Issues That Relate to American History - Essay Example

? American History There are lots of interesting histories about America that range from the Native Americans to the technological evolution. History has a lot in store for America just like any other country. There are several interesting issues that relate to the American history such as the first Native Americans who were the Indians. Indians first settled in America between 15, 000 and 40000 years ago even before the glaciers melted and submerged the land bridge between Asia and North America. Indians greatly depended on land as a valuable source of their food as well as hunting and fishing. Most families could remain behind working on the land to produce food. The Indians believed in communal ownership of land and therefore did not use land for economic purposes. It is also interesting to note that the Native Americans were not even educated in anyway including on the way to use their land but they could still survive. However, the entrance of the Britons changed and transformed the lives of the Indian culture in a totally different way. Indians’ transformation included the acceptance and adaptation of the English food and even better improved ways of hunting, farming and food preparation. Moreover, American history cannot be complete without the history of the Northerners and the Southerners who were very different in terms of economic empowerment and slavery. The northerners were very organized group and largely contributed to the development of infrastructures such as road and railway construction. Although, the Southerners also contributed to the building of infrastructure, it was not as significant as the Northerners did. The north was more of industrialists compared to the south who depended much on farming. Both north and South American societies started to build roads, irrigation systems and trade networks. The north America emphasized on freedom of all men regardless of differences in races and ethnicities. However, the south Britain was a kingdom of slaves and most of the slaves were working on the big firms owned by the rich. Slavery was very common in the south and there is a long history of slavery in the South compared to the North where slavery was markedly different. Slavery is one of the saddest things in history that has seen people from different races being mistreated. The blacks were the major target and victims of slavery act. Blacks were treated inhumanly in the society such that there was nowhere to hide or seek support. No one supported the blacks particularly the whites for a reason not known to date. Apart from being subjected to hard work, they were also being harmed in a very ruthless way without reward. How could someone be given extra work to do and the only reward is beatings and mistreatments? Furthermore, the blacks were being sold and exchanged like commodities only to be forced to work for the rich under unfriendly environment. Whoever bought the slaves could force them into hard life by working on plantations even without thorough and respectful treatment. One rich individual could buy many slaves to work under his control and just to selfishly benefit himself. Moreover, blacks were denied their rights perhaps because the whites thought that they were not complete human beings. It was unlawful for a black man to testify before a white man or even harm themselves with guns. The black slaves were also not allowed to go out of the farms or the plantations without permission from the supervisors. In addition, a black person was denied the right to read and write and even to gather in a group without the presence of a white man. Because of these frustrations of the blacks, Frederick Douglass who was a slave child and the Leader of abolitionist movement came out strongly to condemn slavery and racism. Douglass put more effort to end slavery and to create equality between blacks and whites. Frederick Douglass wrote "the distinction between the slave and free is not great. Southern free blacks could not vote and enjoy few economic opportunities compared to the Northern blacks who legally owned properties and marry. For people like Abraham Lincoln, slavery was one of the central issues and he condemned moral the act of slavery in both public and private. Due to his passionate hate for slavery, Lincoln mostly talked of freedom instead of slavery. At the end of the serious campaigns against slavery, there were about a half million free blacks in the United States and many of them lived in the South in 1860. Unfortunately, the free blacks were not allowed to own a liquor, dogs, or firearm at that time. Furthermore, they could not testify in court, work as judges or even beat a white person for self-defense purposes. The other important issue in the American history is the tobacco in Virginia where the highest Production of tobacco was 30 million pounds by 1680s. This was really huge amount of tobacco production at that time. The large production of tobacco was largely attributed to the wonderful job did by workers. Tobacco production greatly contributed to rising number of labor which eventually provided very comfortable life to the workers. The demand for the field labor rose highly due to the expansion of the tobacco farming. Indeed, tobacco was like gold for Virginia even though King James considered tobacco to be harmful to the brain and dangerous to the lungs, Europeans enjoyed smoking and believed the tobacco plant had medicinal benefits. Was the Captain Thomas Preston guilty? There is another interesting part of American history that started on March 5, 1770, when some boys angered the soldier who in turn shot one of them. This later resulted into killing of five Boston colonists and many others wounded. I tend to believe that Captain Thomas Preston was blameless, because he did not order his men to shoot the boy. It is apparent that the soldier shot the boy when he got angry but not because of an order from the captain. However, it is interesting to note that the men heard someone shouting Fire thus making them to think that it was Captain Thomas Preston. Although, Captain Thomas Preston had the authority to order his men to shoot to protect the house he did not give them. In fact, the person who started shooting broke the rules but not the captain. Fortunately, many witnesses supported Captain Thomas Preston and they had the right evidences for doing so. His supporters came up with concrete evidences unlike his opponents who came up with weak evidences. This paper has clearly singled out some of the interesting events in America that make up this great country. It is evident that one thing led to the other and some of these events although painful, have already been solved. Slavery finally ended and most blacks have all the rights just like the whites. At least, a black man can turn back and admit that their fathers indeed suffered for them. America has made great steps in history and it is no longer the country divided between the south and the north. Read More