The History of US Racism

Slavery is a big part of our history. It highlights some of the most terrible things that have happened in our country. Slavery has been in the US since it was founded. It started when the United States was under British rule. A slave is a person who is the property of another and is forced to obey him. The first slave ship arrived in the US in the year 1619; slaves were shipped from Africa to the U.S. The slave ships carried about 250 to 600 slaves on each ship. In total, it’s estimated that 12.5 million people were enslaved in the U.S.

Slaves had to do many types of jobs, such as Bakers, Barber, Blacksmiths, Brewers, Bricklayers, Drivers, Cooks, etc. They had to work from the morning to night, about 10 or more hours a day. If they messed up or disobeyed their owner they would be brutally punished.

Slavery continued in the US for hundreds of years and didn’t end all at once. Slavery played a key role in the events of the Civil War, one of the biggest war’s the United States had fought. There were many protests, until finally, on September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation, and on January 1, 1863, he made it official that slaves would be free. On January 31st, 1865, passed by congress and corrected on December 6th, 1865, the 13th amendment finally ended slavery.

After slavery ended, segregation started. Although segregation wasn’t as bad as slavery it was still really bad. Black people still didn’t have the same rights as white people. Black people’s lives were still very tough. They weren’t allowed to sit on the same bench as white people. They had separate housing and education away from white people. Everything that white people had was a lot better than what black people had. On a bus, black people had to sit in the back, and if there were no seats left and a white person wanted to board the bus then a black person would have to give up their seat. This is what segregation was. The act of separating and discriminating people by the color of their skin.

However, some people were willing to stand up to this injustice. One key person who led the Civil Rights Movement in the USA is Martin Luther King. He gave many speeches and led many protests. One very famous speech was his “I have a dream” speech. This speech focuses on his dream of black and white people together. He is a very famous and important person in the Civil Rights Movement.

Another person who helped end segregation was Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks was famous for her actions when being asked to give up her seat. Like I said before, black people had to sit in the back of the bus and if there weren’t enough seats then a black person would have to give up their seat. Rosa Parks was black and when she was asked to give up her seat she refused. As a punishment, she was thrown in jail. Her arrest started the Montgomery Bus Boycott which consisted of 17,000 black citizens. Their success launched efforts from all over America to end racial segregation.

Another important Civil Rights leader was Malcolm X. Malcolm X was an African American leader in the Civil Rights Movement. Along with being a minister, and supporter of black nationalism. Like Martin Luther King he gave many speeches. He urged black Americans to protect themselves from white aggression. He wrote a book called “The autobiography of Malcolm X.” Even after he died this book and its ideas inspired many people, black and white, to stand up and end segregation. Finally, in 1954 the Supreme Court outlawed segregation.

Slavery went on for so long because people’s lives were easier with them. Not all of those people were bad. In those days, almost everybody had a slave. When most people are doing anything, your perception of whether it is right or wrong changes. White people had a hard time giving black people the same rights as them because they didn’t see them as equals; they saw them as people who were less than them. I don’t think that everyone who didn’t stand against slavery was evil. It takes a lot of courage to publicly stand against something that everyone is doing, and not everyone has that courage. That doesn’t make them evil.

I also don’t think that all slave owners were evil. After all, everybody had slaves back then. It’s a common human trait that when there is something that is popular other people would want to do it despite whether it is right or wrong. People had to justify slavery and how what they were doing was right.

However, I believe that everyone knew in their hearts that slavery and segregation were inhumane and wrong. Many people may wonder that if slavery happened so easily then how do we stop it from happening again. I think the answer is learning from our mistakes. If we keep on preserving our history of slavery and segregation and teaching it to the future generations, then slavery won’t happen again, because everyone will know that it’s wrong. That is why it is important to learn about terrible events like this so we can stop them from happening again.