Author: Kexin Huang

In Rauchway’s book, chapter 4, “Reflation and Relief,” emphasizes how President Franklin D. Roosevelt promised a new deal to solve the problem of people losing their jobs. The Great Depression was a worldwide economic disintegration caused by a stock market crash in the United States that resulted in the closure of all banks. Roosevelt began by rescuing the banks. Two days after taking office, he declared the nation’s banks must stop transactions in gold, thus shutting them down, and he asked Congress to ratify his action. “(Ruchway) The Great Depression lasted ten years, from 1929 to 1939. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the one who changed the Great Depression by instituting the New Deal, which he promised would end the depression. He also set up a slew of other programs.

Many young adults lost their jobs due to the Great Depression. “Young workers, with fewer skills and experience, found themselves out of work more often than workers at the peak of their powers… if nobody did anything to help them soon, young men were most likely to leave their communities, becoming tramps or hoboes, posing a threat to social order.” (Rauchway 5) This evidence from Raucheay’s chapter shows that neither the government nor Congress is planning for this. The young adult will most likely end up homeless. As a result, President FDR established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which assists young adults between the ages of 18 to 35 in finding work. In Rauchway’s chapter, he discusses how the new deal helped the country get back on its feet, and FDR also announced a moratorium on gold transfers to create inflation in order to help the economy recover as before. 

The term “American reconstruction” refers to the period in American history from 1866 to 1877 when the Confederacy and slavery were both abolished in an attempt to resolve the Civil War’s legacy. Reconstruction addresses issues such as how the southern states re-join the union, the citizenship of the Confederacy’s leaders, and the legal status of the Black Freedman.

In Eric Foner’s “The Makings of Radical Reconstruction,” Eric investigates the growing influence of radical Republicans on reconstruction policies. Despite the best efforts of the northern Radical Republicans, Eric Foner’s Reconstruction theory is right in claiming that southern whites were more concerned with re-creating the past than with renovating a new civilization.  However, it may be said that reconstruction was a success and that the South attempted to change, but was hampered by the presence of freedmen.

“Before the war, three-fifths of the slaves had been included in the calculation of Congressional representation; now, as free persons, all would be counted. Since Republicans were not prepared to force black suffrage upon the South, they offered white Southerners a choice-enfranchise the freedmen or sacrifice representation in Congress. “(pg114） According to this section of the reading, civil rights become the foundation of the 14 amendments, which establish the notion of citizenship for all Americans born in the United States and enable the federal government to protect their rights. The amendment prohibited states from limiting citizens’ rights to privileges and immunities or denying them equal protection under the law. As a result, future congresses and federal courts were able to give meaning to this promise of legal equality. This is one way for modern and radical republicans to compromise, but the amendment did not grant black suffrage. This shows that the 14th amendment creates a great conflict between the parties because the republicans are against the idea of letting black people vote to keep the replication. 

The authors underline that African Americans were emancipated from the bottom up, not the other way around. While the importance of white political leaders and a few black radical thinkers are frequently acknowledged, the political strength of ordinary and unknown black slaves is sometimes overlooked.

 

In the slavery era, American slaves were objects rather than human beings, they were been sell to the master, so slave men and women were not eligible to marry. Although black slaves are not allowed to marry, many slave owners still make the slave men and women in their hands from informal couples for self-interest. It will be beneficial to the mistress because slaves can give birth to children and children are the new slaves followed by their parents, when the slave’s children grow up they can work for the owner or the owner will sell them for money. This helps to increase the assets of slave owners. 

Author Thavolia Glymph’s chapter book, “Out of the House of Bondage, Ch. 1, The Gender of Violence” shows how slaves were treated badly, they were punished and bullied by the white. The author also talks about how the southern slaves experience under the white women. “ But since, “in fact,” mistresses “slapped, hit, and even brutally whipped their slaves,” it is plain that their power was neither invisible nor insignificant.” (Glymph pg26) This evidence evaluates how the mistress, the white woman who has the power of control over the slave, is treating the slave in a harmful way, they use physical violence against slaves, such as whipping, bracelet ankle chains, and more. “White women’s gender subordination merits attention in its own right and for its own sake; its overthrow is part of human emancipation.” (Glymph, pg31) Slaveholding women have some influence, and the influence of these women is seriously underestimated. This violation by the mistress shows how the gender of different types of women has different situations during the past. Glymph’s article is an academic article that is provided to historians and students or those who want to know more about that period. 

A historical figure, event, and detail that particularly stuck out was the story of Lulu Wilson, she was an old-time slavery woman who was been violent by Missus Hodges her former master, Wash Hodges’s wife, she was been special mean to Lulu which she used to tie her hands and make her lie on the floor and put snuff into her eyes, this was the reason of why she went blind. This was one of the ways that slaves will be violent by their owners, which was a normal phenomenon during the slavery period. 

Slavery in the United States has been abolished for more than 150 years today, but it still deeply affects American society.