Posted: October 6th, 2022

Meaning of Freedom for Ex-Slaves

American History.

Group A
Meaning of Freedom for Ex-Slaves
Before and during the civil war, there was no freedom, especially for the forsaken families. Most of the blacks and poor whites were imposed on slavery to work for the feudal lords who grabbed and owned lands in various parts of the states. Slaves lacked freedom, and their human rights were always violated. They worked without payments, imposed on high taxes and faced corporal punishment. End of civil war marked the beginning of freedom to the slaves and poor people who faced oppression where elements like economic opportunities, gender roles, religious independence, and family security changed.
To begin with economic opportunity, during slavery, the slaves faced brutality, denied rights like marriage, owning property, wages and more. Freedom after civil war marked the end of the brutality where ex-slaves started enjoying their rights. First, they were able to hire or purchase fertile land as much as they could. They were allowed to do farming and agribusiness for the produce they got. Also, wages were granted equally without discrimination with minimal and stabilized taxes. In the element of gender roles, slaves were denied education; women were only restricted to be homemakers and men as workforce in plantations. With freedom, all genders enjoyed the equal opportunity in formal education. Even women enrolled in architecture, mechanical studies and many more trainings were initiated. Also, men took control and care of the family, unlike before, where the feudal lords took control of all families. This opened up opportunities for advancements of the ex-slaves.
The Republicans believed that the presidential Reconstruction was compassionate and merciful. People felt that the president’s plan was so efficient to bring the citizens to the union after a long period of no peace among them. Johnson wanted to restore union as fast as possible but in his way by the plan called presidential Reconstruction. Apart from the requirement that he eliminate slavery, renounce secession, and abolish the Confederate obligation, he granted the whites a free hand in managing their affairs. Johnson seized property from the poor and gave back to white southerners, issued the best wealth to Confederate officers and government officials, and demoralize the freedmen’s bureau. He also allotted governors to conduct the new state constitution drafting which constituted policies that eradicated slavery. Even though Johnson’s plan was so useful in strengthening his presidency, it was so discriminative. Only white affairs were considered and their rights protected, but contrary to the slaves’ expectations. Due to that situation, the slaves resisted by creating a Black Code policy, which re-enforced equality. (Appelbaum NP). The Black Code law requires African Americans to follow the plantation discipline, which included yearly contracts with better wages.
After the congress assembly, Radical Republicans emerged and called for a new southern government based on equality and freedom to all people regardless of the race. On the other hand, moderate republicans supported President Johnson’s plan as they modify it to the best. Moderate Republicans were numerous in the state and had a greater influence on supporting Johnson’s reign. But congress fought for freedmen’s bureau and civil rights bill, passed by the elected senators in 1865. The bureau and the bill were used to oversee the transition of slavery to freedom. Therefore radical republicans were so important for the change in the life of slaves and those who faced their rights violated. However, despite moderate republicans fighting for abolishing slavery, they did not consider individual freedom, like making personal decisions. They changed slavery to be the common laborious in the plantation through the payment of wages, which was opposed by radical republicans who wanted everyone to work where they prefer good, enjoy equal opportunities and observe their rights.
Presidential Reconstruction of Johnson was typically a failure. Johnson felt that the support that the radical republication was giving the slaves was the main result of civil war and violation of the states` power. He did not offer any security for ex-slaves, and his pardons allowed many of the same wealthy southern landowners who had held power before the war to take control of the state governments. His strategies were against land policy which stated that land and property ownership was a right to every citizen.
In most cases, political violence was as a result of revolt from the brutalized slaves thus Johnson’s plan was to seize numerous political violence. Contrary to the ex-slaves` hopes, he leads to increase racism and imposed slavery though in such a way that was not as harsh as before the civil war. He prioritized the whites-only, which allowed them to underrate rights and use the blacks as an instrument of work. (Appelbaum NP). Due to racist faiths and belief in states` rights, Johnson rejected the civil right bills believing his presidential powers were being under-estimated. In good luck of ex-slaves, the civil rights act succeeded in working over the president’s refusal marking it the first significant legislation in the states` history. In this case, the radical republicans got a good opportunity of reaching their goals. In a short while, they made the amendments of the bill where they involved the birthright policy for every child born in states. Additionally, they forbade the president and his government to deprive any citizen of equality.

Group B response.
Populists or peoples` party pursued to rethink the relationship between government power and freedom to control the crisis that the slaves and common people were facing. They felt that the government, instead of considering the common people for the freedom, it was served only for wealthy whites. During the time, only gold coins were used as currency and were only possessed by wealthy ones. Furthermore, the government was running private parastatals using government funds instead of public companies. As per the populist, the government was supposed to own railroads and telegraph lines instead of running private businesses. This strategy would help the companies to become independent, and those companies will no longer brutalize farmers. They also urged the government to create more silver coins instead of gold coins and implement their usage so that the local farmers would have more money to solve their bills. So Populists wanted to elect a president who would work in the interest of all and gain freedom and equality for the common people.
The populists had a radical political agenda, and they well conveyed messages to all parts of the state through newspapers seeking peoples` support in electing a good president. In their mind, they suggested electing the Democrat nominator William Jennings Bryan to support Free Silver currency. They believed that at that time, freedom meant freedom for the feudal wealthy people who normally worked for hand in hand with the government. They wanted to make freedom instilled to all people, especially the common poor people who could not fight the government in any way. They aimed to achieve economic independence and prosperity that would help them to overcome oppression from the wealthy land and company owners. It was the only best solution for the common people to restore their freedom; hence the Populist Party was so radical to them politically than the government itself.
In the early years of European colonization, there were frequent land clashes, especially between the white settlers and the Indians, who the native owner of the American land. The white settlers created people forces that grabbed lands from the Indians, leaving them densely populated in poor unfertile lands. This situation leads to the eruption of war, as Indians seek to reclaim their native lands. Though the war was on their side, they only managed to recover a few reservations for settlement. (Sarah Np). Even though they settled in those reservations, they faced a lot of crises such as poverty, lower living standards and malnutrition since they had no place to farm or work for their living.
The white settlers underrated the Indians as inferior people who had no idea of fetching gold from the ground. They used that opportunity to oppress the Indians in such a way that they forced them to change their faith to Christianity to benefit from the white settlers` stolen wealth. In 1887, the congress voted in the Dawes act, which its main objective was to replace tribal culture and believe in individual faith. The act also stated that land was to allocate individually in which the white settlers took as an advantage to violet the right of faith of the Native Americans. They forced the Indians to change to Christianity before giving them individual ownership of the land. In this case, the Indians were striving to get the freedom of faith and equality in terms of land allocation and political contribution so that at least their rights can be considered and addressed. For them, freedom was just like a piece of cake, and they lacked support and power to solve for it. Thus by the time the US Indian reorganization act was formed, they fought tirelessly for their freedom. The act allowed them to reorganize their tribal government and ended land allotments forming the reservation system as before and now in place up to date.
In the 18th century, the Americans lived in rural sustaining communities that practiced tribal governance and property ownership, especially lands. They mostly depended on peasant farming and plantations laborious for those who were a bit wealthy. The industrial revolution changed everything, including lifestyle, living standards, infrastructures and economic platform. Economically, the industrial revolution announced the arrival of capitalism. All employees were assured to periodic and good wages equal to the working rate. This process inspired large populated American states to become economic gurus competent to the worldwide markets. In the political sector, before the industrial revolution, there was a collision between an agrarian society which depended on slave work and industrial society who paid wages to their employees. With the industrial revolution, many employees become financially stable and become vocal political class, thus helping in instilling legislation that promoted equality. (Niiler NP). Furthermore, since people were now able to get salaries and wages and allowed to make their own life decision freely, they followed their faith as they wished to.
On the other hand, the industrial revolution brought some harm to American workers. It brought about social, financial and environmental demerits to the people. Socially, there was frequent immigration of workers to most developing cities leaving rural plantations despite knowing that those plantations were the main source of substance and commercial produce. Industrial working conditions highly affected workers’ health, especially the industries that dealt with harmful products. Financially, there was I big integration between social classes. There emerged rich social classes and poor social classes who had different influence on society. Therefore, the rich tended to accumulate wealthier as much as they could. Lastly, environmentally, the industrial revolution brought about pollution, which becomes a threat to the workers and their families.
Work cited.
Appelbaum, Yomi. How America ends. December 2019. Document. December 2019.
Niiler, Eric. How industrial revolution changed American life. 21 January 2019. Document. 21 January 2019.
W., Sara. How freedom mean to the native people of America. 21 September 2016. Document. 21 September 2016.

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