Essay/Term paper: Descrimination

Essay, term paper, research paper:  American History

discrimination

1. The federal government attempted to use many laws to protect the rights of the newly

freed slaves, such as the Civil rights Act of 1866, which gave African Americans the right

of citizenship and forbade other states from passing their own discriminatory laws. This

brought on the Black codes, which restricted much of the African American lives dictating

where they were legally allowed to go and designated places they should be in. The

fifteenth amendment was also passed, which states that no one can be kept from voting

despite their "race", color or past servitude. It seems to nt wanted to lay down the basic

rights for the African Americans of the time, but didn"t want to give them to much

freedom by restricting everything that they did. It seems it was much like probation to me,

giving them a little slack to see what they would do with it, but still not really trusting

them. I think the restrictions on African Americans was a good thing however, with all of

the hatred and discrimination against blacks that was going on at the time. Restricting

what they could do and segregating them from the whites was probably the best thing.

This separation probably saved many of the newly freed slaves lives, the separation most

likely reduced the amount of disputes and violent eruptions between the two races of

people. In the end, although the laws may have seemed like they failed or brought grief to

the newly freed slaves, I feel the laws saved lives, and yet gave the African Americans a

new feeling that they were a part of their country and mattered because they able to vote.

I happen to think the laws passed to protect the rights of freed slaves were a success.