Life Before And After Emancipation Proclamation Essay

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Slavery: Life Before and After the Emancipation Proclamation

Life before and after the Emancipation Proclamation was quite different in the lives of the slaves back then. Looking back before this great proclamation, slaves were seen as less than humans, mistreated, and endured various hardships. Contrasting with this, was how life was for them after the Emancipation Proclamation, in which the slaves were now free and could lead almost what was normal and productive lives. In this essay, I will give a brief overview of the Civil War, what life was like for the slaves before this great war, the events that led up to this historical incident, the emancipation proclamation, the life of a slave after the Emancipation Proclamation, and what slavery …show more content…

Slaves were forced to work long hours in the heat, were malnourished, beaten, and underwent many more difficulties. Some worked on vast plantations, toiling in the fields, picking cotton and more, while others worked on plantations that were not as big. Some slaves had harsh and brutal masters, while others had kind and gentle ones. But regardless of whichever master the slave had, the slave was still considered a slave, though those with masters that were not so harsh received better treatment than those who did not. Slaves had no rights or say so in American politics nor any other area in the decision making of America or their masters. Slaves were not even considered as people, but as property. The writers of the Constitution even considered them as three-fifths of a person, thus they were seen and treated as inferior to the Whites.
The events that led up to the Civil War each occurred slowly but continuously. While there are various debates on what specifically caused this great event in history, there is one cause that everyone can agree on., and that is the issue of slavery itself caused the Civil War. Failure of the slave states to find a common ground or compromise with the slave states caused the two groups to clash. This divided what was supposedly the United States and before long, war had broken

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