American Slave Narratives - Coursework Example

?American Slave Narratives Freedom to the former slaves meant land ownership, which former slaves believed was an important stepping-stone to achieving equality to the white man. Freedom also meant having a new place to work. Even when their former owners offered them the chance to “stay on” at higher wages, some former slaves said no. A new job was symbolic of new freedom. Family values were also a sign of freedom. As slaves, they were not allowed to marry, and as free men and women, they quickly adopted the husband as head of household. It was also symbolic of freedom to have a full name. Slaves were assigned a first name only, and after Reconstruction, many of them took on new names, as did Lewis Evans, who said “the white folks gave me a new name”. America missed the opportunity to create a multiracial society. First, Lincoln missed that chance by legitimizing pro-Union governments in the South that only allowed white men to vote. After Lincoln was assassinated, the new President, Andrew Johnson, took power. He was extremely racist, saying “Damn the negroes” (textbook, 474). As someone with a class chip on his shoulder, Johnson quickly returned the southern states to the Union, allowing them to enforce Black Codes of law that kept African Americans without property, and with very few legal rights. The former slave narratives include the story of Henry “Happy Day” Green, Sarah Gray, Lewis Evans and Measy Hudson. Henry Green reports that he voted. The right to vote was an important symbol of freedom. Sarah Gray’s voice did not come through in the interview, perhaps because of the interviewer, Minnie Ross’s, condescending attitude: “ [it gave] her as much pleasure as a child playing with a favorite toy”. All that Miss Ross seems to have found out is that Sarah Gray thought she was well-treated in slavery. Lewis Evans speaks of his house, and garden lot, his own land on which he raises a garden and chickens. This is important because along with his small pension, it provides his livelihood. Measy Hudson describes working as a laundress, being married and voting twice, all important parts of freedom. I think the slaves’ narratives are accurate when their actual words are faithfully recorded, because they were there, and experienced these events first-hand. ELECTIONS OF 1912 Roosevelt espoused Progressivism, which believed in reducing the power of giant trusts(corporations). Progressivism wanted to remove the influence of special interest groups to form a “pure democracy” where people had a more direct voice in the central government. He proposed to limit the power of the judicial system by allowing a popular vote or referendum to overturn court decisions. Wilson, a Democrat, espoused antitrust measures and state regulations to control the powers of giant trusts. He also espoused small government. Taft, the incumbent Republican President, espoused the protection of the judicial system from popular votes intended to overturn rulings. He believed that checks and balances were written into the constitution to prevent mass hysteria in governance. Taft believed in protection of the environment and safety standards for mines and railroads, as well as an 8-hour workday, all of which he put in place while president. Eugene V. Debs espoused the organization of workers into unions. He ran on the Socialist Party ticket and was one of the founding members of the International Labor Union. The outcome of the election, with Roosevelt’s victory, says that Americans wanted to have a more direct influence on their national government, and that many of them were in favor of the various reform movements of the time. WORLD WAR 1 PROPAGANDA The U.S. Food Administration sent the message in its propaganda posters to conserve food, especially meat. A poster for navy recruiting week listed the dates to attend. The president lent his image to say conserve food, as well as to say that we must conquer the enemy, and stay united in the war effort. The Armenian and Syrian Relief Campaign’s poster said to donate to prevent starvation. The Red Cross had messages to donate, especially in the image of “The Comforter”. The National Catholic War Council and the Jewish Welfare Board both urged donations to the army and navy. The Patriotic Service League urged people to join, and Liberty Bonds posters urged people to buy. The themes emphasized were those of belonging, joining together to defeat a common enemy, altruism, and selflessness. These posters promoted the actions of giving, joining the armed forces to fight, supporting the troops at home and thinking outside of one’s small circle in order to give to the national effort. They also promoted extreme conformity in the name of patriotism. CORPORATIONS AND BIG BUSINESS The creation of the Bessemer Process for making iron into steel, advances in the distilling of petroleum into gasoline and kerosene, the invention of electricity and the telephone all made increased production possible in the factories that existed in the 19th century. Increased production also caused an increase in consumption of natural resources, and increased waste. As the factories grew, so did savings and investment. Eventually, a network of banks, insurance companies and investment houses came into being. Investment bankers did most of the funding for railroads. “By absorbing smaller lines into larger ones, eliminating rebates and stabilizing rates, the bankers helped reduce competition and impose order and centralization” (text, 550). Since ownership was consolidated, the railways themselves were synchronized in terms of standardized tracks and time zones to coordinate schedules. The railway system increased trade by allowing for transport of goods and raw materials, and the delivery and sale of factory-made products. As a result, business grew ever bigger. Backlash to the giant trusts came in the form of Henry George, a journalist who criticized the trusts. The Socialist Labor Party arose as a response to the gap between the rich industrialists and poor workers, and called for revolution by the workers. The government enacted the Sherman Antitrust Act as a response to dissatisfied constituents. By regulating interstate commerce, this act gave the government some power in breaking up the big trusts. THE AUTOMOBILE AND AMERICA The automobile changed American culture as much as the railroads did a few decades earlier. Roads were built, which created urban sprawl--when people can travel easily to outlying areas, they can live farther away from the big city where they work. Real estate sales rose, and “auto camps” sprang up across the country, for the purpose of recreation(text, 695). Communities that had been isolated were suddenly connected by roadways, which caused their inhabitants to take on the dialects and attitudes of those from far away. Such connection made America more of a melting pot than ever. Henry Ford took an idea from the meat-packing industry, and invented the assembly line for car manufacture: a waist-high conveyor belt took the chassis of the car past workers, who each performed an assembly task. By making every car identical, and by pushing the assembly process and his workers to “ruthless extremes” (text, 694), Ford cut assembly time in half, and lowered the cost to the consumer to $290. Per car. At that price, almost anyone could afford to buy a car. THE HOLOCAUST I think the Holocaust happened because of widespread anti-Semitism, which Hitler used as a political tool to unite his country in the common goal of hatred. The U.S. at the time was also deeply anti-Semitic, for the most part. The economy was in a recession, with high unemployment. Most people favored making the immigration law enacted in the 1920’s even tougher. As a result, the U.S. wouldn’t accept Jewish immigrants. To make matters worse, Assistant Secretary of State Long was an anti-Semite and also in charge of immigration policy. He “used his authority over visas to place obstacles in the way of desperate Jewish refugees” (text, 790). Franklin D. Roosevelt, while President, had made a plan with Morgenthau, the Treasury Secretary, to pay a ransom for Jews in Romania and for 6,000 Jewish children in France. Long blocked this plan. Roosevelt stripped Long of his powers for this, but 18 months had gone by, with Jews dying every day. American Jews at the time were afraid of anti-Semitic backlash that they feared would be directed at them by their own country if they protested American policy at the time. HOLLYWOOD President Truman set up the Loyalty Review Board in response to the perceived threat of communism. The Hiss case, where Alger Hiss was accused of supplying state secrets to the Russians, and the Fuchs case, were motivations. Fuchs, a scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project, was found guilty of spying for the Russians. Meanwhile, Stalin was maneuvering to take territories after the close of World War 2(the Berlin Crisis). A political cartoon of the day, shown in the website, shows Stalin sitting with his feet on Truman, having jumped over the table of their chess game. “Whose move?” Stalin says. In addition, china’s Communist Revolution put Mao Zedong in power in 1949. The spread of Communism was real. HUAC was the acronym for the House Committee on Un-American Activities. This congressional committee took it upon itself to investigate alleged communist infiltration of Hollywood. They held public hearings, grilling actors, screenwriters and producers about their ties to communism, or their knowledge of their colleagues’ ties. Some buckled under the pressure and gave names. Others did not. These were the Hollywood Ten. Refusing based on the constitutional right to freedom of speech, they were sentence to jail terms for contempt of congress(text, 814-17). TET Previous to the Tet Offensive, the Vietcong had lured American forces into skirmishes in outlying areas. While the Americans were thus distracted, the Vietcong were able to get into the major, populated areas. The Tet Offensive consisted of a series of coordinated attacks on South Vietnam, including the American Embassy. The Vietcong blew a hole in the building and went in. U.S. forces had to battle them within the compound until all 19 Vietcong were dead. This offensive showed a major breach in U.S. intelligence. It concerned the American people, because it went contrary to General Westmoreland’s reassurances that the Vietcong were almost defeated. The My Lai Massacre, which occurred subsequently, where U.S. soldiers murdered 200 civilians, led to an eventual U.S. policy of de-escalation of the war(text, 893). Robert Kennedy’s assassination was reported on television. The crowd at the scene chanted “kill him, lynch him” in outrage at Sirhan B. Sirhan, the assassin. The reverend Ralph Abernathy “aimed his criticism pointedly in the direction of President Johnson and the conflict in Vietnam by saying that Kennedy had worked against ‘the violence, the hatred, and the war mentality’ that had been ‘poisoning America’(museum,tv). At the Democratic Convention in Chicago, many grassroots factions within the Democratic party were sparring over their aims. Most were unhappy with the continuation of the war in Vietnam: “The social conflicts of the Sixties were on display” (chicago68.com). The Democratic party up to this point was “the party that starts and fights wars--WW2, Korea, Vietnam, all began in Democratic administrations’(chicago68.com) In 1968, a peace movement was developing inside the Democratic party, and the party nominated a peace candidate. Ever since, the Democratic party “has been essentially non-interventionist” (chicago68.com) Sources: www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrcode=kennedyrobe www.chicago68.com HOSTAGE CRISIS In Iran in the 1970’s, Islamic fundamentalism was rising. The Shah of Iran, friendly to US interests, was hated by the fundamentalists. Eventually, there was an uprising, and the Ayatollah Khomeini rose to power. The Iranian militants were unhappy with the U.S. military advisors stationed in their country. The U.S. agreed to bring the ailing Shah to this country for treatment, whereupon a group of Iranian students took 52 Americans hostage at the American embassy in Tehran. Americans were disillusioned with president Carter’s inability to solve this crisis. Gas prices soared, due to instability in the Middle East, and there was a failed attempt to rescue the hostages that ended disastrously. America was ready to elect a new president, Reagan, who could be more effective in foreign policy management(text, 937-9). Robert Ode’s experience as a hostage was traumatic. In the beginning, he was moved around constantly. He was blindfolded, handcuffed and not permitted to talk. His letter to Rita was torn up because he called his jailors SOB’s. He wrote an apology to the students to try to get them to give him mail again. His back was sore from being tied to a chair. His heart condition was ignored. It was 5 months before the International Red Cross was allowed to visit, on April 14, 1980. During the end of his captivity, the TV was censored. There was seldom a hot shower. The mail was censored. No doctors were provided for the sick, only an incompetent medical student. On the 428th day, a doctor finally arrived. Understandably, at this point Dole writes about low morale and sever depression, including suicidal thoughts on the part of the captives. Source: www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/r-ode/ MASH America in the 1970’s saw the rise of political conservatism. The Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade legalized abortion. This outraged conservative, evangelical Christians. Darwinism and sex ed were being taught in the public schools. As a backlash, conservative parents “established Christian academies that were racially as well as religiously segregated” (text, 931). The IRS wanted to remove the tax-exempt status of these Christian schools, because the schools violated the racial segregation laws. Evangelicals jumped into the political arena by vehemently protesting this. Meanwhile, the Catholics became united with the Christian evangelicals over the abortion issue. The reverend Falwell and the Concerned Women of America lobbied against: abortion, no-fault divorce laws and the Equal Rights Amendment. Eventually, Reverend Falwell and his followers’ movement became know as the Moral Majority. The Moral Majority saw the media as a corrupter of family values. The shows All in the Family and MASH were two examples. In All in the Family, Archie Bunker was a metaphor for working-class backlash against liberal values. MASH, to the Moral Majority, was an example of “how liberal values dominated the media”( text, 932). All in the Family, which ran from 1971-1983, was the top-rated show in America. It addressed bigotry with Archie’s racist characterizations. Women’s rights, or lack of them, was addressed in Archie’s abusive demeanor towards Edith. Archie and Mike, Archie’s son-in-law, represented conservative and liberal views respectively. When they argued, which was often, the issues and attitudes dividing these two views were seen. Archie’s racism is seen on the episode: Archie Bunker Meets Sammy Davis. Archie’s ways to Sammy “to a man who proves there is good and bad in all races.” Then he won’t drink from his beer glass, because he realizes Sammy Davis has just sipped from it. MASH aired fro 1972-1983. The series used stories of actual mobile army hospital surgeons for plot lines. Although the series was supposed to be about the Korean war, it was a thinly disguised commentary on the Vietnam war, which was still going on when the show first aired. Sources: www.museum.tv/eotvsect www.en.wikipedia.org www.youtube.com Read More