Africans who lived in America - Essay Example

? Mid-Term Essay al Affiliation During the 19th century, there were many Africans who lived in America, and were majorly referred to as the Negroes. During the time there was a lot of racism and segregation between the black and the white people. The land of Cleveland was one of the main regions inhabited by the African-American people; this was after the survey by Moses Cleaveland, who toured the place, acquired it and sold it through his Land Company. The more the black population grew the more the racism grew as well. It reached a point where public institutions became segregated and the black were in most case the victims of injustice. They were not allowed in some hospitals, theatres, and churches. They therefore opted to form their own churches and that was when Black African churches were formed. Despite the fact that Africans were not allowed to access education, some like Booker Washington and Will DuBois managed to get educated. They later became the champions for the enlightenment of the blacks by agitating for their rights. Keywords: Cleveland, Africans, Americans, Blacks, Whites, Racism, Segregation, Moses Cleveland, Booker Washington, Will DuBois 1.    Explain, in detail, who was Moses Cleaveland, what were his goals for the Western Reserve? Moses Cleaveland was born in the year 1754 in the city of Canterbury in the county of Windham (Wheeler, 2000). He went to Yale College and graduated as a lawyer in 1777, and soon after his graduation, he went on to practice law in Canterbury; his service as a lawyer took a period of about 30 years. He was a lieutenant during revolution in America; this was during his practice as a lawyer when he joined an army at the Valley Forge, in the year 1978. He was married to Esther Champion with whom they had four children (Wheeler, 2000). The following year, Moses Cleaveland who was still in the army, was promoted to the position of captain. He was also elected as a member of the Connecticut general assembly representing Canterbury (Wheeler, 2000). In 1796, he led the first voyage to Western Reserve; he is remembered for his relentless effort in championing the ratification of the US constitution. He is best known for his investment skills and hard work while serving as an officer of Connecticut Land Company. He had a band of surveyors varying from men and women, as well as experts. Through his great leadership skills, he managed to lead the whole team of surveyors into discovering a city; they named it Cleveland in his honor. He was always a happy man who enjoyed success and appreciated the effort of team work; this attribute is seen when he organized a ceremony to mark his team’s success for having arrived at the new Connecticut. He declared Cleveland as the new city of Connecticut and wished it a long life. After the great mission, he went back to Canterbury in Connecticut and on November 16, 1806, General Moses Cleaveland passed on, leaving behind a lot of legacy. A statute was erected in the new Connecticut in his memory. Western Reserve was discovered, it was a great land with great potential for business activities. According to Miller (1997), “as Moravian missionary John Heckewelder noted in 1976, the area had the best prospect of water communication from Lake Erie to the Ohio River” (p. 143). Despite all the hypes, early settlers in the region had to migrate due to the miasmic swamps, which often made them sick. The federal government had to make a decision on how to dispose off the land. Lucky enough, the Connecticut land company under the leadership of Moses Cleaveland, came in and bought the land from the federal authority. His reasons for buying the land were to use it for agriculture and commercial purposes. Cleaveland’s immediate goal was to utilize the available lakes and rivers for communication. He had men, food, and instruments that were used for surveying and he needed to transport them by the lake. It was while in this mission that he discovered the lake was long enough for commercial purposes. He realized that the lake could be expanded by removing the debris, and through such improvements, there was a possibility of constricting a harbor. Connecticut Land Company did not articulate more on settlement, they had the intention of making profits through sales of the land, and the arrangement of the region therefore gave the advantage to achieve their main goal with ease. The central feature of the area was a 10 acre piece of land situated in the plateau and its immediate physical feature was a river; this inhibited a great potential for agricultural activities. The region was organized to conform to the New York and New England formation of agricultural villages. Though many did not practice farming, those who lived with the Indians invested more on trading activities. 2. Prior to 1915, there was little evidence that there was discrimination towards Blacks in hospitals.  Explain, in detail, how hospitals and the health field in general dealt with black patients, black medical students, black physicians, and black nurses.  In addition, what were the two hospitals, in Cleveland, that willingly treated blacks before the Great Migration? The Black population increased substantially in Cleveland in the period between 1890 and 1915; this was as a result of increased migration of blacks into this region. Most of the black settlement was in the central region. The figure escalated higher and by the time of the world war, the estimated number of black residents was about 10,000 (Kusmer, 1997). In most towns in America, blacks were segregated in schools, theatres, and public places. In Cleveland, students were not segregated; however, in hospitals and health centers, black doctors and patients were segregated into separate wards. According to Luboid and Haddad (1988), medical centers reserved an inadequate number of beds for black patients with the number of space allocation being far much limited. As the situation worsened, several black doctors had to question the legality and the legitimacy regarding admission of black patients; they were very much angered by the mistreatment, and they wanted equal treatment regardless of the race. The worst scenarios were that whenever they complained, they were told that there were no colored beds that were vacant. In some instances, they were required to pay for their treatment in advance (Luboid & Haddad, 1988). Segregation did not apply to the patients alone. Black doctors, nurses, and physicians were also victims of the unjust treatment. Black students who were out for their internships were not allowed to be trained by the black doctors and nurses, as well as physicians; nurses were prohibited from assisting birth deliveries. Black trainees faced much more difficulties since no hospital could allow black trainees. There were several attempts by black doctors and business men to establish black hospitals, but they did not succeed. Forest city was one of the first black hospitals to be founded in Cleveland; it was formed to counter the rate at which the blacks were discriminated in the region. This was during the period when the blacks were gaining their political influence, and leadership positions in church. McKinney was one of them and was a leader of Antioch Baptist Church; he was a founding member of the all black Hospital- Forest City. 3.    Explain and describe the two main Black churches in Cleveland during the early era, the class distinction of those who attended those churches, and the class distinction of those who attended the other churches during that era. The first black churches in Cleveland began in around 1840; this was as a result of black slaves who were sheltered in St. John AME church (Giffin, 2005). Churches played an important role in the struggles for the rights of the blacks. They were a source of hope for the blacks whose lives had been shattered by the dominant group of whites. Churches provided them with great faith that one time they were going to be liberated. Majority of black people in Cleveland were members of Baptists church. The number of members belonging to Baptist church was estimated to be about 29023 (Giffin, 2005). Another Black church with majority following was the African Episcopal church; it was the second largest with followers estimated to be around 11,149 (Giffin, 2005). Others were affiliated to the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Presbyterian Church, Roman Catholic Church, and Episcopal Church. St. John’s African Methodist Episcopal Church was an affiliate church of the broad African Episcopal Church; it was the only permanent church to have been formed during those periods. Its formation was as a result of ex-slaves who had been recruited in 1830 through a missionary activity. The first church was located in Bolivar Street, but later moved to Ohio Street. The church grew enormously due to the migrants from the southern part of Cleveland. Due to the rapidly growing number of followers, there was a need to erect another building and in 1908, the church made financial contributions which summed up to $ 55,000 and was enough to make the construction. Due to segregation in the churches in Cleveland, churches began to experience friction between the white and the black, racism created a great gap between black Christians community and the whites, the whites resorted to worship in their own churches and blacks who could not attend the two main churches formed more other black church such as Mt. Zion Congregation, Antioch Baptist and Shiloh Baptist (Tuennerman-Kaplan, 2001). 4.    Explain who Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois were and their philosophies on race.  Make sure to include how they were similar or how they differed in their philosophies. Booker Washington Booker Washington was born in a city called Virginia in 1856 (Schroeder & Beier, 2009). His parents were slaves; this meant that he too would be a slave. In 1865, they moved to western Virginia and were freed from slavery. To cater for his family, he sought employment and was soon employed in salt mining company. He did not know his father and according to him, he suspected it was a white man. His mother later got married to another slave known as Washington (Schroeder & Beier, 2009). She was a cook and the life they lived was very devastating. Booker used to carry books for the children of their neighbor; this gave him a chance to see what a school looked like, and it also gave him a lot of desire to go to school. He vowed that one day he was going to learn, even if it meant training himself. By this time, formal schools only belonged to the whites and it was illegal for the blacks to learn. However, Booker’s dream of learning came while he was working in the salt company; he was often motivated by a man in Ohio who used to read a newspaper loudly. His mother discovered her son’s desire and got him a spelling book so that he could train himself. Booker was later enrolled for night classes offered by an African American, despite the earlier rejection by his step father who wanted him to work in the mines. Booker was a founder member of African-American schools named Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. He agitated for African empowerment though in a very cautious way, since he was very much aware of the tensions that existed between the whites and the blacks. During an occasion in which the president had attended, he was appointed to speak on behalf of the Africans. His choice of words was very careful; once he rose to speak, his first utterance was to acknowledge the number of African- Americans in the region; he urged them not to try to upset the whites but instead, gain skills from them so they could get employment (Keller, 2007). He believed in hard work. After his speech, he received mixed reactions. Many African Americans believed that he had betrayed them, since they believed that he could have instead used the opportunity to ambush the whites. On the other hand, he was applauded by the whites who then made more contribution to his institutions, and his speech appeared in many newspapers. He believed in the idea of one choosing his or her course of study. He stood by the opinion and belief that no race was independent on the other; he insisted that all races should join hands and work together. He also urged the whites to support the blacks, as they all had one common interest of making the south prosper (Schroeder & Beier, 2009). Will Dubois Will Dubois was born in 1868 in Massachusetts (Broderick, 1987). He grew up in a white culture, even though he was a black man; he was therefore able to live in both extremes. In education, he was very bright, and he later earned his career as a doctor. He was a historian, a teacher, and a missionary of black and white races. His early life had a lot of mixed fortunes; he married at an early age, his father also wandered and never came back, prompting him and his mother to live with his grandfather. He once worked as a barber. His mother moved to town so as to be able to take her son to school (Broderick, 1987). According to Broderick (1987), Dubois did not experience segregation while at school, since his classmates who were white willingly supported him in all areas in school. He believed that wealth came as a result of being a hard worker, but poverty was as a result of laziness for which the earth had no space for such people, therefore he liked working hard. Though he had insufficient finance, he succeeded in his education. As far as racial segregation is concerned, Dubois was only aware that quarrels could only occur due to the differences in levels and types of talents (Broderick, 1987). Soon after his education, he visited the Negroes who lived in Connecticut; he was overwhelmed when many of them turned out in large numbers to meet him. The knowledge of discrimination dawned on him after schooling when he realized local appointments were along the racial lines. For example, when a watch man who was a white was elected, he had a feeling that this was associated with his race. He was sent to the south which was termed as the place of his own people. He then started raising people by what he termed as the power of truth; this was by starting and managing many programs dealing with freedom and progress for the Negroes. By this time, Dubois compared Negroes to the Israelites who were in the bondage of Egypt. Dubois’s fight against discrimination was somewhat open; he wrote open letters to the southern region. In his communications, he pointed out that most of the rights had been taken away from the blacks in the south, for example free voting and entrance into the public places. He often urged the whites to join hands with the enlightened Negroes, to educate the entire Negro race. Comparison between Dubois and Washington Dubois was more direct in his approach of condemning the whites, he encouraged the black to be united and vote as a bloc for the black aspirants (Broderick, 1987). He embraced his race more than any other races; at one time, he urged the white men to join the Negros, in other words he meant that black were more superior to the Whites. On the other hand, Washington wanted the Blacks to honor the White men so that they could learn from them. His approach was to make the white men happy about him, and to slowly let the blacks into their way. However, Dubois and Washington had some common similarities. They both agitated for education for the Negros. This was the best weapon which would help the Blacks rise into power. Dubois pleaded with the whites to work with the learned black people for a common goal, and Washington too was agitating for this unity. Reference List Broderick, F. L. (1987). W.E.B DuBois: Negro Leader in a Time of Crisis. California: Stanford University Press. Giffin, W. W. (2005). African Americans and the Color Line in Ohio, 1915-1930. Ohio: Ohio State University Press. Keller, K. T. (2007). Booker T. Washington: Innovative educator. Minneapolis: Compass Point Books. Kusmer, K. L. (1997). African Americans. In the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Retrieved October 8, 2013, from http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=AA Luboid, H. F. & Haddad, G. (Eds.). (1988). Ohio’s Western Reserve: A regional Reader. Ohio: Kent State University Press. Miller, C. P. (1997). Cleveland: A concise history, 1796-1996. Indiana: Indiana University Press. Schroeder, A. & Beier, A. (2009). Booker T. Washington: Educator and Racial Spokesman. New York, NY: Infobase Publishing. Tuennerman-Kaplan, L. (2001). Helping Others, Helping Ourselves: Power, Giving and Community Identity in Cleveland, Ohio, 1880-1930. Ohio: Kent State University Press. Wheeler, R. A. (Eds.). (2000). Visions of the Western Reserve: Publication and Private Documents of North Eastern Ohio, 1750- 1860. Ohio: Ohio State University Press. Read More