Author: s.ngalaba

Introduction

• opens with general mention of the film, the play and the original novel of West Side Story
• Developed argument that connects issues of racial tension within the film to real life events of the late 1950s and early 1960s
• Main argument developed in thesis

First Body Paragraph

• first discussion of film with mentioning of specific scenes
• different gangs of the Jets and the Sharks are named and distinguished
• The significance of Maria and Tony’s romance is explained
• Conflicting attitude on foreign immigration to the United States at the time is mentioned

Second Body Paragraph

• Common ground of conflict with police by both the Jets and the Sharks is mentioned
• Lieutenant Schrank is first mentioned and labeled as a character representing law enforcement of the time period
• Symbolic value of his despising of both the Jets and the Sharks is explained

Third

• First New York Times article mentioning Puerto Ricans in New York is mentioned

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For now, this is all the information I can provide on my essay’s outline. I had been waiting on my requested copy of The Puerto Rican Diaspora which I have only recently found out has been made available for check-out at the Newman Library. For my future paragraphs, I intend to incorporate 3 New York Times articles featuring a new one I have recently found that directly mentions the conflicting relationships between the Puerto Rican community and Law enforcement in 1965. I will also add information from my chosen listening portions along with West Side Story and the Music Man.

For my final History paper I plan to:

• listen to the tracks from Nueva York: A Tape Documentary of Puerto Rican New Yorkers
• read West Side Story and The Music Man
• read The Puerto Rican Diaspora: Historical Perspectives*

*I am currently waiting on a requested copy of Whalen’s The Puerto Rican Diaspora from the Newman Library

Option One : West Side Story in Historical Context

“Puerto Rico is a good place to think about the meanings of colonialism and globalization because it has for a century been where the U.S has worked out its attitudes towards its own expansionism. These attitudes have wavered between celebration and denial.” (page 2)

Yesterday in class, we watched the film West Side Story. The film takes place in the city of New York during the early 60s. From the very first scenes, we get to see the racial tensions present. The white, American-born young adults of the neighborhood are at odds with the Puerto-Rican immigrants they live alongside. Both races divide themselves into two opposing gangs and avoid association with each other by all means. The Caucasian males belong to the Jets and the rival Puerto Ricans make up the Sharks. These divisions displayed throughout the film span far past the context of fiction.

One of the Jets during the film spoke on his disapproval of the immigrants they lived alongside because he felt his neighborhood was being overrun. Brigg’s article clarifies that feelings of discontent over the entire situation of Puerto Rico was common. There were not only Americans opposed to the incoming immigrants but also some opposed American involvement in the Caribbean nation altogether. The disputes over American foreign policy and immigration are still very much alive to this day and will more than likely continue for years to come.

“As the central governemnt in Port-au-Prince lurched toward an agreement with the Americans, the regional officers and soldiers of the Haitian army observed the proceedings in wariness and dismay. The country’so culture, after all, had long emphasized the danger that whites might one day come back and try to gain control…”

Yesterday in class we watched the film White Zombie. The movie is set in the nation of Haiti and specifically within its capital of Port-au-Prince. From the very first scenes , we learn about the racial makeup of the country as blacks are suggested as being in the population majority and whites such as the visiting couple and the plantation owner compose the minority. Based on our previous study in class, it is obvious that this ratio isn’t a coincidental one. In the New World time period, the nation was once a French colonial territory named St. Domingue.

St. Domingue, as with most colonial territitories of the time, featured an economy heavily reliant on the products and goods achieved from slavery labor. The succesful Haitian revolution  managed to oust any and all significant traces of French enslavement and established a black republic in the Caribbean region. Nearly all forms of white influence were intentionally removed both metaphorically in the stripping of the white from the flag and physically in the massacre of the remaining white population.

The memories of slavery were still fresh in the minds of black Haitians and their described actions were performed in the hopes of decreasing the likelihood of a return of the abusive system. The result of the hasty and somewhat shady decision making was long-lasting paranoia that black Haitians held towards foreign nations of white majority. The document Haiti: The Aftershocks of History opens with the revelation that the nation in the early 20th century was comsiderably broke. They had recieved aid from some nations but had also been simultaneously taking out loans from other nations just to remain afloat. It had gotten so severe that some nations even began to doubt the likelihood of being payed back. Though having some unrelated interests of their own, the United States did look to assist but some of the Haitian government were reluctant to accept.

 

 

Today, I had the opportunity to visit the National Monument to African Burial grounds in the city. The exhibit is highly educational and not just a cemetery as one would assume from the title. Inside the museum, there are replicas of material mostly belonging to the cultures of the many represented African nations in the slave trade; along with a few life-size wax figures of the slaves themselves.

In today’s visit, I managed to learn information I had previously been unaware of. For example, a majority of modern-day Lower Manhattan  was the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam during the late 1680s and the first location of African slave arrival. During the early stages of the system, a portion of slaves managed to successfully petition for their freedom and even go on to own land, while peacefully coexisting with the amenable European colonizers of the 17th century. Unfortunately, in the years to come, control of the colonial territory shifted into the hands of British forces who were nowhere near as agreeable as their Dutch predecessors had been. Following their arrival, oppression of existing slaves increased and free blacks lost all land they had previously owned.

Brown’s article mentions British ship Captain Hugh Crowe and his direct involvement in the slave trade. Captain Crowe is described as being cruel and inhumane; both of which were characteristics he considered the slave trade and general treatment of Africans as not being. He looked at the conditions of the slave trade as fitting into the norms of military rule and considered the graphic violence along with the public display of black corpses as being justified for even the Royal Navy to partake in.

“Jamaican law created a bifurcated system that divided the numerous castes into four classes: whites, who alone had access to English common law and its most sacred plank, trial by jury; free people of color having special privileges granted by private acts; free people of color not possessing such privileges; and slaves.”

A bifurcated system is simply one featuring the division of a main body into two portions; as with social class in Jamaica. Late 18th century Jamaica was a nation consistent with the traits of most Caribbean nations of the time. The Atlantic slave trade resulted in the demographic definition of the country as the arriving European community  developed a nation supported by the highly successful sugar cane-dependant economy fueled by the slave labor of imported Africans.  European influence proves to be quite a significant one, as later on in the passage it is revealed that social hierarchy was defined and retained up until the revolutions and emancipating legislations that would follow in the next century.

Referring back to the quote, it can be seen and is worth pointing out that at this specific time there were free Africans around. The earlier paragraph mentions an anti-discriminatory 1733 legislation that granted mulattoes “all the Privileges and Immunities of His Majesty’s white subjects” . Clearly, this law failed to be as successful as hoped. Emancipation on the island was both non-universal for all Africans but also managed to further divide the slaves into those who were free with privilege, free without privilege and those still enslaved.

 

Discussion questions

What prevented the 1733 law from being successful?

Should the makers of the law or the Europeans of Jamaica be blamed for its failure?

 

 

“The rebellion had a marked effect on the attitudes of government officials’ they too had come to accept the necessity of immediate abolition”

On December 27, 1831, the slaves of Jamaica revolted; triggering a rebellion. The importance in the dating back of this rebellion to 1831 exists in that it is not the first Caribbean slave revolt of the time period but instead follows the previous and successful Haitian revolt of 1791. This slave revolt did however lack similarity to the Haitian revolt and other previous rebellions in that the casualties were significantly lower while still serving to be more effective of one in the long run.  The Haitian revolt managed to shake up the Atlantic world of time. Most observing nations involved in the slave trade at the time panicked at the possibility of the very slaves they owned on their respective American or European soil would hear of and be inspired by the accounts of those rebelling Caribbean slaves. The events of the Jamaican revolt years late personify these fears as the enslaved along with those liberated and with equal literacy as their free Haitian predecessors in revolt now rebelled in confidence with encouragement thanks to the existence of the abolitionist movements abroad they were made aware of by the press.

Unlike the Haitian revolution, the influence of the Jamaican revolt drew sympathy and support of European (English) observing eyes and even managed to stress the urgency of the movement. England was clearly ahead of the curve compared to other nations of the Atlantic world during the time period as the ending of slavery and standardized emancipation were already being openly discussed in the nation a while before 1831. In fact by 1831, the slave trade of the Atlantic had already been banned for 24 years now going all the way back to 1807.

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Discussion questions

Why did the opinion of the observing European world (England) change with the Jamaican revolt than with the previous Haitian revolt?

How much did the banning of slavery in 1807 change?

 

Slavery exists as one of the more controversial features in all of American history. Its consistency managed to be upheld for a lengthy period of time in the early nation and faced little to no opposition until the mid 19th century. The concept of a human being possessing a right to ownership of another that they considered inferior to themselves had ideological significance worth noting. In his document “Égalite for All” , Colin Dayan argues “dominion of the master had to be absolute…but that absoluteness made the master something other than human as well”. In other words, the self empowerment exercised by masters and those owning slaves was potent enough to affect the mindset and instill abusive behavior. Famous American social reformer and abolitionist Frederick Douglas personally recounts the horrors of his enslavement with the abuse he witnessed at the hands of overseers. Douglass recalls that ” I have known him to cut and slash the women’s heads so horribly, that even master would be enraged at his cruelty, and would threaten to whip him if he did not mind himself. Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder. It required extraordinary barbarity on the part of an overseer to affect him. He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slave- holding.” . Unfortunately, multiple accounts similar to these still initially failed to sway public opinion. In search of a reason for this, one would have to observe the political aspect of the issue. Disagreement over its practice initially served to be a complicated one as a dissenter would also be simultaneously challenging the established government in principle.  Referring to the case of Dred Scott, it can be observed that the controversial connection the practice maintained with legislation. In the Dred Scott article, in reference to the Constitution, and Chief Justice Taney “And for the same reason it cannot introduce any person, or description of persons, who were not intended to be embraced in this new political family, which the constitution brought into existence, but were intended to be excluded from it”(pg. 345). In other words, the very Constitution that argued for the humanity and freedom of those oppressed under British rule featured a means of exclusion as to just who would be included in the government it intended to establish.

“The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable, and sacred right of man…”

The first four words of this quote are significant in themselves alone. The National Assembly of France not only authored this Declaration, but also considered themselves the representatives of France and its people as a whole. France around the time of the revolution faced uncertainty because of the division created between supporters and opposers of the movement. There was a major change in the way that people thought of themselves and qualities they valued. There was a push to standardize rights for all and to have a government that noticed the need and was willing to create an environment to support it.

Even further, the fact that the National Assembly is composed of French citizens is a testament in itself to the arriving change. In other words, a group composed of French citizens was bringing attentions to issues of French citizens. The concept of inalienable rights favor citizens by forcing a government to recognize them. The use of the word sacred insists on them being respected to an almost religious context as far as reverence. The use of the word natural adds to this point as well. Natural rights would suggest an individual is born with them; having been given them by his creator.