Tag: slave

05/23/11

African Burial Ground

For the extra credit i visited the African Burial Ground located on 290 Broadway. The African Burial Ground was a cemetery where over 15,000 African’s were burried by their loved ones during the 6th and 17th century. Buildings were built in place of the cemetery and it was not until 1989 when the burial ground was discovered. Today the African Burial ground is a museum where the lives of northern African Slaves are displayed to the public. In the museum you are allowed to freely explore and look around at the exhibits or take a formal tour. I decided to look around by myself and discovered many contributions that were made to the American colonies by the Africans such as traditional African medical practices that helped prevent the spread of small pox.

02/12/11

BLack code

source:http://www.education.miami.edu/ep/paris/html/black_code.htm
Black code is a series laws passed by the new south government to discriminate against African American. These laws give some basic right to the former slaves, such as legalized marriage, property and limited access to the courts, but they don’t have rights to against whites, such as, voting, serving on juries and in state militias (Foner, 535)
Post the civil war, American government passed 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to protest African Americans and give them civil right to live in United State. However, the new south government used state power to pass law in order to limit African American rights. For instance, African American must sign a year labor contract with their employer. If not, they would be arrested. Black code violated African American’s civil right and their right still is limited as slaves. Therefore, reconstruction became failed.