Why Did African Americans Form Alliances And Intermingle Historically?

America is often considered the land of opportunities, a place where people can have a fresh start, a clean slate. America is a land that is made up of immigrants. Over the centuries America has been a place where people dream to live in, however the American dream wasn 't as perfect as believed; there were issues of race inferiority, slavery and social inequality amongst other problems. When a person arrives into a new society he has a difficult task ahead of him- to assimilate into that new society- which includes the economical, cultural, political and social aspects. In the following paper I will discuss how the African American, who came as slaves to America, has fought over the centuries to achieve equality in a white society that discriminated them. I will show how abolitionists like Fredrick Douglass and W.E.B Du Bois used literature to fight the preconceptions about the black people.

Interracial sexual relations under slavery were a major factor of the early national and antebellum South. In Notorious in the Neighborhood: Sex and Families across the Color Line in Virginia, 1787-1861, by Joshua D. Rothman, many relationships are shared to illustrate what went on during those times. Relationships that were most talked about included those between slave masters and their slaves. Sexual relations raised many issues including: race, slavery, and violence. They also brought about various responses from people around. It is believed that “…interracial relations both supported and undermined slavery and racism…” in many ways. Slavery and racism were both supported and undermined by adultery, laws, and separation of races throughout interracial relations.

After the Civil War ended many people were in hope of finding land since population was increasing. Since the West was underdeveloped and uncivilized, many decided to expand the land. First the Louisiana Purchase increased the opportunity of expansion.Then industrialization and the Homestead Act also caused many companies encouraged to move West due to the low cost of land and that the transportation was provided through the railroads. In order to complete such goals, something had to be done with the Natives since it conflicted with their home area. Before the 1860’s the native americans were living in peace until the Colonists attacked. The Western Expansion of 1860-90 greatly affected the lives of Native Americans, due to the powerful role

In Chapter 1 and 2 of “Creating Black Americans,” author Nell Irvin Painter addresses an imperative issue in which African history and the lives of Africans are often dismissed (2) and continue to be perceived in a negative light (1). This book gives the author the chance to revive the history of Africa, being this a sacred place to provide readers with a “history of their own.” (Painter 4)

Throughout the seventeenth century, conflict between Europeans and Native Americans was rampant and constant. As more and more Europeans migrated to America, violence became increasingly consistent. This seemingly institutionalized pattern of conflict begs a question: Was conflict between Europeans and Native Americans inevitable? Kevin Kenny and Cynthia J. Van Zandt take opposing sides on the issue. Kevin Kenny asserts that William Penn’s vision for cordial relations with local Native Americans was destined for failure due to European colonists’ demands for privately owned land. On the other hand, Cynthia J. Van Zandt argues that despite military disputes among the two bodies, trade alliances between the groups continued. Van Zandt further claimed that relational failure stemmed from conflict among various Europeans nations advocating for dominance over the New World. The overarching purpose of the argument is to determine

Native Americans flourished in North America, but over time white settlers came and started invading their territory. Native Americans were constantly being thrown and pushed off their land. Sorrowfully this continued as the Americans looked for new opportunities and land in the West. When the whites came to the west, it changed the Native American’s lives forever. The Native Americans had to adapt to the whites, which was difficult for them. Also, the extinction of buffalo affected them negatively and the domination of the whites disrupted their surroundings. The Westward Expansion impacted the Native Americans land and culture.

With the arrival of Anglo-Americans, Native Americans lost much more than just their land. Tribes were forced onto reservations, stripped of their culture, wealth and place in society, with no hope of regaining what they owned unless by complete assimilation. For the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, many Anglo-Americans continually pushed for Native Americans to abandon their cultures and “savage” ways. However, despite the many attempts to force Natives into Anglo-American culture, many Native Americans found ways to negotiate with the demands of the Anglo-Americans through mainly social, economic and legal means.

Since the Age of Discovery, the United States of America has failed to make great strides in civil rights concerning Native Americans. Since the Europeans first landed in the Americas, there has been racial, ethnic, and religious tension with the native people. The tensions and the issues that arose from them are still a major issue in present times. Examples of these racial tensions can be seen in literary works throughout United States history. It will be interesting to see what the far future holds, as well as the near future. Many Native Americans still do not receive the same opportunities as other citizens, even though we have struggled with these issues for centuries.

Gary Nash, the author of the book, The Forgotten Experience, talks about the arbitrary lifestyle Native Americans and African American faced during the American Revolution, which occurred on April 19, 1775. Many Native American tribes in the east of the Mississippi joined the colonist to fight the war at the “home front” against the British. However, some of the Native Americans took advantage and fought against the colonists by themselves. On the other hand, African American fought the Revolution for freedom. They wanted to escape from being slaves and have equal rights as whites. Nash mentions in his writing that, “What has been largely lost in our recording of American history is the fact that for many of the people of North America the

Before the American Civil War happened close to four million African-Americans were slaves. At the turn of the century the Naturalization Act of 1970 allowed only white men to vote. After the Civil War the thirteenth (1865), fourteenth (1868) and fifteenth (1870) amendments were passed, allowing African-American males to vote and have citizenship, which also led to ending slavery. Even after the ending of slavery, there were still some white men who tried to keep white supremacy alive thereby dehumanizing and alienating African-Americans from the mainstream of people.

America’s discovery and the formation of Triangular Trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas drove many new advancements in technology and economics. For example, inflation caused the capitalism’s popularity to rise, new goods were discovered, and European empires thrived. As the Europeans discovered, the Americas contained many resources such as silver, gold, spices, and other valuable goods that were sold to make a surplus of profit. Later on, such resources were farmed using African American slave labor. Quote A exemplifies the benefits for many upper class Europeans and American slave owners. A.S. writes, “One of the principal effects of those discoveries has been to raise the trading system to a degree of splendour and glory.” The

Native Americans’ social structure was very different from the way Anglo-American’s believed was the correct way for men and women to live. This created a major conflict as the Anglo’s begin to press on the Natives’ land. Anglo-American’s believed that the best thing for the Natives’ was to be assimilated and transformed into their way of life. The Anglo’s intervened into the Natives’ life with a Civilization Program, removal and reservations, and boarding schools. The ramifications had lasting negative effects on the Natives’ gender roles.

Many people remain unfamiliar with the biological and cultural ties that exist between African Americans and Native Americans. European colonial expansion and racial constructs led to slavery, expulsion, and wars that brought three different races to collide and compete for the same limited space. With European colonial expansion, free and enslaved Africans ran away to Native American lands for refuge. These encounters led to an increased population of mixed-race people attempting to redefine a new identity for the Americas. Africans, Indians, and some Europeans would form alliances that for decades contributed to fighting colonial domination. In Florida, there was an African and Indian collaboration that fought and defended themselves from Spanish and British colonial rule, and later American intrusion into their

The largest mass execution in United States history took place in Mankato, Minnesota in 1862. Thirty- eight Dakota “warriors” were hung simultaneously. The hangings were to take place on Christmas Day. It was considered unchristian to hang people on Christmas so the hanging was postponed until the next day. The conflict that was taking place was called the Dakota Conflict.

Institutional discrimination is when laws favor a dominant group while minority groups are not favored, and this thought process is embedded into the norms of society. The pattern that we see in the history of Native American and African Americans is that white Americans always believed that they were the dominant race and all laws that were created, were made to favor only themselves. One idea that white Americans shared was that both ethnic groups previously mentioned were inferior and that these groups were not capable of coexisting with them. These thoughts were embedded into society early on and were the main justification for both slavery and Indian removal. The main difference that we see between both racial ethnic groups is that white Americans believed that they could strip Native Americans from their culture and civilize them while “nurture could not improve the nature of blacks” (67). Although some Native Americans did try to live under the laws of white Americans, they were eventually betrayed and forced to leave the