African Americans Were Not Really Free Essay

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Were the slaves really free after the 13th amendment to the constitution passed? You could debate this in two ways: they were free with more freedoms or they weren’t free with new rights. The way I see it they were not free but did have some new freedoms. The newly “freed” African-Americans weren’t really free for many reasons. The three most obvious were their education, their part in the government, and their treatment in society. The first of these being education is not as noticeable as the other two, but it is still a huge contribution to why they aren’t really free. When they were actually slaves they were not allowed to learn. They were not supposed to go to school or learn how to read and write. After they were declared “free” they were allowed to learn, but when going to school they had terrible books to learn from. They had received these books from the white schools since they didn’t teach the white …show more content…

Congress had passed the 15th amendment allowing the African-Americans to vote. This didn’t do anything, the Southern White citizens found ways to keep them from voting. Such as the Grandfather clause. Which stated that if your grandfather could vote then so can you. Since they had just been declared free their grandfather had not been allowed to vote. This took away another right these “free” citizens were supposed to have. Therefore, not equal or free. Lastly, they are not free in everyday society. It was awful they were beaten, whipped, and shot at, even killed. When asked “Who do you belong to?” the ‘freed’ African-Americans would respond with “No one.” They were then told that they were wrong and they were not a free person. They were continuously threatened by the white people saying they would be hung and shot at if not referring to their employer as master. They were still treated as if they were still property of the White

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