African Americans and Freedom essays

African Americans and Freedom essays In 1865, after the  Civil War, the United States became a united and powerful nation with a strong national government. Andrew Johnson set policies which were different for black and white people. According to Walter L. Fleming in The Mississippi Black Code," laws were passed after the  Civil War  that drastically limited civil rights  and the liberties  of black people. In the beginning, freedmen and black people faced discrimination, violence, and segregation, but black leaders continued working diligently and with the passage of time, equality took form. Black Code is used to refer to legislation which was passed by Southern states at the end of the Civil War to control the labor and movement of slaves.  During 1865, every Southern state passed Black Codes that restricted the  freedman. These codes gave African Americans certain rights: such as legalized marriage, ownership of property and limited access to the courts, but denied them the rights to testify against whites, to serve on juries or in state militias, or to vote and express legal concern publicly. This document was written by Fleming during 1906 1907. The author wrote this article to explain the history of black people and about their troubles they had faced during the reconstruction period. When white people make their government, they made their own rules. According to Vagrant Law in sec 2, state of Mississippi required all black persons to sign yearly labor contract but not white citizens. The reason was that white people wanted to keep black people under their controls. They want to keep all black people as slave. Thats why black people used to get low wages and they could not leave the job because if they did, they would have been arrested and got fined, which was more than 10 dollars and less than 100 dollars. Furthermore, they were facing discrimination for everything. Freedmen and black people were not allowed to marry white girls. If ...

Diminish, Decline, and Dwindle

Diminish, Decline, and Dwindle Diminish, Decline, and Dwindle Diminish, Decline, and Dwindle By Maeve Maddox A reader asks, Can you please post an article on the correct usage of the words diminish, decline, and dwindle?  I believe diminish is used with uncountable nouns such as the light diminishes, decline is used with abstract and uncountable nouns such as â€Å"decline in quality† or â€Å"decline in performance,† and dwindle is used only with countable nouns such as â€Å"the population of tigers has dwindled.† This question, so intellectual and logic-seeking, made me aware in striking fashion how differently speakers approach language. Were I debating which of the three verbs to use- diminish, decline, or dwindle- I would weigh their distinctive emotive qualities, never giving a thought to whether they refer to countable or non-countable nouns. As it happens, all three of these verbs may be used with countable or uncountable nouns when the intended meaning is â€Å"to lessen† or â€Å"to become smaller.† Deciding which to choose depends upon context and the connotation wanted. Diminish descends from a Latin verb meaning â€Å"to cut small. Ancient Latin had the verb diminuere, â€Å"to break into small pieces, and diminuere, â€Å"to make smaller, to reduce in size.† Decline derives from Latin declinare, â€Å"to turn or bend away or aside from the straight course.† Dwindle derives from dwine, an archaic English verb meaning, â€Å"to waste or pine away.† That all three are used interchangeably in modern English is illustrated by the following examples from the Web: As populations age and revenues diminish, government and private pension funds around the world are facing insolvency. Nevada and Strip gaming revenues decline in February Chicago food fest struggles as revenues dwindle Diminish conveys a lessening of the strength or quality of something. Its most common use is with uncountable nouns: Are we getting more stupid? Researchers claim our intelligence is diminishing as we no longer need it to survive Researchers have some new insights into how power  diminishes  a persons capacity for  empathy. Our smartphones supply endless possibilities for entertainment, but a new study shows they can diminish the quality of users time away from work or school. Decline connotes a gradual diminishing, like something moving down a slope. We had watched our children decline, fall into drug and alcohol abuse, fail to perform at school, lose jobs, abandon relationships, become unable to function in the family or society, and we hadn’t known why.   Agriculture is  declining day by day. The six monthshad been for me a sorrowful waiting game of watching [my mother] decline and wondering which day would be her last. Dwindle suggests a gradual diminution into nothingness or something close to it. A novel’s plot might dwindle to a disappointing close. A dying battery causes a flashlight’s illumination to dwindle. The liquid in the â€Å"Drink Me† vial causes Alice to dwindle in size. An excellent photographic visualization of dwindling is what the Wicked Witch of the West does when Dorothy throws water on her in The Wizard of Oz. A quotation that I associate with the word dwindle is the line that concludes Millamant’s monologue to her fiancà © Mirabell in Congreve’s Way of the World. After listing the freedoms she enjoyed as an unmarried woman as conditions (articles) that he must agree to if he wants her to go through with the marriage, she concludes with this statement: These articles subscribed, if I continue to endure you a little longer, I may by degrees dwindle into a wife. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Arrive To vs. Arrive At41 Words That Are Better Than GoodTrooper or Trouper?