Summary
It's sad, but not sad to believe. African Americans were the only people to care about the principle that everyone should have cared for. That principle was that belief of the natural rights of human beings during the revolution. I know his happened for the simple fact that African Americans wanted the natal rights that they deserved, and the Americans were like well hey I have my natural rights, so I really don't care. I act the same way, but you have to understand that not every may have the same rights that you have or the same opportunities that you have from birth, so you can't be selfish and not care about anyone else. This connects back to the period of the revolution, because the Americans didn't care a penny for the slaves, and they saw them as people who worked for them. The Americans had no sympathy for the slaves whatsoever, and that was because of the selfishness that they had. The Africans cared for the principle of natural rights because they knew it was something that everyone should have enjoyed.
The south could never trust African Americans to do anything. The south believed that if they let the African Americans enlist in the revolutionary wars then they would be in control. The south did not want the African Americans to be free at all in any type of way. It was like because they had them like a band- aid, where you put it on and you didn't want to pull it off. That's how the south acted, they had an acrimony attitude towards the slaves. The south did not want the African Americans to be free in any way. The reason why many people Americans recruited slaves into the war was because they were setting them up to die, and that's what it was about, and I don't understand why many were scared to send many into the war. The war could have been a sign of freedom and a sign of death. Yes, African Americans were free in the war, but they died in the war as well. The fact that Americans were putting slaves into war became unjust for the fact that Americans were taking away property from people to save the property of others. I don't know why they should be talking about unjust, because first of all the idea of using slaves to work for Americans is unjust, because the Americans take away the property of African Americans, which is their natural rights .
Parents of slaves could not do one thing about the painful realities of perpetual servitude. A man watched while his wife was being beaten up by a slave master because the wife talked back to the mistress. Masters and mistresses had ultimate authority over slaves and that's just the way it was. Slaves had no say in anything, it's so sad and thank heavens that the time has changed. Even though slaves were separated the children may have been separated from their parents but the aunts and uncles of the children would fill in the gap and became their father or their mother. It must have been a sad thing, because maybe the slave Children who were separated from their biological parents never got to see them again. Slaves believed that slaveholders were sinners, and the Bible gave them evidence to why that is true. The slaves believed that God sent Moses to free the Israelites, and the slaves also believe that God punished the Egyptians for enslaving the chosen people. This connects to the time of slavery because slaveholders enslaved the slaves, the chosen people of God.
Religion was a big help to the slaves. Slaves sang songs like o' Canaan, sweet Canaan, I am bound for the land of Canaan, they were singing to go to heaven, but as while to reach the North where they could be set free. Also songs like steal away to Jesus. Those songs were chosen by African American preachers, which gave slaves a sense of independence and a kind of freedom, also the courage to resist the slave masters and escape slavery altogether. The book goes on to tell how African Americans had a will that was stronger than be whipped or having a fear of the slave masters. The will was the most powerful thing where slaves had the power to run away, whenever they had the chance and not not be scared to be shot or be whipped, and that's what was important. Slaves started running away because they were tired of being in bondage and could not take the life of being a slave any longer.
Quote
" O, why was I born a man, of whom to make a brute!" The more he thought, the more he knew he wanted his freedom: why am I a slave? I will run away. I will not stand it. Get caught or get clear. I'll try it... I have only one life to lose. I had as well be killed running as die standing... It cannot be that i shall live and die a slave".
( page190-191, Kelley & Lewis)
Reaction
I just love this quote. This quote really has a lot to say about the way all African Americans should have been thinking. This quote was said by Fredrick Douglass and it is so strong. This quote really touches me and I don't even know. I like when he says that hey, I might as well just give it a try and run for my life, I only have one life to lose. it's the same as running away and being shot and standing and being killed. But the disparity is that if you run and get shot you know that you actually did something, you know that you tried to do something to have the freedom that you deserved. There are two options, either you run and get caught or you run and you are clear, which means that you make it, you get away. This quote is just so powerful and it brings me to a better place and it makes me ask myself well, why didn't more people run. People didn't run because they were scared, and there is nothing more to it. African Americans believed that they were held in bondage and there was no way to get out, but if they had the same mentality as Fredrick Douglass, then may be they would have been free too.
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