Supporting Arguments: Slave and Citizen

After the Civil War, Negros were emancipated from their slavery.  They mostly had their freedom, but not for the white man that morally did not let go.  Tannenbaum claims that the Negro was kept isolated and looked down at and were never truly considered “a free moral agent” (Tannenbaum 97).  Even though African Americans at that time were legally free, white folks still kept them on the shadows.  Society itself still did not grant them the freedom, respect and position in society they deserved.  I believe some members of today’s society are still unconsciously repeating action of the events that took in the 1400’s because of their disgrace upon the minority, for example.  It has brought new generation of mental slavery and ignorance.

Back then when revolution emerged, it was an expected impact, I presume because of the categorization it was put out on the African Americans. “The abolition of slavery in the United States was cataclysmic and violent just because it seemed so eternal, so faultless, just because the gap the Negro and white man had been made so impassable and so absolute that it could not be bridged by any means of transition, by natural growth and adaption” (Tannenbaum 109).  Tannenbaum's argument is that African Americans have endured and suffered for too long and because of the separation between the races it was catastrophic and violent.  On the one hand, he argues that the only way a white man could accept the free Negro was “to prove the greatest handicap”.  Since that is not the moral way to seek peace and approval the war had to happen. On the other hand, Tannenbaum acknowledges that “the Negro started the Civil war with nothing at all” and that it is something we should never forget (Tannenbaum 113). The main point is that white men should have appreciated what African Americans did for them and they should not have labeled them as slaves from the beginning.  Now and then I wonder what would it be like to live in a community where there is no stereotypes, judgment, misunderstanding, or discrimination among us.