President Abraham Lincoln - Slavery Abolished

On Sept. 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states should be free as of Jan. 1, 1863. It was the basis for the American Civil War. From this point onward people of color entered into another form of slavery, economic.

Unfortunately, proclamations advocating equality, despite their best intentions, rarely, if ever, are obeyed to the letter of the law. After 1863 people of color were still discriminated against by the Caucasian population, segregated, and often were the victims of barbaric criminal acts, which, because the criminals were White, went unpunished.

The following are a few examples of the barbarities committed against the First Nations Peoples of the United States, during and after the abolishment. Canadian First Nations Peoples were treated no better, except it was dished out by Canadian society it in a more sophisticated manner:

“My heart is a stone,

My heart is a stone, heavy with sadness for my people. Cold with the knowledge that no treaty will keep Whites out of our lands, hard with the determination to resist, as long as I live and breathe.” Blue Jacket - Shawnee

The White Man:

“The people of our Frontier carry on private expeditions against the Indians, and kill them whenever they meet them. And I do not believe there is a jury in all of Kentucky who would punish a man for it.” - John H. - Major, U.S .Army

“Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians. I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God’s Heaven to kill them.” - Colonel John Chivington

“The buffalo hunters have done more to settle the vexed Indian question than the entire regular army! For the sake of lasting peace, let them kill, skin and sell until the buffalos are exterminated!” - General Phil Sheridan - US Army

1849, at a California meeting in Monterey it was declared that Indians had no "political rights" and only possess inferior legal rights.

In January 1850, the Bloody Island Massacre 200 Lake County Indians (mostly women and children) Occurred by U.S. Troops and local county.

* In April 1850, the California legislature passed a law that stated "In no case shall a white man be convicted of any offense upon the testimony of an Indian " Thus, if any case was brought to trial any white men who raped, killed, enslaved Indians or illegally took their lands, they were not found guilty simply because no Indian would or could testify~".

* In September 1850, California was admitted to the Union as a free state, Governor Peter Burnett (1849-1851) and later John Medougal (1851), declared war of extermination will continue to be waged" against California Indians (Indian Scalps were sold in various townships).

* In 1851, California passed legislation authorizing payment to voluntary citizens, and radical groups like the " Eel River Minute Men", "Hydesville Dragoons" and the Eel River Rangers to kill Indians and receive compensation from the State of California who was reimbursed over a million dollars by the U.S. Government.

During the 1950s, with the advent of the forceful lobbying that Martin Luther King led, this all began to change, overt racism was frowned upon, however, the ideal for people of color in Canada and the United States to have full equality with their Caucasian counterparts is still an illusive dream.