Envirovac, Inc.
December 25, 2017
John Donald Barnes
December 25, 2017
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Slavery Speech

Slavery has been something that has been around since the beginning of time, before history was even recorded. Whether it is making someone do a simple task or hard physical labor, slavery is forcing another person to do something for you against their own will. In America, we pride ourselves for our rights and freedom, but besides all the bright and glorious things we have accomplished, there are also some dark shadows that as a nation we have been blind to, and we’ve failed to address and bring back into the light.

Some say that things heal over time, that if you wait long enough a person will just forget that they have been wronged and move on. But in my eyes, slavery is something that can never be truly erased. Instead of trying to forget about it, I am asking, for our nation, for forgiveness. From the African American Slave Trade, kidnapping, transporting, and selling thousands of slaves to the New World. To the Ku Klux Klan, which was a white supremacy group, who terrorized the African Americans by burning crosses, hurting, and killing them from the 1860s and eventually dying out by the early 1870’s.

To the Jim Crow Laws, that had restricted African Americans from rights, segregated public schools, restrooms, public transportation, and many other things. Not to mention all the hate crimes, we have so much to apologize for. We issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 during the Civil War proclaiming the freedom of 3. 1 million of the nation’s 4 million slaves, immediately freeing 50,000 of them and freeing the rest into the Union army. Also, a year later we issued the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which officially abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, unless it was a punishment for a crime.

Our nation is known for freedom and equality, and although we have put an end to slavery, many acts of racism still take place daily. I would like to implement reparations for all of the descendants of slaves who struggle through these acts of racism, and are treated as unequal’s in our nation. I would like to offer these reparations in the form of free medical, free education, and free legal and free financial aid for 50 years with no taxes applied. There are many things that can be cast into the dark, but I will not allow this to go forgotten and to be one of them.

As the president, it is my job to bring those things back into the light and try and make up for what we have done wrong and correct our mistakes. Although the things you had faced in the past are completely horrifying and appalling, I am asking you for your forgiveness. I am not just speaking for myself, but for the entire nation. People say that history repeats itself, but this, my fellow citizens and friends, is something that I will not allow to repeat itself. Together, we will all make new history. History where racism is non-existent.