The 19th century was a hard time for the African-Americans and Native Americans of the U.S. Treatment of these people by the White society brought about much pain and suffering for their races. This is because race played a large role in society during the 19th century, because of this, African-Americans and Native Americans were treated poorly in their relationship with the White Society.
It was largely believed that the African-Americans role in society was one of inferiority to the White race. Evidence of this can be seen in the “Initiation Oath of the Knights of the White Camelia.” The Knights of the White Camelia, more commonly known as the Ku Klux Klan (or KKK for short), believe that it was their duty to maintain the division between the African-American and the White society by any means necessary. The KKK members wanted keep the Caucasian race the superior race through suppressing the African-Americans by intimidating them to stay away from the political sphere and preventing interracial marriages. In the oath they vow to obtain these measures only through lawfully means (Gorn 4-5). Thomas W. Wilson felt that African-Americans were inferior to Whites, maybe not to the extent that the KKK felt, in his article “Reconstruction (1906)” he briefly speaks of the African-Americans as being ignorant, crude, and as “easy dupes” (Hollitz 10). Both of these sources show the Whites need for supremacy over the African-Americans and, as the initiation speech of the KKK states, their willingness to exert their supremacy.
Do to the Whites belief that they were superior to the African-American it is only natural that their treatment of the African-Americans matched their distaste of them. Even though the KKK’s oath...
... middle of paper ...
...r race is just as good as the White race. Also, through the failure of assimilation Native Americans were able to keep their reservations which still thrive today, not in glory through which they once thrived, but they are still around. It wasn’t easy for these two races to get to the point at which they are now, and prejudices against them do still exist in the world, but hopefully one day races of every kind will be able to live in harmony with one another, without the need to make everyone like themselves.
Works Cited
Gorn, Elliot J., Randy Roberts, and Terry D. Bilhartz. Constructing the American Past: A Source Book of a People’s History. 7th ed. Vol 2. New Jersy: Pearson Education Inc., 2011. Print.
Hollitz, John. Thinking Through the Past: A Critical Thinking Approach to U.S. History Vol I: to 1877. 4th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010. Print.
To wrap it up, African Americans lived an unfair past in the south, such as Alabama, during the 1930s because of discrimination and the misleading thoughts towards them. The Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow Laws and the way they were generally treated in southern states all exemplify this merciless time period of the behavior towards them. They were not given the same respect, impression, and prospect as the rest of the citizens of America, and instead they were tortured. Therefore, one group should be never singled out and should be given the same first intuition as the rest of the people, and should never be judged by color, but instead by character.
Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.
Edward, Rebecca and Henretta, James and Self, Robert. America A Concise History. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2012.
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States: 1492-present. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Print.
The population of African Americans from 1865 to 1900 had limited social freedom. Social limitations are limitations that relate “…to society and the way people interact with each other,” as defined by the lesson. One example of a social limitation African Americans experienced at the time is the white supremacy terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK. The KKK started as a social club formed by former confederate soldiers, which rapidly became a domestic terrorist organization. The KKK members were white supremacists who’s objective was to ward off African Americans from using their new political power. In an attempts to achieve their objective, Klansmen would burn African American schools, scare and threaten voters, destroy the homes of African Americans and also the homes of whites who supported African American rights. The greatest terror the KKK imposed was that of lynching. Lynching may be defined via the lesson as, “…public hanging for an alleged offense without benefit of trial.” As one can imagine these tactics struck fear into African Americans and the KKK was achiev...
Walens, Susann. A. United States History Since 1877. Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT. September 2007.
Examine the condition of African-Americans in the late nineteenth century and explain why the Thirteenth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Fifteenth Amendment, which were enacted to aid the new freedmen, actually did little.
Divine, Robert A. America past and Present. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education/Longman, 2013. 245. Print.
The thought of African Americans being less than whites has carried on for years and was first challenged with the abolition of slavery in 1865 with the 13th Amendment (Our Documents). Abraham Lincoln gets credit for the freeing of the slaves because he was the president who fought to get these amendments. Although slavery was no longer aloud that did not change how people felt about the African Americans. Races with darker ski...
George Browm Tindall, David Emory Shi. American History: 5th Brief edition, W. W. Norton & Company; November 1999
Even before the 1920’s started white people have always been aggressive to the African American, but never to the point of aggression as in the 1920’s happened. In the 1920s a group of man got together and decided to do a group called the Ku Klux Klan and their main point was to stop the African American be respected by others or even gain their rights. At first the group started as just the man who got together in the group but over time they got many power and is when they revived and came with full potential. At the time many African Americans were killed and humiliated by the Ku Klux Klan and sometimes the white people joined them or just thought that what the Ku Klux Klan did was right because they saw the African American as ‘’less’’. There are much evidence that the members left there are pictures, letters, notice notes and many more things that somehow explain you what and how they threatened the African American.
The early twentieth century was difficult for African Americans, during that time they faced difficulties
The inequality seen in American history has impacted all American citizens in different ways. Through the years, the people living in America have seen the different measures variety of racist groups do to make certain people stay at the bottom of the hierarchy in American society. One group that targets African Americans is the Ku Klux Klan. They are better known as the KKK, who wear hooded white outfit covering their faces shielding their identities. They committed hate crimes that led to the injuries and deaths of countless people. Due to the actions the Ku Klux Klan have committed, they are judged by American people with numerous perspectives explaining how these groups have impacted their life in America.
Becker, S., & Glover, L., & Wheeler, W. (2012). Discovering the American Past: A Look at the
For decades, African Americans have been on a racial discrimination and extremely deadly roller coaster ride for justice and equality. In this new day and age, racial tendencies and prejudice has improved since the 1700-1800s,however, they are slowly going back to certain old ways with voting laws and restaurants having the option to serve blacks or not. It all began with the start of slavery around 1619. The start of the New World, the settlers needed resources England and other countries had, which started the Triangle Trade. The New England settlers manufactured and shipped rum to West Africa; West Africa traded slaves to the West Indies for molasses and money . From the very beginning, they treated African Americans like an object or animals instead of another human being with feelings and emotions. Women that were pregnant gave birth to children already classified as slaves. After the American Revolution, people in the north started to realize the oppression and treatment of blacks to how the British was treating them. In 1787, the Northwest Territory made slavery illegal and the US Constitution states that congress could no longer ban the trade of slaves until 1808 (Brunner). However, since the invention of the cotton gin, the increase for labor on the field increased the demand for slave workers. Soon the South went thru an economic crisis with the soil, tobacco, and cash crops with dropped the prices of slaves and increased slave labor even more. To ensure that the slaves do not start a rebellion, congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act in 1793 that made it a federal crime to assist a slave in escaping (Black History Milestones). This is the first of many Acts that is applied to only African-Americans and the start of many ...