Manifest Destiny?: Mine Workers Face Discrimination and Exploitation
Laborers are urgently needed to support this new mining enterprise in California. Young men from as far away as China look upon this as a golden opportunity and begin to emigrate in large numbers. But when they arrive th..
Manifest Destiny?: New Territory Deepens Division between North and South
A great chasm opens up between North and South over the slavery question in relation to territories acquired in the Mexican War. When President Polk decides not to run in 1848 because of poor health, Democrats nominate L..
Manifest Destiny?: U. S. and Mexico Clash Over Boundary Dispute
Texas is officially annexed in the mid 1840s during the administration of James Polk. Many historians believe that Polk then engineers a border dispute with Mexico to gain western territory the country had been attemptin..
Master and Slave: Effect of Slavery on Southern Society, The
Southern slaveholders in the 19th century pride themselves on their paternalism and how they care for their slaves which they contrast with the plight of the Northern workforce. If asked whether or not white and black pe..
Master and Slave: Life of a Slave
Slaves generally receive enough basic necessities to live and work: corn meal and salt pork to eat, cheap clothing and shoes to wear, and crude cabins in which to live. Life for women in the slave community may take on m..
Master and Slave: Peculiar Institution, The
A slave is legally defined as property, a subordinate position enforced by violence. Although unfree labor is primarily used in the field of agriculture, almost 20% work in cities or towns as skilled artisans, sometimes ..
Master and Slave: Power of the Planter Aristocracy
The South in the mid nineteenth century is one of the few areas in the Western world where slavery still exists. The countryside is often portrayed as a society replete with great plantations and wealthy landowners, but ..
Master and Slave: Rich Culture Created from Backdrop of Slavery
On the narrow ground of their lives, slaves create a culture that is a nexus of kinship and family rich with religious, political, philosophical, and musical traditions. Slave religion combines traditional African religi..
Master and Slave: Slave Resistance
From the time they leave Africa; slaves resist their captive state. Actual rebellions are rare, in part because the vast majority of the population is white and free. In a one-year time frame in the early 1830s two signi..
Master and Slave: Slave Trade, The
The slave trade increases dramatically as the agricultural lands of the Southwest are developed. The lives of more than 1 million slaves are disrupted, families and communities destroyed, as the auction block becomes the..