History Exam 1

History exam 1

Your Name (First M. Last)

School or Institution Name (University at Place or Town, State)

History Exam 1

1.

Ethnicity and race are the two prominent features of American society. The original 13 colonies consisted of native British and slaves from Africa. After the expansion of the American land, many Europeans started coming to America and the inclusion of native Indians also occurred. The admittance of Texas brought the Mexican ethnic group in American society. Thus a brief glimpse of the history of America makes it evident that the concept of ethnicity and race originated in America due to the influx of other ethnic groups at various times and stereotypes attached with each race or ethnic groups resulted in what becomes the USA.

The white man’s burden is a notion which encouraged the Americans for annexation and colonization of lands. According to this framework, Americans believed that they are the most civilized societies and it is their moral and religious obligation to civilize other societies. This created a sense of superiority in the whites. As a result, a number of stereotypes originated against the people of color and whites started discriminating them on different levels. In addition to this since the African Americans were slaves prior to emancipation proclamation, therefore, they were always treated as inferior beings. People coming from other parts of Europe was incorporated in the society as white and were granted white prerogatives. But since Asians and Japanese are not considered as white therefore they were also treated differently. So these are the reasons which created the concepts of ethnicity and race in American society. The increased discrimination forced the ethnic groups to raise their voice for equality and in the last few decades, they became successful in achieving it.

To cap it all, the above discussion sufficiently proves that the idea of race and ethnicity originated through ideas like white man's burden and through the influx of people from all over the world. Today America is a melting pot due to equal rights to all after a number of protests from minority groups.

2.

There is always a love-hate relationship between Americans and immigrants. While on one side the natives were encouraged for expansion of land they also created a sense of superiority in them which instigates a feeling of hate for the people coming from other regions. Historical experiences of Irish, Italians and African Americans make it apparent that they were all treated similarly by the Native Americans. However, there were a few differences in how they were treated based on their skin color or the era in which they entered the American land. Hence the paper aims to discuss the similarities and difference between the Irish, Italian and African American experience in America.

Middle-class, Irish Protestants started entering America in the 1840s. They were poor, uneducated and started working as domestic servants and labor on docks and mines. This created their image as people who are lazy and foolish and Americans started treating them accordingly. Likewise, the Italians came to America during the "New Immigration" period. These people were unskilled and displaced farmers. Due to their history, they were considered a violent and impulsive race. As a result, Italians suffered violent attacks like in 1896 a mob broke into a jail and killed three Italian prisoners in Louisiana. These incidence of violent attacks are similar to the experiences of African Americans. Ku Klux Khan is one of the greatest examples of anti-African American feeling and act of violence. Thus it is ostensible that the experience of violence faced by the African Americans, Irish and Italians is the same. The only difference is that since African-Americans were slaves their inclusion in the society was more challenging and the acts of violence against them were more severe.

Hence the above discussion illustrates the differences and similarities between the experience of Irish, Italians, and African-Americans in the United States.