Freedom?

African Americans After The Abolition of Slavery

 A few weeks ago I was watching the movie The Help. I believe that this is one of the best movies I have seen so far. The film is so powerful and beautifully done and the cast is just amazing. As I was watching the movie, it made me think of the question: Were African Americans really free after slavery was abolished? The truth is that even after slaves were "freed", they had to suffer the struggles from segregation and injustices against the African American community. I realized that the abolition of slavery created a different kind of slavery in America. Former slaves did not have an education or any other skills that would help them get jobs behind a desk or anything like that, on top of that they were segregated. These people did not have many choices to make a living, so they did what they knew best. Women and men became servants to those former slave owners with the exception that they were now being paid an insignificant amount of money for their hard labor. They worked hard, got paid, but they were still treated like slaves. Many women worked for the same families and were passed down as if they were property, even after they were so-called-free. They worked for the parents, raised their children, then they worked for those children as they created their own families and so they raised their kids. It was a cycle for them. As it was depicted in the movie, some were nice and some were miserably harsh. I thought that this was such a sad story and it's even more heartbreaking to know that this went on for so many years in the United States. I honestly cried so much during the movie, because it was so sad to see the injustices against African Americans. Even though this was just a movie, it was so powerful and it opened my eyes. If any of you have not seen this movie yet, I recommend you do. It is funny, exciting, sad and it has a great cast. 
-E.V.