The abolition of slavery in America, as well as Russian serfdom, took place in the early sixties of the XIX century. These events have much in common, and the differences were in the conditions of release and political circumstances.
Amendment to the North American Constitution approved by Congress on the last day of January 1865. Four years later, the abolition of slavery in the United States, "the stronghold of freedom and democracy," took place later than in Russia, "the prison of nations."
The amendment itself stated a ban on slavery or servitude, except in cases where there was a court decision. It gave Congress the right to use this text as the basis for legislation.
The author of the amendment was Abraham Lincoln. The Emancipation Proclamation had been circulated by him three years earlier, declaring all slaves free. True, it was impossible to implement this legal norm at that time. The south was not controlled by the northerners.
The main goals of its adoption initially were not to make happyblack Americans. There was a Civil War, and the economic base of the enemy (the Southern States) was agriculture. Slaves labored on the plantations to knock this foundation from under the feet of the Confederates, it was necessary to take measures unpopular even among the congressmen of the industrial North.
As now, the main representative body of the Lincoln era was a two-party system. The possible abolition of slavery in the United States provoked desperate resistance from the Democrats. Republicans (Lincoln and his supporters) achieved their goal by all means available to them, including bribery and blackmail. By revealing weaknesses in the reputation of this or that congressman, they gently hinted at the possibility of making secret vices public. The greedy were offered rewards for voting in favor of the amendment. Paradoxically, Lincoln, being a naturally honest man, achieved the adoption of one of the fairest laws in the history of mankind, using corrupt methods.
Most dramatic was the day when slavery was legally abolished in the US. Southern negotiators arrived in the House of Representatives from Richmond (the capital of the Confederation) in order to discuss the terms of surrender. The very meaning of the amendment was lost, but Lincoln, already carried away by the very process of political struggle, deceived the members of the assembly, refuting the South's readiness to surrender.
The idea of the equality of all Americans, regardless of their skin color, was not popular in those years either in the South or in the North. The abolition of slavery in the United States was accompanied by manylegal tricks, sometimes making it meaningless. The next, XIV, amendment to the Constitution (1868) prohibited the adoption by the states of new discriminatory laws, but did not require the abolition of old ones. Those senators who voted for the emancipation of the slaves never even thought that black "free citizens" would be able to vote and be elected on an equal basis with whites.
Segregation (separation of schools, transportation, hotels, park benches and public toilets for blacks and whites) continued to operate in many southern US states until the 60s of the XX century. Moreover, quite recently it turned out that in Mississippi the general and final abolition of slavery in the United States has not yet been formalized. The year 2013 marked the disappearance of the last stronghold of racism. Ratified in 1995, the document wandered through bureaucratic labyrinths for another 18 years, until it was finally officially adopted by the Federal Register on February 7. As the saying goes: "Better late than never."
Is there complete equality now? Unlikely. However, this concerns not only America…
