Give Me Liberty: The Quest For Freedom & Democracy

GIVE ME LIBERTY Name: Instructor: Course: Date: The Quest for Freedom and Democracy The citizens of the United States continue to struggle to gain democracy and freedom. Different presidents have strived to solve their problems, but at every moment new challenges arise that hinder the successful attainment of the freedom and democracy as declared in the Constitution and the American Declaration of Independence. Eric Foner in his book Give Me Liberty! Especially chapters 15, 16, 17, 19, 20 and 21 narrates the different routes that the USA as a nation has been following to achieve its objective full freedom and democracy beyond its borders and gain international relevance in different activities such as trade. In as much as the USA strives in the presence of other nations to establish freedom and democracy for all, a question that lingers is whether its own people are indeed free especially the black Americans. Why do the atrocities still exist? The USA government only stage-managed fostering of freedom and democracy through reconstruction of freedom, snatching lands from Native Americans, Ku Klux Klan (KKK) The chapter fifteen of Give Me Liberty! By Eric Foner elaborates on the history of reconstruction with an explanation of a 40-acre field and a mule for freedmen. However, the Americans, especially the black community could not comprehend the meaning of freedom due to the weird reactions from the White American people towards the emancipation. The blacks were able to express the meaning of freedom, especially relishing their liberation from the slavery bondage. The reconstruction of the freedom was not accomplished as a new issue of land arose, especially for the blacks who had no freedom to access land. Johnson, who was one of the Friedman wrote “Voices of Freedom” that elaborated the petition in respect to land issues. The issue of reconstruction was to embrace freedom in both north and south. However, the idea brought challenges in the houses of representatives Andrew Johnson became lenient and order many presidential pardons to ex-Confederates with the South implementing the Black Codes. However, the Republicans retaliated with the Civil Rights Act of 1866, Fourteenth Amendment and Military Reconstruction Act. All the fights bore no fruits as they never met the freedom agendas with a Fifteenth Amendment that only denied people to give votes to women. The blacks gained much of the Southern politics due to the reconstruction policy culminating to the blacks occupying over 2,000 offices. Such freedom was a threat the Whites in the south as they treated black to be suffrages. The Ku Klux Klan arose and campaigned in support for violence and terror to deny the black Americans the much-gained freedom in the south and destroy the reconstruction movement. The group was then abolished under President Grant and southerners began the effort to solve the challenges of corruption, misgovernment and the control of both the north and the blacks. Indeed, the USA especially the White Americans spoke of freedom for all and yet they could not allow the blacks to gain the freedom as much as they did in the whole nation.[Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History: Seagull Fourth Edition. Vol. 1. WW Norton & Company, 2013.] Dawes Act Another way that the USA government denied its citizens away to have freedom and democracy is the enactment of the Dawe General Allotment Act. Eric Foner in his book Give me Liberty! Notes that the government of the USA decided to distribute the Indian reserve land among the tribesmen especially the Whites whom it treated as responsible farmers. Senator Henry L. Dawes from Massachusetts sponsored the motion and the law was enacted in 1887 where the president determined the suitability of the recipients of land and issued grants by a formula of 160 acres to each head of household and 80 acres for the unmarried adults with agreement that no grantee could leave or alienate the land for 25 years. Indians who received the land became citizens of the USA who were subject to federal and state laws. Even though the initial supporters of the act genuinely showed their interests in the welfare of the Indians, there were not enough votes in the Congress to pass such law. However, the law was amended to give a provision that all the lands remaining after the allotment to the Indians would be auctioned for sale. Therefore, the speculators and friends of the Indians ensured that the act became law. Furthermore, the White Americans got the surplus lands and by 1932, the whites acquired two-thirds of the vast 138,000,000 acres belonging to Indians from 1887.[Meyer, Morgan. "A SETTLER COLONIAL FRAMEWORK DEVELOPED THROUGH THE DAWES ACT AND THE NATIVES LAND ACT." Ph.D. diss., 2017.] The aftermath the act led to the deterioration of lives of Indians to an extent that the sponsors of the law never expected. The Indians experienced weak social structure with Indian nomads unable to adjust their lives to the agricultural farming. Other Indians swindled out all their properties. In the end, the Indian reserve became a den of filth, poverty, despondency, and diseases. Therefore, the treatment of Indians whereby the government colludes with White Americans to snatch the Indians their lands indeed is a mockery of freedom and democracy that the USA claim to obtain. Black Lives in the South Eric Foner in the book especially chapter seventeen elaborates that American government issued freedom to its citizens. However, the freedom had a lot of barriers and boundaries, especially for the black Americans in the south. T...