Perhaps more well known then the terror, and genocide of the natives was the dehumanizing exploitation that was the slave trade. The horrors these African American men, women, and children faced under the merciless hand of the white men that reigned over them. There were no breaks in the fence to escape from this cruel form of human ownership, for a long time to come. Frederick Douglass experienced this practice first hand, and never would have gotten free if it hadn’t been for having learned, “[Literacy] had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out. In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity” (Douglass 36). The slave owners would not allow a slave to even think of educating themselves, for to keep a slave manageable was to keep him ignorant. The Gettysburg Address brought a fresh sense of hope to these men and women suffering for white people 's luxury. President Lincoln addressed, “This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” (Lincoln). This land of the free must stand for it so proudly proclaims. In conclusion, the Thirteenth Amendment justified that, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United
Perhaps more well known then the terror, and genocide of the natives was the dehumanizing exploitation that was the slave trade. The horrors these African American men, women, and children faced under the merciless hand of the white men that reigned over them. There were no breaks in the fence to escape from this cruel form of human ownership, for a long time to come. Frederick Douglass experienced this practice first hand, and never would have gotten free if it hadn’t been for having learned, “[Literacy] had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out. In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity” (Douglass 36). The slave owners would not allow a slave to even think of educating themselves, for to keep a slave manageable was to keep him ignorant. The Gettysburg Address brought a fresh sense of hope to these men and women suffering for white people 's luxury. President Lincoln addressed, “This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” (Lincoln). This land of the free must stand for it so proudly proclaims. In conclusion, the Thirteenth Amendment justified that, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United