The Great War And The Crisis Of American Nationality

The Harlem Hellfighters were able to make a name for themselves in World War One. The African-American Hellfighters, based out of New York City since 1913, were some of the first US soldiers to fight on the front lines. They were officially known as the 369th Infantry Regiment (“Harlem…”). The Harlem Hellfighters received their nickname from the Germans for being from Harlem, New York and having to go to “Hell” to fight a war. This regiment had approximately 370,000 soldiers.

What they fought for is an analysis of a collection of nearly a thousand personal letters and journals entries written by the soldiers who fought America’s famous Civil War. This book seeks to define the ideology of what the soldiers understood they were fighting for, and their comprehension of the outcome of their service .Although counter arguments agree that most soldiers could not give a solid explanation of why they fought for, nor the real Constitutional issues that were at stake; the thoughts the soldiers recorded show that they fought for more than just masculine identity; they highly valued being at home safe with their loved ones, at any cost. This book gives an inside perception of the Civil War, and a

This made the 369th the only unit to serve in those lines longer than any other American unit, and as previously stated they were less trained as other regiments. Black soldiers were regarded as some of the strongest fighters during the Great War, so much so that the Germans had various names for them. The 369th Infantry were called the Harlem Hellfighters by German forces. The 369th was named this because of their relentless fighting style and where they come from, Harlem. Other regiments were referred as Blutlustige Schwarzmänner meaning bloodthirsty black men. The Germans were scared of these men, so much so, that they airdropped leaflets over the 369th’

The unit was officially named the first United States volunteer cavalry, but after many disreguarded nicknames, they eventually became known as "Roosevelt's Rough Riders." The volunteers that formed the rough riders came from four states, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Theodore Roosevelt used his political influence to outfit his regiment with all the latest weapons and uniforms designed to set them apart from the rest of the army. The rough riders encountered their first problem before even leaving the US for Cuba. General Shafter ordered the departure of the rough riders early before there was sufficient space for all the troops, equiptment, and horses. One fourth of the men in the regiment were left behind as the troops set off for Cuban shores, and virtually all the horses and mules were left behind as well. The regiment was then struck by a series of deaths caused by malaria and yellow fever also before hitting Cuban shores, sending the men into Cuba with a low morale before the fighting even started. Leaving the regiment without most of their horses which they were trained to used also contributed to the low morale of the unit. The band of soldiers although having to suffer through unbearable heat, millions of misquitoes, and scorpions, only had to wait 2 short days to see combat. They were one of many regiments at the assault of the Spanish Fortification at Las Guasimas. However they recieved many praises for their

The equipped power required more work or, as African-American warrior James Henry Gooding put it with annoying effect, "more conspicuous help for its vivacious throat." By 1865 around one tenth of each Union officer and sailors were African- American, and around 80% of these started from the slave states. Dull troopers fight with imperative valor. Exactly when gotten they went up against extensively more discernible mercilessness from Confederate warriors than did their white confidants. Union affiliation, in any case, was no affirmation of for all intents and purposes indistinguishable treatment. Decrease warriors in the Union prepared power served in separated troops, as often as possible as possible tested humble assignments, and got cleave down pay—$10 dependably to white officers' $13. In this letter to President Lincoln, Gooding, making in the energy out of himself and his related reduce warriors, attempted these

This book withholds eight true stories entailing American men’s courage in fighting for their country. It contains no real names, just real stories. The book spans from 1776 to 2007 including the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War II, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the Iraq War. The first account is that of a spy of General George Washington’s. This man was a school teacher when the Revolution began, but felt he needed to fight for freedom. He started at the bottom just as part of the militia This man saw many men in his unit die in battle and due to diseases such as influenza. As we continued to fight, his commanding officers saw him as being capable to blend in behind the enemy lines. He became a spy and worked under General George

Long after the war for independence had been fought, such literature continued to function as the means by which racial ideologies were reflected, reinforced and reconstructed. Takaki's survey of nineteenth-century white prejudice towards those both native and foreign to America reveals how national identity ultimately emerged out of a national literature.

W.E.B. DuBois’ “Returning Soldiers,” an editorial piece written in May of 1919 for the NAACP’s publication The Crisis lays out for not just returning soldiers, but for African-Americans as a whole that the war is not over. While the Great War of 1914-1918 may have ended, there is still a greater war to continue to fight on the American homefront. “Returning Soldiers” calls out the United States government on the charges against its people as seen by DuBois and reiterates and rejuvenates the reader for the fight it still needs to take on. The black man soldier may have escaped the battlefields of France and now be able to shed the uniform that symbolizes the systematic injustices he faced, but upon returning, in his “civil garb” he is still a soldier, only in a different military.

As stated earlier, the Harlem Hellfighters came back from WWI as one of the most-decorated American units, but their journey to that point was not an easy one. Originally the 15th New York National Guard Infantry Regiment, the Harlem Hellfighters were an all-black infantry unit during WWI. Their name was changed to the 369th Infantry during the war. The infantry, although properly trained for battle, began the war with labor jobs rather than seeing the battlefield. They mostly spent their time unloading ships. While in America, they never got a chance to see battle because white soldiers in other regiments refused to fight with African Americans. In an NPR article titled, “The Harlem Hellfighters: Fighting Racism in

Historically, the United State is not a color-blinded nation. Racial oppression, segregation, and discrimination have powerfully shaped American history from its beginnings. During the World War II, a complex moment in American history, racism powered by the war tremendously influenced the lives of minority groups, race relations, and institutional system. As one of the greatest black American writers, Chester Himes, in his novel “If He Hollers Let Him Go,” reveals how American society in wartime uses patriotism as an excuse to rationalize white racism and enforce power to oppress minorities through criminalizing them and depriving them of their labor opportunities and social opportunities in order to prevent them from moving upward. In this

Slavery was abolished after the Civil War, but the Negro race still was not accepted as equals into American society. To attain a better understanding of the events and struggles faced during this period, one must take a look at its' literature. James Weldon Johnson does an excellent job of vividly depicting an accurate portrait of the adversities faced before the Civil Rights Movement by the black community in his novel “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.” One does not only read this book, but instead one takes a journey alongside a burdened mulatto man as he struggles to claim one race as his own.

The Jim Crow laws ensured that those who championed for equal rights would be met with unapologetically close-minded opposition, partly because the majority of the American public had come to accept segregation – and the racism that ensued – as nothing if just a normal part of life. As evidence, one needs to look no further than the eruption of the Second World War. African-Americans believed that perhaps by fighting a common enemy alongside their white “brothers”, their American “brothers,” that tensions would be alleviated. After all, they would be fighting for their county, for the American way of life, for their homeland, and for their families back home. Ira points out the irony of the American government entering the war as a means to secure the survival of democracy, when they mistreated and oppressed their own people.

Often when we speak of the struggle for America we think of the Revolutionary War, or even of the Civil War. We reminisce of tales of bravado and of cunning, of George Washington and our country’s forefathers leading the revolution against the British and of pursuing the dream of a nation free from tyranny. But often the tyranny that this new nation itself took part in is largely glossed over. It is largely accepted that America unfairly pushed out the Native Americans from their homelands, but the means in which they did so was crueler than the British tyranny that we rebelled against. In Colin Calloway’s The Shawnees and the War for America, we learn of a different struggle for America, we learn of the plight of the Native Americans

Throughout history, neighbor has been fighting neighbor over land. Some of these wars have gone down in history as the most violent or largest of all wars. The study of war must include all aspects of the struggle, including historical, financial, and political ramifications. Insight into the strategy used by military troops, the rational of the military leaders, how the economy was affected, provide an understanding of society during that time. Wars are studied for years after they cease. Studying the causes, results, the economics, the destruction and reconstruction, and other particulars of war offers insight and, hopefully, the wisdom to prevent future ones.

American identity to my knowledge is the fundamental fact of living in the land which was founded by both political and religious leaders in which creates us to become a part of the American culture. Our American identity began to adapt within the creation of representative for our governments which followed democratic principles throughout the resistance of the stamp act. The term “sons of liberty” was a generic term of having a sense of national pride in the eighteenth century for any colonist who felt that liberty was his birthright. The colonists had a highly developed sense of identity and unity as Americans by the verge of the revolution. The Sons of Liberty did what was possible in their hands to spread word of their actions throughout