Oppression

You walk twelve miles before daylight just to see your children before you go to work in the field for the day hoping you will get back in time. The situation described above is an example of one type of oppression that African Americans had to deal with as we brought them over from Africa and forced them to work on plantations as slaves. This is just one type of oppression American men and women have had to endure. Women have fought for civil rights predominantly since the early- to mid-nineteen hundreds. Society denied women voting rights and the ability to hold professional titles. These obstacles were among the many challenges they had to endure and overcome. Many artists have portrayed these obstacles and challenges, whether they are painters or writers, within their works. The expressions of ideas in their works depend on the artist's background and beliefs. They have expressed their ideas about how women and African Americans endured many hardships over the past few hundred years.

The first type of people that society acknowledged they were oppressing was African Americans. Many events led up to the Civil War, but this was the most fruitful event in attempting to abolish slavery. During the war, President Lincoln put in effect The Emancipation Proclamation, in 1963, which was the first national document dedicated to abolishing slavery, also it changed the reason of the war as it was originally about the southern states creating their own country for other freedoms as well. Blacks were not the only people fighting to abolish slavery as whites from the north also fought alongside them. Winslow Homer painted the effects the war had on white Americans.

Homer often painted with the Civil War in mind. He was not a "war artist," but got his start by painting scenes from the Civil War (Hughes 303). He continued painting works involving people returning to their lives post-war. This included "The Veteran in a New Field," 1865. He depicted an American man in a field mowing wheat.

African Americans were not the only group discriminated against and oppressed. Women found themselves unequal to men in all aspects of their lives. They did not have the same voting rights and they were socialized to believe their opinions did not matter, so they did not voice their opinions. Often enough women found themselves supporting the views of their husbands or other male relatives. This was not because it was how they felt in general, but it was proper to back your husband and family regardless of your opinions.

In Kate Chopin's tale entitled "The Storm", Clarisse was following society in being proper by allowing her husband access to her sexually. She did not actually enjoy being submissive to his wants and needs. At one point in the story, she had the mindset, "Devoted as she was to her husband, their intimate conjugal life was something which she was more than willing to forego