Family Story Associated with Historical Events in the 19th Century - Essay Example

Family Story Associated with Historical Events in the 19th century Thesis Historical stories in USA during the 19th century was commonly based on civil wars, racial discrimination and segregation, recruiting young children to serve in wars and even forcing the blacks into slavery. Over the years back then, these became part and parcel of their daily life experiences. Our grandparents faced these challenges and most people died as a result of these calamities or doings. My grandfather was born in 1940, he went to an elementary school where they had several school mates, at first he was afraid of going to school, but his parents encouraged him.in school, they had several students from different locations and race, some were blacks and some whites. While in school, the teachers separated the white children from the black ones especially during lunch breaks, they did not sit together nor eat together. This made my grandfather anxious and went ahead to find out why this was happening, because in church they were being taught by their pastor that every human being was equal and were created in the likeness and image of God. At the same time he was wondering why some of their classmates had black skins, so he was torn in between, to associate with the black children in their school or separate from them. Some of their school mates used to abuse the black kids and even beat them up, this made my grandfather become furious and especially due to his Christian affiliation and background and even from the teachings of his pastor back in church. The cases of racial segregation was very intense in those days, this was a law that was passed from 1880s to the mid-1960s, most of the African American found it hard to cooperate and feel like they were part of the system, my grandfather explained. And even some of the kids called these fellows Negroes. Even the textbooks we were not sharing, the Negroes used their own text books. A new turn came, when my grandfather fell in love with a black girl called Mary, this was after some ten years, his friends despised him for being so cheap and unreasonable, but he hid this from his parents because he knew they wouldn’t accept the fact that he was dating a black American girl. They wanted to preserve their culture and lineage of white people only, so there was no way they were going to allow him have this girl. Mary came from the suburb where they were flee to after the civil war of 1960s. This was as a result of their race being black in American land. During this time, there was racial discrimination, and the blacks were left to rot in the city while the whites went and stay in suburbs, now the city was termed as ghettos for the black Americans, this is where Mary was staying and it was where they met with my grandfather. Being seen with any black woman at this time could lead to some serious implications and my grandfather was aware of this, the government wanted nothing to do with these people. They faced a lot of problems in nurturing their love. Finally, my grandfather got into a very hot spot, he was spotted with Mary and the matter Went to his parents, he could not even defend his girlfriend. His parents dismissed this issue and told him not to have anything to do with that girl, my grandfather tried to argue and even went against his parents to have Mary as his girlfriend. Some weeks later, he heard that Mary was captured and taken into slavery, this broke his heart a lot. He blamed his parents who gave a deaf ear to his plea. She was taken in Deep South tortured, worked and even raped. This was in the late 1960s where the blacks were taken into slavery. In the plantation farms, women were raped and even beaten, they overworked to benefit the farms of the whites, and some even died. Slavery was an issue that affected most of the African Americans. My grandfather never heard from Mary again, he accused his parents for being accomplish to this, he suspected them to have reported their relationship and thus the taking of Mary. The next thing he heard was that Mary tried to escape and was killed by one of the guards with a bullet. When he was 21years, his parents tried to fix him with another lady, but he was so hesitant to love, he felt as if the world of love was not meant for him, his love for Mary blinded him that he could not think of any love. His parents tried to convince him, but he wouldn’t listen to them, he stayed for long moaning over Mary. He was still unable to understand why the whites hated the blacks so much, they were both human beings the only difference was in their skin colors. From 1930s American kids were being recruited into the military, some of the kids, this went for long till 1992, and even during this period, the likes of Calvin Graham were recruited to serve in the war. Most of the soldiers who fought in world war were children. So due to frustrations, my father recalled, from the parents and lose of his girlfriend, he decided to get recruited in the military and to serve his country. He wanted to concentrate on things that will distract his attention from the fact of losing his girlfriend. And because his parents were so strict about his life, this even encouraged him to move away from home. While in the military, he got encouraged, he even met some of the black Americans, and he was so close to them that he even shared some of his life stories. He nearly lost hope in life, but he found some friends over there that went through the same thing. Some were even tortured for helping the Negroes. In here, they encouraged each other and this gave a meaning to his life. Some of the friends encouraged him to get married and have children. When he went back home during his leaf, he met with my grandmother, at first they were friends, one of his friends from the military introduced them together. Then they started dating, his way of thinking changed, he fell in love again, but this time, the lady was a white just like him. His parents were glad and happy that at last he was serious about his life. They got engaged and married. My grandmother got pregnant and gave birth my father and some of my uncles. Grandfather says. Conclusion Life has made a lot of progress over the years, the discrimination and racial segregation is coming to an end. Marrying a black to a white man is not considered a big deal in America. They even go to school together, study the same subjects and even have same careers. Slavery was abolished and African American live in peace and walk freely within the states and cities. This improvement has made life interesting, we chose any leader we want no matter the race. For example, the former president of U.S.A Barrack Obama. Reference Clinton, C. (1982). The plantation mistress: Women’s world in the old South. New York: Pantheon Books. Fouché, R. (2003). Black inventors in the age of segregation: Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer, and Shelby J. Davidson. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Mikula, J. P. (1999). The challenge of manning the post-cold war army. Carlisle Barracks, PA: U.S. Army War College. Reynolds, D. S. (2005). John Brown, abolitionist: The man who killed slavery, sparked the Civil War, and seeded civil rights. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Read More