MORAL SUFFERING IN ERNEST J. GAINES’ A
LESSON BEFORE DYING

THE RACE ISSUE

American continent was a great beneficiary from slavery which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776. America was a form of unfree land. This continued mostly in the south until the passage of 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution in 1865. This Amendment banned the slave trade in all the states in America. Following the slavery’s story, the first African slaves arrived in the present day of the United States (in South Carolina) in 1526 by San Miguel de Guadalupe colony. In 1565, the Spanish colony of San Augustine in Florida became the first permanent European settlement on modern U.S. territory, and included an unknown number of African slaves. The first record of African slavery in British colonial America was made in 1619. The wealthier planters found that the major problem with indentured servants was that, in time, they earned their freedom, but they were unlikely to become prosperous. In other words, it was after they get rich thanks for trade that they accepted to release the subjects. Remember that the latter, victims of all ill-treatments were treated like animals and they were not thinker persons according to whites. Louisiana, where the Gaines’ novel events took place is situated in the south of the United States where exactly had known the slave trade for decades. Slaves who worked and lived on plantations were frequently punished. Punishment could be administered by the plantation owner, and most often by the driver. The masters used wicked things to torture the slaves. The whip was the most common instrument used against a slave. Most slaves were blacks and a small group of white slaves as well, held by whites. In fact, slavery was developed in the areas where there was a good-quality soil for large plantations with products such as tobacco, cotton, sugar, and coffee. By the early decades in the 19th century, the majority of slaveholders and slaves were in the southern United States, where most slaves were engaged in a work-gang system of agriculture on large plantations. Also, slavery was a principal issue leading to the American Civil War. In fact, the Southern Democrats endorsed slavery while the Republicans denounced it. Lincoln, the Republican won with a plurality of popular votes and a majority of electoral votes. Also many slaves’ owners in the South feared that the real intent of Republicans was the abolition of slavery in states where it already existed, and that the sudden emancipation of four million slaves would be problematic for slave owners and for the economy. 9 They also argued that banning slavery in new states would upset what they saw as a delicate balance of Free states and slave states. They feared that ending this balance could lead to the domination of the industrial North. The combination of these factors led the South to secede from the Union and thus began the American Civil War in 1861, led to the end of chattel slavery in America. Not long after the war broke out, through a legal maneuver credited to union General Benjamin F. Butter a lawyer by profession, slaves who came into union ”profession” were considered ”contraband of war”. Lincoln proclaimed Emancipation on January 1, 1863 for freedom for slaves. Unfortunately it did not free slaves in the Union-allied slave-holding states that bordered the Confederacy. Still, the proclamation made the abolition of slavery an official war goal that was implemented as the union took territory from the confederacy. The southern economy and military efforts depended on slave labor. It began to seem unreasonable to protect slavery while blockading southern commerce and destroying southern production. In a letter Lincoln explained his belief that « if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong…” However, the proclamation became a symbol of the union’s growing commitment to add emancipation to the union’s definition of liberty. Enslaved African Americans did not wait for Lincoln’s action before escaping and seeking freedom behind union lines. From early years of the war, they began to escape from their camps. So many African Americans fled to union lines that commanders created camps and schools for them, where both adults and children learned to read and write. By the time the Civil War had brought many damages leading to the Reconstruction Period. So during the reconstruction, it was a serious question whether some form of semi-slavery would appear after the union armies left. Reconstruction was a period in U.S history during and after the American Civil War in which attempts were made to solve the political, social, and economic problems arising from the readmission to the union of the 11 Confederate states that had seceded at or before the outbreak of war.THE RACE ISSUE 8 American continent was a great beneficiary from slavery which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776. America was a form of unfree land. This continued mostly in the south until the passage of 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution in 1865. This Amendment banned the slave trade in all the states in America. Following the slavery’s story, the first African slaves arrived in the present day of the United States (in South Carolina) in 1526 by San Miguel de Guadalupe colony. In 1565, the Spanish colony of San Augustine in Florida became the first permanent European settlement on modern U.S. territory, and included an unknown number of African slaves. The first record of African slavery in British colonial America was made in 1619. The wealthier planters found that the major problem with indentured servants was that, in time, they earned their freedom, but they were unlikely to become prosperous. In other words, it was after they get rich thanks for trade that they accepted to release the subjects. Remember that the latter, victims of all ill-treatments were treated like animals and they were not thinker persons according to whites. Louisiana, where the Gaines’ novel events took place is situated in the south of the United States where exactly had known the slave trade for decades. Slaves who worked and lived on plantations were frequently punished. Punishment could be administered by the plantation owner, and most often by the driver. The masters used wicked things to torture the slaves. The whip was the most common instrument used against a slave. Most slaves were blacks and a small group of white slaves as well, held by whites. In fact, slavery was developed in the areas where there was a good-quality soil for large plantations with products such as tobacco, cotton, sugar, and coffee. By the early decades in the 19th century, the majority of slaveholders and slaves were in the southern United States, where most slaves were engaged in a work-gang system of agriculture on large plantations. Also, slavery was a principal issue leading to the American Civil War. In fact, the Southern Democrats endorsed slavery while the Republicans denounced it. Lincoln, the Republican won with a plurality of popular votes and a majority of electoral votes. Also many slaves’ owners in the South feared that the real intent of Republicans was the abolition of slavery in states where it already existed, and that the sudden emancipation of four million slaves would be problematic for slave owners and for the economy. 9 They also argued that banning slavery in new states would upset what they saw as a delicate balance of Free states and slave states. They feared that ending this balance could lead to the domination of the industrial North. The combination of these factors led the South to secede from the Union and thus began the American Civil War in 1861, led to the end of chattel slavery in America. Not long after the war broke out, through a legal maneuver credited to union General Benjamin F. Butter a lawyer by profession, slaves who came into union ”profession” were considered ”contraband of war”. Lincoln proclaimed Emancipation on January 1, 1863 for freedom for slaves. Unfortunately it did not free slaves in the Union-allied slave-holding states that bordered the Confederacy. Still, the proclamation made the abolition of slavery an official war goal that was implemented as the union took territory from the confederacy. The southern economy and military efforts depended on slave labor. It began to seem unreasonable to protect slavery while blockading southern commerce and destroying southern production. In a letter Lincoln explained his belief that « if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong…” However, the proclamation became a symbol of the union’s growing commitment to add emancipation to the union’s definition of liberty. Enslaved African Americans did not wait for Lincoln’s action before escaping and seeking freedom behind union lines. From early years of the war, they began to escape from their camps. So many African Americans fled to union lines that commanders created camps and schools for them, where both adults and children learned to read and write. By the time the Civil War had brought many damages leading to the Reconstruction Period. So during the reconstruction, it was a serious question whether some form of semi-slavery would appear after the union armies left. Reconstruction was a period in U.S history during and after the American Civil War in which attempts were made to solve the political, social, and economic problems arising from the readmission to the union of the 11 Confederate states that had seceded at or before the outbreak of war.

Racism and Segregation in Louisiana

Racism is a moral and physical violence form that is assigned to a defenseless community. There is a racist act when someone thinks mythically that his race or his skin is better than the others. However, racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in all activities and domains such as economic, social, politics, cultural etc., in daily life. Well known that racism in the United States had been a major issue since the colonial era and slave era. Legally sanctioned racism imposed a heavy burden on Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Latin Americans. European Americans (particularly AngloAmericans) were privileged by law in matters of literacy, immigration voting rights, citizenship, land acquisition and criminal procedure over periods of time extending from the 17th century to the 1960s. Many non-protestant European immigrant groups, particularly American Jew, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, as well as other immigrants from elsewhere, suffered xenophobic exclusion and other forms of discrimination in American society. Many people in the United States continued to have some prejudices against other races. “Discrimination permeated all aspects of life in the United States, and extended to all communities of color”. Discrimination against African-Americans, Latin-Americans, and Muslims was widely acknowledged. Member of every major American ethnic minority perceived racism in their dealings with other minority groups. 12 Some racism forms can be related towards important groups which constitute the United States of America, nowadays. -Racism against African-Americans Maybe the most prominent and noticeable form of American racism began with the institution of slavery, during which Africans were enslaved and treated as property. Prior to the institution of slavery, early African and non-white immigrants to the colonies had been regarded with equal status, serving as sharecroppers alongside whites. After the institution of slavery the status of Africans was stigmatized, and this stigma was the basis for the more virulent anti-African racism that persisted until the present. African-Americans were treated like second class citizens. They were denied defense-industry jobs and when the United States entered World War II, they could only serve in segregated units. Also about 8 per cent of all white males died in the civil war, including 6 per cent in the North and an extraordinary 18 per cent in the South. Despite this, post-emancipation America was not free from racism, discriminatory practices continued in the United States with the existence of Jim Crow Laws, educational disparities and widespread criminal acts against colored people. -Racism and discrimination against Asian Americans In the Pacific States, racism was primarily directed against the resident Asian immigrants. Several immigration laws discriminated against the Asians, and at different points the ethnic Chinese or others were banned from entering the United States. -Racism against Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans: Middle Eastern and South Asian descents historically occupied an ambiguous racial status in the United States. Legal scholar John Tehran Ian argued that in reality this was a “performance based standard, relating to religious practices, education, intermarriage and a community’s role in the United States. Recent studies had found that while official parameters encompassed Arabs as part of the white American racial category, many Arab Americans from other than the Levant feel they were neither white and were nor perceived as whites by American society”

Moral ill-treatment

Moral ill-treatment symbolized the extreme humiliations and tortures that the black community had undergone in the southern plantations. They were deprived of all the human rights. In the plantations, from the auction block, slaves were taken to the properties of their new masters in the plantations and farms of the American south. There they became slave labors forced to toil for the rest of their lives and for the aggrandizement of others. A child born into slavery remained a slave. Also slave labors suffered morally from this situation. Southern states had precise laws that governed the freeing of slaves for fear of creating a large free black population. Free blacks in slaveholding states were regarded by whites living in those states as threats to the security of the white’s population. It was thought that the mere presence of free blacks would be an incitement to slave revolts. Some slaves did however, succeed in gaining their freedom a variety of ways, such as reward for having provided “exceptional service” to their masters and, for those slaves who were allowed to hold assets, self-purchase slaves were sometimes freed upon the deaths of their masters’ wills. For example Georges Washington who predeceased his wife, stipulated in his wills that his slaves were to be freed upon his wife’s death. In the second half of the twentieth century scholars were providing far more accurate accounts of the peculiars institution. Much of the new historiography was based on primary source material that scholars had previously ignored the slave narratives provide a vivid panorama of the horrors of human bandage. Although many slave narratives were committed to writing after slavery had ended in the United States, a good many of them came into existence during the period of slavery, often with the help of the abolitionists who wished to use the documents in their fight against slavery. Frederic Douglass: his early life as a slave; 19 his escape from bondage, and his complete history; was perhaps the best known of this genre. -Racial tensions always an important characteristic of southern life, reached new extremes that appalled even contemporaries. When blacks did work; Potts included they scarcely get any pay, and what were they do? -With black civil war soldiers; the service in the union army during the American civil war (1861-18650) represented one of the most dramatic episodes in African-Americans history. Over a short time period, black men went from being powerless chattel to being part of a liberating army, helping to free nearly four million slaves from bondage. Yet their experience was not entirely positive. Their services as soldiers were initially refused, and they had to fight for the right to fight. Even when the union army did accept them, black men had to serve in segregated units under the command of white officers. The federal government also tried to pay African-Americans less than white soldiers, and it subjected them to other humiliating forms of discrimination and ill-treatment. Nonetheless, black soldiers served loyally and prove their in battle but morally soldiers suffered from this state. In part, the resistance to black soldiers was the result of racist beliefs that AfricanAmericans were mentally and temperamentally unsuited for military service. In addition to the lower living conditions of Black civil war soldiers; social conditions for AfricanAmericans in United States of America became deplorable. The 1950s were a difficult time for African-Americans in the U.S. Despite their growth and their contribution to nation as a whole, particularly during World War II, black people were frequently the subjects of discrimination and outright violence. However, several significant developments in the Civil Right Movements took place during this decade; paving the way for the equal rights granted in the 1960s. -Economic conditions: During the 1950s, African-Americans faced economic discrimination. As black veterans returned home from World War II to claim their piece of the “American Dream”, they were restricted from moving into the newly emerging suburbs. Forced to live in cramped, urban neighborhoods, many African-Americans adults were unable to find suitable employment. Even candidates who were qualified for well paying jobs faced discrimination during the living process and had to settle for menial work. 20 -Political conditions.