Historical+Event+MH

=**__Segregation and Unavailability__**=

In Huckleberry Finn we see a pair of boys who don’t really appreciate the education they are being given. And it is seen that the dad of Huck isn’t much of an enforcer of education. Pap seems like one of those people who didn’t have education as a child so he doesn’t feel his son needs it because he thinks that he turned out fine without it. Education is one of the things that we take for granted today but if you look to how things were before you would see that we have it so easy. Here in the United States, you would think that school was and will always be a priority, to educate the minds for our future. But back in the day before and during the Civil War education was only for those who could afford it and those who were of the “preferred” race. Those who were most affected by this were African Americans. They either received little or no education what so ever. Slavery was then legal in the south and slave owners would be afraid that if African Americans learned to read and write and went to school, that they would learn too much and try to take over their land. So they passed several laws that made reading, writing, and going to school illegal for slaves. The Black Codes were types of laws passed at the state and local level for African Americans, what it basically did was limit the civil rights and liberties they had.

"The Black Codes excluded African-Americans from some professions, forbade interracial marriage, and prohibited the use of firearms. Taking advantage of freedmen's economic vulnerability, the black codes also permitted freedmen to be forced into labor once convicted of vagrancy." ("Black Codes in the USA")

Even after the Civil War and the emancipation, African Americans still received very little help from the government. Even though it was available only those who were in the inside circle of society got the education. Sure maybe some thought that they didn’t need it. But as the struggle for getting to receive an education became even more difficult, African Americans started fighting for it harder and harder. After all everyone is entitled to an education. I’m sure that there were some of those adventure seekers like Tom and Huck, but eventually the all need some limit and education.

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