American History

            The book A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki’s, has represented the history of slavery by stating that America started with a huge colonist number who come as indentured servants who were required to work for other individuals for a particular time period in order to be able to pay their travel expenses back to their origin country (Takaki, 2012).  Most of these servants were outcasts from their societies and since America was not based on traditional practices they come in order to start a fresh life. However, this was unfortunate for them because in America they also experienced discrimination from the wealthy persons who were whites.  After realizing that those their land and wealth dreams failed in coming true they took arms.  The shipping of the servants was increasing in America but they never acquired the same rights as the whites because the laws were made that developed the black slaves. The elite white individuals were, therefore, afraid of low-class whites as they would be permitted to hold arms.  Therefore, the brought less white servants as they could fully control them. The book also holds that slavery resulted to war in America (Takaki, 2012). This is because after the slavery was continuously exposed to torture they started rebelling which later becomes war. This war was aimed at solving the social, politician and the economic issues which were in the state.  This I because they blacks were viewed as inferior and therefore the whites would not accept that they were capable of holding equal rights.  This was based on the differences that were seen between the whites and the blacks which included skin color, and the level of intelligence as the whites were considered to have higher intelligence level than the blacks. The inferiority view is what generate cold war which later developed into cold war (Takaki, 2012).

According to Takaki (2012), the whites said that they wanted to end saver but they actions failed in expressing what they said.  They did not want to end slavery because of the profits that were associated with slavery. This is mainly because the slaves would be involved in activities which were aimed at generating income to the nation (Takaki, 2012). In addition, the whites did not want to end slavery because they were afraid that the nation would be occupied by more white’s individuals which made them insecure. According to the different mirror throughout the history of the nation, the wealthy are fully involved in the improvement of the own well-being as well as their social status. This can be illustrated by Jefferson which claimed that he wanted to end slavery in order to seem as a good Christian but he did not want to end t because of the associated benefits. The book has also succeeded in illustrating the history of integration between the whites and other groups in periods of slavery and during  the world war where the Americans  were able to interact with the Japanese, this is a form of multicultural interacting which was generated by the happenings of different events (Takaki, 2012).

            However, according to Brinkley (2003), slavery in the southern was different from the western existence.  Unlike Brinkley, the book holds that slavery was regulated by law and every that was suspected to have an African black was termed as a black and the slaves codes forbade teaching, congregation, and property of slaves. Despite the existences of the slave’s regulation as the white individuals handled conditions, transgression and conditions of the farms with the variance of slaves. The majority of whites who owned slaves were the small farmers as the majority of the black slaves lived in middle   and large farms and the relationship between the slaves and their owners was characterized by less intimacy relationship (Brinkley, 2003).

            In regard to, Takaki, (2012), life under slavery was less unfortunate because the saves would receive adequate necessities which would enable them to work properly. This is unlike in the book by Brinkley where the slaves were not provided with tools to work because the whites feared that the slaves would take over.  According to Alan slaves were provided wit quarters which provided shelter. In addition, the activities that they were supposed to accomplish were divided in regard to gender where the women were involved in field labor and other domestic chores while the men were involved in farm activities and other technical duties (Brinkley, 2003).  Slavery was also associated with high mortality rate where most of the children were unable to make it t adulthood. This is mainly because they were involved in dangerous tasks that would lead to unhealthy status which they would have to do in order to secure investments .This, therefore, made the slaves unhappy which lead to resistance as they wanted to acquire their freedom (Brinkley, 2003). This is similar to the book the different mirror where the slaves got tired of being subjected to torture and they, therefore, needed their freedom back.  However according to Alan the slaves tried to resist the treatment by escaping while according to Brinkley the slaves resisted by fighting back the whites which resulted in war (Brinkley, 2003).

 

 

            References

Stefoff, R., & Takaki, R. T. (2012). A different mirror for young people: A history of        multicultural America. New York: Seven Stories Press.

Brinkley, A. (2003). American history: A survey. Boston, Mass. [u.a.: McGraw-Hill.