Throughout American history, there has been some type of impact (good or bad) from different cultures and races that created diverse America we know today. What it means to be a diverse country is that there are different cultures and people living in one place. Many races of people came from other countries and regions of the world to hopefully live a better life in America. However, while it is diverse that doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone was treated equally. There are many pros to being a diverse country, for example, gaining information and perspective from different races to increase the growth and knowledge of the country. While there are some pros, there are also some cons as well for example communication issues, the battle of power, and conflict. So being a diverse country comes with its pros and its cons. America has always been a diverse society. Just because America is diverse doesn’t mean everything was smooth sailing. There was a lot of conflict with the difference in gender/power roles (males vs females), racial differences (slavery vs anti-slavery), and regional differences (north vs the South). But it was these differences and conflicts that started to create the diverse America we have today.
Diversity started to appear as many men and women from different cultures (African Americans, Indians, Spanish) wanted to come to the New World (America) to make a better life for themselves and their families (Black People in White People’s Country). However, getting into the New World wasn’t cheap, many people would labor for someone with money as payment to go to the New World (Black People in White People’s Country). Wealthy white people started to use this to turn people into slaves. Slavery was a major influence on the racial differences in America. Back in that time, African American slaves were looked at as human and treated cruelly and unfairly because of the color of their skin. White slave owners saw African Americans as property that they purchased for labor and to control using slave codes to strip them of all their rights (Black People in White People’s Country, Nash 1). White people were held to the highest, while African Americans were the lowest race. For many years, African Americans had to deal with mistreatment and injustice without having much power to stop it.
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This caused the black slaves to finally say enough was enough and they started to rebel. This had always been a fear for white people as they worried that the mass growth of black slaves would outnumber them, and they would eventually overthrow them (Black People in White People’s Country). They decided that freedom and change were going to happen by doing nothing if they wanted to change, they had to act. Ben Franklin, who was the symbol of the Enlightenment movement, mention the virtues of tolerance and tyranny and when it comes to diversity between blacks and whites, there wasn’t really any tolerance and a lot of tyrannizing. Ben Franklin’s virtues started to make people really think and open their eyes to the world around them. His main goal was “to create and to celebrate, a new ruling class of ordinary citizens who learned to be tolerant of the varied beliefs and dogmas of their neighbors” (Citizen Ben's 7 Great Virtues, Isaacson 2). This idea was used to make people create their own beliefs and make their own decisions.
Speaking of opening people’s minds, Thomas Jefferson was one of the first white slave owners who started to wake up and see slavery for what it was: inhumane. He started to see it as “a blob in a country” (Thomas Jefferson and the Meaning of Liberty, Wilson 1) and that it is rereferred to as an issue that is staining and corrupting the country. He started to see that using this labor system (slavery) is wrong and how they treated African Americans was wrong also. Just because they were different from him, doesn’t mean he should treat them so cruelly.
Even though slavery was one of the hardest times in American history, the differences between white people to black people created many difficulties but also some positive insights. As many African Americans were starting to fight in wars for America, giving them extra manpower against their enemies (Thomas Jefferson and the Meaning of Liberty, Wilson 1), more people started to become anti-slavery, and more black slaves started to take a stand against injustice.
Race wasn't the only diversity America faced, there were also regional differences and gender differences as well. For the northern and southern colonies, there were huge differences in climate, families, and gender roles. Something as simple as the climate can make a difference. In the Southern region, the climate was harsh and lead to the fast spreading of deadly diseases. This led to people’s life expectancy being low around the 40s (Family Life in Plymouth and the Chesapeake, slide 10). Low life expectancy meant that married life was very short, and many wives had to live without their husbands along with children without parents (Family Life in Plymouth and the Chesapeake, slide 10). However, it wasn’t like there were many women for men to marry anyway. There was a huge imbalance of males and women in the south: fewer women than males so only a handful of males got married, at least till they died from disease and the women become available (Family Life in Plymouth and the Chesapeake, slide 11). In contrast to the north, the climate was much healthier and there was a longer life expectancy (living till the 60s) plus marriages last a lot longer compared to the south (Family Life in Plymouth and the Chesapeake, slide 12). Since life expectancy was high, this allows many husbands and wives to have many children and their population grew rapidly. This showed that even the smallest of things can have huge impacts on regions and have different effects.
During the revolution, it was the North who started to see black people as more than just slaves as they started to use African American slaves as soldiers and in the wars to defend America. In return, some of the slaves that fought were rewarded with their freedom (Thomas Jefferson and the Meaning of Liberty, Wilson 1). For the North, they started to change their mindset towards slavery, that maybe it wasn’t as necessary as they thought. Compare this to the South who were not so willing to release their slaves as they saw it as a loss of control and power (Thomas Jefferson and the Meaning of Liberty, Wilson 1). In Southern eyes, they saw the freeing of slaves would lead to future rebellion and the killing of white people.
Even though the North and South were different, there were some similarities especially when it came to gender roles. The males had all the power and authority while the women were expected to be submissive and dependent on their husbands (Family Life in Plymouth and the Chesapeake, slide 20). It is a woman's duty in the community to take care of the children and make sure they are raised well to become active members of the growing society. That is how women were seen back then, and it wasn’t necessarily fair but that is how things were back then.
In conclusion, there were many conflicts in American history that make it seem like diversity caused a lot of trouble but that is far from the truth
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