The Obama Victory: A Symbol of American Freedom and African-American Struggle - Essay Example

(YOUR (THE The Obama Victory: A Symbol of American Freedom and African-American Struggle The victory of the Democratic Party’s Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential Elections against the Republican Party’s nominee Senator John McCain was considered as a monumental feat in the history of American politics. This event marked not only the return of the Democrats into the highest seat of administrative power but most importantly the triumph of African-Americans with concern to their participation in the nation’s politics. Looking back at the collective memory of the African-American people in the United States, it can be said that they had gone through a great amount of struggle to obtain civil and political rights. Their fight for equality and the abolishment of racism spanned through decades, spilling blood from thousands of Americans with opposing views on the matter. The words of Martin Luther King Jr. which echoed throughout the streets of Washington district, the protest actions of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and the outbreak of civil strife because of the heated racial preferences in the public were some of the events which established the amount of freedom that the blacks could exercise up to the present. Tracing history further, the American Civil War remains the most gruesome and violent testament of the struggle from slavery. The conflicting forces of the Union – the anti-slavery and abolitionist North, and the Confederates – the pro-slavery and white supremacist South, scarred the annals of American past and challenged the notion of liberty and equality as promised in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Undoubtedly, the victory of Senator Barack Obama to the American presidency justified racial equality which caused the Civil Rights Movement and the American Civil War. Given the issue at hand, this paper will discuss the magnanimity of the victory of America’s first African-American president. It will recount the significant events in American history which led to the abolishment of racism in contemporary America. This paper will use various primary and secondary sources to support its arguments. By studying the historical developments in the United States, this research will divide its arguments into two: (1) the struggle for independence from the British colonial power, and (2) the dire condition of the African-Americans under the policy of slavery in early America. The first argument will tackle how the Founding Fathers deemed it necessary for America to be free from colonial rule in order to establish freedom and guarantee the inalienable rights of the American people. On the other hand, the second argument will explain the demise of the promise for independence with the presence of racial discrimination and slavery within the newly established American nation. Hence, the importance of the 2008 presidential victory will be emphasized because of the historical conditions that the African-American people underwent in the hands of the colonizers and their white masters. In this way, the emergence of the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movements will also be justified – both historical events of which were the precursors of the abolishment of racism and the emancipation of the African-Americans. With concerns to the significant victory of the African-American race through the entity of President Barack Obama, the solid foundations of the notions of free America and a liberal United States comes at hand. “Free America” and the concept of the “United States” are deep terminologies that are constant in contemporary American society. It must always be remembered that before America became America and before the individual North American colonies became the United States, prominent intellectuals imposed their revolutionary views in order to front the freedom of the British colonies. One of these individuals is Thomas Paine who wrote a pamphlet entitled “Common Sense”. In this document, Paine introduces the constructs of a federal government under the conditions of a free America. He proposes political change and encourages the people of the colony not to be satisfied with the mere examination of reconciliation with Britain, but with the perspective of a more radical change that would take the power away from the colonizers themselves (Paine). Paine’s pamphlet is a revolutionary transcript because it ushers the American people into the idea of freedom and the means of both parliamentary and armed struggle before the British government and forces, respectively. Britain as the American colonies’ mother country was suddenly rattled at the time when colonization was deeply ingrained in the society. Another interesting notion in the “Common Sense” is the author’s assertion for religious freedom in the British colonies in America. The development of the American society at that time moved within the framework of Puritanism. He suggests that religious beliefs should not be imposed to one’s lifestyle and livelihood; that it should involve freedom of choice (Paine). The same can be said about Thomas Jefferson’s proposition of religious freedom in Virginia in 1786. Like Paine, Jefferson directly addressed the issue of religious imposition and the constriction of contrary beliefs. He said that all men should be free to express their views and opinions about particular matters, and that religion should not interfere with their freedom of expression. Hence, he suggests that it is sinful to make an individual go against their beliefs. He, thus, promotes the principle of religious toleration (Jefferson). Both Paine and Jefferson had already seen the prospect of a free America. The former expressed his opinions about a radical political change that would lead to independence while the latter used the idea of religious toleration as a tool to break away from the constricted monopoly of a single set of rigid beliefs that would give way for the enlightenment of the American people. When it comes to the propagation of religious tolerance in the British colonies, Walter Woodward presents a detailed written account on the life in the New England Confederacy during the 1700s in his work, Prospero’s America: John Winthrop, Jr., Alchemy, and the Creation of New England Culture, 1606-1676. Woodward introduces the emergence of alchemy as the way to emancipate the dire situation of the colonized. His book focused on the advantage of religious tolerance that would shatter the prevailing conservatism and herald liberalism. As early as the 17th century, the author narrates of movements which call for the fair and equal treatment of Native American Indians, particularly the Pequot Indians (Woodward 93-138). The author also gives notice to the importance of the enlightened mind – the idea of obtaining knowledge through alternative learning. He explains the striking politics of intelligence and its task to free the ever constricted minds of the colonized people (Woodward 253-302). Along with this, Joseph Ellis’ book, After the Revolution: Profiles of Early American Culture, supports the general notion of a free America as what Woodward envisions the nation to be. Ellis is more direct when it comes to stating his arguments: he concerns his work with the aftermath of the American Revolution and the emergence of a unique and distinct American culture. In the first chapter of his work, he details the beginning of a great American culture that had risen from the rubbles of the revolution. A comparison between the term “culture” during the British colonization and after independence was presented. The term, according to Ellis, had not been used during the English domination, rather religious writings predominated the colonial society. After the American Revolution, a distinction had been attached to the newly freed nation – a state with a unique way-of-life, culture and tradition that was completely separate from its previous colonial masters (Ellis 3-23). It is remarkable that Woodward sees alchemy as the tool for religious emancipation. His assertion for tolerance plus the call for equality in the context of fair treatment given to Native American Indians is itself a revolutionary thought. Also, the mere fact that he mentions liberal education as one of the society’s primary agents from colonial oppression is an important feat in the formation of collective American consciousness and nationalism. Ellis, on the other hand, sealed Woodward’s call for an escape from the conventional. He discussed the societal developments in the years after the American Revolution wherein a distinct and American culture emerged out of the long years of colonization. In the years that independence had been successfully claimed by the American people, the construct of a free American citizen had been rapidly introduced. However as history attests, this freedom had not been true to all Americans. For the African-Americans, there is one hurdle yet to be overcome – the struggle to abolish the policy of slavery. In fact in one specific letter written by Richard Frethorne in 1623, a clear sketch of the pitiful lives of the slaves had been manifested. The inhumane suffering that Frethorne had written about was due to the policy of slavery in the American colonies. According to the writer’s account, his life in Virginia was a life of torment and endless hardships. Frethorne details his difficult routine as a slave, compelled to comply with forced labor. He shares that he has only a single set of clothes to be used in a daily basis, his comrades around him die from illness due to malnutrition and that the minimal amount of food that he consumes and the irksome water he drinks for refreshments were manifestations that slaves were treated as the lowest kind of beings in the American colonies. Frethorne’s pitiful voice is clearly emphasized in his writing when he pleas and begs before his loving father and mother to liberate him from such state by sending sustenance such as food in order to survive further (Frethorne). The same can be said about another important document written in 1777 - a petition for freedom by several African-Americans which exposed the harsh conditions of slavery in colonial America. The petition, in the form of a formal letter before the British legislature, asks the colonial masters to reconsider the policy of slavery for a life in such condition deprives an individual of his life and renders his life non-existent. It demands from the colonial government to consider the principle for what America stands for and seeks for the restoration of the natural rights of men and their children – a life of liberty (“African Americans Petition for Freedom”). The realities of slavery after the struggle for American independence were even immortalized in Randy Sparks’ book, The Two Princes of Calabar: An Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Odyssey. The plot of Sparks’ work focuses on the non-fictional events in the lives of African slave traders Little Ephraim Robin John and Ancona Robin John. The brothers Robin John fell into unfortunate hands and were shipped for enslavement throughout the Atlantic. An important part of the tale devotes itself to the brothers’ slave life in British colony of Virginia (Sparks). The book, although well written in a fictional manner, is based on true events. Sparks based the detailed scenes in his plot from primary documents and accounts about Atlantic slave trade during the 18th century. The harsh and difficult life that the brothers had experienced, as what Sparks wrote in his book, proves the sentiments and concerns of colonial slaves such as Richard Frethorne and the African-Americans. Clearly, the newly independent American nation and its citizens were not contented with the mere freedom that they had won from the British colonial power. From the important documents in 17th century (Frethorne’s letter and the African-American’s petition) up to Sparks’ non-fictional account on the Robin John brothers, slavery had unfortunately transcended through the change of political power. Slavery during the colonial era and during the newly established American federal government had been continually abusing the innate rights and liberties of African-Americans. Their struggle continued up until after the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. The African-Americans, thus, had every reason to venerate the victory of Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential elections - a triumph which symbolizes decades of assertion for their civil and political rights as equally, rightful and competent citizens of the United States. Works Cited “African Americans Petition for Freedom, 1777”. Massachusetts, 13 January 1777. Frethorne, Richard. “Indentured Servant Richard Frethorne Laments His Condition in Virginia, 1623”. Ellis, Joseph J. After the Revolution: Profiles of Early American Culture. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1979. Jefferson, Thomas. “Thomas Jefferson Proposes the Protection of Religious Freedom in Virginia, 1786.” Paine, Thomas. “Pamphleteer Thomas Paine Advocates the ‘Common Sense’ of Independence, 1776”. Sparks, Randy J. The Two Princes of Calabar: An Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Odyssey. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004. Woodward, Walter W. Prospero’s America: John Winthrop, Jr., Alchemy, and the Creation of New England Culture, 1606-1676. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. Read More