Give Me Liberty! Give Us Suffrage! “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!” This famous quote used by Patrick Henry during his Virginia Convention speech was the declaration of the many persons who faced injustice and inequality in America. The United States of America was said to be the land of opportunity and prosperity, but opportunity and prosperity for whom? Terms and conditions were not stipulated upon living in or relocating to America that liberty would only be available to those that qualified. Prior to the 1900’s most of America’s population did not enjoy the full blessings of American Liberty. There were many factors during the 19th century that contributed to being afforded and denied American Liberty. While it was easier for
As a way to show their “dominance,” whites subjected blacks to lynching throughout the south. Lynching came at any expense; a man could be lynched for wandering eyes, or false accusation of rape. In the south, the word of a black person against the word of a white person was never plausible. To white Americans, black people were insignificant, although they fought alongside white Americans during the civil war, they were not recognized as having played a vital role in winning the war. Unlike any other minority group, blacks received the worst treatment throughout history. Every liberty blacks were entitled to were stripped from them because of the belief that white men had hegemony. Also, deemed inferior to the white man was his counterpart, the woman. It was not until passing of the 19th Amendment were woman allowed to vote. While black suffrage was the issue in the south, woman suffrage was the issue in the north. According to Nina Sibler “The rights of the black man, for whom the women had worked and waited, were secured, but under the new amendment, by which his race had been made free, the white women of the United States were more securely held in political slavery.” To the white men in America, white women had to place or voice in politics. Politics were for the men, and the women to remain involved in domestic affairs. Just like the blacks in their movement for enfranchisement, women said “ there was no democracy if women did not have the