Essay On The Contradiction Of American Freedom
The Contradiction of the American freedom and Slavery: Freedom not so for all U.S. History 1301 The English literature mastermind, Samuel Johnson, once exclaimed “How is it, that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes?” The people of the United States had to fight for freedom in multiple occasions; as a nation through the American Revolution, but also as individual groups such as the Abolitionists, and later on through the Women’s Suffrage movement and Civil Rights movement. For, the same document that created this great nation did not protect all those that took shade under its umbrella. It is of great irony then that a nation that birthed itself out of the principle of human freedom is the same nation that prospered by the principles of human slavery. The contradiction manifests itself in three ways: a revolution that sought an unprecedented freedom from the tyranny of England while it continued to dehumanize its
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own people; the men who penned the greatest document were oppressors of Slaves themselves; and furthermore, the remarkable event of writing the American constitution, a paradigm of freedom, was in itself a contradiction for failing to protect the ‘people’ it was written for. The American Revolution frees men while enslaving the other The American Revolution was an exceptional feat for its time, not only was the insurrection of colony successful, but it was so under ideals of human freedom, dignity and equality. Though, many European nations, namely England and France, at the time had democratic ideals for their own citizens, it was more than often stifled by monarchism, feudalism and imperialism. The United States was the first nation to get close to the ideals of a democratic republic; that is a representative democracy by government that was ‘for the people by the people’ at the time. The American Revolution later became a model that many nations thereafter would emulate and ‘a city upon’ a hill that would become the beacon of light for freedom for years to come. Yet, the freedom that resulted from the revolution was inherently contradicting. George Washington, undoubtedly one of the greatest men in history of democracy for willingly abdicating his power was once quoted to say:
The foundation of our empire was laid in the gloomy age of ignorance and superstition, but at an Epochal when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period…Happy, thrice happy shall they be pronounced hereafter, who have contributed anything, who have performed the meanest office in erecting this stupendous fabric of freedom and empire on the broad basis of independency; who have assisted in protecting the rights of human nature and establishing an Asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions.
How inconsistent it is then, that a nation that desires freedom due to grievances of inequality, a nation that plans to ‘assist and protect the rights of human nature…for the poor and oppressed of all nations’ forgets its own men?
Many blacks of the time falsely believed that their freedom was at hand with the American Revolution. Ironically, the indentured servants who were the masterminds behind the ‘bacon’s rebellion’ an upheaval based upon the need for equality between their rich counterparts would also later seek to become slave masters themselves. It was a contradiction because while, they violently opposed inequality and tyranny of England on Americans or the rich on indentured servitude they actively ignored the cries of many blacks’ grievances. Many blacks at the time refused to watch while their white counterparts sought freedom and in order to ensure their human dignity, petitioned the General Assembly of New England in 1779 as
such
“We are all Creatures of that God who made of one Blood, and Kindred, all the Nations of the Earth and can never be convinced, that we were made to be Slaves. We are impatient under the grievous yoke and look up to your Honors, (who are the fathers of the People) for Relief.” In 1780, blacks elsewhere in the state petitioned that “all the Negro Servants in this State Do in a most humble manner Cry unto you for Liberty.”
Though, the wording is different what differences do the grievances of the founding fathers’ have from the grievances of the slaves? Nothing, except for the deliberate blind eye the founding father’s employed against their brethren of African heritage. This leads one to ask himself/herself what the biggest contradiction between the American Freedom and American Slavery really was and the answer is nothing further from men, the founding fathers themselves. Events and revolutions are only a consequence of people’s action, and the men of the revolution, their ideals and actions cannot be reconciled. Advocates of freedom, equality and human rights and oppressors of slaves Thomas Jefferson principal author of the Declaration of Independence, president, author, a man with democratic visions and a human right’s advocate was himself an owner of a few hundred slaves. He was not alone in this however; many of his counterparts also followed pursuit and were proud of owners of Slaves, including George Washington. It is quite different for a revolution to have a separate ideal agenda while having a separate practical platform; for it is a collective effort of many minds and cannot be attributed to the wrong doings of a selected few easily. It is entirely a whole different issue, conversely that a man can so whole heartedly believe in an idea yet live his whole life contradicting it. Thomas Jefferson writes “That these are our grievances which we have thus laid before his majesty, with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a free people claiming their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.” He affirms that these rights of freedom are God given, inevitable, inalienable rights but denies it to those that prepare his meals and at some point even bear his children. More often than not, the founding fathers echoed words of freedom and equality on a constant basis but, it leads one to wonder if they truly believed it themselves or if the scope of those ideas were not as far reaching as one would think. The plot however, only thickens with the inscription of the American Constitution. It does so because, the founding fathers failed yet again to ensure freedom for “all the men created equal”; failure that resulted in devastating and brutal oppression of a group of people for centuries. The U.S. Constitution enables Slavery by ambiguity and lack of clarity The penning of the U.S. constitution was perhaps one of the greatest moments in the history of democracy as well as ensuring freedom and human rights. The Constitution later became a paradigm of a true democratic society. However, the event is yet again another inconsistency between the American freedom and American Slavery. A document created to ensure that the ‘people’ of America had a true representative government, a document that ensured a set of rights that the government could not abolish deliberately ignored one fifth of the American society at the time. The issue of the Constitution and Slavery is not that the document was a tool for the advancement of Slavery in itself, but that it deliberately failed to protect those under it through abstract terms and lack clarity of what was meant by the word such as ‘persons’. In the March 16th, 1989 edition of the ‘North Star’ Frederick Douglass wrote:
The parties that made the Constitution, aimed to cheat and defraud the slave, who was no himself a party to the compact or agreement. It was entered into understandingly on both sides. They both designed to purchase their freedom and safety at the expense of the imbruted slave. According to Douglass, the freedom ensured by the Constitution for the American people meant slavery for others. There is no such thing as a subjective truth. All universal truths are objective in nature this includes human dignity and freedom. Henceforth, a Revolution that sought freedom, men that advocated equality and an event that created one of the greatest documents to ensure natural human liberty and rights all did so in a selective manner fueled by self-interest. Thus, the American Freedom and the American Slavery were logically contradicting; for a universal truth cannot be selective or applicable to some only because, it is by nature universal and applicable to all. Furthermore, the event of writing the Constitution was signed by so called representatives of the people. Yet, all the ‘people’ were not represented. While, the States spoke on behalf of the welfare of their people and the interests of advancement of livelihood, they deliberately ignored one fifth of the United States. That statistic was even higher in the South where some States had Slaves citizens as high as two thirds of their total population. Arguably, one of the greatest days in the insurance of freedom failed to fulfill its true agenda for its ideals and practical use were, contradicting. By virtue of logic and universal truth, the freedom of one man while the enslavement of another is not freedom at all, but a mere façade or reflection of subjective lies; Americans, therefore, could not have desired their freedoms more for the men who needed freedom the most were not accepted as true citizens of the country.
Bibliography
“Citizens All African Americans in Connecticut 1700-1850: Slavery & Freedom in the Era of the American
Revolution, 1775-1800." ACcessed December 3, 2013. http://www.yale.edu/glc/citizens/stories/module2/documents/pdfs/mod_2_digging_deeper.pdf. (Page 7)
Frederick, Douglass. "North Star: The Constitution and Slavery." Teaching American History. Accessed
December 5, 2013. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-constitution-and-slavery/.
"Quotes about the American Revolution." Good Reads. Last modified 2003. Accessed December 5, 2013.
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/american-revolution.
own people; the men who penned the greatest document were oppressors of Slaves themselves; and furthermore, the remarkable event of writing the American constitution, a paradigm of freedom, was in itself a contradiction for failing to protect the ‘people’ it was written for. The American Revolution frees men while enslaving the other The American Revolution was an exceptional feat for its time, not only was the insurrection of colony successful, but it was so under ideals of human freedom, dignity and equality. Though, many European nations, namely England and France, at the time had democratic ideals for their own citizens, it was more than often stifled by monarchism, feudalism and imperialism. The United States was the first nation to get close to the ideals of a democratic republic; that is a representative democracy by government that was ‘for the people by the people’ at the time. The American Revolution later became a model that many nations thereafter would emulate and ‘a city upon’ a hill that would become the beacon of light for freedom for years to come. Yet, the freedom that resulted from the revolution was inherently contradicting. George Washington, undoubtedly one of the greatest men in history of democracy for willingly abdicating his power was once quoted to say:
The foundation of our empire was laid in the gloomy age of ignorance and superstition, but at an Epochal when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period…Happy, thrice happy shall they be pronounced hereafter, who have contributed anything, who have performed the meanest office in erecting this stupendous fabric of freedom and empire on the broad basis of independency; who have assisted in protecting the rights of human nature and establishing an Asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions.
How inconsistent it is then, that a nation that desires freedom due to grievances of inequality, a nation that plans to ‘assist and protect the rights of human nature…for the poor and oppressed of all nations’ forgets its own men?
Many blacks of the time falsely believed that their freedom was at hand with the American Revolution. Ironically, the indentured servants who were the masterminds behind the ‘bacon’s rebellion’ an upheaval based upon the need for equality between their rich counterparts would also later seek to become slave masters themselves. It was a contradiction because while, they violently opposed inequality and tyranny of England on Americans or the rich on indentured servitude they actively ignored the cries of many blacks’ grievances. Many blacks at the time refused to watch while their white counterparts sought freedom and in order to ensure their human dignity, petitioned the General Assembly of New England in 1779 as
such
“We are all Creatures of that God who made of one Blood, and Kindred, all the Nations of the Earth and can never be convinced, that we were made to be Slaves. We are impatient under the grievous yoke and look up to your Honors, (who are the fathers of the People) for Relief.” In 1780, blacks elsewhere in the state petitioned that “all the Negro Servants in this State Do in a most humble manner Cry unto you for Liberty.”
Though, the wording is different what differences do the grievances of the founding fathers’ have from the grievances of the slaves? Nothing, except for the deliberate blind eye the founding father’s employed against their brethren of African heritage. This leads one to ask himself/herself what the biggest contradiction between the American Freedom and American Slavery really was and the answer is nothing further from men, the founding fathers themselves. Events and revolutions are only a consequence of people’s action, and the men of the revolution, their ideals and actions cannot be reconciled. Advocates of freedom, equality and human rights and oppressors of slaves Thomas Jefferson principal author of the Declaration of Independence, president, author, a man with democratic visions and a human right’s advocate was himself an owner of a few hundred slaves. He was not alone in this however; many of his counterparts also followed pursuit and were proud of owners of Slaves, including George Washington. It is quite different for a revolution to have a separate ideal agenda while having a separate practical platform; for it is a collective effort of many minds and cannot be attributed to the wrong doings of a selected few easily. It is entirely a whole different issue, conversely that a man can so whole heartedly believe in an idea yet live his whole life contradicting it. Thomas Jefferson writes “That these are our grievances which we have thus laid before his majesty, with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a free people claiming their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.” He affirms that these rights of freedom are God given, inevitable, inalienable rights but denies it to those that prepare his meals and at some point even bear his children. More often than not, the founding fathers echoed words of freedom and equality on a constant basis but, it leads one to wonder if they truly believed it themselves or if the scope of those ideas were not as far reaching as one would think. The plot however, only thickens with the inscription of the American Constitution. It does so because, the founding fathers failed yet again to ensure freedom for “all the men created equal”; failure that resulted in devastating and brutal oppression of a group of people for centuries. The U.S. Constitution enables Slavery by ambiguity and lack of clarity The penning of the U.S. constitution was perhaps one of the greatest moments in the history of democracy as well as ensuring freedom and human rights. The Constitution later became a paradigm of a true democratic society. However, the event is yet again another inconsistency between the American freedom and American Slavery. A document created to ensure that the ‘people’ of America had a true representative government, a document that ensured a set of rights that the government could not abolish deliberately ignored one fifth of the American society at the time. The issue of the Constitution and Slavery is not that the document was a tool for the advancement of Slavery in itself, but that it deliberately failed to protect those under it through abstract terms and lack clarity of what was meant by the word such as ‘persons’. In the March 16th, 1989 edition of the ‘North Star’ Frederick Douglass wrote:
The parties that made the Constitution, aimed to cheat and defraud the slave, who was no himself a party to the compact or agreement. It was entered into understandingly on both sides. They both designed to purchase their freedom and safety at the expense of the imbruted slave. According to Douglass, the freedom ensured by the Constitution for the American people meant slavery for others. There is no such thing as a subjective truth. All universal truths are objective in nature this includes human dignity and freedom. Henceforth, a Revolution that sought freedom, men that advocated equality and an event that created one of the greatest documents to ensure natural human liberty and rights all did so in a selective manner fueled by self-interest. Thus, the American Freedom and the American Slavery were logically contradicting; for a universal truth cannot be selective or applicable to some only because, it is by nature universal and applicable to all. Furthermore, the event of writing the Constitution was signed by so called representatives of the people. Yet, all the ‘people’ were not represented. While, the States spoke on behalf of the welfare of their people and the interests of advancement of livelihood, they deliberately ignored one fifth of the United States. That statistic was even higher in the South where some States had Slaves citizens as high as two thirds of their total population. Arguably, one of the greatest days in the insurance of freedom failed to fulfill its true agenda for its ideals and practical use were, contradicting. By virtue of logic and universal truth, the freedom of one man while the enslavement of another is not freedom at all, but a mere façade or reflection of subjective lies; Americans, therefore, could not have desired their freedoms more for the men who needed freedom the most were not accepted as true citizens of the country.
Bibliography
“Citizens All African Americans in Connecticut 1700-1850: Slavery & Freedom in the Era of the American
Revolution, 1775-1800." ACcessed December 3, 2013. http://www.yale.edu/glc/citizens/stories/module2/documents/pdfs/mod_2_digging_deeper.pdf. (Page 7)
Frederick, Douglass. "North Star: The Constitution and Slavery." Teaching American History. Accessed
December 5, 2013. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-constitution-and-slavery/.
"Quotes about the American Revolution." Good Reads. Last modified 2003. Accessed December 5, 2013.
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/american-revolution.