Race Relations In The U.S. Essays - Slavery In The United States

Race Relations in the U.S. I've discovered the real roots of America these past few days and decided that writing about it was better than killing an innocent victim to soothe the hostility I feel towards my heritage. I picked up a pen because it was safer than a gun. This was a valuable lesson I've learned from my forefathers, who did both. Others in my country react on instinct and choose not to deliberate the issue as I have. If they are black, they are imprisoned or dead. As The People vs. Simpson storms through its ninth month, the United States awaits the landmark decision that will determine justice. O.J. Simpson would not have had a chance in 1857. Racial segregation, discrimination, and degradation are no accidents in this nation's history. The loud tribal beat of pounding rap rhythm is no coincidence. They stem logically from the legacy the Founding Fathers bestowed upon contemporary America with regard to the treatment of African-Americans, particularly the black slave woman. This tragedy has left the country with a weak moral foundation. The Founding Fathers, in their conception of a more perfect union, drafted ideas that communicated the oppression they felt as slaves of Mother England. Ironically, nowhere in any of their documents did they address the issue of racial slavery. The Declaration of Independence from England was adopted as the country's most fundamental constitutional document. It was the definitive statement for the American policy of government, of the necessary conditions for the exercise of political power, and of the sovereignty of the people who establish the government. John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress and slave trader, described it as "the Ground & Foundation of a future government." James Madison, Father of the Constitution and slave owner, called it "the fundamental Act of Union of these States." "All men are created equal," and endowed by the Creator with the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." They either meant that all men were created equal, that every man was entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, or they did not mean it at all. The Declaration of Independence was a white man's document that its author rarely applied to his own or any other slave. Thomas Jefferson suspected blacks were inferior. These suspicions, together with his prophecy that free blacks could not harmoniously co-exist with white men for centuries to come, are believed to be the primary reasons for his contradictory actions toward the issue of slavery. At the end of the eighteenth century, Jefferson fought the infamous Alien & Sedition Acts, which limited civil liberties. As president, he opposed the Federalist court, conspiracies to divide the union, and the economic plans of Alexander Hamilton. Throughout his life, Thomas Jefferson, hypocrite, slave holder, pondered the conflict between American freedom and American slavery. He bought and sold slaves; he advertised for fugitives; he ordered disciplinary lashes with a horse whip. Jefferson understood that he and his fellow slave holders benefited financially and culturally from the sweat of their black laborers. One could say he regarded slavery as a necessary evil. In 1787, he wrote the Northwest Ordinance which banned slavery in territory acquired from Great Britain following the American Revolution. However, later as a retired politician and ex-president, Jefferson refused to free his own slaves, counseled young white Virginia slave holders against voluntary emancipation of theirs, and even favored the expansion of slavery into the western territories. To Jefferson, Americans had to be free to worship as they desired. They also deserved to be free from an overreaching government. To Jefferson, Americans should also be free to possess slaves. In neither of the Continental Congresses nor in the Declaration of Independence did the Founding Fathers take an unequivocal ezd against black slavery. Obviously, human bondage and human dignity were not as important to them as their own political and economic independence. It was not an admirable way to start a new nation. The Constitution created white privilege while consolidating black bondage. It didn't matter that more than 5,000 blacks had joined in the fight for independence only to discover real freedom didn't apply to them. Having achieved their own independence, the patriots exhibited no