Life Liberty In America Analysis

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By 1860, 221,000 free African Americans lived in the North, far from the racism and injustices that occurred in the South where slavery remained a dominant force. Yet, while the North is often looked upon as being righteous and pure in the period before the Civil War, it truly was a place where discrimination and prejudice dwelled. Freedom, or the ability to have and share beliefs without being silenced and being seen as equal to all others, was not a right held by free blacks in the North. Although free blacks in the North were released from the bonds of slavery that restricted those in the South, they were not able to vote, get a decent job, serve on a jury, or be seen as anything but inferior to their white peers, which made them far from being free. This lack of political, economic, and social rights left free African Americans as being treated without the basic …show more content…
Unenslaved African Americans in the North were not free since the little economic freedom they possessed was given to them by white Northerners as a means of manipulation. In the North, black people were denied the same opportunities and treatment as white people and viewed as being subhuman. Despite being oppressed by white people, African Americans were only treated equally when it would be beneficial for white people. This can be seen in Charles Mackay’s, Life Liberty in America: or Sketches of a Tour in the United States and Canada in 1857-1858, which describes how free African Americans were subject to abominable treatment from white people who refused to interact with the inferior black community. And yet, while African Americans were forbidden from partaking in the many activities of white people, they were still required to pay taxes alongside their white peers. The fact that African Americans were neglected by the white community and then exploited for the benefit of the white community is beyond appalling. The