La fin de l'esclavage aux etats-unis

THE END OF SLAVERY IN THE U.S.A

I. Introduction

Pitted the Union against the Confederate States because of the debate over slavery, the Civil War have been a turning point for United States of America. It has entailed many consequences and one of them was the abolition of slavery.

II. The abolition movements rising

There was a movement for the slavery abolition from the 1830's to the 1860's in the northern America, led by free Blacks like Frederick Douglass and some White abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison who was the founder of the radical newspaper, The Liberator or Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of a bestselling antislavery novel. Even some of them had a religious motivation thinking that it's a sin, the rest was based on human values saying that this sort of treatment is inhuman.

These free blacks and white supporters started a new system called the Underground Railroad. It was a rail network to help the slaves to escape. There have been from 40,000 to 100,000 fugitives slaves thanks to this way. The conductor of the Underground Railroad became famous after leading hundreds of slaves to freedom. She was Harriet Tubman.

III. The debate over slavery

In the first half of the 19th century, a huge conflict about slavery appear in America, during its expansion westward.

IV. The slavery disappears

After the victory of the Union army, three important amendments were added on to the United States Constitution, proposed by the U.S. government. In spite of these amendments had not a lot of success, those were validated however :

The 13th amendment :

It declare that slavery is forbidden everywhere in the country ( U.S.). After this amendment, slavery was supposed to be abolished in the U.S. Before this, there was the Emancipation Proclamation, saying that all of the slaves in the southern states were free. Nevertheless, slavery was allowed in some of countries in the west. The Emancipation Proclamation wasn't efficient because the Confederacy considere itself like its own country so they didn't obey it.

So until the 13th amendment, slavery was still legal in many parts of the United States.

The 14th amendment :

It makes clear that all man born in the United States are citizens with equal and inalienable rights. For example, African-American people were not seen as citizens and didn't have the same rights as Whites until this amendment. So after this, every Amercian were equal under the law.

The 15th amendment :

It says that all the people in the United States should vote whatever their race.

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