Shaqona Payne

Dr. Richmond
African American History
9 October 2013
Free Black Americans
We all as human beings have the right and power to act or think as one wants without
impedance or suppression. What defines freedom, and who decides if we are free or not? During
the eighteenth century slavery in some areas was still taken place. January 1, 1863 marked the
day that the emancipation proclamation was passed freeing the black Americans. What did
freedom really mean to black Americans, which seem to be so complicated? In the following
passages, I will discuss the many challenges faced by free black in America to guarantee their
actual freedom, and why it was so strongly sought after hard times of enslavement.
Many freed black Americans faced many major challenges in America during the
eighteenth century. Racial violence increases over time, as easily as the eighteenth century while
troublemaker and mobs began targeting black intuitions, disrupting service of black churches,
and sometimes even attacking black congregations, while they tried to develop their own
communities. (White, Bay, and Martin, 2013, 196) President Johnson issued a black code
which required blacks to have a curfew and also carry around with them identification. If this
code was not followed black Americans were punished, placed in jail or even beaten. Finically
black Americans could not support themselves. Some still worked for their master after being
freed. Some black Americans lacked education and the ability to read which was also a major
challenged that was faced by freed blacks Americans. They (black Americans) debarred of the
right of free citizenship by being subjected to a trail without the benefits of a jury and subject to
prosecution by testimony of slaves without oath by which they are placed on the same footing.
(White, Bay, and Martin, 2013, 195). The system was set up in a way so the black Americans
would still fail in life and still dependent upon white Americans.

Black Americans was granted their freedom, but was not actually free. The emancipation
proclation ended slavery but did not end its legacy. In 1874 Jim Crow Laws was passed which
separated the whites and blacks. Black Americans was not able to dine in with white Americans
or even use the same bathroom as them. If so, black American were tormented by the whites by
being beaten very badly, spat on, or even killed. Blacks were never looked at as human being,
but were more so looked at as a disgrace. Despite of all the cruel treatment, black Americans still
fought for their freedom in so many ways. They started riots, organizations, and began to
boycott, and go on strike for many different reasoning.
Though black Americans lived a very hard baring life, they strongly sought and fought
for their freedom. Blacks wanted to be treated equal as white Americans. They wanted to be
independent and treated with dignity and respect. Black wanted to have the same equal right such
as, voting, owning property, and walking around freely by choice. Blacks were never treated
fairly by the content of their individuality but by their tone of skin. Changed needed to happen,
in which they all pulled together to build a community and to be self sufficient.
In conclusion, life for black Americans has always been difficult due to racial contents.
Black Americans was never considered free despite of the constitutional law. They had to deal
with racial violence on a daily basis, Jim Crow laws which separated them from white Americans
and black codes which gave them limitations. Separate but equal, really in all reality equality
was never a factor involving black Americans during the 18th century and even today. So what is
freedom and who decides if we are free or not? Freedom is defined as the right to enjoy ones
citizenship and individuality. We as all Americans determined our own personal freedom despite
of what law that pass and states if we are free or not.