Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom and “Or Does It Explode?”

I found both of these readings to be interesting tellings of history that I had heard a little about before, but probably did not know the full story of. It was not until this year that I learned that Abraham Lincoln was a racist. I think he typically has a good reputation because he is remembered for emancipating slaves, but this is not something that he did willingly. He basically just did whatever was in his political favor. When slavery was not as profitable as it had once been he decided that it was then time to emancipate the slaves. It is annoying to watch out politicians do what is in their best interests for gaining power, rather than what is morally right. I saw this repeated through both chapters. I was so annoyed reading about Truman claiming he was going to do something when he was not taking advantage of his powers as president and using legislation that was already enacted.

I think both chapters illustrated how much power the people have. Even if legislation is passed on something, if the majority of people do not agree with it or do not abide by it then it really does not matter. For example, even when there were civil rights laws on the books that should have made violence against black Americans illegal, if the general population still has animosity toward black people these laws will not mean much and not truly be enforced. Another situation of laws existing, but doing nothing  occurs right after slavery was ending. Though all slaves were technically free citizens now, there was no way for them to be successful in America because they were entering a society built on their backs, but not built for them. There was no way for them to acquire land and they ended up being tied to white men by working on their land yet again.