Oppression In Diversity Essay, Research Paper

Diversity has caused problems ever since the first Europeans landed in the West Indies and up in till present day. Every Meeting between different races, different cultures, and different skin colors has made people see diversity among each other.

Diversity has caused people to kill, to conquer, and to destroy. The fact that diversity is apart of the United States of America has made this country as great as it is today.

Diversity in America started in 1492 between the newly arriving Spaniards and the native Americans. When the natives saw these towering men they thought of them as gods for they had light skin and thundering beast called Horses. But the Europeans didn’t not think of these people as threats because they had no advance weapons or technologies. From the Movie we watched called “1492” we saw what it was like for the Native Americans .They were made slaves and had to give all their gold to the Spaniards. The diversity of the white man thriving for gold and the natives in no need of gold and of the diversty of the whites being immune to diseases that theIndians were not immune to . This caused a great problem for the Indians because they had gold the Spaniards wanted and they were not immune to deadly diseases such as small pox and syphilis. Because of the diversity between these two different cultures one cause death and annihilation for one side and wealth and land for another.

This diversity between Europeans and native Indians also continued into the colonial times, but it also include a group of people that did not want to come to the ‘New World ’ .Africans. One of the major problems of this time was the taking of Indian land over and over again. With the more people migrating every year, there was a need for more land. but the people who own this land was the Indians. The Indians were peaceful with the whites as long as they both had enough room to live but when that became a problem The men fought each other killing and driving back the natives. In the book it says between 1600 and 1675 the total number of native Americans dropped form 70,000 to less than 12,000, and a chief clearly described what occurred in the years since the land was colonized by the Europeans (in short)” Our father had plenty of deer and plenty of turkeys to fill the woods before the white man came , now the trees are cut ,the grass is gone, and the animals have been killed….we will starve.” The enslavement of the Africans and the bringing them to the new world by the boat load was so horrific it caused many of the black slaves to jump off the boat to drowned rather than face years of torment. By 1750’s over 40% of the population of Virginia was enslaved blacks. The blacks were more accustomed to a totally different way of life, a way of life that was of the safari’s of Africa with little technological advances. The white man thought of the blacks as less the a man and not civilized. Also among the colonies people were diversified by the religion they practiced such of examples are Puritans, Protestants and Catholics. William Penn was given land to by Charles II. He turned the land into a “Religious Experiment”. In which people from all over the world flock to live the ion religous freedom. The major religious belief was mostly Quakers in what is Now Pennsylvania. Some religions believed in strict belief in the bible others ,and some separated off an believed in more of a family community. One example of the church be a large part of the community is the Salem witch trials in which we saw a movie and read a paper on it. The Salem witch trials came about because of a women who was convicted of being a witch when she was about to be burned she said that there was more of here kind out there and that they were every where. Well this caused a panic which people started accusing everyone else to be a witch and then when it finally came around and it got back to the reverend who started the witch hunts . His daughter was accused of being a witch, he then stopped the whole witch hunt to save his daughter saying that all the witch were gone and hias daugther was not a witch. I think this is a good example of the different religious beliefs and how deep religion meant to the colonies.

There was also diversity later in American history during the time of the Revolutionary War. The differences between the colonies, and Britain caused war, unsettled arguments and land disputes.. The British empire knew by this time in 1763 that America was slipping away from them. So they set out the Proclamation of 1763 which prohibited anyone to settle west of the Appalachians. This became a major conflict between the colonies and great Britain because if they moved westward it would be vary hard to keep them under British control. The colonist felt not sorrow but anger towards this law because they felt that they had died for this land and it was not right for Britain to stop them from claiming the land as their own. Also they were not represented in parliament so that they could not help chose what laws were passed against them . Because of Britain being in a war with the French it became very costly ,so they decided to tax the colony to make up for the debt. Such taxes as the stamp act, townshend act, and the tea act caused great upheaval because they thought it was unfair to them as stated in this famous quote “ no taxation without representation”. So then started begining of seperation from Britian with the formation of the first continental congress. There was also diversity shown in this forum with the radicals and the moderates. The moderates wanted fast and quick defiance from Britain and the moderates wanted gradual change through compromise with Britain. Well the continental congress voted on list of resolves which called for Britain to end the intolerable acts and rejected the raising of money by taxing. This started the Revolutionary war. During the war there were people who were loyal still to the crown and fought for them in America. This diversity among even the most common of people could of split up families and caused killings for being loyal to the royal crown.

But after the Revolutionary war ended the new Nation had to make a new framework for a nation. With the diversity of people form north to south and the difference in views on how this nation should be run made it difficult to establish how this nation would be set into stone. First they had to decide on what type of government if they were going to have either a monarchy or a republic government, even though there was some people that wanted the new government to be a monarchy still the majority was in favor of a republic government. To setup the government they had to have what was called the Constitutional Convention. In this meeting of 55 delegate diversity showed greatly in the states they represented. Some represented large state with a large population, and some with states with small area and population. The other major thing that diversified the states was the southern states that were for slavery and the northern states that didn’t rely on slavery as much. The first thing proposed was the Virginia plan. This proposed a government with three branches of the government which was decided would be the best situation but then they had to decide on how the house and the senate would be represented. The Virginia plan called for representation with population. This was deadly for the small states so they setup there own plan called the New jersey plan. This was voted against after many days of debate. The diversity of the states becomes very apparent at this stage of the constitutional congress because neither side of the argument seems to back down from there views. It became so fierce of an argument that they were afraid of fighting between delegates. So finally they proposed that the house be based on population and the senate be based equally. This was passed by a five to four vote. This was called “the Great Compromise”. But the still had the a big argument on if the south would be allowed to count a slave as a person of the population. The north states saw it as if you don’t think of a slave as a human then why should you count them as apart of your population. The south states new that they would be at a great disadvantage if a good majority of their population were not counted as people. So the north and south argued over the different views on slavery then finally the north decided on a three-fifths of a person per salve, because they thought slavery would die out in time and it wouldn’t be a problem. The diversity between each state became a very big problem but it was partly settle in the constitution and in time as the new government was forged.

I believe that the Civil was one of the greatest examples of diversity in our nation short existents. The conflict of diversity between blacks and whites, abolitionists and slave traders , and north and south. By this time blacks new nothing of what freedom was like for there ancestors, all they knew was the stories told from generation to generation through story telling and song. By 1860 over 4 million African Americans lived as laboring slaves. Even though there was revolt against the white slaveholders nothing came out of except dead slaves. The whites of the south liked their lazys way of life living off of slaves that did their work. The northern states had a problem with it, so some led underground railroads to free slaves and to get them to the north. Another big problem was popular sovereignty which allowed new territories to vote on slavery. Whites from the north and south flocked to new territories such as Kansas and Nebraska , to fight for their cause either to stop the advancement of slavery or to further it. With the election of the minority North President Lincoln an abolitionist this caused the south to vote on seceding from the nation. The vote passed unanimously for which 7 states seceding from the union to form their own nation called Confederate States of America. At this point in history diversity was so apparent that our nation split into two because of a difference in the belief of slavery. Thus Lincoln responded saying that he would not stand for this. This was the beginning of the civil war because a difference in beliefs and life.

All along the timeline of America’s history you see diversity not only because of race but in the belief in your own way of life and that if someone wants to change it you must stand up for your way of life and your beliefs. This is seen in the north and in south, the creation of our government ,the thirteen original colonies, and of the first landing of Columbus. But this great nation called America that is referred to as “The Melting Pot” has and must be open to diversity no matter the color, the belief ,the customs, or the religion of a individual. Because this is what makes this country greatest country in THE WORLD.