Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter is an international activist movement, originating in the African-American community, that campaigns against violence and systemic racism towards black people. BLM holds protests speaking out against police killings of black people, broader issues such as racial profiling, police brutality, racial inequality in the United States criminal justice system. In 2013, the movement began with the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Black Lives Matter became nationally recognized for its street demonstrations following the 2014 deaths of two African Americans: Michael Brown—resulting in protests and unrest in Ferguson—and Eric Garner in New York City. Since the Ferguson protests, participants in the movement have demonstrated against the deaths of numerous other African Americans by police actions or while in police custody. In the summer of 2015, Black Lives Matter activists became involved in the 2016 United States presidential election.
The originators of the hashtag and call to action, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, expanded their project into a national network of over 30 local chapters between 2014 and 2016. The overall Black Lives Matter movement, however, is a decentralized network and has no formal hierarchy. There have been many reactions to the Black Lives Matter movement; the U. S. population's perception of Black Lives Matter varies by race. The phrase "All Lives Matter" sprang up as a response to the Black Lives Matter movement, but has been criticized for dismissing or misunderstanding the message of "Black Lives Matter". Following the shooting of two police officers in Ferguson, the hashtag Blue Lives Matter was created by supporters of the police; some black civil rights leaders have disagreed with tactics used by Black Lives Matter activists. BLM claims inspiration from the civil rights movement, the Black Power movement, the 1980s Black feminist movement, Pan-Africanism, the Anti-Apartheid Movement, hip hop, LGBTQ social movements, Occupy Wall Street.
Several media organizations have referred to BLM as "a new civil rights movement." Some of the protesters, however distinguish themselves from the older generation of black leadership, such as Al Sharpton, by their aversion to middle-class traditions such as church involvement, Democratic Party loyalty, respectability politics. Political scientist Frederick C. Harris has argued that this "group-centered model of leadership" is distinct from the older charismatic leadership model that characterized civil rights organizations like Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition and Sharpton's National Action Network. In the summer of 2013, after George Zimmerman's acquittal for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the movement began with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter; the movement was co-founded by three black community organizers: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi. Garza and Tometi met through "Black Organizing for Leadership & Dignity", a national organization that trains community organizers.
They began to question how they were going to respond to what they saw as the devaluation of black lives after Zimmerman's acquittal. Garza wrote a Facebook post titled "A Love Note to Black People" in which she said: "Our Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter". Cullors replied: "#BlackLivesMatter". Tometi added her support, Black Lives Matter was born as an online campaign. In August 2014, BLM members organized their first in-person national protest in the form of a "Black Lives Matter Freedom Ride" to Ferguson, Missouri after the shooting of Michael Brown. More than five hundred members descended upon Ferguson to participate in non-violent demonstrations. Of the many groups that descended on Ferguson, Black Lives Matter emerged from Ferguson as one of the best organized and most visible groups, becoming nationally recognized as symbolic of the emerging movement; the activities in the streets of Ferguson caught the attention of a number of Palestinians who tweeted advice on how to deal with tear gas.
This connection helped to bring to Black activists' attention the ties between the Israeli armed forces and police in the United States, would influence the Israel section of the platform of the Movement for Black Lives, released in 2016. Since Black Lives Matter has organized thousands of protests and demonstrations. Expanding beyond street protests, BLM has expanded to activism on American college campuses, such as the 2015–16 University of Missouri protests. Black Lives Matter incorporates those traditionally on the margins of black freedom movements; the organization's website, for instance, states that Black Lives Matter is "a unique contribution that goes beyond extrajudicial killings of Black people by police and vigilantes" and, embracing intersectionality, that "Black Lives Matter affirms the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, black-undocumented folks, folks with records and all Black lives along the gender spectrum." All three founders of the Black Lives Matter movement are women, Garza and Cullors identify as queer.
Additionally, Elle Hearns, one of the founding organizers of the global network, is a transgender woman. The founders believe that their backgrounds have paved the way for Black Lives Matter to be an intersectional movement. Several hashtags such as #BlackWomenMatter, #BlackGirlsMatter, #BlackQueerLivesMatter, #BlackTransLivesMatter have surfaced on the BLM website and throughout social media networks. Marcia Chatelain, associate professor of history at Georgetown University, has praised BLM for allowing "young, queer women play a central role" in the movement; the phrase "Black Lives Matter" can refer to a Twitter has
Second inauguration of Barack Obama
The second inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States, marked the commencement of the second term of Barack Obama as President and Joe Biden as Vice President. A private swearing-in ceremony took place on Sunday, January 20, 2013 in the Blue Room of the White House. A public inauguration ceremony took place on Monday, January 21, 2013, at the United States Capitol building; the inauguration theme was "Faith in America's Future", a phrase that draws upon the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the completion of the Capitol dome in 1863. The theme stressed the "perseverance and unity" of the United States and echoed the "Forward" theme used in the closing months of Obama's reelection campaign; the inaugural events held in Washington, D. C. from January 19 to 21, 2013 included concerts, a national day of community service on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the swearing-in ceremony and parade, inaugural balls, the interfaith inaugural prayer service.
The presidential oath was administered to Obama during his swearing-in ceremony on January 20 and 21, 2013 by Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts. In his second inauguration address, Obama proclaimed that "while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth", he called for laws to combat enactment of immigration reform and gun control. Obama stated that more progress was needed on civil rights, he vowed to promote democracy abroad and stated that the United States must "be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice" around the world. Additionally, the president vowed to keep existing alliances strong, emphasized the economic recovery and the end of wars, stated that "no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation". During the speech, Obama linked the Seneca Falls Convention, Selma to Montgomery marches and Stonewall riots. One million people attended the inauguration, millions more watched from around the world.
The inauguration was planned by two committees: the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies and the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee. The committee began construction of the inaugural platform on September 20, 2012; the swearing-in ceremony and the inaugural luncheon for President Obama and Vice President Biden were planned by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, a committee composed of United States Senators Charles Schumer of New York, committee chair, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Harry Reid of Nevada, United States Representatives John Boehner of Ohio, Eric Cantor of Virginia and Nancy Pelosi of California. The committee is overseen by the U. S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. Military support to the 57th inauguration was coordinated by Joint Task Force National Capital Region, providing musical military units, marching bands, color guards, firing details, salute batteries. On January 7, 2013, Louie Giglio was selected to deliver the benediction at the ceremony.
Giglio at first accepted, but withdrew in response to a controversy over a mid-1990s sermon "in which he called on Christians to fight the "aggressive agenda" of the gay-rights movement". The substitution of Rev. Luis Leon, pastor of Saint John's Church near the White House, was announced on January 15. Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of civil rights activist Medgar Evers delivered the invocation. On January 8, 2013, Richard Blanco was named the inaugural poet for Barack Obama's second inauguration, the fifth person to play that role, he is the first immigrant, first Latino, first gay person, the youngest to be inaugural poet. The 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee organized several other inauguration-related events at the direction of the President and Vice President of the United States, such as the concerts, parade and prayer service; the co-chairs of the committee were former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, along with Ambassador Matthew Barzun, Eva Longoria, Jane Stetson and Frank White.
Other positions were held by Jim Messina, who oversaw the Inaugural parade, Stephanie Cutter, Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, Julianna Smoot, Rufus Gifford and Patrick Gaspard. On the evening of January 19, 2013, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden hosted the "Kids' Inaugural: Our Children. Our Future." Event at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D. C. Katy Perry and members of the cast of Glee honored military families in concert. Other celebrity participants included Mindless Behavior, Far East Movement, Nick Cannon, who served as emcee for the event. In keeping with the service theme of the day, Michelle Obama issued a call for children to become engaged in public service by volunteering in homeless shelters, visiting seniors, or writing letters to U. S. troops. Since 1937, the 4-year term of the President and Vice President have ended and begun at noon on January 20, as prescribed by the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution; because January 20, 2013, fell on a Sunday, both Obama and Biden were sworn in and again the following day in a public ceremony.
This was the seventh time since the start of James Monroe's second term in office, in 1821, that the oath of office was administered in a Sunday private ceremony. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office to the President on January 20 in the Blue Room at the White House. Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor administered the oath to the Vice President on the same date at Number One Observatory Circle, the official residence of the Vice President. While reciting his oath, Biden's hand rested upon a Bible, i
Texas
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Geographically located in the South Central region of the country, Texas shares borders with the U. S. states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas to the southwest, while the Gulf of Mexico is to the southeast. Houston is the most populous city in Texas and the fourth largest in the U. S. while San Antonio is the second-most populous in the state and seventh largest in the U. S. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are the fourth and fifth largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country, respectively. Other major cities include Austin, the second-most populous state capital in the U. S. and El Paso. Texas is nicknamed "The Lone Star State" to signify its former status as an independent republic, as a reminder of the state's struggle for independence from Mexico; the "Lone Star" can be found on the Texan state seal.
The origin of Texas's name is from the word taysha. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, Texas contains diverse landscapes common to both the U. S. Southern and Southwestern regions. Although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10% of Texas's land area is desert. Most of the population centers are in areas of former prairies, grasslands and the coastline. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the desert and mountains of the Big Bend; the term "six flags over Texas" refers to several nations. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas. France held a short-lived colony. Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the union as the 28th state; the state's annexation set off a chain of events that led to the Mexican–American War in 1846.
A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, joined the Confederate States of America on March 2nd of the same year. After the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. Four major industries shaped the Texas economy prior to World War II: cattle and bison, cotton and oil. Before and after the U. S. Civil War the cattle industry, which Texas came to dominate, was a major economic driver for the state, thus creating the traditional image of the Texas cowboy. In the 19th century cotton and lumber grew to be major industries as the cattle industry became less lucrative, it was though, the discovery of major petroleum deposits that initiated an economic boom which became the driving force behind the economy for much of the 20th century. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy and high tech industry in the mid-20th century.
As of 2015, it is second on the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with 54. With a growing base of industry, the state leads in many industries, including agriculture, energy and electronics, biomedical sciences. Texas has led the U. S. in state export revenue since 2002, has the second-highest gross state product. If Texas were a sovereign state, it would be the 10th largest economy in the world; the name Texas, based on the Caddo word táyshaʼ "friend", was applied, in the spelling Tejas or Texas, by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves the Hasinai Confederacy, the final -s representing the Spanish plural. The Mission San Francisco de los Tejas was completed near the Hasinai village of Nabedaches in May 1690, in what is now Houston County, East Texas. During Spanish colonial rule, in the 18th century, the area was known as Nuevo Reino de Filipinas "New Kingdom of the Philippines", or as provincia de los Tejas "province of the Tejas" also provincia de Texas, "province of Texas", it was incorporated as provincia de Texas into the Mexican Empire in 1821, declared a republic in 1836.
The Royal Spanish Academy recognizes both spellings and Texas, as Spanish-language forms of the name of the U. S. State of Texas; the English pronunciation with /ks/ is unetymological, based in the value of the letter x in historical Spanish orthography. Alternative etymologies of the name advanced in the late 19th century connected the Spanish teja "rooftile", the plural tejas being used to designate indigenous Pueblo settlements. A 1760s map by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin shows a village named Teijas on Trinity River, close to the site of modern Crockett. Texas is the second-largest U. S. state, with an area of 268,820 square miles. Though 10% larger than France and twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Zambia. Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers; the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas to the south.
The Red River forms a natural border with Arkansas to the north. The Sabine River forms a natural border with Louisiana to the east; the Texas Panhandle has an eastern border with Oklahoma at 100° W, a northern border with Oklahoma at 36°30' N and a western
Historically black colleges and universities
Black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving the African-American community. This was because the overwhelming majority of predominantly white institutions of higher-learning disqualified African Americans from enrollment during segregation. From the time of slavery in the 19th century through to the second half of the 20th century, majority schools in the Southern United States prohibited all African Americans from attending, while historic schools in other parts of the country employed quotas to limit admissions of blacks. There are 101 HBCUs including public and private institutions; this figure is down from the 121 institutions. Of these remaining HBCU institutions in the United States, 27 offer doctoral programs, 52 schools offer master's programs, 83 colleges offer bachelor's degree programs and 38 schools offer associate degrees. Most HBCUs were established in the Southern United States after the American Civil War with the assistance of northern United States religious missionary organizations.
However, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania and Lincoln University, were established for blacks before the American Civil War. In 1856 the African Methodist Episcopal Church of Ohio collaborated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, a predominantly white denomination, in sponsoring Wilberforce University, the third college in Ohio. Established in 1865, Shaw University was the first HBCU in the South to be established after the American Civil War; the year 1865 saw the foundation of Storer College at Harper's Ferry, WV. Storer has now been incorporated into Harper's Ferry National Park. In 1862, the federal government's Morrill Act provided for land grant colleges in each state; some educational institutions in the North or West were open to blacks. But 17 states in the South, required their systems to be segregated and excluded black students from their land grant colleges. In response, Congress passed the second Morrill Act of 1890 known as the Agricultural College Act of 1890, requiring states to establish a separate land grant college for blacks if blacks were being excluded from the existing land grant college.
Many of the HBCUs were founded by states to satisfy the Second Morrill Act. These land grant schools continue to receive annual federal funding for their research and outreach activities. In the 1920s and 1930s the black colleges developed a strong interest in athletics. Sports were expanding at state universities, but few black stars were recruited there. Race newspapers hailed athletic success as a demonstration of racial progress. Black schools hired coaches and featured stellar athletes, set up their own leagues. Many Jewish intellectuals fleeing Germany in the 1930s after the rise of Hitler to power in Nazi Germany immigrated to the United States and found work teaching in black colleges. HBCUs made great contributions to the war effort, including those of the Tuskegee Airmen, who trained and attended classes at Tuskegee University in Alabama. After the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954, the legislature of Florida, with support from various counties, started a series of eleven junior colleges serving the African-American population.
The purpose was to show that equal education was working in Florida. Prior to this, there had been only one junior college in Florida serving African Americans, Booker T. Washington Junior College, in Pensacola; the new ones, with their year of founding, are: Gibbs Junior College Roosevelt Junior College Volusia County Junior College Hampton Junior College Rosenwald Junior College Suwannee River Junior College Carver Junior College Collier-Blocker Junior College Lincoln Junior College Johnson Junior College Jackson Junior College The new junior colleges began as extensions of black high schools, using the same facilities and the same faculty. Some, over the next few years, did build their own buildings. After passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandating an end to school segregation, the colleges were all abruptly closed. Only a fraction of the students and faculty were able to transfer to the all-white junior colleges, where they found, at best, an indifferent reception; the Higher Education Act of 1965 established a program for direct federal grants to HBCUs, including federal matching of private endowment contributions.
The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, defines a "part B institution" as: "...any black college or university, established before 1964, whose principal mission was, is, the education of black Americans, and, accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary to be a reliable authority as to the quality of training offered or is, according to such an agency or association, making reasonable progress toward accreditation." Part B of the 1965 Act provides for direct federal aid to Part B institutions. Some colleges with a predominantly black student body are not classified as a HBCU because they were founded after the implementation of the Sweatt v. Painter and Brown v. Board of Education rulings by the U. S. Supreme Court and the Higher Education Act of 1965. In 1980, Jimmy Carter signed an executive order to distribute adequate resources and funds to strengthen the nation's public and private HB
Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa is a celebration held in the United States and in other nations of the African diaspora in the Americas and lasts a week. The celebration honors African heritage in African-American culture and is observed from December 26 to January 1, culminating in a feast and gift-giving. Kwanzaa has seven core principles, it was created by Maulana Karenga and was first celebrated in 1966–67. American Black Power activist and secular humanist Maulana Karenga known as Ronald McKinley Everett, created Kwanzaa in 1966, as a African-American holiday, in a spirit comparable to Juneteenth. According to Karenga, the name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning "first fruits of the harvest". A more conventional translation would be "first fruits"; the choice of Swahili, an East African language, reflects its status as a symbol of Pan-Africanism in the 1960s, although most of the Atlantic slave trade that brought African people to America originated in West Africa. First fruits festivals exist in Southern Africa, celebrated in December/January with the southern solstice, Karenga was inspired by an account he read of the Zulu festival Umkhosi Wokweshwama.
It was decided to spell the holiday's name with an additional "a" so that it would have a symbolic seven letters. Kwanzaa is a celebration with its roots in the black nationalist movement of the 1960s. Karenga established it to help African Americans reconnect with their African cultural and historical heritage by uniting in meditation and study of African traditions and Nguzo Saba, the "seven principles of African Heritage", which Karenga said "is a communitarian African philosophy". For Karenga, a major figure in the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the creation of such holidays underscored an essential premise "you must have a cultural revolution before the violent revolution; the cultural revolution gives identity and direction."During the early years of Kwanzaa, Karenga said it was meant to be an alternative to Christmas. He believed Jesus was psychotic and Christianity was a "White" religion that Black people should shun; as Kwanzaa gained mainstream adherents, Karenga altered his position so practicing Christians would not be alienated stating in the 1997 Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family and Culture, "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday."
Many African Americans who celebrate Kwanzaa do so in addition to observing Christmas. Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder called the seven principles of Kwanzaa, or Nguzo Saba, which Karenga said "is a communitarian African philosophy," consisting of what Karenga called "the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world." They were developed in 1965, a year before Kwanzaa itself. These seven principles comprise Kawaida, a Swahili word meaning "common"; each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the following principles, as follows: Umoja: To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community and race. Kujichagulia: To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves. Ujima: To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together. Ujamaa: To build and maintain our own stores and other businesses and to profit from them together. Nia: To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba: To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it. Imani: To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, the righteousness and victory of our struggle. Kwanzaa celebratory symbols include a mat on which other symbols are placed: a Kinara, Mishumaa Saba, Muhindi, a Kikombe cha Umoja for commemorating and giving shukrani to African Ancestors, Zawadi. Supplemental representations include a Nguzo Saba poster, the black and green bendera, African books and artworks – all to represent values and concepts reflective of African culture and contribution to community building and reinforcement. Ears of corn represent the children corn may be part of the holiday meal. Families celebrating Kwanzaa decorate their households with objects of art, colorful African cloth such as kente the wearing of kaftans by women, fresh fruits that represent African idealism, it is customary to include children in Kwanzaa ceremonies and to give respect and gratitude to ancestors.
Libations are shared with a common chalice, Kikombe cha Umoja, passed around to all celebrants. Non-African Americans celebrate Kwanzaa; the holiday greeting is "Joyous Kwanzaa". A Kwanzaa ceremony may include drumming and musical selections, libations, a reading of the African Pledge and the Principles of Blackness, reflection on the Pan-African colors, a discussion of the African principle of the day or a chapter in African history, a candle-lighting ritual, artistic performance, a feast; the greeting for each day of Kwanzaa is Habari Gani?, Swahili for "How are you?"At first, observers of Kwanzaa avoided the mixing of the holiday or its symbols and practice with other holidays, as doing so would violate the principle of kujichagulia and thus violate the integrity of the holiday, intended as a r
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation, or Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. It changed the federal legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the designated areas of the South from slave to free. As soon as a slave escaped the control of the Confederate government, by running away or through advances of federal troops, the former slave became free; the rebel surrender liberated and resulted in the proclamation's application to all of the designated former slaves. It did not cover slaves in Union areas, it was issued as a war measure during the American Civil War, directed to all of the areas in rebellion and all segments of the executive branch of the United States. The Proclamation ordered the freedom of all slaves in ten states; because it was issued under the president's authority to suppress rebellion, it excluded areas not in rebellion, but still applied to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million slaves.
The Proclamation was based on the president's constitutional authority as commander in chief of the armed forces. The Proclamation was issued in January 1863 after U. S government issued a series of warnings in the summer of 1862 under the Second Confiscation Act, allowing Southern Confederate supporters 60 days to surrender, or face confiscation of land and slaves; the Proclamation ordered that suitable persons among those freed could be enrolled into the paid service of United States' forces, ordered the Union Army to "recognize and maintain the freedom of" the ex-slaves. The Proclamation did not compensate the owners, did not outlaw slavery, did not grant citizenship to the ex-slaves, it made the eradication of slavery an explicit war goal, in addition to the goal of reuniting the Union. Around 25,000 to 75,000 slaves in regions where the US Army was active were emancipated, it could not be enforced in areas still under rebellion, but, as the Union army took control of Confederate regions, the Proclamation provided the legal framework for freeing more than three and a half million slaves in those regions.
Prior to the Proclamation, in accordance with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, escaped slaves were either returned to their masters or held in camps as contraband for return. The Proclamation applied only to slaves in Confederate-held lands. Excluded were some regions controlled by the Union army. Emancipation in those places would come after separate state actions or the December 1865 ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, which made slavery and indentured servitude, except for those duly convicted of a crime, illegal everywhere subject to United States jurisdiction. On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued a preliminary warning that he would order the emancipation of all slaves in any state that did not end its rebellion against the Union by January 1, 1863. None of the Confederate states restored themselves to the Union, Lincoln's order was signed and took effect on January 1, 1863; the Emancipation Proclamation outraged white Southerners. It angered some Northern Democrats, energized anti-slavery forces, undermined elements in Europe that wanted to intervene to help the Confederacy.
The Proclamation lifted the spirits of African Americans both slave. It led many slaves to escape from their masters and get to Union lines to obtain their freedom, to join the Union Army; the Emancipation Proclamation broadened the goals of the Civil War. While slavery had been a major issue that led to the war, Lincoln's only mission at the start of the war was to maintain the Union; the Proclamation made freeing the slaves an explicit goal of the Union war effort. Establishing the abolition of slavery as one of the two primary war goals served to deter intervention by Britain and France; the Emancipation Proclamation was never challenged in court. To ensure the abolition of slavery in all of the U. S. Lincoln pushed for passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, insisted that Reconstruction plans for Southern states require abolition in new state constitutions. Congress passed the 13th Amendment by the necessary two-thirds vote on January 31, 1865, it was ratified by the states on December 6, 1865, ending legal slavery.
The United States Constitution of 1787 did not use the word "slavery" but included several provisions about unfree persons. The Three-Fifths Compromise allocated Congressional representation based "on the whole Number of free Persons" and "three fifths of all other Persons". Under the Fugitive Slave Clause, "o person held to service or labour in one state" would be freed by escaping to another. Article I, Section 9 allowed Congress to pass legislation to outlaw the "Importation of Persons", but not until 1808. However, for purposes of the Fifth Amendment—which states that, "No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law"—slaves were understood as property. Although abolitionists used the Fifth Amendment to argue against slavery, it became part of the legal basis for treating slaves as property with Dred Scott v. Sandford. So
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people to the Americas. The slave trade used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage, existed from the 16th to the 19th centuries; the vast majority of those who were enslaved and transported in the transatlantic slave trade were people from central and western Africa, sold by other West Africans to Western European slave traders, who brought them to the Americas. The South Atlantic and Caribbean economies were dependent on the supply of secure labour for the production of commodity crops, making goods and clothing to sell in Europe; this was crucial to those western European countries which, in the late 17th and 18th centuries, were vying with each other to create overseas empires. The Portuguese were the first to engage in the Atlantic slave trade in the 16th century. In 1526, they completed the first transatlantic slave voyage to Brazil, other European countries soon followed.
Shipowners regarded the slaves as cargo to be transported to the Americas as and cheaply as possible, there to be sold to work on coffee, cocoa and cotton plantations and silver mines, rice fields, construction industry, cutting timber for ships, in skilled labour, as domestic servants. The first Africans imported to the English colonies were classified as "indentured servants", like workers coming from England, as "apprentices for life". By the middle of the 17th century, slavery had hardened as a racial caste, with the slaves and their offspring being the property of their owners, children born to slave mothers were slaves; as property, the people were considered merchandise or units of labour, were sold at markets with other goods and services. The major Atlantic slave trading nations, ordered by trade volume, were: the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Spanish, the Dutch Empires. Several had established outposts on the African coast where they purchased slaves from local African leaders.
These slaves were managed by a factor, established on or near the coast to expedite the shipping of slaves to the New World. Slaves were kept in a factory while awaiting shipment. Current estimates are that about 12 to 12.8 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic over a span of 400 years, although the number purchased by the traders was higher, as the passage had a high death rate. Near the beginning of the 19th century, various governments acted to ban the trade, although illegal smuggling still occurred. In the early 21st century, several governments issued apologies for the transatlantic slave trade; the Atlantic slave trade developed after trade contacts were established between the "Old World" and the "New World". For centuries, tidal currents had made ocean travel difficult and risky for the ships that were available, as such there had been little, if any, maritime contact between the peoples living in these continents. In the 15th century, new European developments in seafaring technologies resulted in ships being better equipped to deal with the tidal currents, could begin traversing the Atlantic Ocean.
Between 1600 and 1800 300,000 sailors engaged in the slave trade visited West Africa. In doing so, they came into contact with societies living along the west African coast and in the Americas which they had never encountered. Historian Pierre Chaunu termed the consequences of European navigation "disenclavement", with it marking an end of isolation for some societies and an increase in inter-societal contact for most others. Historian John Thornton noted, "A number of technical and geographical factors combined to make Europeans the most people to explore the Atlantic and develop its commerce", he identified these as being the drive to find new and profitable commercial opportunities outside Europe as well as the desire to create an alternative trade network to that controlled by the Muslim Empire of the Middle East, viewed as a commercial and religious threat to European Christendom. In particular, European traders wanted to trade for gold, which could be found in western Africa, to find a maritime route to "the Indies", where they could trade for luxury goods such as spices without having to obtain these items from Middle Eastern Islamic traders.
Although many of the initial Atlantic naval explorations were led by Iberians, members of many European nationalities were involved, including sailors from Portugal, the Italian kingdoms, England and the Netherlands. This diversity led Thornton to describe the initial "exploration of the Atlantic" as "a international exercise if many of the dramatic discoveries were made under the sponsorship of the Iberian monarchs"; that leadership gave rise to the myth that "the Iberians were the sole leaders of the exploration". Slavery was prevalent in many parts of Africa for many centuries before the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade. There is evidence that enslaved people from some parts of Africa were exported to states in Africa and Asia prior to the European colonization of the Americas; the Atlantic slave trade was not the only slave trade from Africa, although it was the largest in volume and intensity. As Elikia M'bokolo wrote in Le Monde diplomatique: The African continent was bled of its human resources via all possible routes.
Across the Sahara, through the Red Sea, from the Indian Ocean ports and across the Atlantic. At least ten centuries of slavery for the benefit of the Muslim countries... Fou
