Should There Be Divided In The United States?

Unity has always been the goal of America. However, as their land expanded their unification fractured. From 1800 to 1850, America was separated between slave supporters and slave abolitionists. As America moved west, the conflict between the two sides increased because of the issues regarding southern farming, slaves states, and contradicting new laws.

The United States has been plague with racism. While a percentage of Americans choose to deny the existence of it, the problem thrives. In the Brown vs. Board of Education of 1954, the separation of race in public school where outlawed. The southern states had a difficult time adapting to the change, thus causing riots and violence. After years of trying to overcome a dark past, we are still faced with the same problem 60 years later.

Slavery divided the Nation. The South and the North viewed it in two very different ways. The South believed that slavery was a good thing. After all, slaves were “vital to the economy of the Southern half of the United States” (Bracken, Pg. 12). However, the North believed that slavery was wrong. The North wanted to get rid of slavery. However, neither side could get what they wanted without dividing the Nation.

The conflicting ideologies on slavery of the North and South clashed heavily, inevitably leading to the South’s secession from the Union. Abraham Lincoln wished to suffocate slavery in the states in which it already existed by not allowing the institution to expand into the new territories. In his house divided speech he says “In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.” The two mindsets could not coexist forever as they were too vastly different. The issue of morality in slavery clearly had split in half with the justification

Back in 1898, the Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson allowed states to set segregation laws, and it created the term “separate but equal”. What transpired were public services such as restrooms, drinking fountains, restaurants, and methods of transportation that were exclusive to white, or colored citizens. Over half a century later, the case of Brown v. Board of Education turned that term upside down, and declaring that it violated the fourteenth amendment for people of all colors, including black and whites, to be forced away from one another in schools. No longer were there schools primarily for African Americans, the public school system was in the process of becoming a melting pot of people of all genders, colors, and backgrounds.

Abraham Lincoln 's famous words, “A House divided among itself cannot stand,” is a precise description of the twenty years prior to the Civil War, famously referred to as the Antebellum years. More accurately, it is true to say that a nation divided amongst itself cannot endure. The slavery topic in the 19th century was the central issue in the United States. The North and South constantly bickered in regard to the African Americans. In contrast, while the South wanted to expand slavery, the North wanted it abolished. Provided, the major conflicts caused a drastic division between the two, known as regionalism. Furthermore, as immigration spread in the United States, an antislavery group, the Nativists, rose to form a new political party.

At the end of the week that brought Baton Rouge, St. Paul, and Dallas, President Obama said, “America is not as divided as some have suggested.”

Although it is nothing like the riots in Chicago years ago, racism is still common. Racism can be discreet, but hurtful. In the past few years, there have been many violent situations that have been considered racism. The shooting of Michael Brown, which caused riots very similar to the ones in Chicago. These riots that occurred in Missouri were scarily similar to the riots in the early 1900s. The destruction not only caused physical pain, but emotional pain as well. These actions made African Americans look like they did many years ago, and that is not the reality of the situation. This particular shooting was not the first, and probably not the last, that was driven by racism, or is said to be. Racism and segregation happen everyday. Is it ignored or simply overlooked because the foundation of our country is built upon this. As much as America has grown in racism, such as having an African American man as our president for many years now, there is still a lot of growing to be done. We, the people of the United States, need to look back on these mistakes, and the mistakes of others, and work to our best ability to change them and prevent them from ever happening again. America has come such a grand distance, and still has a long journey

The issue that was always at the forefront was that no one really trusted anyone else on the issue of slavery or free state vs slave state. If we look back at it now it seems really simple to fix all of these issues, but to have one mans will be changed and someone else’s imposed on him is a hard thing to accept. But to give up on something that one is truly passionate about is also hard to accept and that is why we had one of the bloodiest wars ever fought on American soil. Looking back, it was a hard path to have taken, but we chose the right one.

Regardless of the reception of this speech, Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech is one of the greatest speeches given in American history. Lincoln’s efforts as a Representative of the House and as the U.S. President have influenced America in countless ways for good. His tireless work has paid off. Our country has not been divided; we are still a union, “one nation under

The Nation Divides As the election of 1860 drew near, Americans everywhere felt a sense of crisis.

You can find Racism anywhere politically, in our government, schools, and especially in law enforcement as well as courts of law. There is a term for this that is called Institutionalized racism. It has been around for years, since the days of slavery in the United States and is still an ongoing issue today. Slavery forever created tensions in race relations in the United States. It may very well be the earliest form of Institutionalized racism in our countries history, yet it certainly wasn’t the last. African Americans continued to face even more adversity with segregation laws in the south for years following the Civil War and the ratification of the 13th, 14th, an 15th amendment. Du Bois describes life in the south for blacks after the Civil War in “Black Reconstruction” “In Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, it was said in 1866 a year after slavery was abolished: ‘“The life of a negro is not worth much there. I have seen one who was shot in the leg while he was riding a mule, because the ruffian thought it more trouble to ask him to get off the mule than to shoot him’”. (Du Bois, pg 672). Although this country has come a long way since those days, racism is still an everyday issue today in America, whether it’s in a school, neighborhood, or related to the law.

As the three largest cities in the United States, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago are also epicenters of precipitous segregation. Even with the passage of federal law to curtail segregation and promote more integrated communities, conditions have only improved minimally – if at all – between 1980 and 2000.

In today’s American, we are a country divided for many reasons including: racial, political, taxes, and many more reasons. Flashback two hundred years ago and we were a divided America because of the same issues that divide us today. Out of this turmoil came a group of leaders known today as the Founding Fathers. Together these men took on a brave mission to leave the tyranny of Great Britain,

You could argue that the country is more divided today than at any time since the Vietnam War. In a survey of news stories over two days, it was difficult not to see why.