Thoughts on American History - Page 4 of 5

Assimilate, Eliminate, Exterminate

In 1803, the United States paid France $15,000,000 for 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River, thereby doubling the size of the young nation. The Louisiana Purchase Territory-1803 Thomas Jefferson’s original plan regarding indigenous peoples was to coerce them into to giving up their cultures, religions, and lifestyles, in favor of the euro-American ways. He believed that assimilation would […]

George Washington, French and Indian War “Hero”

This is the earliest authenticated portrait of George Washington. It shows him in the Virginia Regiment colonel’s uniform he wore during the French and Indian War. The painting hangs in the Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. George Washington was an ambitious young man who proved himself to be a military prodigy. At age 20, he […]

The Hypocrisy of Mount Rushmore

To escape the northeastern winter, my husband and I spent the month of February in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The landscape is stunning, the blue of the sky intense, the architecture often reminiscent of Native American pueblos. For an out-of-the-way town, there is a plethora of notable art galleries and museums, often showing works depicting Native Americans. Some were idealized images of native people living close to the land, […]

Voting Rights–Native Americans

As the authors of the Constitution defined their new country, they struggled with the presence of indigenous people. Article 1, Section 2 states that Natives are not under the control of the United States, and therefore cannot be taxed. The Constitution also states that Congress has the power to “regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among several states, and with Indian tribes.” Thus, the leaders of the […]

Jim Crow’s Poll Taxes

After the Reconstruction period (1865 to 1877), Jim Crow laws (1890 to 1965) terrorized and oppressed black citizens in the South. The most effective and far-reaching laws were those that ignored the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution–the promise that all citizens have the right to vote. Many southern states disenfranchised African Americans, Native Americans, and poor whites with literacy tests, property requirements, and […]

The “Grandfather Clause”

“Mr. Solid South” (African American looks on as white voter writes on wall) Editorial cartoon–Harper’s Weekly Library of Congress In 1896, in unabashed defiance of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Louisiana passed the “Grandfather clause” in order to keep former slaves and their descendants from voting. Amendments to the state constitution required would-be voters to be able to read and write English or […]

The Fifteenth Amendment

Following the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, emancipating all slaves in the United States, and the Fourteenth Amendment, granting them citizenship, Republican congressmen worried that the Democrat-dominated South would gain control over the legislature. The Three-Fifths Compromise was now null and void. Most of the four million former slaves remained in the South, and each would be counted for representation in the House. Lincoln’s party, the Republicans, […]

The Fourteenth Amendment’s “Citizenship Clause”

Senator Jacob M. Howard Author of the “Citizenship Clause” The Thirteenth, Fourteen, and Fifteenth Amendments are called the “Reconstruction Amendments” because they were the first enacted after the Civil War and because they addressed the legal and political status of African Americans. The five sections on the Fourteenth Amendment dealt with citizenship and equal protection of the laws, and with the power of Congress to enact those laws. […]

The 1866 Civil Rights Act

After the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, there was no clear plan for the welfare of some four million homeless, penniless freed slaves. The Black Codes, rampant in the South, oppressed former slaves by, among other policies, restricting their movement, prohibiting them from owning firearms, forcing them to enter labor contracts–like slaves, and by preventing them from filing suits or testifying in court. […]

The Thirteenth Amendment

Lincoln by George H. Story c. 1915 President Abraham Lincoln was concerned that the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation would be nullified after the war. He resolved to abolish slavery, nationally and permanently, by a constitutional amendment, the thirteenth. On February 10, 1864, the Senate Judiciary Committee presented a proposed amendment to the Senate, and on April 8, 1864, it received a favorable vote by a margin of 38 to 6. But in the House, the vote […]