African-Americans: Are We Equal Essay, Research Paper

ARE WE EQUAL?

In the nineteenth century African-Americans were not treated as people. The white men and women treated them as pieces of property rather than people. Throughout this time those men and women fought for their own independence and freedoms. However none of these freedoms happened until the late 1800’s. The black men and women of this time never got the opportunities to earn money or have property of their own.

The black communities thought that when slavery was abolished everything would change. That, however, did not happen. Some things did change but not as many as what was thought. There were still some things that would no be changed for many years. Men still could not own property, vote for their own leaders, or go anywhere the white men were allowed to go. As was the same for the black women. These men and women suffered through wars, beatings, and small rations of food, only to be treated no differently when they were supposed to be free.

There were, however, some men who served in congress and there were men and women who learned how to read and write. Those men and women, who had the privilege to learn how to read and write like the white men and women, were look up to by other blacks. For they, too, wanted the ability to read and write. Having the ability to read and write, to the blacks of this time, was like being given the best gift ever imaginable. They looked at it as having rights to better themselves. For now they would be almost as good as the white people.

Financially, those black men and women would never be able to support themselves. The white community would still never accept a black person to work for them and get paid. If that black man or woman did get the chance to work for pay at a white man’s factory, he/she would never get the same pay as a white man. Even if they were working for the same company and doing the same job. It wasn’t “right” for a black man/woman to be earning the same amount as a white man/woman.

The black men and women of the late 1800’s had to deal with many different things going on. They had to deal with the white men and women treating them like dirt, the wars being fought for their freedom, the names they were called, and the beatings they were put through. That wasn’t right of the white men and women to treat them this way.