How+race+mattered+and+changed+throughout+US+History+(Chris+J)

Race, throughout history has been a pressing issue. Given as a way to classify and or group human beings based on physical characteristics and place of origin, race has changed throughout history. In the US, race has changed its definition for different people many times throughout its short history. In modern America, formal racism, discrimination, and grouping by race has been for the most part, banned. However, certain beliefs and definitions about race are still held by most Americans.

Native American era When the European settlers from England Spain and numerous other countries came to the Americas, they encountered other people just like them, with race being part of their culture; Europeans classified them as Indians due to Columbus’s thought that he had reached the West Indies in the Americas. These Indians or Native Americans already had a complex society and they too were intrigued by the newcomers to their land. Native Americans had lived in the new world for about 15000 years before European settlers had come to the new world, uninterrupted by European disease, life, and weaponry the natives had no idea how to react to these new comers. Many tribes of Native Americans were destroyed by European disease before the Europeans even set foot in the new world. Europeans throughout history have always had the need to generate empires. Seeing this new land and its inhabitants they began to settle and conquer this new land. This happened through diplomacy and war alike. Natives were treated as teachers and guides during the early days of colonization by most nations, since most settlers could not grow familiar crops in the new world and did not know how to hunt. Later on, however, Wars with Indians became frequent as settlers moved inland onto native territory. During the formation of the United States the Indians played a large role, they were known as Indian savages by the average citizen as wars with Indians were ever so common before the revolutionary war. George Washington was known as the town destroyer since the continental army burned many Indian villages during the revolution. Since the United States was growing rapidly, People wanted to move onto Indian lands. As peoples demand became fierce, Indian displacement became popular as not only were Indians treated as a lesser race due to their culture, settlers wanted to move onto their land. President **Andrew Jackson ** issued the Indian removal act to send Indians beyond the Mississippi river so that the country could expand. The army took up the way of enforcing this and so began again were the wars with natives. Tribes began to surrender as they fell victim to massacres and began the forced march beyond the Mississippi. This was known as the Trail of tears. As land became free for white settlers, Indians were forced onto reservations, 4% of the US territories, and in these reservations they were not treated equal as Washington tried to do but as wards of the state and not equal before the law. They were even reeducated in American life to make them suitable for American society, not keeping any of their previous culture. Today, Native Americans have been assimilated into American culture with the history of their people long forgotten by many, but remembered by those whom are members of the tribe.

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Throughout American history, Native Americans have played a large role in its development. From the early days of colonization to the settlement of the west. Native Americans have taught the settlers valuable skills and traded with them but being seen as different and not of the same race, the natives met violence at the hands of not only European power but at the hands of the newly formed united states.

Immigration era In the 19th century Chinese immigrants were often prevented from entering the US they were often denied rights in court against white opponents and were used for more dangerous tasks during major projects such as the transcontinental railroad. Many Asians were excluded from the US during the Chinese exclusion act of 1882 which banned many Chinese from entering the US until 1943. This was because of a strong anti Asian sentiment in the US during that period. Irish and German immigrants were also discriminated against because during the Irish potato famine, many Irish families came to the US looking for work. This increased poverty in the cities of the northeast as well as increased the tensions for low paying jobs as Irish immigrants were willing to work for next to nothing. This caused Irish immigrants to be looked down upon. Most immigrants from Ireland were also uneducated and this caused further racial stereotyping during this period. German immigrants were not racially discriminated against for their culture or their effect on the economy but as for their religion. This is not considered racial discrimination but many German immigrants were educated and had money when they came to the United States and with that they brought their religion and culture. Most people were not catholic in the United States and looked down upon the German immigrants since the majority of them were catholic.

African American racism history In early America African American slaves were treated as almost indentured servants and similar to white servants, slavery was still common but was much less of the violent act we see in the south later on in American history. Slavery almost meant to every slave freedom and a land grant after he was freed but this rarely happened to African Americans. However, as more servants became free, land was scarce and money was short due to the rich landowners that once held them as as servants. These poor working class citizens united and decided to rebel, this rebelion known as bacon's rebelion lead by Natheineil Bacon.The rebellion, which composed of mixed ethnicities, was put down after Bacons death. This rebellion was put down quickly as british commisars held the majority of power. To keep a rebelion from cropping up again, brittish leaders began to restrict the rights of african servants and free men, to drive a spike between peoples about a noticeable difference. This decesion to prevent rebellion would forever seperate people on the basis of race. As the colonies continued on and the US was formed, this continued in this way, african americans were now nolonger treated the same as whites, they were now called slaves. when many northern states abolished slavery, slaves became agricultural workers and laborers, when cotton production became the key economic practice in the south. Slavery became a more important and brutal affair, it became economical to grow mass amounts of cotton due to the invention of the cotton gin by (WHO). In the early 19th century, many northern states banned slavery. This created a rift in the political environment that eventually led to war but that’s another story about the civil war. In the south slavery became a problem with slave owners treating their slaves terribly. Abolitionists took action. Even a book was written, that may exaggerate some points but was still a decent reference to the things that went on is "Uncle tom's cabin" an antislavery novel published 1852. During the civil war, the emancipation proclamation was issued in 1864 it freed all slaves, south of union lines; this did not affect those still in union territory. After the civil war, the reconstruction era was brutal for African Americans. African Americans suffered under "Jim Crow laws" which reduced black rights and segregated them heavily. Turing them effectively into second class citizens. It would take the end of the reconstruction era, two Supreme Court cases and a rights movement to establish a sense of equality among African Americans and white Americans. During the Jim crow "era" relationships between races had reached its nadir in America, poll taxes prevented poor people and african americans from voting, terrorism and race hate crimes and segregation had effectively put African Americans as second class citizens. Since racism was viewed mostly in the south, it seemed the north was good. Not so, when many African Americans moved to Boston Chicago and other northern cities, riots ensued and so did hate crimes. The north was just as bad. The civil rights movement. Started with as simple protests and acts to gain civil rights, these included in the beginning as the Easter concert supported by Eleanor Roosevelt when segregated halls would not let her perform. Other items were the banning of segregation in the US armed forces for wartime. Signed by president Roosevelt executive order 8802 made segregation illegal for national defense. Truman banned segregation in the US army in 1948. Desegregation gained a lot of power when many Supreme Court cases came forward to get rid of segregation in school such as in Brown v board which rid schools of the separate but equal policy that had been in place for years there. This paved the way for leaders such as martin Luther king jr. to lead protests and be active for civil rights. Martin Luther king jr. was famous for his non violent protests that eventually forced the us government to ban organized segregation and racism in the US.

WWII events During WWII many Japanese in the western US were put in internment camps for fear they were spies. After the end of WWII the Japanese in these internment camps were released. Living conditions were not great inside these camps but were survivable.

AnnBibJadelis What I plan on doing next, is to add more information regarding the Chinese impact on american culture aswell as the positive effects of particular groups, so far I have only focused on how groups were treated by others but that poorly defines their impact on american culture and history. I will soon add information on how these groups affected US history over time. Some through positive progress others through a negative way such as with the Native american displacement. The united states grew similar to its present size but only through the destruction of the native americans on that land.