American Identity In The 20th Century

Before the 20th century, individual progress was the definition of the American identity. Success was zero-sum; the people that did progress had authority over the people that didn’t, and people had this overwhelming desire to strive to the fullest as an individual. Several developments throughout American history demonstrated the desire to succeed and progress in America before the 20th century. Slavery, industrialization, and the great depression are events that had an immense impacted the American identity in the 1920s by transforming it from an identity built on a greedy desire to strive and progress as an individual to one that strives to progress as a nation in whole.

In “Cotton is King”, James Henry Hammond explained how the north would

only benefit from slavery because of the rapid economic growth in the South due to the cotton industry, and massive plantations were scattered throughout the south. The industry was the backbone of the economy and if they make war on cotton Great Britain’s economy would collapse as well as the North’s and others. “In all social systems, there must be a class to do all the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life.” (James Henry Hammond). In any society, having social classes is inevitable, and when social classes exist there will always be a class unfortunate enough to be at the bottom. In the south at this time the slaves were the lowest of the low taking on these “menial duties”. The slaves earned this role in society being looked down on by the Americans, and this idea that our wealth and progress was high above the lives of other people was embedded into American’s greedy identity. America had tunnel vision and that tunnel was only headed in one direction, and it was towards success, and to strive as an individual even if it is at somebody else’s expense. People used slaves as an opportunity to use them as a stairway to their success and as those people climbed their way up to the top, the slaves plummeted to the ground.
Although slavery was abolished, the greed, selfishness, and desire for success still remained embedded in the American identity. Therefore, the lowest class that was to perform societies menial duties still lingered in the society. This was a time in which a social class was born, victimized by the same means of slavery and this class was referred to as the working class. Although in terms of equality the working class struggled far less than the slaves, poverty overwhelmed their lives, their family’s lives, and future generation’s lives creating an almost impassable barrier towards wealth and success. According to Henry George, poverty was a social crime and the working class was the victim of this crime, and the Americans that monopolized industries were causing this crime. Factory owners would use the working class to work the dangerous machines that required intense labor for a wage that could not sustain a single life, let alone sustain a families lives. A woman was making a weekly wage of $3.50 couldn’t afford transportation to work, so she arrived at her job and was fined over $5.00 for being late. The economy almost entirely consisted of large corporations and factories run by “fat cat” business owners that were willing to take advantage of the working class to expand their wealth and climb their way to the top, and that’s exactly what they did. The industries monopolized the land and strongly demonstrated the greedy desire for success by achieving this success in a zero-sum style.
After WWI occurred an era that left America on their hands and knees began referred to today as The Great Depression. Families were ripped apart from their fathers and sons, companies lost their employees because of WWI. Men returned home from war to find themselves jobless and unable to support their families anymore. Because of the lack of jobs veterans had, families didn’t have the money to afford a home, so they would have to sell their houses and spend their lives in small shacks or tents. The economy was at an extreme decline, stock markets collapsed, businesses didn’t have any hope do expand, and people didn’t have anywhere to turn. All hope was lost and the desire to succeed as an individual had slowly faded , the people realized their only chance of surviving was to turn to each other and work together to progress as one nation as a whole, not to strive individually. This was a turning point in the American identity causing Americans to come to a realization that having a nation full of inequality will only lead to corruption, and devastation of a whole nation rather than only the slaves or working class being left with the disadvantages society has to offer.
Although throughout history Americans had thought that the idea of striving as an individual, and succeeding would only benefit us, as a result of events such as slavery and industrialization, The Great Depression put Americans in the perspective of those who have been face to face with poverty and inequality. This perspective caused an identity altering realization that progressing and striving does not need to be at people’s expense, as a nation we can enforce equality and use it to our advantage by benefiting from each other as a whole. The American identity was no longer defined by only individual’s identities, but one single identity that consisted of each and every person’s identity.