rights, believed that theydisserved the same rights as the white people. ...I am not willing to fight for anything lessthat the white man fights for.......Give me my rights, the rights that this Government owesme, the same rights that the white man has, p.208. This tells me that the AfricanAmericans wanted no less than what the white people already had. And that is not a badthing. Everyone disserves to be treated equally, where does it say the black man is a lesserbeing than a white man. It says that nowhere, throughout time oppressed people haveearned their freedom from the oppressors. For example look at ancient Egypt, whathappened to those slaves, they were freed, the Roman Empire which thrived for so longcollapsed, lived off of slavery. Time has proven that societies that live off of slaverycollapse after time.A lot of African Americans wanted a say in the Government, and who was electedinto office. This meant the right to vote, which is the right held by all Americans now. Back then only male landowners could vote. The African American man wanted thatchanged, he wanted the right to vote and be voted for. p.208 This quote is saying thatthe African American not only wanted the right to vote, but to run for a governmentposition. We ask to be made equal before the law; grant us this and we ask nomore,p.225. The way I interpreted this is that the African Americans wanted all of thesame rights granted to the white people. I dont blame them for wanting that, after beingdrug away from their homes, forced to work to death, they disserved no less from people.The African-American soldiers fought for full citizenship in the United States,p.206. In 1857 the Supreme Court had rules that African Americans were not citizens. So there were restrictions on free blacks before the war. They could not move to anotherstate, or serve on juries and testify in court, and not attend public schools. The AfricanAmerican was fighting for these ...
