African American Freedom

Freedoms in the nineteenth century Women, African Americans, and Native Americans in the nineteenth century did not have many freedoms. For women most men thought they were helpless and could not do most things that men would be able to do.This caused the men of the household to do the man work such as, go to work and come home expecting their every wish to be granted. On the other hand the woman had to clean, take care of the children and cook. Woman were essentially confined to the house and did not have a say in anything that would remotely give them any power over their husband. The only way women had any power and could make their own decisions was if they were widowed and had wealth. African Americans had a different problem, they had …show more content…
One writer wrote a book titled The Yellow Wallpaper. This book is through the perspective of a woman writing through a journal that is kept private from her husband. She has a serious case of depression, her husband who is a doctor takes care of her. Her husband thinks of her as a helpless child and has controlling ways. The woman is really dependent on her husband which makes it so without him she cannot do much on her own. He tells her that her treatment requires her to do nothing active. She is essentially locked in a room and cannot leave while her husband leave most of the day and gets to go out and enjoy his life. When she did bring up to her husband that she wanted to leave the house her husband would bring up her the concerns he has and the conversation ends. This was true for women that did not have her condition, they could have the chance to leave but they had to take care of the kids, clean, and cook. So when the day was over and their husbands came home they still could not leave because they had to take care of their husbands their long day at work. Another big book in the nineteenth century, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had a few women in the story such as Sally Phelps who is an example of the typical housewife, she is totally dependent on her husband which takes her freedoms and leaves her in the house all day to clean and cook. The …show more content…
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a character named Jim who is an African American slave in the story knows that he will never be truly free. After Huck fakes his death Huck goes to an island where he discovers Jim is there and that Jim ran from his owner and is getting hunted down. Jim and Huck then run to a city where African Americans can be free. But along the way Jim was still was being hunted and everyone knew about the reward out for the runaway slave. He could not trust anyone or anything until he got to the city. Even though he was away from his slave owner the fear that he might be caught kept him in chains to his former slave owner. Another example of a slave running away and not truly being free is from the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. This book is about a African American slave who escapes from a southern-prison house of bondage. This book documents his experiences after his escape from this facility. Just like Jim from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will never truly be free because he the fear that one day he might be caught a be forced to return to slavery. Frederick Douglass did not have a place where he can go and be free. And back in his time there was no one fighting for African American civil