It was later adopted by many young black fans of rap and hip-hop, the word had been used by black comedians, like Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy and movies about urban culture. ... Plaskett stated, "You see, I"m a Southerner and the word offends me," she says, "Because when I was growing up it was a very hateful, very hurtful word. ... So I would like to never hear the word again." ... The Civil Rights Era in America was about Black people who struggling in all levels not to be called or treated like "niggas." Blacks fought to be treated like human beings with an equal rights for freedom, justice...

• Word Count: 1650
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Dana, the modern black women, is summoned to save and work for Rufus, a white son of a plantation owner, out of his misery. ... Slaves are considered property because they were black and labeled as subhuman. To enforce the status of blacks being property, white owners would use inhumane violence as a form of punishment. In Kindred, Dana disobeys Tom Weylin, Rufus father, when he clearly warned her not to read anymore and suddenly one day Dana gets discovered, Weylin says, "Didn't I tell you I didn't want you reading' 'I treated you good' said Weylin 'he sna...

• Word Count: 1077
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Even though Lincoln knew slavery was wrong and the blacks should be free he still wanted to send them back to Africa or unoccupied lands, again does that sound like someone who deserves the name "The Great Emancipator". Because to me I thought if he truly wanted and respected the ending of slavery he would keep the black slaves apart of the Union where they were free to do what they wanted "in a nation where men were created equal" . To me it seems as if Lincoln was uncomfortable with the idea of having blacks live in the United States and wanted them out. ... As quoted b...

• Word Count: 1118
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

As long as people remained ignorant about the realities of slavery, they were not motivated to action, but stories like Jacobs' showed the need for reform. "Pity me, and pardon me, O virtuous reader! ... She wanted her readers to understand the perils of enslavement, and try to relate to what it feels like to be owned by another human being. ... "The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me....This Fourth of July is yours not mine.... He used the Biblical reference of the enslaved Israelites and com...

• Word Count: 1369
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

He mentions that "[a] want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me"(Douglass 310). ... Jacobs would have liked to believe that the bond of gender was stronger than the racial differences, so she tried to evoke agency among the white women of the South by asserting that while they remain inactive, they participate in the enslavement of themselves. ... It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free"(Douglass 343). In the fi...

• Word Count: 1523
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Examining the role that religion played in the African-American community, primarily pre-civil war, can be a difficult task due to the limited amount of evidence available.1 While it is a common notion that slavery life was embedded with Christian ideals, a Christian-like ideology is likely more accurate.2 Syncretism occurred with the combining of African tradition and Christian principles to create an African-American spirituality specific to its people. ... Relying mainly on emotion and charisma, black preachers could speak confidently to their peers even with their limited knowledge of t...

• Word Count: 1954
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Like most slaves of the day, Frederick Douglass did not have close ties to his family. ... In 1838 Douglass tried again and successfully escaped to New York City posing as a black sailor, he explained, "A new world had opened upon me"1. Fredrick could then continue to fight for black freedom and civil rights. ... This newspaper finally gave the black people of America a voice. Douglass acted as an interpreter for the entire black community and necessitated black civil rights through his newspaper. ...

• Word Count: 1350
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

" In the introduction the author guides us through her history of Sierra Leone and how she never really heard the story of the Amistad revolt, as she would have liked too. ... Iyunolu Osagie also discusses the nonstop responsibility of Sierra Leoneans in the educational development of Africans after emancipation and in the development of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. ... As I did online research to go deeper into the story I found movies that have been filmed about this specific slave ship revolt which helped me a little more in understanding the trials that the Amistad r...

• Word Count: 725
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

"Being continually beaten, and almost famish'd; so inhuman are the Blacks to one another," this production causes the Africans to change into a culture that treats each other like products which creates a slave nature of inhumane commodity. ... "They give in exchange slaves whom the Arabs bring from the land of the Blacks, and gold tiber. ... A negroe in the West Indies informed me, that after having been employed in kidnapping others, he had experienced this reverse. And he assured me, that it was a common incident among his countrymen.... "They are carried like sheep...

• Word Count: 1507
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Section 1: Question 2 Slave narratives such as The Narrative life of Frederick Douglass and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl help readers try to experience and understand what life was like as a slave. ... Education was very specific to white culture and widely denied to Blacks in America. ... I have often wished myself a beast It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me" (Douglass, 53). ... They are both placed in intermediary stages where they are too white for the Blacks and to Black for the whites. ... Harriet Jacobs made it clear that in the case of black w...

• Word Count: 1740
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Frederick Douglass was the most important black American leader of the 19th century. ... However, the prefaces also implicitly place black narratives under the control of white editors. ... It is like Douglass is saying "I exist" this is my name this is how I look like and here you have a document which proves it. ... Douglas described his early self to live like a pig, a property having no right to his own person. ... At that specific moment Douglas undergoes a kind of epiphany, when he said I quote "I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty - to wit, the w...

• Word Count: 2277
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

If each slave was counted as a full person the south would have benefitted greatly, but instead they were stuck on the evil idea that African-Americans could not be considered a person like a white man. ... After researching this it is clear to me that the evil lies in a persons hesitance to speak out against the majority unless they stand to benefit. ... After being brainwashed into believing African-Americans were property, many whites were not ready to allow blacks to be completely equal. ... Gordon-Reed is trying to get at the idea that whites are considered to be more trustful than blacks...

• Word Count: 1706
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Even though slavery has been outlawed throughout the globe, human trafficking has boomed on the black market, from babies to adults of any gender, age, or ethnicity. ... Legalization would not glorify prostitution and the other related industries like many opponents believe but, would give the women who work them some of the dignity they deserve. ... As Julia Roberts says in Pretty Woman "It's not like anybody plans this; it's not your childhood dream" no woman ever thinks as a child"I want to be a hooker when I grow up". ...

• Word Count: 2641
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

On the other hand, like most puritans of her time, Mary Rowlandson wrote to discover God's purpose in her life. The Narrative of the Captivity is a personal account written by Rowlandson of what life in captivity was like. ... During his journey, Equiano's is exposure to Western customs initially frightened him, writing "and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that they were go to kill me" (Equiano) and eventually seeing Europeans as "men superior to us" (Equiano). ... For example, Rowlandson, in her first encounter with the Natives she is quick to...

• Word Count: 1490
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

King Leopold's Ghost tells a story of the Belgian King Leopold II and his misrule of an African colony, named (at the time) the Congo Free State. It is a wild and unpleasant story of a man's capacity for evil and the peculiar manifestation of it. In telling this story, Hochschild does a wonderful jo...

• Word Count: 2087
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate