Do Not Stay In The Past But Think About The Future

Sara Bernabe

Mrs.Hesse

English

22 February 2019

                                   Do Not Stay In The Past But Think About The Future

       Why were the people of color being treated like they were nothing during slavery? Why were the whites who wanted to fight for the rights of the people of color being treated like garbage during slavery?Why are the people of color’s being treated horribly, even tough this country was built though their ancestors sweat? Why does the color of our skin, instead of our intellectual capacity, determine our futures? Why do people hurt people knowing that it creates deep cuts that will never be able to heal? During the foundations of America, people thought this was the land of liberty which is certainly not true. Since the creation of America, it has had a cruel history that Americans do not really like to talk about.

        According to “Slavery in America” from the History Channel, “Slavery in America started in 1619, when a Dutch ship brought 20 African slaves ashore in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia. Throughout the 17th century, European settlers in North America turned to African slaves as a cheaper, more plentiful labor source than indentured servants, who were mostly poor Europeans.” The colonists turned to a group of people who did not know the language and their rights so they can easily manipulate them ,in order for the colonists to have workers to build the future country at little to no cost to the colonists. The colonists were exploiting the slaves and not thinking about their future and their next generations who were working so hard to build this country; rather they thought about money that wouldn’t bring happiness. According to “Slavery in America” from the History Channel,“ Slave owners sought to make their slaves completely dependent on them, and a system of restrictive codes governed life among slaves”. When the colonists finally made almost all their slaves dependent on them, then the 13th Amendment was passed to abolish slavery and now all this land that the owner had was now going to waste since they can not exploit the slaves any more which was great .

            According to “KKK Founded” from the History Channel,“In Pulaski, Tennessee, a group of Confederate veterans convenes to form a secret society that they christen the “Ku Klux Klan”. A group of former army men were mad that the people of color were trying to fight for their way for equal respect that they created a small revenge group to come after the people of color. This is horrible because when the whites came to this land and took over native american land the colonists were mad when the natives tried to control them or boss them around : So the same goes to everybody, ”treat people the way you want to be treated”. According to “Slavery in America” from the History Channel,”Former slaves received the rights of citizenship and the “equal protection” of the Constitution in the 14th Amendment and the right to vote in the 15th Amendment, but these provisions of [the] Constitution were often ignored or violated”. Even though the 14th and 15th amendment was passed, people failed to respect this law. Why did the former government not fully protect the people of color and give them justice during the slavery and reconstruction era? Rather the former government let the former slaves go as if they had not contributed to this society that they always dreamed of. The white supremacy group ties in with the slavery era because it was those majority of whites who wanted to make life miserable for the people of color and who ever tried to intervene which made it difficult to resolve the issue. Some of the tactics that the KKK members use was lynching  and etc which was horrible.

         We sing the Pledge of allegiance every morning saying, ”I pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all." Justice for who? Knowing the foundations of this country, their was not justice for everybody and still to this day there is not justice for everybody. The Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776 and this was written 89 years before the end of slavery and in this document it states ,“ all men are created equally” but a lot of people failed to live by this quote and treat the people of color fairly. Slavery ended in 1865 but the people of color were not beginning treated equally but rather like property and were mutilated. Ever since we use this phrase to remind ourselves to stay strong which states,“Black Don't Crack” meaning we are strong and no matter what we will not fall apart but someday we will because holding all our emotions in with slowly deteriorate our happiness. Were you ever given a label that was not true and that prevented you from participating in a really important opportunity? How did you feel?

            Now we have the rights today no matter what the color of your skin is to make a change in today's society. So rise up and speak up for the people who are timid and for the ones who are weak. I say SPEAK. Even though are ancestors were treated like property but now we have the rights to make lives better for the future generations to come. We came so far but we have many more steps to go through before we have equality but at the end of the day fight for what you believe in is right. Just like Martin Luther King did when he shared his, “I Have A Dream Speech” to end segregation .

                                                                 Work Cited

Editors, History.com. “Slavery in America.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 12 

                Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery.

“KKK Founded.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 4 Mar. 2010,

                www.history.com/this-day-in-history/kkk-founded.