Week 2 Reading Response

Chapters 3 through 5 in Takaki's "A Different Mirror" focused primarily on the African-American experience from the early 1600s through the end of the Civil War and the failure of Reconstruction. The experience of reading these chapters after learning about the continued degradation of Native Americans lent itself to continued feelings of hopelessness regarding the beginnings of U.S. history. To study U.S. History is to study the continued struggle of those deemed "Other." The arbitrariness of this distinction had me bewildered at the ignorance of this country's forefathers. For a moment, I felt deep shame at the actions of the founders of the United States, especially those of President Andrew Jackson.

The origins of slavery as outlined in Chapter 3 surprised me since the institution came about so slowly. Takaki explained that the tobacco economy drove the need for labor but that tobacco planters were wary of Africans and preferred to use white labor and servants. Since white Europeans were coming to America with debts, they worked as indentured servants in order to pay off their debts. What struck me the most about the evolution of indentured servitude to slavery was the willingness of landowners to compromise their own values of liberty. Even though Thomas Jefferson felt that the institution of slavery was immoral, he reconciled the fact that by 1822, he owned 267 slaves. Slavery was not only a "peculiar institution" but also one that forced landowners to dismiss that they were exploiting fellow human beings for profit. Despite learning what the English caste thought about race and beings that belonged to something "Other" than themselves, it's still shocking to read accounts of the complete racial inequality and exploitation of the period of 1600-1860s.

Chapter 4 outlined the rise of the cotton crop as well as the need for slave labor. Prior to the innovation of the cotton gin, slavery as an institution was losing popularity. Slave owners in the North had begun to free their slaves in the late 1700s. Even in the tobacco fields of the South, the keeping of slaves was not a profitable enterprise. What changed history was the invention of the cotton gin. Cotton was now easier to process and a new labor force was needed in order to keep up with demand: slave labor. After the turn of the 19th century, slavery was once again profitable.

The personalities that made up the bulk of Chapter 5 made for an interesting and enlightening read. Takaki discussed four major figures before, during, and after the Civil War and their differing viewpoints regarding slavery, freedom, education, and nationalism. I was moved by the ideas advanced by David Walker, a free black man in Boston. He advanced the idea that whites were the true barbarians due to the unsavory practice of slavery and that slavery can only be destroyed by violent revolt. These ideas were advanced by the realities of the lives of blacks on both sides of the North/South divide. Despite having freedom in the North, blacks were still met with oppressive racism by fellow workers and government. There seemed to be no other people that had the blacks' interests in mind besides fellow blacks. Most blacks in the North were relegated to menial labor and thought to be intellectually inferior. Whilst reading this chapter, I couldn't help but compare the continued struggle that many African-Americans have to overcome these long-held stereotypes and prejudices. To think that misgivings created more than two centuries ago still have resonance today is mind-blowing. The United States STILL struggles to incorporate the lives of ALL Americans into current textbooks. Ethnic studies is still a fairly new academic discipline and some residents of the U.S. can live their whole lives without seeing a face that differs, in color and background, from their own. This country is supposed to be a melting pot, a melding of different cultures and backgrounds but there is still a divide based on past grievances and misgivings. It seems like a dire prospect but one that is worth fighting for. I'm glad that Martin Delany decided to stay and fight rather than emigrate back to Africa.

"A man without force is without the essential dignity of humanity." — Frederick Douglass.