Research Paper on African Americans

During the entire nineteenth century, the issues of and the questions about free Afro-Americans were very relevant. Since more and more Blacks became free from their masters, they had to somehow mingle in the society and adapt to regular social life among the white majority. The whites, however, in lieu of helping and supporting the “colored” minority purposefully deprived free African-Americans of human rights and imposed various restrictions. The attitude towards slaves and toward African-Americans on the whole was different in the South and in the North. The Northerners were less harsh to the Blacks and did not oppress their rights and wills as Southerners did.

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This way, more and more slaves acquired freedom either for money or due to ends of serving terms in the North, rather than in the South. Therefore, the majority of free blacks resided in the Northern part of the United States. The population of free Blacks in the U.S. by the end of the first half of the nineteenth century constituted over four hundred thousand people, or over nine percent of the entire African-American population. In the earlier years of free Blacks, the white majority could not accept them because naturally Afro-Americans were regarded as slaves.

And so any black person walking freely and openly on the streets was “nonsense.” Free blacks then were believed to represent a direct menace to white noble society. Not only free blacks were limited in their movements (they were not allowed to settle in several states in the North), they were forced to carry their freedom certificate on them wherever they went. In addition, the laws of the majority of Southern states made free blacks to have a white person as a guardian. Contacts with slaves were also constrained.

However, besides these social restrictions and discriminations, the most horrible manifestations of denial of whites to let them in the society as equal were the violent forays. The violence was eminent in the Northern states, especially in Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio. Due to such kinds of aggressive oppressions, local courts forbade free blacks to reside Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois. After the fiasco of American Colonization Society, which attempted to deport as many as possible free Blacks out of the United States, their life did not improve. As regular citizens, Blacks had to fulfill their social and security needs, they had to work. In these area discrimination was extremely prominent and evident.

White employers refused openly to hire blacks as laborer, let alone managerial positions. In addition to scornful attitudes in business areas, free blacks were treated the same way in educational establishments. Also, nearly every state deprived free blacks a right to vote. Another manifestation of white racism was the dislodging African-Americans to particular regions or neighborhoods. Although allegedly the advantage consisted in the absence of the Blacks in the city streets, it was a hell for the Blacks and also fore the whites who dropped in the hood.

The poor free Negroes, not yet adapted to municipal social life, wasted their lives in the wet basements. For many reasons, most prominent of which were diseases and hunger, the rates of mortality of African-Americans became tremendous. It was the very white racism that circuitously led to thousands of deaths in misery. Despite the fact that African-Americans that have been liberated from slavery toils, the white society did not accept them as a class. Due to continuous oppressions and discriminations, the free “colored” minority experienced tough and harsh times, often living the last in misery and hunger.

And even though the desire to be American citizens was eminent in their hearts, the scornful and violent attitudes did play a huge role in the consecutive life of the Blacks. It is obvious that being under constant pressure would break a person, thus some of the free African-Americans supported the idea of moving away from the United States to more “dark” countries. However, the outcome of the white racism followed another, more brutal pattern. Even after the Civil war, the attitudes towards the Blacks has not been altered. And unfortunately, although in more an ulterior and circuitous form, white racism remains till now.

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