Founding of American democracy by African Americans (MLA Cited Paper)

Student Name

POL 100 

Professor's Name

February 28^th 2021 

Founding of American democracy by African Americans 

African Americans have suffered from injustice, racism, and discrimination throughout American history. During the 1600s, Portuguese and Spanish settlers brought the first slaves to the newly formed American Colonies. Initially, Africans were bought and sold to work as servants and laborers. However, just after the invention of the cotton grid, states passed laws that sanctioned the enslavement of blacks. Consequently, life under slavery was appalling and arduous as black culture was suppressed during slavery and the country was torn apart by the Civil war. The North's victory helped free four million slaves while the Civil Rights Movement helped bring social change. Through the government’s support for desegregation, racial discrimination came to an end. However, despite the social changes discrimination and repression is still apart of African American life. Also, the African American language, customs, values, artistic forms, and religious beliefs have been reshaped. Thus, African Americans have played a significant role in the founding of American democracy.  

According to Rich Lowry (pg. 5), slavery existed in all colonies, however, events overturned just after American Revolution. Initially, in the early 1600s after African slaves were brought to the U.S, racial inequality mildly existed but profoundly changed as a result of the chattel system. During those times, slaves were granted status and freedom upon expiration of their contracts.  During the last quarter of the 18th century, the ideals of the Revolution and the limited profitability of slavery in the North resulted in its abandonment in northern states. At that time, slaves were allowed to own property and land, however, the chattel system, unfortunately, changes the lives of all black slaves (Rich Lowry, 5). As stated by the law during those times, slaves were the personal property of their owners and as such, they were stripped of their rights. Almost 4 million slaves suffered in the south. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 resulted in an increase in the demand for slaves. This is because plantation owners wanted large amounts of cheap laborers as gang labor was the typical form of employment under the plantation system. 

During that time, enslaved people were not legally allowed to marry. They were as well barred from learning, reading, and restricted from meeting privately in groups (Nikole Hannah-Jones, 6). Also, overseers were harsh as a matter of general practice, and brutality was common. Slaves were not allowed to own property unless sanctioned by a slave master, and rape of a female slave was not perceived as a crime except as it represented trespassing on another’s property. Also, slaves were not allowed to present evidence in courts against whites. For instance, teaching a black to read or write was prohibited in the South. Additionally, in some parts of the United States, mostly in the antebellum South, laws were formulated to define racial group membership in this way, generally to harm those who were not Caucasian. Therefore, it is important to note, however, that ancestry and physical characteristics are only part of what has made black Americans apart as a distinct group, the idea of race, as it applies to the black minority in the United States, is as much a social and political concept as a biological one. 

Just before the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and other leaders of the anti-slavery Republican Party sought not to abolish slavery but merely prevent its extension into new territories and states in the American West. However, this policy was not accepted by most Southern politicians, who strongly thought that the growth of free states would turn the U.S. Power structure irrevocably against them. Shortly after Lincoln’s inauguration as the president of the United States, the Civil War began. His presidential election signaled the secession of seven Southern states and the formation of the Confederate States of America (Nikole Hannah-Jones, 9). Although he privately detested slavery, Lincoln responded cautiously to the call by abolitionists for the emancipation of all enslaved Americans after the Civil War began. As the war progressed, the Republican-dominated federal government started to realize the strategic advantages of emancipation: The liberation of enslaved people might weaken the Confederacy by depriving it a significant part of its labor force, which in turn would strengthen the Union by producing an influx of manpower.  

Since the war was not going well for Lincoln as he was not able to draw enough new white volunteers for the war, was forced to reconsider his opposition to legalizing black Americans to fight for their liberation. Although he made this decision, Lincoln was worried as releasing them would mean allowing formerly enslaved to join the Union army and fight against former “masters” (Nikole Hannah-Jones, 9). This shows that through the efforts of black leaders and president Abraham Lincoln freedom was brought to blacks. African Americans were able to test democracy, with black Americans elected to local, state, and federal offices. This marked a new beginning for African Americans. The 1619 Project also faced criticism, although it’s main aim was to reframe the country’s history by considering what it would mean to regard 1619 as our nation’s birth year. This project was intended to provide a new version of American history in which slavery and white supremacy become the dominant organizing themes (Silverstein Jake, 1). 

In conclusion, slavery’s legacy and efforts to eradicate it remains a central issue in the United States politics, especially during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era and the African American civil rights movements of the 1950s and60s’. However, black leaders, officials, and activities who played a role in the amendment of the constitution ensured the amendment allows everybody born in the United States to a European, Asian, African, Latin American, or Middle Eastern immigrant gains automatic citizenship.  This has ensured equal rights for all Americans doesn’t matter of your race. 

Work Cited

Hannah-Jones, Nikole. "Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true." New York Times Magazine (2019). 

Rich Lowry. The Flagrant Distortions and Subtle Lies of the ‘1619 Project’. New York Times, 2019. 

Silverstein, Jake. "We respond to the historians who critiques the 1619 Project." The New York Times Magazine (2019).