Zinn Ch.9

I believe the author’s main theory in this chapter is that even though slavery is suppose to be over, black people in the United States still didn’t have the same independence. Howard Zinn best argues his point when he explains to his readers, “the American government had set out to fight the slaves states in 1861, not to end slavery, but to retain the enormous national territory and market and resources. Yet, victory required a crusade, and the momentum of that crusade brought new forces into national politics: more blacks determined to make their freedom mean something; more whites-[. . .] concerned with racial equality” (146) It just show that the United States didn’t mean to have slavery ended but it was a result from winning the Civil War. So when it came to enforcing most of the laws made post-Civil War, they were ignored in many cases.
Throughout the history of the United States having slavery in existence, white plantation owners always feared rebellions. Even though the transportation of slaves was illegal, plantation owners still bought them into the country through “the long, unprotected coast” (130). Throughout history people thought slaves to be happy and expressing joy through their song and dance, but this was just the slaves’ way of trying not to be completely broken hearted (130). Revolts did occur in the south, but a slave would rather run away than revolt (131). Their were many black people that help each other escape; Harriet Tubman made 19 trips back and forth through the Underground Railroad and help over 300 slaves escape (132). To make things worse for runaway slaves at the time, poor white people were paid to catch runaways and bring them back; thus creating another hatred for black people for a group that didn’t really hate black people to begin with (133). This was supported by the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 that let slave owners go pretty much anywhere to re-capture a slave that in some cases not even a runaway. John Brown a black person executed in Virginia showed people that, “it was the national government that, while weakly enforcing the law ending the slave trade, sternly enforced the laws providing for the return of fugitives to slavery [. . .]” (139). But when the Civil War started, its main goal was to unite the two sides, and ended up abolishing slavery. It was not Lincoln’s original plan but without the help of the free slaves, the north would probably never have won the war (144). Even though the blacks were free, their lives almost felt the same and were considered serfs and caught in a system of debt to the plantation owners. So the slaves felt almost no difference than before slavery was abolished. Many laws were passed and groups formed against and fore these ideas. But when thought deeply, it was the capitalistic view that enslaved both sides into going through all of this and the events that occurred (154).
I was always taught that the Civil Wars main goal was to abolish slavery, what do you think of Lincoln and the United States after this chapter?
Do you think if the African Americans could have had a huge successful rebellion, that they could have changed things, or could it really have only come from a white American?
In my opinion, I loved reading this chapter. I find Zinn the most interesting of all the authors we read from in class. His work is somewhat tough to read at points but very interesting at the same time. I found it very interesting that Lincoln never thought of blacks as equal but really just wanted them out of the United States. That just blew my mind because in school, we were taught that he is one of America’s famous hero’s. the whole chapter had me fixated.