Another factor that played a major role in the Revolution was how to deal with slavery and whether promoting their freedom helped shape the nation. “As a metaphor for the mistreatment of English politics, slavery was all that Americans fought to avoid. The impact of the Revolution on African American slavery, however, was deeply contradictory. American slave owners wanted to fight for their freedom to own slaves because they believed the British were trying to undermine their rule. Many revolutionaries viewed the war as an attempt by the British to control the colonists' right to own their slaves. For most colonial slave owners, the Revolution was not fighting for their independence from British rule, but rather to protect the freedom to keep their slaves safe. “American freedom had been defined in racially exclusive terms that cast African slaves outside the boundaries of humanity, supposedly endowed with natural rights to freedom.” After the Revolutionary era, freedom played a significant role in how Native Americans would be treated. In the early 19th century, Native American culture was greatly upended as Americans headed west and the U.S. government pushed to rid the land of Native Americans. “The new economic opportunities offered to Americans heading west would come at the expense of Native American societies.” Eastern tribes such as the Creeks and Cherokee were moved to reservations in the West, while government officials pressured them to abandon their cultural practices and assimilate into American culture. Through this struggle, the Cherokee Nation attempted to maintain their freedom by conforming to the U.S. government by adopting many white cultural practices....... middle of paper ....... laws passed, known as the called the Black Codes, in 1865-66 which imposed numerous restrictions on African-Americans. Designed to restrict the free movement and political participation of former slaves. Throughout Reconstruction, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were all passed, making slavery illegal, granting African Americans equal protection, and giving them the right to vote. It seemed that African Americans had won their freedom, but not without the balance of power fluctuating over the years due to the Black Codes, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, and America's V. Cruikshank. The nation continued to trample on the positive trend of African American freedom and civil rights. Through all of this hypocrisy, freedom was clearly one of the most important factors that gave birth to the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Revolution, and largely shaped our nation...