Summary: The Abolitionist Movement

African Americans never tried to improve their status under slavery. Their goal was to eliminate slavery altogether. From the moment they touched the shores of the U.S. they escaped slavery. The white slave master and traders brought tremendous fines and horrific penalties to Africans that were caught and brought back as lessons to others not to try. But try they did and Africans were successful.

From your lecture, we learned the Abolitionist Movement was not a product of white well-meaning Europeans but, the product of Black freed slaves. Frederick Douglass and others were able to relay the horrors of slavery in eloquent and powerful oratories to white audiences. Africans having the ability to shame politicians, conscience whites
After the Emancipation was signed, Africans were still segregated and discriminated against in the South, North and now the West. It was slavery again. Then a young Jamaican with ideas of his own about democracy and freedom, roused the lion’s pride back into the tortured and conflicted mental state of the African. It was so successful and powerful that it made Anglo government afraid. Other ethnics groups thinking Africans would achieve full citizenship before them. Spies and infiltrators were sent in by the American government to crush the uprising. Unfortunately, they were successful and have been successful in crushing or at least marginalizing future African uprising.

Now, Black Americans keep pushing the envelope. Leaders like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and political parties like the Black Panthers, Black lives Matter say, “No More!” As Black people continue to stab at the beast of discrimination and racial prejudice, they have created a path for other ethnic groups. From 1960’s until today we are seeing ethnic groups immerging, standing up and demanding a seat at the table of U.S. citizenship and not accepting crumbs thrown by the Anglo