Mistreatment of Minorities Due to Fear/misunderstandingMistreatment of Minorities Due to Fear/misunderstandingOur American history makes us aware of the mistreatment of human beings; Americans treating Americans with indifference and distaste because they want power over another human being. The historical mistreatment of minorities in America is due to fear of differences and misunderstanding of customs and religion.
Throughout history there have been various forms of slavery and the mistreatment of minority people. There are biblical stories of slave owners and slaves, often-told stories of the mistreatment of Indians by early Americans, history lessons of Negroes brought as slaves to America, Indians moved from their lands to reservations, Japanese people put in internment camps during WWII, and the prejudice toward Muslims after 9/11.
The main reason for this gross mistreatment of all these people is that one person, or group of people, thought they were better than others; or because the fear of the unknown prompted the mistreatment. These people have traditionally been treated as less than human because of the color of their skin, their religion, or their customs. The main purpose of mistreatment of minorities or groups of people is to deprive them of their dignity or moral freedom. In some cases, the mistreatment takes away their individual freedom also.
“The first group in American history to be treated as a minority was already here when the European settlers arrived” (Dinnerstein, 19). Indians were never treated as equals, and were looked down upon because of their customs and beliefs. The colonists believed Christianity was superior to the Indians spiritual beliefs and this prevented the sort of bond that was needed for a harmonious relationship.
Tales of Indian savagery and customs were told to many colonists traveling to America. “Indian culture differed significantly from the colonists imported culture, often in ways that increased the likelihood of mutual misunderstanding and conflict” (Vaughan, 4).
Indians were seen as inferior, and many were used as slaves. In early America, Indian slavery and an Indian slave trade were widespread. History tells us that many Indians helped the Europeans, acting as slave traders to establish a better relationship with them. They traded their own people for goods, and if they refused to help gather Indian slaves they risked becoming a potential slave themselves. Many Indians turned away from their own beliefs and families because of the idea of gaining power over others and exchanging one another for money or goods, things that the incoming colonists taught them.
Another mistreatment of the Indians by Americas newest tenants was the taking away of land, or removal of the Indians from their land. Land was a precious commodity, and the whites had a new concept of ownership that the Indians didnt understand. Sometimes there was cooperation, especially if the whites got their way, but when things didnt go well and the Indians felt they were being cheated, they would frequently resist the process with violence.
Andrew Jackson was an avid proponent of Indian removal. He negotiated several treaties with Indian tribes and was elected to the Presidency in a landslide victory in 1828. In his 1829 State of the Union address, he called for an Indian Removal Act. The Removal Act was signed into law on May 26, 1830. This law “paved the way for the reluctant – and often forcible – emigration of tens of thousands of American Indians to the West” (Indian).
On December 8, 1830, President Andrew Jackson gave his First Annual Message to Congress. The message is dotted with references to the Indians as savage hunters and uncivilized beings. His attitude toward American Indians was very demeaning and he believed the removal was for their benefit. After many struggles through the next several years, the relocation of the five tribes of Indians was complete. “By 1837, the Jackson administration had removed 46,000 Native American people from their land east of the Mississippi, and had secured treaties which led to the removal of a slightly larger number. Most members of the five southeastern nations had been relocated west, opening 25 million acres of land to white settlement and to slavery” (Indian Removal).
The first American Indians were officially moved from their place of residence in North Dakota to Indian Territory. A long process was carried out after this. In 1846, the President signed a statute which allowed a private settler to enter Indian Territory and provide food and shelter to Indian Americans who were displaced. This provision prevented Indians of all the tribes from resuming any occupation in the territorial area which had previously been established by the United states. The settlement of this territory was the last serious attempt in the history of the States to end segregation in the country due to the increasing concentration of Indians in their places of residence. Indian Removal was an attempt to end the problem of slavery in the American territory. However, it was also to alleviate the suffering of hundreds of Indian American citizens in the country who had migrated from their lands in many states. In 1845, the Supreme Court declined to enshrine the act of 1845 in the Constitution despite the fact that it expressly prohibited the removal of Indians or their descendants. President Jackson proposed to repeal the prohibition in the 1845 Constitution which is contained in the final edition of the Constitution. This amendment declared that all Indians and his citizens should be free to be found in the federal territory and subject to federal protection without compensation. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s decision of 1783 has been criticized by some scholars and political activists as the last effort by the American legal system to make all Indians and his descendants under the law free. However, some scholars believe that the Supreme Court’s decision was justified by both political considerations as well as as federal policy. In the case of the Indians of Georgia, there were a number of complaints of Indian oppression in the state through various governmental actions. These complaints are well summarized by this historian on their origin and extent. The first recorded Indian expulsion was recorded in 1776 by the Union War Department, to which President Jackson submitted a declaration of the treaty and the withdrawal of 50,000 Indians (Indian Removal). In later years the Indians of South Georgia were relocated from their states of residence to the present states of Texas, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Wisconsin. However, the Indian Removal plan was not implemented until 1878 and the Indians of South Dakota continued to maintain their traditional homes under their new states of residence. In 1879, the Missouri State of North Dakota proposed to establish a new federal government, the Dakota Dakota Territory, and to restore all reservation title, including those in the North Dakota Territory. To accomplish this, the Government of Iowa introduced an act which created the Indian Removal Board. This law applied to all lands in the state of Iowa, where the Indian Removal Act was passed in 1878. This law applied to all lands in that State and only the Dakota States which had made it their home and the State of Wisconsin which was now incorporated into Illinois became eligible for a federal government. Native citizens had also been displaced when the federal government imposed these regulations. In 1884, the United States Supreme Court upheld the law as applied to all Indian Indians and his descendants. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held a similar opinion in the Indian
President William E. Jackson, who was one of President Jackson’s most trusted advisors, encouraged the Cherokee community to send a letter to Congress, saying that “This should be your next government.” After receiving the first letters, Jackson received a third letter from Sen. James T. Garfield Jr., and wrote the following about the first official Indian return: “In this time I want to send a message that while you may feel that the federal government will not always always stand in your way, there is hope for you for the future. It will always be there – if you believe, even to this day at home, in the United States of America – that it will always be true that one of the great blessings of our country shall come after the other. And, finally, it will always be true that it is your turn here, when we are free, to be your President and Commander of the whole continent. We must do the will of our Lord. And just then, when I stand my hand on these shores, I will not disappoint your heart with words. A man can come and lead the United States out of an age of barbarism, ignorance and ignorance. “I, Robert E. Lee, the President of the United States, would do with you all anything but give you good reason to hope. May the Lord bless you now and every day. It is your privilege to be with us and to be the guide of our people. “In this country, no doubt, the past forty years has been a very lonely time. In the midst of this tragedy, the people of this country, both the old and the new, have had a great deal to say and hope to share at once. The people of this country were not always prepared for this. For many of them, things were not quite right. They were left to their own devices. Many were lost or hurt; many were made prisoners of their own laws or customs. The people of America had been through two different times before a change must be made, for it was impossible to bring about a single change in public policy. Now, while people on different sides were united in opposing attempts to bring about a government which would work for all, they also came to the same conclusions. They said we should be careful to take what is best for the people, not what is best for us. And they would not let anybody but they themselves tell us if we had done very well. “When the people were united on the one hand, they believed that the policy of the present government would be better than what was in existence. And when the people were united on the other hand, they did believe that the policy of our present government had been better than everything they had ever wanted. We were united in seeing what the last thing needed to be.” During the Civil War Congress passed the Cherokee Restoration Act, which made the state of Arkansas the only state to accept reservations or other reservations of native populations. During the Civil War the Cherokee were allowed to hold more than 100,000 Indian lands in the Mississippi Delta
President William E. Jackson, who was one of President Jackson’s most trusted advisors, encouraged the Cherokee community to send a letter to Congress, saying that “This should be your next government.” After receiving the first letters, Jackson received a third letter from Sen. James T. Garfield Jr., and wrote the following about the first official Indian return: “In this time I want to send a message that while you may feel that the federal government will not always always stand in your way, there is hope for you for the future. It will always be there – if you believe, even to this day at home, in the United States of America – that it will always be true that one of the great blessings of our country shall come after the other. And, finally, it will always be true that it is your turn here, when we are free, to be your President and Commander of the whole continent. We must do the will of our Lord. And just then, when I stand my hand on these shores, I will not disappoint your heart with words. A man can come and lead the United States out of an age of barbarism, ignorance and ignorance. “I, Robert E. Lee, the President of the United States, would do with you all anything but give you good reason to hope. May the Lord bless you now and every day. It is your privilege to be with us and to be the guide of our people. “In this country, no doubt, the past forty years has been a very lonely time. In the midst of this tragedy, the people of this country, both the old and the new, have had a great deal to say and hope to share at once. The people of this country were not always prepared for this. For many of them, things were not quite right. They were left to their own devices. Many were lost or hurt; many were made prisoners of their own laws or customs. The people of America had been through two different times before a change must be made, for it was impossible to bring about a single change in public policy. Now, while people on different sides were united in opposing attempts to bring about a government which would work for all, they also came to the same conclusions. They said we should be careful to take what is best for the people, not what is best for us. And they would not let anybody but they themselves tell us if we had done very well. “When the people were united on the one hand, they believed that the policy of the present government would be better than what was in existence. And when the people were united on the other hand, they did believe that the policy of our present government had been better than everything they had ever wanted. We were united in seeing what the last thing needed to be.” During the Civil War Congress passed the Cherokee Restoration Act, which made the state of Arkansas the only state to accept reservations or other reservations of native populations. During the Civil War the Cherokee were allowed to hold more than 100,000 Indian lands in the Mississippi Delta
President William E. Jackson, who was one of President Jackson’s most trusted advisors, encouraged the Cherokee community to send a letter to Congress, saying that “This should be your next government.” After receiving the first letters, Jackson received a third letter from Sen. James T. Garfield Jr., and wrote the following about the first official Indian return: “In this time I want to send a message that while you may feel that the federal government will not always always stand in your way, there is hope for you for the future. It will always be there – if you believe, even to this day at home, in the United States of America – that it will always be true that one of the great blessings of our country shall come after the other. And, finally, it will always be true that it is your turn here, when we are free, to be your President and Commander of the whole continent. We must do the will of our Lord. And just then, when I stand my hand on these shores, I will not disappoint your heart with words. A man can come and lead the United States out of an age of barbarism, ignorance and ignorance. “I, Robert E. Lee, the President of the United States, would do with you all anything but give you good reason to hope. May the Lord bless you now and every day. It is your privilege to be with us and to be the guide of our people. “In this country, no doubt, the past forty years has been a very lonely time. In the midst of this tragedy, the people of this country, both the old and the new, have had a great deal to say and hope to share at once. The people of this country were not always prepared for this. For many of them, things were not quite right. They were left to their own devices. Many were lost or hurt; many were made prisoners of their own laws or customs. The people of America had been through two different times before a change must be made, for it was impossible to bring about a single change in public policy. Now, while people on different sides were united in opposing attempts to bring about a government which would work for all, they also came to the same conclusions. They said we should be careful to take what is best for the people, not what is best for us. And they would not let anybody but they themselves tell us if we had done very well. “When the people were united on the one hand, they believed that the policy of the present government would be better than what was in existence. And when the people were united on the other hand, they did believe that the policy of our present government had been better than everything they had ever wanted. We were united in seeing what the last thing needed to be.” During the Civil War Congress passed the Cherokee Restoration Act, which made the state of Arkansas the only state to accept reservations or other reservations of native populations. During the Civil War the Cherokee were allowed to hold more than 100,000 Indian lands in the Mississippi Delta
President William E. Jackson, who was one of President Jackson’s most trusted advisors, encouraged the Cherokee community to send a letter to Congress, saying that “This should be your next government.” After receiving the first letters, Jackson received a third letter from Sen. James T. Garfield Jr., and wrote the following about the first official Indian return: “In this time I want to send a message that while you may feel that the federal government will not always always stand in your way, there is hope for you for the future. It will always be there – if you believe, even to this day at home, in the United States of America – that it will always be true that one of the great blessings of our country shall come after the other. And, finally, it will always be true that it is your turn here, when we are free, to be your President and Commander of the whole continent. We must do the will of our Lord. And just then, when I stand my hand on these shores, I will not disappoint your heart with words. A man can come and lead the United States out of an age of barbarism, ignorance and ignorance. “I, Robert E. Lee, the President of the United States, would do with you all anything but give you good reason to hope. May the Lord bless you now and every day. It is your privilege to be with us and to be the guide of our people. “In this country, no doubt, the past forty years has been a very lonely time. In the midst of this tragedy, the people of this country, both the old and the new, have had a great deal to say and hope to share at once. The people of this country were not always prepared for this. For many of them, things were not quite right. They were left to their own devices. Many were lost or hurt; many were made prisoners of their own laws or customs. The people of America had been through two different times before a change must be made, for it was impossible to bring about a single change in public policy. Now, while people on different sides were united in opposing attempts to bring about a government which would work for all, they also came to the same conclusions. They said we should be careful to take what is best for the people, not what is best for us. And they would not let anybody but they themselves tell us if we had done very well. “When the people were united on the one hand, they believed that the policy of the present government would be better than what was in existence. And when the people were united on the other hand, they did believe that the policy of our present government had been better than everything they had ever wanted. We were united in seeing what the last thing needed to be.” During the Civil War Congress passed the Cherokee Restoration Act, which made the state of Arkansas the only state to accept reservations or other reservations of native populations. During the Civil War the Cherokee were allowed to hold more than 100,000 Indian lands in the Mississippi Delta
Slavery was a horrible time in our history. The idea of “owning” another human being is a disgrace to our nation and makes me wonder how it could have happened. The misery and horror started with months below deck on a ship which was torturous to the blacks heading to American to be sold as slaves. Little did they know; their life was not going to get any easier.
Death and disease on the ships was common, with many slaves dying along the way due to the unsanitary conditions onboard the ship. “By 1768, the English slave trade had a figure of 53,000 slaves a year being shipped to the North American continent.