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Vianca Contreras
African American History
Professor Vaz
March 16, 2018
Dating back to the 1400s slavery is an awful part of our history. While this started
happening in different parts of the world, families were being split up and shipped to where ever
they were needed. Families were also split up by war, in doing so trying to find your family
members were close to impossible unless you were sold with your family, even then it was likely
that the father would be owned by a different salve owner than his wife and children. It was very
difficult for slaves who had been torn away from their families to get into contact or reunite with
their loved ones. There was no basic means of contacting other slaves and these people were still
slaves, they had no rights to be able to go out and search for their family. These issues were felt
indentured servant, which was working to pay off your debt, then it slowly turned in to slavery
and you were worked your whole life until you passed away into the next life. Slavery was a
growing business and expanded into North America but also within the slave’s homeland, which
varies throughout the world. Stating that they were treated as second class citizens is an
understatement considering that they were treated like property. Over time slaves had become
fed up with the brutal beatings, lack of medical attention, and the raping of the mothers and
children. African American rose up together and rebelled. In this essay I will be providing
revolutionary revolts that lead to African Americans freeing themselves from slavery, some
would say that Abraham Lincoln was against slavery and freed them, when in fact he did not.
Nat turner is as black American slave whose owner, Samuel tunner found interest in him
due to him being able to read they took advantage of it and made him a house slave.1 They
provided him with one on one education in English and religion. Nat Turners owners had him
going around to other plantations trying to explain to other slaves that they must follow the bible
because it states that slavery wasn’t a bad thing. Needless to say, Nat Turner did not see the harsh
lives of slaves and there day to day life. Nat turner received a sign that what was going on in the
world was not good and he was choose to rise up against the slave owners along with his fellow
African Americans. August 21, 1831 Nat Turner began the revolt, killing his masters and
children. Nat turner gathered slaves from different pastors killing the owners and their children
along the way, this revolt was the domino effect of African Americans no longer allowing to be
repressed. While this revolt was very bloody and many slaves lost their lives, the rebellion was a
stepping stone towards the freedom of slaves. White men and women were in fear of their lives
for what was to come next. One would defend this argument by saying that laws and slave
owners cracked down on the “spare time” they may have, but it sparked hope and a stance on
slavery. Nat Turner was call a prophet and his story was being told in churches and among the
were a group of African slaves called Zanj which is a Arabic for eastern Africans
African American rose up together and rebelled, these revolutionary revolts are just the
tip of the iceberg the lead to African Americans freeing themselves from slavery. Nat turner was
able to realize what was going on and took a stand for their freedom, killing the slave owners
was a stepping stone for the revolts. Another stepping stone was the Zanj rebellion, Ali bin
Muhammad encouraged slaves to stand up and go to war for their freedom while winning some
fights the slaves that were left over were asked to keep fighting and conquer more land to gain
1
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their freedom. The rebellions around the world soon led to positive outcomes, the Haitian
revolution being the biggest eye opener that the slaves had enough with the treatment of their
race. This revolution goes to prove how they found and succeeded in gaining their freedom, this
revolution was one of the biggest while ending with the foundation of a new country. This event
turned into a domino effect and encouraged slaves to once again not give up. Abraham Lincoln is
not the president we thought he was, going around the problem and starting small instead of
getting to the root of the problem. All in all, Africans should be the ones credited with ending
ranch proprietors. According to Gøbel, “the revolution began in 1733-1734 when outfitted slaves
from Akwamu vanquished the disputable Danish island of the West Indies of St. John” (53). The
revolt went on for a half year with many deaths. Also called the St. John Slave Insurrection in
1733, the cruel treatment incited a huge and fast call for resistance. On November 23, 1733,
around 150 slaves from Akwamu Africa, now Ghana, defied their Danish masters. The gravity of
this protection made it one of the best slave revolts in America. For a while, these oppressed
Africans revolted and incensed white-possessed managers to topple them and controlling St.
John.
In 1718, the Danish took over St. John Island to make a sugar plantation and cultivate
crops, for example, cotton and indigo. In 1733, the number of inhabitants of Atlantians in St.
John was in excess by five times that of Europeans: the island had 208 European and 1087
Atlantians. In light of the brutal states of life because of a hurricane, drought and the loss of
yields because of insect pervasions, many Atlantians left the West Indies, with those in St John
leaving their estates for survival. As stated by Hall, Neville and Higman, “some Atlantians died
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of starvation and others needed to steal to live” (69). Due to these events, the provincial law-
making body passed the Slave Code in 1733 to uplift obedience. Punishments for disobedience
were extreme penalties, including flagellum, amputation and hanged to death. Moreover, a
significant number of the ranches of St John were claimed by constrained workers who lived in
St Thomas. These gifts contracted bosses to direct their territories and to oppress the labourers of
St John. Savagery prospered under these conditions because of uncontrolled and uncalled for
authority. Cruelty flourished under these conditions due to clear and unfair leadership.
After the achievement of overthrowing the white group and controlling property, the
renegades spread all through the island and freed other slaved Africans. They ambushed the
Cinnamon Bay Plantation in Central North Shore. Those slaves who opposed the defiance
guarded their proprietors and homes. They opposed the assault by the renegades, evacuated
noteworthy annihilation in May 1734, when French and Swiss troops joined forces from
Martinique to assist the Danes in recovering control of their belongings. As stated by Hall,
Neville and Higman, “the troops were intensely equipped and prepared, such that the goal
restraint of defiant slaves was inescapable” (77). Towards the end of August 1734, the
proprietors took control of the island, and the resistance was proclaimed victorious and ended.
The warriors sought after and murdered or caught every one of the radicals.
On 25th August 1734, the Danish government pronounced the insurrection as quenched
and oppressed. Numerous individuals died amid the transformation, and the enormous
obliteration of property was at that point clear; the major parts of the ranches were in ruins.
Therefore, the proprietors moved from St. John to St. Croix, a close-by rich island that was
purchased by the French in 1733. The Danes immediately re-established their plantations, and
In spite of the annihilation, the slaves died for the advanced triumph. Because of the
resistance, “the Danish government built up a jail and courthouse in Cruz Bay and guaranteed to
enhance the treatment of slaves in St. John, influencing their rights and their requests for the
condition of equity” (Gøbel 95). Ultimately, the building currently known as Battery is the only
government building of Danish expansionism. At that period, the administration had additionally
acquainted a twelve-year design that will disintegrate and annul slavery. Freedom was at long
last an exit from the sun and St. John later turned into a free region. In 1999, US Virgin Islands
race were not as basic as his instant notoriety. Despite the fact that he hated slavery, he adored
association, constitution, and law. For the vast majority of his profession, Lincoln considered that
colonial- likelihood that most African-American individuals had to move out of the United States
and go back to Africa or Central America- was his ultimate tactic to handle slavery issues. His
two powerful political saints, Thomas Jefferson and Henry Clay, supported colonialization; they
each had a slave, and each had issues with slaves. However, they did not see the apparent
contrast between them and slaves living peacefully. Lincoln openly upheld colonialization in
1852 and stated in 1854 in his first response lamented that he would "release all slaves and
in August 1862, Lincoln held an appointment concerning slave’s freedom at the White House,
hoping to achieve a joined forces with them in enacting Central American colonization.
Considering the "difference" between two societies and the state of psychological opposition to
the whites, Lincoln said that "it would be better if we were isolated." Lincoln's colonization
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bolsters caused outrage on black pioneers who asserted that African-Americans were both
regular and equal as white and like this merited similar rights. In the wake of declaring the
the past was abolished when the last declaration in January 1863 was issued.
Liberation was a military arrangement.
In spite of the fact that he hated the foundation of slavery, Lincoln did not see the
common war as a battle to convey subjugation to the nation's 4 million slaves. Liberation would
be progressive when it arrived, and it was also essential to keep the Southern resistance from
severing the union completely into two. In any case, when the Civil War in 1862 entered its
second summer, a huge number of slaves had fled southern manors to the Union lines, and the
government had no clear approach on the most proficient method to manage it. According to
Arnold, “Liberation, as indicated by Lincoln, would debilitate the Confederacy and give the
of the liberation preliminary to his office” (35). Secretary of State William Seward requested to
be patient until the war for the Union was over, or freedom may appear like the final gasp of a
country on the very edge of annihilation. Lincoln acknowledged and altered the plan amid the
mid-year. On September 17, the grisly War of Antietam provided Lincoln an open door he
required. On September 22, he distributed the preliminary declaration in his office and was
distributed the following day. As a group praises the White House, Lincoln talked to them from a
balcony. "I cannot confide in God; I commit mistakes ... It is currently the nation and the world
concern the slave states like the outskirt of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, which
had stayed faithful to the Union. Lincoln additionally discharged chose territories of the
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Confederacy, which were at that point under the control of the Union, planning to increase white
power in those states. With action, the declaration of liberation was then discharged as a slave
freeing, because the main spots where they were connected were places where the national
government has no control: the southern states were at present battling against subjection
advancing vision of slavery and a defining moment in the Civil War. “Towards the end of the
war, around 200,000 black men served in the armed force and naval forces of the Union”
(Trefousse 93), triggering a lethal hit to the foundation of slavery and ushering in the possible
Works Cited
Cromwell, John W. “The Aftermath of Nat Turner's Insurrection.” The Journal of Negro
of African Historical Studies, vol. 10, no. 3, 1977, pp. 443–461. JSTOR, JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/216737.
Westergaard, Waldemar. “Account of the Negro Rebellion on St. Croix, Danish West
Indies, 1759.” The Journal of Negro History, vol. 11, no. 1, 1926, pp. 50–61. JSTOR, JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/2714023.
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Gøbel, Erik. A Guide to Sources for the History of the Danish West Indies (U.S. Virgin
Thomas, St John And St Croix. University Press of the West Indies, 1994.
Arnold, Isaac N. The History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery (Clarke