American History Since 1865
An opinion by a number of scholars that the Civil War represented the Second American Revolution has found favor amongst many scholars in the recent years. While not a replica of the war of independence, in a way it represented a true rebirth of the nation. It was a major turning point in the history of the United States and would give birth to a strong nation that would survive upheavals and individuals struggles to come. But the Civil War represents a rebirth of the nation in more than one way it would see major steps being taken against slavery and also the first evidence of women activism.
To the African Americans, the Civil War was a crucial era that would see one of the major issues afflicting them being addressed nationally. The Black community has been recognized as one of the most enduring group in the history of the United States. The era of slavery has remained etched in the memory of all Americans and is up to date seen as the root cause of all the economic, political and social woes that have faced blacks over the years. Their struggles and aspirations have been structured to exorcise the curse of slavery from their system. For a couple of centuries and in a strange land, African Americans were exploited for labor both in the south and in the north. In the north, with slavery being uncommon, blacks were taken up as workers in the numerous factories at a meager pay. It is however the memories of the south that have dominated the history of the United States and the years of suffering inflicted blacks by a wealthy class of land owners.
Indeed the Civil War was the root of all struggles, not only the emancipation of slaves but also a protracted struggle by the oppressed pushing for their social and political justices. Abraham Lincoln has been hailed for his role in the abolishment of slavery in the United States. Believed to have been assassinated for his stand, it was his era that would see slavery outlawed and leading to an aggressive campaign aimed at emancipating the slaves. The opposition to the emancipation program was massive and would take years to overcome. This was because emancipation was seen as going against the very foundations of the nation, a practice that had been carried over from generations to generations. A mention of slavery has wrongly evoked images of all southerners owning slaves and carrying whips this though is a generalization. As Zinn and Arnove (2004, 197) have observed, slaves-owning was a preserve of the rich. A situational analysis of the economic dynamics in the south in relations to slave owning reveals rather interesting statistics. While the population by the civil war era was well above eight millions, only farmers slightly above three hundred thousand owned slaves. Majority of these were the large plantation owners and led the pack of the wealthy in the south. Indeed it is these slave-owning wealthy families that had a hold on the southern politics and putting up a bitter struggle against abolitionism. It is these wealthy elites who would influence the southern politics and policies for ages to come, enacting legislations that were meant to oppress blacks to ensure their continued exploitation.
The emancipation struggle of the blacks is similar to that of any other oppressed groups in the United States only propelled by unique experiences. African Americans were fighting against the commoditization of their status, being held as slaves meant they were regarded as mere properties with no legal status. Without doubt, the experiences of blacks have were well chronicled with majority revealing the harrowing experiences gone through both in the hands of the their masters, the slave owners, the federal government who hunted down the escaped slaves like hounds and the general white population that could not stand them (Foner 2008, 16).
From the days of W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T Washington to the days of Malcolm and Martin Luther King Junior, Africa Americans were a struggling lot aiming at riding themselves the injustices meted against them. One after another, debilitating laws were enacted. With slavery completely outlawed in the south, the Jim Crow laws were put in place. These were basically laws put in place to perpetuate the culture of segregation and discrimination against the minorities. Having given up the abolition fight, the ruling elite in the south had to subject African Americans to further discrimination and subjugate them politically and economically. The Jim Crow laws were introduced in 1876 and although touted as providing equal but separate development the services provided were skewed against African Americans. This meant that Blacks lagged behind the rest in education, health and the provision of other social amenities. The disagreements between DuBois and Booker T Washington helped little in terms of alleviating the problems and it is only the overhauling reforms in the Civil Rights Movements era that would lay the ground for a change.
The Jim Crows laws had made it hard for African Americans to participate in the election process. It would take years of struggle and both violent and non violent demonstrations by NAACP and other activists both white and blacks to compel the government to scrap the laws ending years of social injustices against the minorities.
Women too in the history of America have been a disgruntled lot. Their struggles against the endemic discrimination that saw them being treated like second class citizens dates back to ages. However, the first chronicled activism by women could be seen in the years prior the Civil War era. The Seneca Falls Convention supposedly drew women leaders from across America and their major concern amongst others was the issue of women suffrage. The highly patriarchal American political leadership had indeed denied women their most basic rights of political participation. Politics was considered to be a mens turf and only men then were allowed to vote. The suffragist movements began in the 1850s facing a myriad of challenges and hostility from the establishment and from the ruling elite. There were major social, political and economic changes in the United States after the end of the Civil War the oppressed groups were finally beginning to find their ground. For women, the civil war brought mixed fortunes. Many of them lost their children and husbands to the conflict. For this group, they had to fend for themselves after the war and had to learn the ropes of being financially independent. To women in general, Civil War era left them performing some of the tasks that were before held as a preserve for men. Some women began working in the factories especially in the north where they were exposed to the daily manly rigors. This exposure and the sudden vacuum created by the absent men, left women yearning for more and would give rise to intense activism for women suffrage. As aforementioned, although the first steps towards the clamor for womens voting rights commenced during the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, it would take another seven decades before women suffrage could be guaranteed in the constitution.
Women suffrage was the first major accomplishment to women in the fight against the social ills inflicted by years of patriarchal laws. The 20th century was indeed a century of feminist movements. In additional to lack of voting rights, women had fewer opportunities and rights than men. Women participation in politics was barely extended beyond their own counties. Before the 20th century, women leadership at the national level was unheard of. In the Democratic Party for example, it took time and a lot of activism before women could be allowed to hold elective posts and even those were limited to the less influential ones. The ruling elite for example were unwilling to embrace the idea of women plunging into public careers citing moral issues and the need to preserve the family fabric. The same lethargy exhibited in the struggle for women suffrage was further replicated when it came to the fight for equality. The First and the Second World Wars, like the American Civil War a few decades earlier, brought major transformations in womens thinking. The factories and the mines, with men away in the battle, had to be run. Women all over a sudden found themselves with major responsibilities that would take them away from the confines of their homes to strange workplaces.
The end of the war then left women with better opportunities to venture into the offices and factories thought to be a preserve of men. This enthusiasm and transformation however would be met with new hurdles. The factories, the government and the rapidly growing corporate world were not willing to recognize women as equal players to men. Women hence were given menial tasks and at a wage level far below that of men. The age of feminism therefore, ranging from 1950s and beyond was about women proclaiming their status in the society and fighting for equal rights to men. Women were no longer willing to play in the shadows of men but rather were coming to the forefront and taking over jobs priory held by men. The subjugation then that men had over women would come crumbling down as women activism hit a record high in the 80s. Laws outlawing discrimination against women and others recognizing womens rights would come into effect and the society as well as the work place would undergo major transformations as men found themselves competing against women for similar jobs and also for similar payment packages.
As the age of feminism peaked, another group was finally finding its ground after years of muffled silence. Homosexuals and lesbians began their campaigns in the 80s and the 90s agitating for recognition. A look gay activism reveals quite a harrowing struggle that pitied them against a predominantly homophobic society. Unlike other oppressed groups that were seen as having a worthy cause, the gay community has been struggling to convince the world of the appropriateness of their sexual orientation. In the last century, this was an uphill task as most faced the wrath of religious zealots and the society as well as being targets of homophobic oriented hostility. The political establishments fearing the wrath of the voters barely acknowledged their presence. More than three decades down the line, although the gay community has been granted a number of rights, there are still challenges facing the group. They are yet to be accepted fully into the community and face major hurdles in the workplaces due to inherent discrimination from the homophobic society.
Indeed the last two centuries in the history of the United States have been characterized by major struggles as the oppressed groups rise up against the endemic injustices. The history of African Americans has been characterized by one such struggle. Slavery left a debilitating impact on Blacks and the community was scarred by these uneventful experiences. However, it is the years of discrimination and systemic hostility that would greatly hinder the groups social and economic development. It is only the civil rights reforms that would guarantee the communitys rights to political and civil privileges. Women too, right from the pre-colonial era, had been struggling to free themselves from the entanglements of the patriarchal society. Years of activism would see them overcome major challenges to acquire rights that would ensure they were not discriminated against in the various areas in the society. The late entrants into the struggle were gays and lesbians who too were demanding their rights. While at the outset, these struggles may seem to have revolved around sexism and racism, it is crucial to note that this has been a case of the oppressed in the society rising up to demand their quotas from dominant elite groups holding the reigns of leadership.
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