Major Events of American History - Essay Example

Running head: AMERICAN HISTORY American history Name:   Institution    Date: American History: Major Historical Event Introduction In unit one, life in America was linked to events of major industrialization, world wars and urbanization. These events that took place in America after the Civil War has helped in shaping the understanding people have over the state today. One political issue they faced was the Reconstruction period which proves to be a marker of big change in America after the end of slavery. It was a period full of great upheaval and the state tried to restructure itself and incorporate the Southern states to be members of the Union. The freed slaves from the South at the moment were in a system that needed them to assimilate themselves fully though there was a lot of bias towards them having being fully controlled previously by the system. The reconstruction period was occupied with little agreement on political issues such as the rebuilding the South state after massive destruction of most centers and the right of African American to vote. The reconstruction process was however difficult to the black people from the South after Andrew Johnson takeover as the president of the State following the death of Lincoln. The shooting and killing of Lincoln was a major shock to Americans since he had given them hope and therefore his death increased vengeance directed to the south and left Americans in the hands of a person who was not ready to govern. He took power only after a few months service as vice president and this was an indication hat he was ill prepared to manage the problems affecting the state. His reconstruction plan was a bit compassionate to the previous Confederate states and was not interested in raising equality rights to the blacks. The freed slaves experienced difficulty in starting new lives because of the release of the black codes, the legislative acts. To rejoin the Union it was necessary for states to write new constitution, allow the blacks to vote and also make ratification on the 14th Amendment. However, most former Confederates could not vote according to the new constitution but the freedmen were allowed. These conditions opened a way for Republicans to take control of the governments of the southern states. The passing of the 14th Amendment which emanated from the Reconstruction era gave some hope in the blacks’ civil rights (Wood, 2000). The ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870 gave the black males a constitutional right to vote. In response to these issues, it came clear to the South that they had to assimilate themselves with the North after the final part of the Reconstruction process. However, even after the Reconstruction process there were noticeable tensions between the two groups. The process never gave equal rights to the blacks even though they might have benefit from some degree of freedom. The outcome of the Reconstruction process was rapid industrialization that occurred in major cities of America. The growth was facilitated by the railroads and there was a big rise in population in cities like Chicago. Most African American moved to the urban centers to look for jobs in processing plants and factories. Though there existent a big gap between the poor and the rich, it was a period of economic prosperity as many Americans were becoming urbanized because many left their villages to work in big cities. The African American worked very hard to develop their communities and never stopped to struggle for freedom. The African American institutions such as schools and churches were strengthened. The reconstruction process opened a route to put an end to discrimination. It was a period that gave hope, promise and progress especially to the African American and one that caused resentment for most white southerners. The era of Jim Crow was ushered in following the end of the process of Reconstruction hence opening doors for Civil Rights movements (Smith, 2010). Unit 2 In Unit two, the American life was full of system-building and it is the same time the government got regulatory powers. This was a time of reform as a result of the stop of reconstruction by the Democratic parties in 1877. These years were marked by strong political debates and social conflicts. One of the social changes was racism and discrimination over the African American citizens. Although the blacks were given power to vote, the discrimination laws like the grandfather clauses made the African Americans in the south to be disenfranchised. The racially discriminatory laws were slowly reinstated in the south. The blacks had power to hold political offices as well as participate fully as equal members of the state. The reinstatement of the discriminatory laws was intended to achieve segregation as well as disenfranchisement. The African Americans were stopped from voting by the Democratic Party so as to grab away the power the blacks had previously gained. This was done through poll taxes where expensive fees especially for the blacks were paid at voting booths. In addition there was implementation of a literacy test. Most of the blacks were former slaves who were illiterate since it was illegal to teach them. Most of the blacks therefore were discriminated basing on their literacy level. The democrats came up with laws that segregated public facilities and schools. The congress lacked power to hinder private deeds of discrimination. This was according to the declaration of the Supreme Court in 1883 n the civil rights case. The court’s ruling gave power for democrats to stop African American from voting (Lears, 2009). Examples of segregation are; in 1914, separate entrance were build for whites and blacks in Louisiana, telephone booths were segregated in Oklahoma in 1915 and separated schools were build in Kentucky. Eventually the south became totally segregated and schools, hospitals, prisons, churches and other social amenities were either for whites or blacks. Racism was worse in these times than in other periods before hence is known as the nadir of American race relations. The discrimination and racial segregation were enforced by the Jim Crow Laws. The laws were not written but applied in a manner that discriminated the blacks. These laws denied private, civil as well as public rights to all blacks. The whites could address African American as ‘boys’ and this shows the denial of social respect towards the African Americans. Anti- black violence such as race riots and lynching increased with equal increase in racial discrimination, white supremacy expression and segregation. At least 2,000 African American in the south were lynched by whites between 1884 and 1900. Lynching also happened if the blacks violated the southern code. They were either shot, beaten to death or burned alive. Many viewed racism as a major problem affecting the Southern States and therefore it became a national consciousness when many African American were relocated to the North especially in the industrial centers in the Great Migration after the World War 1. This was intense in cities such as New York, Boston and Chicago. There was explosion of racial tension in the northern cities especially in Chicago. The racially motivated lynching and hanging increased significantly in 1920s. Lobbyist as well as protest groups such as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People emerged as a response to the racism. The blacks arranged meeting after the 1883 Civil Rights Act of 1883 and groups such as Brotherhood of Liberty planned for legal action against racism following the large protest by Frederick Douglas. The black people joined together and fought against segregation in train and later they began to challenge whites in court. As a result there arose dreams of the physical, moral as well as spiritual rebirth that formed a good base for the known today United States because they made an imperial ambition inspiration to its leaders of that time (Ronald, 1993). Unit 3 United States was faced with an economic tide during this time. This was as a result of the refusal of the US to assume a significant role in the global affairs following the stop of World War 1. The country experienced isolation in most part of the period. The period began with a tremendous growth in oil and glass industries. The construction of factories and homes led to the prosperity of large as well as small cities. The newly invented power industry made transformations in business. There was a spread of electricity and telephone all over the country. However, there was a crash on the stock market and banks started to fail in 1929. The crash on the stock market led to Great Depression on the country’s economic. Even though the depression was not caused by the Federal Reserve Board, it made little efforts in giving aid to the banks. There was a massive fall in money supply and it was difficult for one to procure a loan. There was an increase in massive tax as passed by President Herbert Hoover and this was attempted to boost federal revenues that were sagging. Following his signing of the Smoot- Haley Tariff the trading partners from Britain, Canada began retaliating. The unemployment rate fell drastically and conditions worsened in mining, lumbering as well as agriculture industries. As a result, President Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932 in absence of a specific program. He relied on the New Deal advisors and through this there was massive improvement in the economy until 1937 when the recession began. There is a claim that the New Deal was responsible for lengthening the depression. The war affected the economy in terms of price controls and rationing among others. In response, the capabilities of nation production were coordinated by the War Production Board to enable meeting of military priorities. Military orders were filled by many customer products plants. The Price Administration Office was created to prevent increase in national income that caused inflation. In addition the office rationed many consumer items, controlled rents in some places and restrain price increase. The outcome of that was the many women started working in manufacturing and production industries. Some were replacing those men who had left for military. Finally the nation had made major improvement in its economy. Unit 4 America advanced greatly in the 19th century especially in literature. Most of the literature done during this era included the early American poetry in the unique American style. At the start of the 20th century, American novelists were intensifying fiction’s social spectrum to include both high and low life at some instances to the naturalist school of realism. In her novels for instance, Edith Wharton analyzed the upper class society where she had been brought up. The book, The Age of innocence focuses on a man who opts to wed a conventional, socially accepted lady instead of a fascinating outsider. It is during this error that Stephen Crane who was known for the popular Civil War Novel The Red Badge of Courage, demonstrated the life of a prostitute Maggie living in New York. Other novels such as A Girl of the Streets and in Sister Carrie showed a country girl who relocates to Chicago and learns the urban ways of life. Most of the directly political work focused on social issue and power demonstrations. People like Edward Bellamy in hi novel Looking Backward described other probable political and social structures. Upton Sinclair of the popular novel the Jungle promoted the socialism school of thought in his writing (Nelson, 2000). Experimentation in writing style and structure of writing also became a common trend. In 1909, Gertrude Stein wrote the Three Lives which a creative piece of fictional work strongly influenced by her knowledge with cubism and other factions in contemporary art and music. Ernest Hemingway born in 1899 witnessed violence and death as first hand experience since he was an ambulance driver in the First World War and the carnage convinced him that abstract language was mainly empty and misleading. He removed unnecessary wording from all his writing and also wrote in simple language while focusing on concrete objects and actions. He followed a moral code that emphasized on grace and his proponents were strong, silent men who often handled women in an awkward manner (Fiske, 1896). Unit 5 By the mid-1970s, the subject of Census Bureau was brought to the public limelight in major cities in America. Proponents of the issue who also added the question on religion emphasized the significance of religion in American life. They also noted that the issue of religion was taken into account by other nations such as Canada and Australia. Vincent Barabba who was the Census Bureau director during those times declared that the issue was not to be included. Barabba’s decision was strengthened by the Act of Congress in 1976 enacting a law which amended the primary census law. Ever since, the Census Bureau has been permitted to question issues of religious practices but only on voluntary grounds in some households or populace surveys (Nelson, 2000). Conclusion Life in America was linked to events of major industrialization, world wars and urbanization. These events that took place in America after the Civil War has helped in shaping the understanding people hold over the state today. One political issue they faced was the Reconstruction period which proofs to be a marker of big change in America after the end of slavery. It was a period full of great upheaval and the state tried to restructure itself and incorporate the Southern states to be members of the Union. The freed slaves from the South at the moment were in a system that needed them to assimilate themselves fully though there was a lot of bias towards them having being fully controlled previously by the system. America advanced greatly in the 19th century especially in literature. Most of the literature done during this era included the early American poetry in the unique American style. At the start of the 20th century, American novelists were intensifying fiction’s social spectrum to include both high and low life at some instances to the naturalist school of realism (Littlefield, 2000). References Alpana, S. (1996). New Immigrant Literatures in the United States: A Sourcebook to Our Multicultural Literary Heritage. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Fiske, J. (1896). Critical Period of American History, 1783–89. Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press. Nelson, E. (2000). Asian American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press Lears, J. (2009) Rebirth of a Nation. The Making of Modern America, 1877- 1920. New York, HarperCollins Publishers. Littlefield, D. et al. The Revolutionary Generation, and Slavery." New York History 2000 81(1): p 91–132. Ronald, T (1993), A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America.New York, Little, Brown & Co. Smith, N. (2010). America History Since 1876: Major Events and Trends.2010/ Retrieved April 20, 2010 Wood, D. Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different (2006) pp 173– 202 Read More