Social And Raical Issues In The 1890′S Essay, Research Paper

The United States in 1890 consisted of many nations-divided mainly by class. Other factors that played a major role at this time was a person’s ethnicity, race, and even gender. It was a time of mass immigration from all over Europe people were flocking here in search of a new life. The African-American population was finally starting to gain some respect in the public eye. The biggest problem of this time is never really focused on throughout history. In United States alone there were approximately 5-15 million Native Americans in 1492. At this time in 1890, there were only 250,000 members of the Native American race remaining! What happened to this once feared race, they were how more powerless than any African-American had ever been. The 1890’s were a time when you could not just move any where you wanted to. The cities were bursting at there seems, immigrant populations had helped to double them in size. Certain areas belonged to certain races or ethnic groups. You could find a huge German population in Buffalo, the Italians in Rhode Island and NYC, and the Irish ran a wild in the streets of Philadelphia. Some of the native born Americans had already moved west years prior to this massive immigration. By 1890 there was no unsettled territories in the West, except for Oklahoma. So those who remained in the East were forced to deal with these new issues, that confronted them in every aspect of their daily life. You now had a lot of unhappy Southerners with all the events that took place prior to 1890. The South was a sort of quiet part of the country at this time. Once a booming agricultural area, many major plantation’s shutdown due to the lack of slave labor. Black and White relations were still tense at this time. Tenant farmers struggled to get by, and the peasant class of the South began to rise. As the now free African-Americans still lived in slave like conditions. In the North it was a different scene. The North Eastern Sea board was bustling with traffic, all incoming. All the major cities at this time were crammed into the northeastern region of country. Philadelphia, New York City, Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Boston, this was where it was at, the North. Industries were turning out goods at rates never seen before. There was an abundance in the labor field, but not enough jobs. Whatever the job, whatever the pay, there was so many immigrants looking for work, nothing mattered. The present population in north was rising due to massive immigration.

The big money of this time was ending up with a group of the elite in north. Just like in the South no matter what, there will always be an upper class. The upper class is not whom I choose to argue for. They were doing just fine at this time. It was the rest of the country that was in trouble, all of these new people, and new languages. The white Anglo-Saxon population already looked down upon the Native Americans for many years. The once dominant population of this area had been killed, without a care, except expansion. This country was growing and the so-called Indian was not in its game plan. Those whom they could not kill off gunfire, they sent out to kill themselves. They restricted them rocky out crops of land unsuitable for farming or hunting. Now that they had almost diminished this entire race, they had a new problem, immigrants. This country was fighting itself, is what I am trying to say. This was a free country, anyone could come here, but it was not a melting pot. These transitions would take time to deal with. This country had no patience at the time, and things were dealt with only in an unrational manner. If people would have taken their time back in the day and not jumped to so many conclusions about others, our population today would probably be astronomical. Many races would have continued to flourish in this country. These same problems face us today but go by different names, you think we would have learned.