American Tragedy And That Devil History

After reading the assigned literature, I have now cast a light on several issues that are currently causing problems today. The article titled, “Let’s Make A Slave,” was depressing because it almost forced one to go back in time and feel the plight of Africans Americans before slavery was outlawed. William Lynch traveled a great ways to inform the people of the Virginia Colony about slavery and how it should truly be done. As I was reading, it seemed as though William Lynch was reading the instructions for a product (and not a human being) but he actually was talking about people (African Americans). The speech that he prepared was delivered was so much conviction that it made it very hard to believe that African Americans could have been treated any other way. The Europeans (during slavery) did not respect Black people and regarded to them as “uncivilized niggers” (The Black Arcade Liberation Library, 1970,p2) and sought nothing more than to treat them like the “money making machines” they were.

Over the past few weeks of class, we have covered the first five chapters of our textbook, written by George Brown Tindell and David Emory Shi called, “America, A Narrative History.” Each chapter told the reader a narration of the history of America, as opposed to an expository version of America’s history. Each chapter had its own main idea over a portion of history, along with many details that cover the importance of the main idea. As a reader, one may obtain a deeper appreciation for the country 's history, prior to entering the class on the first day. The most important aspect of history, besides the battles that are fought, is the different cultures that make up today’s modern America.

The United States of America has historical events that underlie the primary example of a country which overcomes every adversity with courage and commitment. Several pieces of history can obviously emphasize the strength of those who inhabited this nation and shaped it into what it is today; one of which is the era of slavery. Slavery is a topic that is often rejected during the mentioning of historical events in America primarily due to the fact that it contradicts what American culture advocates. When attempting to reprimand their previous discriminatory actions towards African Americans, many Americans often fail to realize the impact that African Americans truly had on this country. Without slavery, as inauspicious as the idea may sound, the framework of America would have not been established, its populational growth would not have been as rapid, and the amount of labor that induced economic and military success would be nearly impossible, thus leading to the conclusion that America would not have excelled without slavery.

According to Barbara Fields “Euro-Americans resolved the contraction between slavery and liberty by defining Afro-Americans as a race...” (Fields 114). Even though, Jordan has a strong argument about slavery and racist ideology; Fields complicates this when introduce new ideas of racist cause by salve. In Fields’s research, she gathers information and proves to us how slavery was the cause of discrimination by race. She starts us off with an example, about a man who lost his job when he made a joke about racism (Fields 95). In her research, she argues that segregation started when laws were made about servants and slave interaction (Fields 98). She points out how race and slavery soon became hereditary. “After the boom had passed the landowners began buying slaves in large numbers…” this was when slavery importation increased rapidly (Fields 102). As time went by the Europeans found a way to keep slavery going on by giving more freedom to the servants and less to the slave. Race ideology began to grow as more servants gained freedom and purchased slaves to work for them. In all race discrimination grew as different generations grew within the windows of the new law. She ends her research with an example of a woman and a son; it’s about a son who called a friend black, but the mother laughed and said: “No; he’s brown”. Fields then explain how the son’s youth and innocence was soon corrupted. In the end, she came to the

Through our current world, we are able to see how our ancestors were able to shape the world we live in today. From where state lines are drawn to the political views of that state to finally the culture of each state, can be drawn back to one issue. An issue that is still showing it face, but in a different form, today. That is the topic of slavery. The issue of slavery is an issue that shaped the development of the United States, and is the cause of the political unrest we can see in our everyday lives. Slavery has shaped the development of the American Republic by establishing clear political boundaries for each state,

The main argument that Louis Gates was making in his article was the divide within the social and economic classes here in America. He was explaining the gap between the classes. He is using examples from both the past and the present to validate his argument. He was putting most of the blame on blacks themselves. One example of how he validated this

It is not clear to say whether Slavery was a source of social stability or tension in the South between 1820 and 1860’s, in order to establish the correct answer, we must first discuss them, the arguments that exist between the two, the statistics and figures which exist between the two, as well as the overall general opinion at that time. Both points have their own arguments in themselves, people may argue that without the slave trade, America wouldn’t be what it is today, others would argue that the slave trade, has created instability as well as tension due to the cycle of poverty, that has borne fruit in America amongst African American’s with no way out, for ancestors of old southern slaves. It also should be

By 1600, England’s feudal system was nearing extinction, as a new family (Tudor’s) came to power and wanted support from the middleclass and the establishment of new liberties for Englishman (i.e. trial by jury and no arrest without a warrant), which resulted in a large amount of local and self initiative to prosper in the community: yet many beggars now existed, culminating in an increased need for colonial expansion both for personal prosperity and more space for the existing population.

and The Emancipation Proclamation. I did a comparison on how each of these has affect the history of the African American race. Whites used African Americans for slaves because they did not believe they were not worthy to do anything else besides be a slave for them. Like I previously mentioned the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves, but African Americans were still discriminated against as if they weren’t free people. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil right activist that fought for equal rights for African Americans. He fought for African Americans actually be free people and not be discriminated against. Dr. King had a constitutional vision that one day all blacks and white could be equal and be able to join together as one

Rather than merely examining the affects of racism on people of color, the book turns its attention to whiteness and how a system of white privilege, supported and perpetuated by whites, also damages whites by inhibiting them from making meaningful connections with other human beings. Until I almost reached the end of this book I was uncomfortable and disturbed by the way the book made me feel. As a white male, I am aware of the pain that my ancestors have created for others to advance the free world. I have pain for those who suffered and disagree with actions that were taken by my white predecessors. But I believed that we are now in a much more advanced world where we have chosen the first black president and equality was a focus of most Americans. Identifying with my culture as currently being a white supremacist society is something I have never considered, or would not want to consider. In Neuliep, within the Coudon and Yousef’s Value orientations, we perceive the human nature orientation within the United States with people being essentially rational. This term, rational, can be somewhat subjective. And if we continue with the same value system, and look from ‘the self’ values, we foster our self-identities from the influence of our culture’s values. If we are to reflect truthfully to how our country evolved and what we ‘had to do’ to create our freedom by limiting the freedom of other, how would we then perceive

Gates uses a quote that says “the race” or “our people” which says that color or race mean nothing, it is the person inside counts. This is true because we cant judge a book by it cover. Because we don’t know the person and what is there personal life like. In NY we have a lot of people from different races, countries but we should love each other and share with each other no matter what.There is another quote “ used in anger, jest ,or pure digust it was George”. To me this quote mean a differnet racial names used toward Afrcian Amercians. We should not be using any kind of name towards anybody. Because we can hurt people feeling because we doing know how they could react. For example if they call me “ FAT” I will be sad in

Furthermore, the researchers divide white racial consciousness into two: achieved and unachieved. A person who has achieved white racial consciousness has explored and developed some sort of belief system when it comes to racial issues. Conversely, those with unachieved white racial consciousness have not grasped their own racial identity and its link to other minority groups, which may stem from either intentionally avoiding dialogue surrounding race or depending on family members to form an ideology. In his book Faces at the Bottom of the Well, Bell argues that this relatively loose grasp of white racial identity creates an environment that serves a significant detriment to advancing racial progress in the country, as “few white people are able to identify with blacks as a group –the essential prerequisite for feeling empathy with, rather than aversion from, blacks’ self-inflicted suffering” (Bell, 4).

, by April Jones Prince, has with the world is recognizing past and present slavery. There is still a continued fight for slavery. Slavery is said to have been abolished. However, slavery is currently just masked by other conditions. There is a mass of incarceration of people of color particularly African american and Hispanics in prison. People of color are paid less for jobs white people work and are paid more money for. Furthermore, the black history, which is American history continues to be watered down, or erased in schools, businesses, and taught history. The connection is that there is still a fight for

The event that completely altered my perception of American past was when we addressed the topic of slave labor. In 1793, a man named Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, a machine that efficiently removed the seeds from cotton. His device became copied throughout the South and within a few years, large-scale tobacco production had now switched to cotton. With his invention, the switch had strongly reinforced the region’s dependence on slave labor. By 1804 slavery was abolished in the north, but was still prevalent in the South until 1865. Within those 60 years, the slave population had still increased to 1/3 of the South’s population. The population grew from 700,000 before Whitney’s patent, to more than three million in 1850 (Teaching). Slave owners sought to make their slaves completely dependent on them. Owners developed restrictive codes, “slave codes”, that governed life among slaves. Slaves were prohibited from learning to read and write, they were forbidden to hold any property, leave their masters’ premises without permission, or strike a white person, even in self-defense. Many masters took sexual liberties with slave women, and rewarded obedient slave behavior with favors, while rebellious slaves were brutally punished. Anyone with a trace African ancestry was defined as black. These people were traded and sold like objects. This is still so shocking to me that at this point in time; people were defined by their skin color. The president that began to pave the way

Brumwell, Stephen. White Devil: A True Story of War, Savagery, and Vengeance in Colonial America. Da Capo Press Inc. March, 2005.