Author: j.wang20

I will be doing my paper on how Puerto Ricans were forced to be lower class citizens with limited housing and career opportunities and the discrimination they faced.

Introduction

• Cause of migration and poverty
• thesis
• general synopsis of West Side Story

Body Paragraph 1

• how Puerto Ricans felt about their life in America
• scene where Anita and Bernardo sing about the pros and cons of living in America
• limited job opportunities to low paying jobs that resulted in poverty

Body Paragraph 2

• mass migration led to overpopulation and formation of slums
• there were people who tried to help create better living conditions

Body Paragraph 3

• Discrimination against Puerto Ricans
• people who wanted to halt migration
• painted Puerto Ricans as criminals and delinquents

Body Paragraph 4

• fight against discrimination
• how gangs came to be
• violence and criminal level wasn’t as bad as media portrayed it to be

Conclusion

• restate thesis
• relate west side story to how puerto ricans were unfairly disadvantaged

Briggs, Laura. Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico

Whalen, Carmen Teresa and Victor Vazquez-Hernandez, The Puerto Rican Diaspora: Historical Perspectives

New York Times; 04 Dec 1955: 76 NEW VIEWS ASKED ON PUERTO RICANS: Ways to Assimilate them Here Suggested in Report Based on Island Study

New York Times; 07 Oct 1959: 42 Puerto Ricans In New York

New York Times; 11 Oct 1959: SM24 The Other Puerto Ricans: Headlines Have Obscured the Fight that Most Make Against Slum Living and Intolerance.

Carol Oja, West Side Story and the Music Man: Whiteness, Immigration, and Race in the U.S. in the late 1950s.

For the final paper I’m going to be doing option one, an analysis of West Side Story.

In the film, “West Side Story,” there is a scene where Anita and Bernardo sing about the pros and cons of being an American as opposed to a Puerto Rican. In this argument Anita sings of all the pros to being an American and all the new opportunities available here that wasn’t available back in Puerto Rico. She sings of all the new technology, job opportunities and freedom she has as a woman that she wouldn’t otherwise have in Puerto Rico. Bernardo on the other hand, was a bit more critical. He sings that there are limits to these new freedoms and opportunities. For example, he sings about how job opportunities are limited to positions as waiters or shoe polishers for Puerto Ricans. He also sings about how most things that are available in America are also available in Puerto Rico. The only difference is that these same items cost more in America.

In the Briggs reading, it proposes the same debate of whether or not globalization is a good thing, particularly in Puerto Rico. Linda Chavez argues in her book, Out of the Barrio that America’s colonization of Puerto Rico actually does more harm than good. In the 1950s and 1960s, many garment industry and other manufacturing jobs were held by Puerto Rican women in northeastern cities where they mostly settled. These people chose to stay and ended up on welfare. She recalls an AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) program that was meant to aid the people on the island. Chavez claims the people left behind their traditions and were changed for the worse when they moved to mainland U.S. and ended up living off of welfare.

White Zombies is a 1932 film that introduces the idea of zombies. In this film, anyone dead can be brought back to life as a zombie with some magic. Charles Beaumont, a plantation owner, is in love with Madeleine. However, Madeleine was set on marrying a different man, Neil. To keep her to himself, Beaumont goes to Murder Legendre for some magic that can enable him to keep Madeleine by his side as his own. In the scene where Beaumont visits Legendre in his sugar mill, we see that the workers are all these lifeless zombies. Legendre brought all these people back to “life” to serve as his slaves. These zombies were given hard, dull labor and it didn’t really matter if they were injured or maimed. One of such zombies fell over into the mill and was crushed, yet no one really cared. These zombies represented the slaves in Haiti.

In The Magic Island by William Seabrook, zombies are believed to be more than just any superstition. Constant Polynice spoke of a factory that offered bonuses to new workers. Ti Joseph of Colombier, a black headman was seen leading a band of ragged creatures who shuffled along him to registration. This band of people were then given jobs on a field far from the factory where they worked hard and the headman collected all their wages. These people were thought of as zombies because of their lifelessness and adherence to their masters without questions.

Slaves in Haiti were represented as zombies in the article and film. The brutal treatment and harsh labor had taken a toll on these people, leaving them numb to the effects. They basically had no life left and no motivation to live and lead a normal life. The enslaved’s only option was to accept what they were dealt and do as they were told to escape punishment and beatings. This portrayal of the slaves represented them as non human beings.

On Tuesday, November 1st, I visited the African Burial Ground National Exhibit. I found the exhibit to be very interesting in part because of the information about the bodies and coffins recovered and the lives these slaves led, but also because of some of the interactive displays. In the center of the room there were statues of what an African funeral would have looked like. To one side, there was a timeline of the events that took place and to the other was a diagram of the excavated burial ground and images of the recovered bodies. As you walked further in, pictures and information on the walls highlighted the brutality slaves had to endure and how they overcame these circumstances and continued to flourish. In New York, after the Revolutionary War, there were many freed slaves who fought beside the British and the colonists. These Africans tried to create a better life for themselves by learning to read and write. Eventually, the Gradual Emancipation Law was passed which began the process of freeing men, women, and children.

Connecting this to the Brown reading, Brown speaks of the oppression and horrors that occurred. As slaves were being imported from Africa, some would commit suicide by jumping over board. They would rather die than live a life of enslavement. Slave owners asserted their power by taking advantage of the enslaved’s beliefs of the dead and spiritual life. They used dead bodies to mark their territories and symbolize their power. However this had an inadvertent effect as it also reinforced the “influence of slaves who were willing to resist or to rise up and strike their masters.”

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

These castes dictated every aspect of life on Jamaica from things like the jobs you can get, the property you can own, to the inheritance you can give or receive. White men of English descent often own the biggest plantations and dominated the Council, Assembly, and militia leaderships. However, there was also a class of non English whites who arr slightly less privileged than English whites. These people included the Jews, Irish, and Scots. The Jews often found themselves the victims of tax attempts from the Aasembly. The Irish were considered the “poor whites” since they mostly came to the island as indentured servants. There were two classes within the free blacks: the mulattos and the Maroons, Africans who had escaped slavery brought by the Spanish. The mulattos were artisans, craftspeople, hucksters, and occasionally servants. Some were descendants of planters and became slave owners themselves. These people were deprived of any civil or political rights. The Maroons on the other hand, were classified by those who lived in clans and were hunter warriors, the Western Leeward Maroons, and the eastern Windward Maroons who followed a less rigidly structured leadership, and women had more political and ritual roles. Finally, there were the enslaved Africans. These people worked on plantations and in towns in many different occupations. They were deprived of almost all person liberties and properties and were considered chattel. This social hierarchy existed to enforce the roles each division could play, and reign white supremacy over people of color.

“Jamaican planters and British policymakers were most disturbed by the unique character of this revolt. Investigations in Jamaica had uncovered a deep involvement of the plantation elite…The rebel leaders were men who had enjoyed their masters’ trust.”

The Jamaican rebellion was unique in that there was only one revolt that occurred before the king abolished slavery. The rebellion was largely nonviolent; only fourteen whites were killed and much of the damage was inflicted on sugar cane trash and residences. The slaves had planned on saving the growing crops to later make a profit themselves. There is evidence that leaders encouraged their followers to rebel without bloodshed through “sit downs,” property damage, and on some occasions, disarm their masters and held them prisoners but never actually hurting them. 

One of the interesting things to note about this rebellions is that the leaders consisted mainly of slaves who enjoyed more privileges and freedom than others. These slaves were allowed to travel freely, acquired non field work, and escaped the brutal lashes of a whip. Robert Gardner, one of the rebellion leaders claimed, “If Dove and I were to be stripped, our skin would be found to be as smooth as any white man’s, for we have never been flogged. I was quite happy.” One can ask why then, did these slaves decide to revolt? It was through this freedom that these privileged slaves were able to acquire an education as some of them were found to be quite literate. This literacy allowed them to discover the anti-slavery abolitionist movements that were taking place elsewhere, which in turn encouraged them to rise up and fight for their own freedom. Additionally, they also used the bible as a scapegoat as they quoted from it, “No man can serve two masters.” Their identification with the Baptists, led the slaves to label the revolt “the Baptist War.”

• What was unique about this particular rebellion as compared to say the Haitian Revolution?
• Why did the privileged slaves decide to revolt when they were living much happier lives compared to other slaves?

“dominion of the master had to be absolute…but that absoluteness made the master something other than human as well.”

I support Colin Dayan’s claim that masters were forced to become inhumane beings when they enforced their dominance and control over their slaves. As slaveholders, they had to make sure the enslaved did their jobs and didn’t rebel. To do this, they had to employ harsh punishments and tactics such as whippings, keeping them uneducated and removing children from their mothers. In Fredrick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass describes the brutal treatment of slaves he witnessed as a child. “He commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood…came dripping to the floor.”[10] His Aunt Hester was caught disobeying her master’s orders and as a result was whipped like many other slaves before her. Masters were hardened by years of punishing slaves and making sure they were doing their jobs. “He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slave holding. He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave…No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose.” After being forced to treat these slaves as property, masters became immune to sympathy and mercy for these people. Additionally, the Dred Scott decision further proves how a master’s absoluteness made the master something other than human as well. “Upon these considerations, it is the opinion of the Court that the act of Congress…that neither Dred Scott himself, nor any of his family, were made free by being carried into this territory.” The Supreme Court decided that Dred Scott was not a freed slave even if he had lived in the northern states for an extended period of time where slavery is prohibited. Even though the constitution states that all men are created equal, it is clear that slaves were not treated as men or as equals.

“And his majesty doth further hereby declare, that if any person or persons shall take upon them, him, or her, after his, or her License or Licenses, recalled, or otherwise without License, to sell by retail (as aforesaid) any of the Liquors aforesaid, then the person or persons so Offending, shall not only be proceeded against, upon the Statute made in the fifteenth year of his Majesties Reign…but shall receive the severest punishments that may by Law be inflicted.”

In this proclamation, the king is calling for a ban of coffee houses and the distributions of licenses to sell coffee, chocolate, sherbet, and tea. He claimed that the numerous coffee houses that have sprung up over the last couple years have, “produced very evil and dangerous effects.” The people are spending the majority of their time there instead of tending to their “Lawful Callings and Affairs.” He also reported that people were spreading, “False, Malitious, and Scandalous Reports…to the Defamation of His Majesties Government, and to the Disturbance of the Peace and Quiet of the Realm.” The main concern here seems to be the spread of false information and the defamation of the king. Coffee houses were seen as gathering places for people to discuss politics and slander the monarchy. This proves to be troublesome because these meetings and discussions could lead to revolts and plots to overthrow the king from people, over their shared dislike for the monarchy and the government. His majesty called for the Justices of the Peace and the Chief Magistrates to “recall and make void all Licenses.” The people were banned from selling coffee, chocolate, sherbet, and tea in coffee houses or their own personal homes. To ensure that people followed this new law, the king put forth a fine of five pounds for every month the person committed the offense, and “receive the severest punishments that may by Law be inflicted” if they continue to commit the offense. However, the note at the bottom tells us that this ban never actually went into effect because of pressure from the king’s ministers who loved coffee themselves.