The Slavery Of African Americans - 1695 Words

Unfortunately, inequality has not completely ceased to exist in the United States of America. As a country, we have had a long history of injustice among our people. From the enslavement of African Americans, to the mistreatment of Native Americans on the Trail of Tears, and the subtle and sometimes overt discrimination oppressing American women today, there has been a long and continuing history of discrimination and unfair action against our fellow citizens. It would be deceitful for us to think that our nation has lived up to the ideals of the words â€Å"all men are created equal† since the day the Constitution was written by the Founders. Slavery comes in many forms, and inequality has existed among many kinds of people, whether the issue†¦show more content†¦Did they intend to leave such an open-ended phrase in a time when many of them themselves owned slaves? I hope that the answer would be that equality is intended for all, but I cannot help but ask myself why the Civil Rights amendments had to be written and why the Civil War had to be fought, or why the Emancipation Proclamation had to be written. Why did minimum wage laws have to be passed and why does gender inequality still exist today? Finally, why did the thought of slavery or any type of human inequality even exist within our country if the Founding Fathers believed that the basis of our country was that â€Å"all men are created equal?† Apparently, the idea of this phrase has not meant the same thing to all Americans in the past and even now. Maybe we cannot reasonably hope that the meaning of this phrase will eventually be perfectly agreed upon, but I hope that America has a better appreciation and longing for supreme equality in the near future. American equality is purer now than in the past, but we remain responsible to ensure the elimination of any vestige of impurity from the future American concept and application of equality. In May of 1851, Sojourner Truth, an Af rican American woman, spoke about her thoughts of inequality among black women in her speech, â€Å"Ain’t I a Woman.† She talked about how men thought women should be treated