Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. The foundation of America is freedom. Freedom from Britain. However, the freedom is limited to white males who own property. When colonists started to immigrate to America, they wanted to escape from under the rule of Britain. Colonists felt that they were entitled to explore this newly found land, despite that the land was already occupied by people we now know as Native Americans. American society, which valued freedom so much, could support slavery and other forms of coercion because freedom is only applied to white males who owned property, aka the elites, because of the Constitution, paternalism, and Manifest destiny. The idea of freedom …show more content…
When slavery is paternalized, it is seen not as a necessary evil, but a positive good. People who paternalized slavery genuinely believed that slavery helped everyone. The idea was that slave owners benefitted because they gained free labor and that their business would prosper and contribute to a healthy economy. This was during the cotton boom, which is when slave population was at its peak of 1.5 million and growing (Jones, 257). The Antebellum period was a time where the amount of slaves a slave owner had, determined social status. Specifically, southern white women used this period to elevate their social status so that they could climb the social tower to gain power and compare to men. Southern women wanted to get out of the ideal that women should only be housewives, so they used slaves to relieve themselves of house chores, which brought them away from just being housewives. This elevated them socially because instead of being ridden with housework, they were give leisure time and time to focus on their husbands and wives. Slaves were thought to benefit because slave owners would take care of the slaves and that they would be better off being a slave than running around Africa. Slave owners would give slaves food, shelter, and clothing, take care of their children, and teach them christianity (Jones, 102). Slave owners felt that it was their responsibility and duty to dominate the “less fortunate and the less …show more content…
Manifest destiny was the belief that colonist were destined to expand across North America and that it was their god given right. Although Native Americans were indigenous the the land, colonist felt that it was their destiny to redeem and colonize the rest of the land. They felt that Native Americans were not making right use of the land and letting it go to waste. In result, Native Americans were not seen as anything more as an obstacle in the pursuit of Manifest Destiny. During the Indian Removal Act of 1830, Indian groups who were still inhabiting the south east would be moved across the Mississippi to designated Indian territory, which is now known as Oklahoma. Some Indians relocated peacefully, while most resisted. The Cherokee Indians were a particularly difficult tribe to relocate because they demanded to stay in Georgia. Eventually, the Cherokees settled to sell the land to the federal government for $5 million dollars. The relocation of Cherokee Indians became known as the Trail of Tears, where 4,000 Indians died because of the mistreatment of the Indians while relocating. While relocating, the military that was supposed to escort the Cherokees would take their blankets and food to sell for profit (Jones, 290). Colonists used Manifest Destiny as their justification to do whatever they needed to expand and explore all of North
The Manifest Destiny is a movement that justified American expansion with a sense of mission and purpose. The American expansion led to the adding of Texas and Oregon to the union, but also created wars with Mexico. As Americans moved west, many of the Indians did not appreciate the expansion and were either forced to leave or fight for their area leading to many massacres and wars. More specifically, Americans wanted to grow from "shining sea to shining sea" and take control of the entirety of North America. They would also fight any force that would attempt to stop them.
The manifest Destiny is a nineteenth-century belief that the United States were destined to expand west across the North America continent. In which they would claim the land, and spread their form of freedom, culture, and democracy. Many believed the mission was inspired to them by god, while others felt it was more of a selfless right to expand the territory of liberty. This mission led Americans to move and develop the land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
Manifest Destiny is the belief of the nineteenth century that America was destined by God to expand westward. The author of Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis believed that God established Anglo-Saxons as the superior people whose purpose was to spread Christianity. (Doc B) This idea of spreading a superior culture or religion has been a motive for expansion for decades before this. Despite this support for expansionism, there were those who were against it.
During this time period, “Slavery shaped the lives of all Americans, white as well as black. It helped to determine where they lived, how they worked, and under what conditions they could exercise their freedoms of speech, assembly, and the press.(Foner 400)” As a female slave, you were not only considered inferior due to your skin color, but also looked down upon because of your gender, therefore being subjected to twice the amount of equalities that men were exposed to. Female slaves, unlike male slaves, not only endured physical hardships, but also were subjected to the emotional destruction of being raped, taunted by the masters’ wives, and separated from their
Even the soldiers escorting them felt bad for them, but they had to follow orders. Native Americans had long lived in settlements stretching from Georgia to Mississippi. However, President Jackson and other political leaders wanted to open this land to settlement by American farmers. Under pressure from Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. Congress then established Indian Territory (land in what is now Oklahoma) and planned to move Native Americans there.
The slavery in the South was a paternalistic institution was abouting protecting the whites because they feared the slaves in they were freed. They feared the slaves because they thought if they freed them they would rebel against the whites and the whites did not want that to happen. They gave the slaves the ability to go to church so they would feel more like if they were free and it made the whites think that they would look more human. Whites treated slaves bad because they provided them with shelter and food, but they would have to work early in the morning tell late at night for no money. Also while working if they did something worry they were punishment and if the women were pregnant they would still have to work and get punished.
The Portrayal of Slavery in Antebellum Louisiana in Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave In his memoire Twelve Years a Slave, illegitimately enslaved Solomon Northup does not only depict his own deprivations in bondage, but also provides a deep insight into the slave trade, slaves’ working and living conditions, as well as religious beliefs of both enslaved people and their white masters in antebellum Louisiana. Northup’s narrative is a distinguished literary piece that exposes the injustice of the whole slaveholding system and its dehumanizing effect. It is not a secret that the agriculture dominated the economy of antebellum Louisiana (Louisiana: A History 183). Therefore the Southern planters needed relatively cheap workforce to cultivate
In 1845 Manifest Destiny was a phrase that John O’Sullivan came up with. This phrase was made to describe the mindset that the people had the God-given right to make the nation grow. The right to expand throughout the land. It was the idea that the American culture had superiority over any other culture. It also birthed the idea that the Native Americans were inferior to the people that were exploring the land.
If this be a spirit of aggrandizement, the undersigned are prepared to admit, in that sense, its existence; but they must deny that it affords the slightest proof of an intention not to respect the boundaries between them and European nations, or of a desire to encroach upon the territories of Great Britain. . . . They will not suppose that that Government will avow, as the basis of their policy towards the United States a system of arresting their natural growth within their own territories, for the sake of preserving a perpetual desert for savages” . This showed that the United States would state firm in their endeavor to not only Christianize the North American continent but remain in control of the lands they had already acquired with
a belief that was widely held that the destiny of American settlers was to expand and move across the continent to spread their traditions and their institutions, while at the same time enlightening more primitive nations” ("Manifest Destiny. " History Net, www.historynet.com/manifest-destiny. Accessed 13 Mar. 2018.”) Basically, this means that the Americans thought that it was their god given right to be able to use the west as a launchpad to gain gold and glory, and spread religion in return.
In 1814 the Manifest Destiny occurred, manifest destiny is when lots of United States citizens moved out west so they could be start their lives and gain lots of property. The main reason Americans wanted to move out west was so they can gave the mass quantities of land and be able to farm and make a great living off of it. But the Manifest Destiny affected lots of things three of them being the Native Americans, slavery, and the relationship between the North and South States. The Manifest Destiny affect the Native Americans greatly in multiple ways, their population their food and their culture.
Americans began to Christianize Native Americans, further acting as racially and culturally superior. The heart of Manifest destiny was the belief that America as a race and culture was superior and was deemed to spread
America had a dream of Manifest Destiny (O’Sullivan). Which they believe that God had set aside the entire North America for United States(Textbook). “Which later started the Westward movement”. During the time Native Americans tribes and Mexico had already had been inhabiting the area(Textbook). They would not leave without a fight.
After imposing political and military action on urging the Native American Indians from the southern states of America, President Andrew Jackson decided it was time to enact the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Indian Removal act of 1830 proclaimed that all Native Americans living east of the Mississippi River were to be forced to move west of the Mississippi River where the region of the Louisiana Purchase remained. This land set aside for these Native Americans was known as the “Indian colonization zone”. Because some of the Indian tribes refused to leave their homelands, “As a result, wars broke about between the U.S. Government and Indian Tribes”(xbox360). The Indian Removal Act was originally created to have the Native Americans vacate
As America expanded west in the 1800s, conflict with natives was inevitable. In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, asking the natives to give up their land in exchange for money. Some refused to move off their native land, such as the Cherokees. As a result of this, they were removed and forced to make the journey known as the Trail of Tears.