In 1776, the population census claimed 2,929,214 individuals earned their freedom from England through the Revolutionary war, meanwhile 757,208 Africans were kept bound against their will in slavery (Braudel pp. 22).
Many Americans died in the war to win their national freedom from England, slaves in turn felt they had earned just the same respect to abolishing slavery. The American Revolutionary war and American Slavery movement were wars fought to revolutionize American freedom and were for the same purpose of equal rights. There were many causes leading up to the Revolutionary War, which Americans considered unjust and invasive enough to expect war with Britain. Beginning in 1763, the British began taxing the colonists heavily after defeating France during the French and Indian War. Many colonists felt they were being taken advantage of, as they had been dragged into war because it was fought on their land. Many British forces were killed during the war, which gave reason for the Crown to view the colonists heavily in debt to their service.
When France lost the war it ended with them ceding much of the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains, which Britain declared off limits and unexplorable. A reoccurring trend in early American history was persistent westward expansion, after being told they could not advance into the land, the ruling turned many Americans away from the unfair British declarations and seek a more independent union. (Braudel 54-56) Following the Proclamation of 1763 Britain began an aggressive taxing plan, as the French and Indian War had nearly doubled their national debt (Braudel 60).
The Essay on African American Slavery
America is a racial country, which consists of many different nation people. In the period of 17th and 18th century, Africans were the main colonials in American. By the American Revolution, 20 percent of the overall population in the thirteen colonies was of African descent. The legalized practice of enslaving blacks occurred in every colony. ' American's Journey Through Slavery, the first ...
In order to successfully claim these taxes Britain had stretch an already exhausted military to keep government officials safe. At the time, the Sons of Liberty, comprised of American radical patriots, often took the law into their own hands by rebelling against laws they felt unjust by tar and feathering British tax collectors. The Crown first demanded colonists stopped printing money or any bills of credit. Taking away their right to regulate and maintain their own economy devalued the American trade of goods.
The Sons of Liberty, speaking out against the British, distributed ideas of opposition through newspapers among the general population. In 1964 sugar imported from the West Indies had to pay higher tariffs as the British Easy India Company was given a monopoly to trade tea in America, and therefore prohibited any sale of tea other than theirs, leaving prices of tea to skyrocket. Tea was a massive part of the colonist’s culture; often they would drink 1.2 million pounds a year (Old South).
As a result of the higher price, the Tea Act angered the Colonists to take action against the Company by dressing up as Indians and dumping 342 chests of tea overboard into the Boston Harbor (Old South).
In response to the Colonists actions, the Crown outlawed town meetings and closed the Boston Harbor. Colonists viewed these acts as a menace to the liberties of all America, and as the consequences was imposed on all Colonists, many moderates found it difficult to speak in favor of Parliament after this ruling (Ammerman 118).
The first slaves traveling to the New World were indentured servants who earned their freedom after four to five years of work. To combat the high turnover of replacing a workforce, America adopted chattel slavery: the indefinite owning of someone as property. As early as 1865, whites had begun to institutionalize chattel slavery into the Constitution. Laws written into existence at this time were known as Black Codes, such as slaves were property of their handlers. Slaves were not allowed to leave the property without permission or accompanied by a white person. Slaves were not allowed to read or write, or be taught either. Any slave that attempted to run away received the death penalty if caught. Any slave that attempted to run away received the death penalty if caught (Digital History).
The Essay on United States Slaves Slave Slavery
Black Rebellions, An Unachievable Goal for Slaves in the South Full scale slave rebellions as those planned by Nat Turner, Denmark Vessey, and Gabriel Prosser were not common among the African American community in the United States in the nineteenth century. This was due to a lack of hope among the slaves in the South, slave patrols, the fact that less than five percent of the slaves could read, ...
Slaves in bondage believed these dehumanizing codes directly promoted an unequal lifestyle between blacks and whites. Slaves rose up in both the north and south to abolish slavery. Frederick Douglass, a slave of Maryland, was taught how to read and write from an early age. By reading newspapers and political papers he questioned the institution of slavery.
Douglass had his abolitionist views printed in the weekly journal The Liberator, which were distributed around Boston and the surrounding area. Getting the otherwise unknown and cruel stories of slavery to the masses was the first step in enlightening the population to bring about a change (“Digital History” 1).
Much like the Sons of Liberty acting out against Parliament’s beliefs, slaves had to resort to small, quickly subdued revolts. Nat Turner, a slave of Virginia, led a small rebellion against his white masters in 1831. He believed all whites were the cause of this unfair slavery.
His radical band of 70 slaves indiscriminately murdered sixty white men, women and children before being stopped. His goal was to strike terror and alarm, and to alert them to how serious their cause for freedom was (Christian pp. 45-46).
The Sons of Liberty and writers of The Liberator were both outspoken fundamental groups who successfully brought about change, as well as the importance of the violent outbursts at the Boston Harbor and Nat Turner’s rebellion. By utilizing resources and technology to inform the masses and effectively persuade the American population, each movement achieved their goals of equal rights for all, and severance of all unjust rulings, by unifying the people against a common enemy and persevering through overwhelming odds.
Works Cited
Christian, Charles M., and Bennet, Sari, Black saga: the African American experience: a Chronology, Basic Civitas Books, 1998
Braudel, F. Civilization & Capitalism 15th-18th Century: The Perspective of the World. London: William Collins Sons. 1985
Digital History. “Radical Reform and Anti-Slavery.” Digital History, Web. 2 Feb. 2012. 07 Feb.
2012. <http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=629>. Ammerman, David. In the Common Cause: American Response to the Coercive Acts of
The Essay on Slavery A Wond In History
How can slavery be described? Maybe, not by many or not at all by those who have experienced it. Frederick Douglas offers one of the biggest insights into how slave life was. Slavery in America goes back to the start of the African Slave Trade (Class Notes). When the first ship came ashore Africans were amazed and had no idea or understanding of what was going to happen to them. Most of them had ...
1774. New York: Norton, 1974.
Old South Meeting House ‘”How the Boston Tea Party Began.” Old South Meeting House. Web.
16, December 2011. 07 Feb. 2012. <http://www.oldsouthmeetinghouse.org>
