Rebirth of Caste
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Rebirth of caste.
Many scholars have written much about the Emancipation Proclamation. President Abraham Lincoln issued a declaration. It was about the freeing of slaves that were held in the southern united states. However, no slave was released. A war arose numerous people lost their lives. Slaves from the south were set free. This freedom did not benefit them since they were later returned to slavery after a short while. The black people once again found themselves powerless. This was when Jim Crow’s system of segregation came into place.
The process was complicated. African Americans were controlled through slavery. Jim Crow’s idea was constantly renewed whenever it seemed to be vanishing. During the early periods of colonialism, when the settlements were small, indentured servitude was the main way of obtaining cheap labor. The whites and the blacks were all after a common enemy. This destroyed the bond that existed between the dark and the whites. Al the beginning, the blacks were not treated slaves but were servants to the whites before tables turned. The expansion of plantation farming created an increase in demand for both land and labor.
The demand for land was solved by invading the other territories and taking away their land. The need for labor was addressed through slavery. Nathaniel Bacon, who was a property owner, organized a movement and brought together all the slaves, the poor whites, and the indentured servants with the intention of overthrowing the planter elite. He did get property both for himself and also for the others. Bacon planned an attack on the planter elites in Virginia when they denied him an opportunity to accomplish his task. He accused the wealthy people of ill-treatment of the poor.
Hence, to guard their superiority and their economic status, the planters stopped depending on English speaking slaves who were more familiar with the European language and started obtaining slaves directly from Africa. These slaves were believed that they would not make such movements with the poor whites due to the language barrier. The planter class gave the poor whites some special in a deliberate way. This was meant to create a wedge between them and the blacks. By the mid-1770s, slavery had been completely transformed and included the black race. This was due to the notion that the whites were supreme. This led to the conversion of slavery to total Africans.
Federalism was used to protect the slaves from political power. It involves the division of power between the government and the federal state. Even the method of determining the winner in a presidential election was also structured, which considered the slaves too. The slaves were considered as three fifths but not a whole man. This racism describes the American structure of democracy.
The condition of the blacks was worse off before the era of Jim Crow. “Few find it surprising that Jim Crow arose following the collapse of slavery. The development is described in history books as regrettable but predictable, given the virulent racism that gripped the south and the political dynamics of the time”.
America’s racial caste system was structured in a manner to generate profits for themselves at the expense of the blacks and also the brown people. The Americans started by giving special care to the poor Americans, and in the end, a full transformation of slavery was done where no whites were included in the belief that they were special. They used the blacks and the brown people to get profits from the plantations in the form of slavery. When movements were made to rescue the slaves, the Americans obtained purely black slaves from Africa who were believed that they would not form such movements. All these were done to benefit the Americans off the blacks and the browns.
I would recommend equality as a policy that would be used by our local elected officials. Equality brings about peace in public. When leaders treat all the members in a balanced way, they feel stable, and there will be no disputes among them. However, when others are treated in a more superior way than others, there will emerge two classes and cause division among them. Equality is, therefore, essential in leadership.
References.
Alexander, M. (2012). The rebirth of caste. The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of blindness, 20-58.