Slavery and White Landowner Essay

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Through out history, people all over the world have fought for their freedom. For over 200 years, slavery was practiced in America. The North and the South were on two totally polar ends. On one side, people were against slavery and wanted to get rid of it while the other agreed with it and believed that it was helped with America’s progression. In my opinion, slavery never should have existed. As a country, slavery should have never been allowed whether you lived in the North or the South. Abolishing slavery was the final step into assuring that everyone in America really had his or her true freedom. Getting rid of slavery certainly was not able to happen over night, it took over 200 years to completely abolish slavery. But, they had to start somewhere. Although some laws were not passed to fully give slaves their freedom, there were some that headed within that direction. For example, after Andrew Johnson’s plan of Reconstruction, the new governments created the Black Codes. The Black Codes although attempted to regulate the lives of former slaves it always granted them rights. The laws granted that the people who were free were given the rights like legalized marriage, ownership of property, and limited access to the courts. “Walter L. Fleming, source 94, pg.7.” Although this wasn’t where full freedom was given, it was a start. In 1866, former slaves were given the opportunity to acquire land as sharecroppers. Sharecroppers worked on white-owned land for a share of the crop at the end of the growing season. It was known to be somewhat of a compromise between blacks’ desire for independence from white control and planters’ desire for a disciplined labor force. There were often contracts between the former slave and the white landowner that stated what the former slave would normally bring to the table. “And we the said Freedman agrees to furnish ourselves & families in provisions, clothing, medicine and medical bills and all, and every kind of other expenses that we may incur on said plantation for the year 1866 free of charge said to Ross.” “Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Tennessee, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, National Archives. Source 95, pg. 11.” The contracts between the two parties just assured that no lines would be crossed through the process of sharecropping. It gave the former slave the opportunity to own a crop with a few guidelines set by a white landowner. Being that one former slave is given the opportunity to do so, he must uphold the standards and guidelines to the white landowner. Giving one such opportunity like this shows that no matter what race, they are able to work evenly to successfully grow crops. Giving a former slave certain privileges and rights was only the beginning of giving those rights to everyone. Everyone in the United States deserves the same opportunities as one another, regardless or race or anything else. The ongoing effort to abolish slavery has only proven that everyone deserves the same opportunities and to have the same rights. “We are a country of all extremes, ends and opposites; the most conspicuous example of composite nationality in the world. Our people defy all the ethnological and logical classifications. In
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