The Amistad case is an interesting one and surprisingly well handled by the United States government. There were plenty of legal challenges that the United States became quickly aware of before pursuing further on the case. The United States government gathered all the facts that were available to them at the time and acted appropriately in this situation, making sure that the African Americans on the La Amistad would receive justice in America. Despite the verdict of the Amistad case the details forced Americans to reexamine slavery. When the U.S. coast guard interrupted an unknown schooner and brought it on to US soil a lot of questions were being asked. In order for the United States officials to truly understand what was occurring they …show more content…
Supreme Court. The verdict towards the Amistad case remained the same. This case tested the United States government’s abilities while providing other insights for Americans. The Amistad’s became a huge attraction to the American people as they became interested in every aspect of the case whether they were for or against the ruling forcing Americans to reexamine their thoughts on slavery. Abolitionists sought the Amistad case as an opportunity to prove to not only the United States government but to all Americans as well that African Americans have been treated unjust by using Amistad’s as an example. Abolitionists played a huge role in the Amistad case by providing the Amistad’s with appropriate counsel and also teaching them English and how to survive and cope in America such as “experiencing their first harsh weather, exposed to new diseases, and the length of their separation from their homeland growing with no end in sight” (Amistad case 4). Abolitionists even provided ways to create funds so that they could get Amistad’s back home where they belonged; they really began to care for them. On the other hand other Americans, mostly the slaveholding south, thought differently as they were still hoping that slavery would …show more content…
The United States government put together all the testimonials from all involved in the Amistad case and even brought outsiders to confirm conditions where these African Americans were claiming to be from. Despite all the legal challenges brought to the United States government, they responded appropriately in making sure justice was served where it needed to be in return the Amistad case forced Americans to truly reexamine life in
Both, “The Interesting Narrative Life of Olaudah Equiano” and “Amistad” are important stories about slavery in pre-civil war america because they both address the issues of slavery. These gentlemen in the story made a difference in the slave trade. In “The life of Olaudah Equiano”, Olaudah was sold on a slave ship that came to the Barbados. Olaudah worked for his freedom, and in the end became efficient in American language. He worked his way to the free life and in the end it worked out for him, although it leaves scars on his soul. In “Amistad”, Cinque is a slave that leads a revolt on a slave ship after escaping. When they get to america, Baldwin, a lawyer that is representing the slave and the former president Adams helps free the slaves.
...es such as Georgia to deny blacks their civil rights as well as federal protection. Wexler reveals the shameful standards of the investigation which was simply a cover up from beginning to end. There is also some feeling with regards to the racism and hatred of the white townspeople who almost thought that the blacks actually deserved their terrible fate.
The 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act grants Cubans a unique place in U.S. Immigration Law and Policy by declaring that all those who arrive in the United States are accepted as political refugees, and are eligible to become legal permanent residents after one year (Marc R.). It was created to offer protection to Cubans escaping oppression from their Communist government. As might be expected, this law is always the debate of Cubans who think about coming to America seeking freedom and a better life. For many Cubans to reach American territory is all a dream, mostly because of the chances of attaining a better economic situation for themselves and their families. A lot of them also pursue to reunite with their families in the United States after many years of separation. Some others are opponents of the Castro regime. Because they don’t have freedom of speech and can see their lives threatened if they speak out against the government, seek for more political freedom and a democratic form of government, in a land of capitalism where there are fewer restrictions and more opportunities.
...upreme Court case was soon lost to history amongst the rest of those entrapped in the institution of slavery.
The court case of Plessy vs. Ferguson created nationwide controversy in the United States due to the fact that its outcome would ultimately affect every citizen of our country. On Tuesday, June 7th, 1892, Mr. Homer Plessy purchased a first class ticket on the East Louisiana Railroad for a trip from New Orleans to Covington. He then entered a passenger car and took a vacant seat in a coach where white passengers were also sitting. There was another coach assigned to people who weren’t of the white race, but this railroad was a common carrier and was not authorized to discriminate passengers based off of their race. (“Plessy vs. Ferguson, syllabus”).Mr. Plessy was a “Creole of Color”, a person who traces their heritage back to some of the Caribbean, French, and Spanish who settled into Louisiana before it was part of the US (“The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow”). Even though Plessy was only one eighth African American, and could pass for a full white man, still he was threatened to be penalized and ejected from the train if he did not vacate to the non-white coach (“Plessy vs. Ferguson, syllabus). In ...
... guilty. The high consequences helped the South recapture their runaway slaves and easily bring them back to the South. Sadly, this also made kidnapping easy because the victim had little chance of getting past the jury and could be wrongly accused of being a runaway. Wrongly accused African Americans were most likely sent into slavery with the kidnapper. This left African Americans no way to defend themselves against the prejudiced kidnappers and slave masters.
In this story it clearly shows us what the courts really mean by freedom, equality, liberty, property and equal protection of the laws. The story traces the legal challenges that affected African Americans freedom. To justify slavery as the “the way things were” still begs to define what lied beneath slave owner’s abilities to look past the wounded eyes and beating hearts of the African Americans that were so brutally possessed.
In 1850, congress made the Fugitive Slave Law. The law mandated that all slaves that escaped from the South had to be returned to their rightful owner. After the Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court case the blacks were not considered citizens of the United States. In the court case of United States v. Morris, a slave named Shadrach was being held for a hearing, because he escaped from Norfolk, Virginia to Boston. The Fugitive Slave Law mandated that Shadrach needed to be sent back to Norfolk to his rightful owner. A large crowd came into the courtroom and helped Shadrach escape to Canada. Eight of the people who helped Shadrach escape were charged with violating the Fugitive Slave Act. The jurors acquitted the emancipators even though they were clearly guilty. Using the legal theories of Natural Law, Legal Realism, and Positivism I will explore the ruling of the Morris jury.
...ough they won the case, it didn’t change what had happened to them, their lives were still never going to be the same again. This was all because of the introduction of colonization to their land. Colonization although might have brought some good things such as newer technology that helps us now, it tore apart cultures and societies that had already existed.
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1948 would have lasting negative effects on Mexican Americans. The Treaty was signed after America had won the Mexican American war. America gained possession of the southwest states that had been part of Mexico for the price of around eighteen million dollars. In Article IX of the Treaty, it states that the Mexicans "shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty and property, and secured in the free exercise of their religion without restriction"(Vargas 139). And as Rachel Rivera points out Article VII promised the Mexicans the right to keep their land which previously belonged to Mexico. However, the Treaty would not grant the Mexicans the rights it offered. For the next hundred and twenty years the Mexicans would be oppressed and discriminated against because of the Treaty. The Treaty was the beginning of the hardships for the Mexicans. They would have to survive in the developing white society. The white society would grow and grow in the southwest, turning the Mexicans into a minority. In Zaragosa Vargas’s book Major Problems in Mexican American History, Vargas delves deeper into the problems of Mexican American History. In our Latinos in the U.S. class, we have discussed the fact that Mexicans in the United States have dealt with many problems which have gone ignored by mainstream society. The website Chicano Park illustrates how Mexican Americans have used art as a collective voice. The documentary Chicano! focuses on how the people found their voice. In the film we see that the social movements of the 1960’s allowed Mexican Americans to raise their voice against the discrimination they had lived with for over a centu...
Since the beginning of slavery in the America, Africans have been deemed inferior to the whites whom exploited the Atlantic slave trade. Africans were exported and shipped in droves to the Americas for the sole purpose of enriching the lives of other races with slave labor. These Africans were sold like livestock and forced into a life of servitude once they became the “property” of others. As the United States expanded westward, the desire to cultivate new land increased the need for more slaves. The treatment of slaves was dependent upon the region because different crops required differing needs for cultivation. Slaves in the Cotton South, concluded traveler Frederick Law Olmsted, worked “much harder and more unremittingly” than those in the tobacco regions.1 Since the birth of America and throughout its expansion, African Americans have been fighting an uphill battle to achieve freedom and some semblance of equality. While African Americans were confronted with their inferior status during the domestic slave trade, when performing their tasks, and even after they were set free, they still made great strides in their quest for equality during the nineteenth century.
On December 7th, 1941, Japanese aircrafts attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor (Axelrod 148). Before this, the United States had not entered World War II, but this changed everything. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, which consisted of two waves. By the end of the day, many United S...
There is no other experience in history where innocent African Americans encountered such a brutal torment. This infamous ordeal is called the Middle Passage or the “middle leg” of the Triangular Trade, which was the forceful voyage of African Americans from Africa to the New World. The Africans were taken from their homeland, boarded onto the dreadful ships, and scattered into the New World as slaves. 10- 16 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic during the 1500’s to the 1900’s and 10- 15 percent of them died during the voyage. Millions of men, women, and children left behind their personal possessions and loved ones that will never be seen again. Not only were the Africans limited to freedom, but also lost their identity in the process. Kidnapped from their lives that throbbed with numerous possibilities of greatness were now out of sight and thrown into the never-ending pile of waste. The loathsome and inhuman circumstances that the Africans had to face truly describe the great wrongdoing of the Middle Passage.
Another incredibly notable incident is the Kecksburg incident in December 9, 1965. The incident involved the Crash Landing of an Acorn shaped object with many markings deep in the Kecksburg woods. The writing on the object resembled Egyptian hieroglyphics was also said to be on it around the Acorn’s “ring” at the base. Witnesses who initially investigated were soon sent away as Military personnel descended on the small little town. The Military presence in the area was extreme, the most notable branc...
Beginning in the 1830s, white abolitionists attempted to prove that American slaves suffered physically, emotionally, and spiritually at the hands of those who claimed their ownership (Pierson, 2005). Like those that were seen in our American literature text book. Not only did they suffer from those things, but they also had trouble with their identity once they moved on or was freed from slavery, that’s why we seen a lot of the former slaves changing their identity. Abolitionists were determined to educate the public on how badly slaves were being treated. They even argued the basic facts of Southern plantation life such as slave holders divided families, legalized rape, and did not recognize slave marriages as legitimate (Pierson, 2005). In the interregional slave trade, hundreds of thousands of slaves were move long distance from their birthplace and original homes as the slave economy migrated from the eastern seaboards to Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas (Thornton...