Ideologies that Shaped US History from 1820s to 1910s

1 Ideologies that Shaped US History from 1820s to 1910s
2 The New South
3 The Role of Geography in US History
Name
Institution Affiliation
Ideologies that Shaped US History from 1820s to 1910s
Introduction
For close to two centuries, the American people have espoused the ideology of universal equality with regard to gender, race and class. The disparities occasioned these inequalities undermine the American dream which professes freedoms, individualism and unlimited opportunities. The main structures that have shaped the ideologies through which relations are created include citizenship and labor. Boundaries have been drawn based on communities which share a common order in terms of rights, protection and respect, while labor defines the economic order of the society through levels of autonomy, economic status, and the quality of life. These two elements have always favored the white over the racialized minorities and women and they have formed arenas for expression of exploitation, exclusion and oppression.
Citizenship and Labor
The government was crafted on the basis of control by white male who then predominantly enjoyed freedom and participated in governance because they were regarded as the producers. One’s citizenship status was tied to their labor status. The lack of citizenship rights minimized the ability of individuals to access privileges such as job opportunities, formation of unions, education and training (Glenn & Tam, 2004). Citizenship was attributed to being “male white”, which qualified one to be a worker citizen. Based on labor and citizenship, other elements such as gender relations, race identities and meanings were defined.
Concepts of liberal citizenship and free labor evolved concurrently fuelled by the transformations that occurred on the social, economic and political fronts. People were restricted to a geographical area determined by labor needs, unlike what real citizenship as prescribed in the US constitution should embody through federal, state and county jurisdictions. Localizing citizens created racial and class disparities due to the fact that individual actors interpreted and enforced the boundaries law based on social practices of particular regions or local communities.
From the reconstruction to the progressive eras, aspects to do with citizenship and labor were dominant in discussions across America because of slave trade abolition, industrialization, urbanization, imperialist expansion into Latin America and massive immigration (Glenn & Tam, 2004). Social boundaries were redrawn and there began the discussions about the change in conceptions regarding race, sex and class.
White Supremacy
In order to understand the advent of the white identity in the US, supremacist concepts across the world must be interrogated. America was jostled by four European nations namely, France, England, Spain and Holland. The English won in the ensuing wars and controlled the region called the United States of America. Slave trade, which originally began by Portuguese people in the 15th century, had already had a toll on the American landscape owing to the many colored people from Africa, Asia and Mexico that had been enslaved by the European emigrants. The attitude of the English immigrants was that they were superior to other colored races and had a sense of white identity. From belief that white identity meant superiority, they developed the culture of English white supremacy where they considered themselves morally and culturally dominant over the other races. The history of slave trade back in England had given them false prerogative to supremacist ideas against blacks, Indians and other coloreds (Gardiner, 2009). The English in North America were rigid and exclusionists and were more isolated racially than the other European immigrants who constituted the Spanish and French. Heterogeneity with other races was more with the Spaniards than English, the reason why there were more intermarriage between Spaniards, blacks, and Mexicans in South America. This habit of English racial segregation began in Ireland where they regarded the natives as savages. They transferred the slave code of Ireland into the new American colonies where social groups similar to the loyal Scots in Ireland were used to control slave masses through slaveholders.
The white Americans used ideological insinuations regarding biological classification to explain human variation and thereby ranking them in a hierarchy putting the whites at the apex as a superior race, while the other colored races were deemed inferior. They used scientists to categorize racial groups as Caucasiod, Mongoloid, Australoid, Negroid and Indian, where the Caucasoid was the superior human. They also used social Darwinism to support the concept of race where ideas about evolution invoke natural selection and survival for the fittest to explain the differences among races. Areas which were predominantly African American, Mexican Americans and Asian Americans were all subjected to exclusion, oppression and were segregated racially b the white Americans (Gardiner, 2009).. The regions in which these three groups of people inhabited constituted the masses that played a key role in economic development of the country through agricultural production and industrial labor. They relied mainly on racialized labor structures that were drafted by the whites, an issue which later shaped the glamour for labor and citizenship rights for the non whites.
In the 1800s, whiteness was determined by four outlooks. Some Northerners advocated the abolition of slave trade on moral grounds while others observed it undercut the wages of working whites (image 0216_1). Despite this, few of them believed in equality for the slaves although they wanted slaves to have their freedom. Southerners wanted to keep African slaves for their free labor, while those who did not own slaves didn’t want any slaves around. White immigrants sought to have the jobs of the black slaves, while poor whites derived pride and a sense of status just by their skin color.
The Missouri compromise of 1820 created a distinction between free and slave states, which gave a leeway for former slaves like Dred Scott to claim their freedom. The radical abolitionists opposed whiteness and advocated for humanity for all. White supremacy had intensified before the civil war and despite the end of slavery; racial equality (image5 of 85) was never realized as the provisions of the Homestead Act indicated that only whites would benefit from free land, which is seen today as a justification for reparations.
Gender
The concept of gender provides a platform through which historical, cultural variables are used to define manhood and womanhood or femininity and masculinity and their social political influence in society. Women’s position in society was subordinate to men. Their education was limited to reading, writing, music, dancing and needlework. They were denied rights such as suffrage ( 0216_54). Feminist scholarship has greatly elaborated the role of gender in the American society. Frances Wright promoted women rights publicly at a time when they were not allowed to speak in public places. She spoke about the rights of women to seek information on birth control and divorce (Hamby, 2007).Through her influence, by 1840s, the women rights movement was formed, led by Elizabeth Stanton ( image 10), who later organized the first women rights convention where they demanded equality. Abolitionists Fredrick Douglas and William Lloyd Garrison supported the women’s clarion call (image 17). Among the ideological perspectives they wanted changed were rights to vote, education and property ownership.
The New South
After the end of the civil war, the South was in a predicament with a majority of Southern Whites opting to disengage with black slaves but leaving them without any rights. The country underwent devastation but the good thing is that slavery had been put to an end. Engagements between the white and black people bred mistrust and nobody knew what future relationships would look like. The blacks sought to be free from their former masters and pushed to have access to land, education and voting rights as a means of empowerment.
The Northerners who had migrated South during the civil war in the hope of making better fortunes brought with them Yankee civilization to the largely unenlightened and backward population (image 35). The freedmen formed the crux of this reform agenda (0216_75). The whites in the south agreed to this new set of values imported from the North but the consequence of introducing this mix of cultures led to more mayhem as violence and instability raged. Without a stable administration, vices like crime, corruption and terrorism cropped up and this urgently required progressive reform and support from the federal government. When this did not happen, a new wave of white supremacist attacks were allow to run riot.
Effects of the Civil War
South Carolina was extensively destroyed by the armies leaving no trace of ever having been any human settlement. Atlanta, Columbia and Richmond were all destroyed by fires, rail road uprooted and factories destroyed (0216_33). To add salt to the wound, there was no investment capital to redo the reconstructi...