil rights are basic human rights belonging to all people”. That’s why they protect their civil rights.

Until the the civil rights movement in the 1960s African Americans dealt with public segregation and discrimination.This means that it is not just slaves that suffered from slavery, it is also African Americans today making the descent of slavery to receive reparation relevant.The demand for reparations does not mean anti-white Americans or any individuals, rather it is request for American government and society to pay the damage they have caused. The government previous efforts to address socio economic problem of African American are too little and have not shown much improvement in the lives of African Americans. Reparations will not cause African Americans dependency on white Americans. Instead it will give individual African Americans and the community a way to better their

At the turn of the 19th century, the South was booming with slavery because it had become a source of economic progress. Many Southerners viewed African Americans as property and individuals who only had enough intelligence to work with their hands and do minimal jobs. Contrastly,

The Civil Rights Act was one of many laws and amendments passed during the reconstruction era. It provided citizenship for all men "without distinction of race of color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude". Jackson originally vetoed this act but the veto was overridden by Congress. Only months before the Civil Rights Act was passed, the

In the article, “The case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author examined African American history as it relates to slavery and oppression. The article discussed slavery experiences, unjust laws, current issues, and reparation ideas. Coates (2014) examined past events that occurred to prevent African Americans from being equal to whites. According to Coates (2014) African Americans were vulnerable because they did not have protection from law. The article discussed how African Americans suffered many loses due to whites such as voting rights, taxes, and property lost. African Americans were still at a disadvantage when certain laws were put into place in their favor. Coates (2014) gives great insight of the unfairness and hardships. The article also gives great examples of current issues that African Americans encounter in today’s society, such as health care and employment. Coates (2014) main purpose is to encourage readers that African Americans deserve compensation for years of oppression. The author also believes that reparation is necessary and would be very beneficial.

Throughout the history of mankind, a vast variety of achievements can be noted. Whether it be the discovery of fire, electricity, democracy, etc., humans have mastered the art of advancing themselves toward modern civilization. However, the history of mankind is also burden with many acts of darkness. Centuries ago, the slavery system was created and this hateful act continues to haunt the world to this day. A common miss conception of slavery, is that it began with the Europeans kidnapping Africans and taking them to the New World for agricultural purposes. However, slavery stretches much farther than the early developments of the United Sates. For example, the word slavery is derived from the root word “Slav”, which originated from the the Slavic people who were subjugated by other Europeans in the early developments of mankind. (Azumah) Western slavery is often connected with being the most heinous act towards the African people in history. With that said, many people are unaware of the Arab Muslim slave trade that occurred which resulted in the deaths of millions of more African lives than American slavery. (Azumah)

Should America Pay? Slavery And The Raging Debate On Reparations, is a book written by Raymond A. Winbush. The purpose of him writing this book was to give the world an opportunity to look honestly at our economic and political history as a global community, and to change the system as a whole. In 2001 Raymond participated in the Jubilee movement and preparations for the world conference against racism that took place in Durban,South Africa. It opened his eyes to the conflict of the past, present, and future. He felt like the government avoids these issues as a whole. Society also inspired him to write this book. Society says that color people are suppose to forgive and forget about slavery, and the hardships for blacks after slavery. They say it didn’t happen to us, it

After thoroughly inspecting the information displayed by “Slave Kingdoms (episode 3)”, it awakened me to the lasting dynamic slave trade left on the Africa nation. I had always heard of the Trans-Atlantic slave and how Europeans transported roughly about 11 millions of African slaves overseas, impacting so many peoples lives. Depriving women and children of their culture, heritage, history and even their names. The triangular trade got it name due to the fact of the transfer between Africa, European buyers and new world America distributers. In the early 18th century, Britain became known as the world’s leading trade country, but what I was not taught about, before this video clip, was Africans selling other Africans into slavery.

A visitor at a sugar plantation in the 1630’s describes a scene of “People the color of the very night, working briskly and moaning at the same time without a moment of peace or rest… this indeed is the image of hell” (Morgan 35). Through the course of history the enslavement of others fueled some of the most notable feats the world has come to recognize. Southernization produced a plethora of technology advancing trade around the world. The Europeans, only being partially southernized, looked for routes to Asia and pushed to establish colonies in the atlantic to heighten their economy which lead to an influx of slave labor. In the ancient world slavery was common however, as the New World economy emerged so did dehumanizing chattel bondage which laid the foundation for modern racism in which white people believed their biology was differing of those of color and therefore justification for enslavement of millions of people.