1865-1929, One Is Struck at How Prevalent

¶ … 1865-1929, one is struck at how prevalent violence was in the daily lives of Americans. Discuss the use of violence in the three regions: the segregated South, the frontier West, and the industrial North. What was the purpose and how effective was the use of violence in this period? In the time frame from 1865 -- 1929, violence within American society became very extreme. Part of the reason for this, was because there was a shift in how the federal government was enforcing the rule of law.

As, many of these instances are: interrelated to one another, while at the same time they were unique in their own ways. In the segregated South, the underlying amounts of violence were targeted directly at the blacks who were once former slaves. This was in response to the backlash that occurred in the aftermath of the Civil War. As, most people in the region did not want to see an end to slavery. Yet, the practice itself was banned in the Constitution and the Emancipation of Proclamation.

In response to these issues, many former Confederate soldiers would rise up against these laws by forming organized groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). They were dedicated to limiting the upward economic mobility of many African-Americans. The way that this was accomplished was through using various forms of terrorism to scare many blacks into following these different rules. (Norton, 2010, pp. 409 -- 437) There was also institutions established, that supported disenfranchising many African-Americans from their basic constitutional rights.

Where, a series of regulations were enacted (called the Jim Crow laws) that were designed to limit any kind of economic opportunity available to them. This helped to increase the overall amounts of violence against blacks by re-enforcing the ideas of most people in southern society that they were inferior. Once this occurred, it made the underlying amounts violence targeted at these individuals more extreme.

This is the point that this was used as a tool to keep blacks out of any kind of activities that would improve their ability to move forward in life. As, the Jim Crow laws forced them to: use separate facilities and the KKK terrorized anyone who attempted to subvert these efforts. (Norton, 2010, pp. 409 -- 437) In the West, the violence was targeted at Indians. This was based largely upon corporate and mineral interests that were located in the region.

To extract them, meant that many entities wanted to limit the kind of activities and movement of various tribes throughout the area. This was accomplished by forcing them to go to what was known as reservations. These were locations that were far from many of the areas that had different natural resource deposits. (Norton, 2010, pp. 439 -- 463) The basic idea behind this strategy was to encourage the Indians to engage in actions that were considered to be more civilized vs. being nomadic.

This would limit any kind of interference they had with settlers relocating to the different areas of the country. Where, they could be able to mine a number of different mineral deposits, without having to worry about constant Indian attacks. (Norton, 2010, pp. 439 -- 463) Those tribes that resisted were subject to increasing amounts of violence that were targeted at them to achieve these objectives. As, the federal government allowed the army to use any means necessary to: achieve these long-term goals.

Over the course of time, this led to an escalation in violence and it created the views within society that many Indians were considered to be savages. At which point, any Indian tribes that were not living on the reservations were considered to be in resistance to these policies and various social norms. This is important, because it is showing how the underlying levels of violence were targeted at specific tribes. That refused to leave areas, containing natural resources that were of major significance. (Norton, 2010, pp.

439 -- 463) In Northern areas, violence was targeted at specific immigrants and blacks. The reason why is because, many people believed that they were taking away any jobs from ordinary Americans. As, they were willing to: work for low wages and in some cases (such as that of immigrants) they spoke different languages in addition to practicing unique cultural traditions. This lead to a change in the views of many in Northern society, that they were disenfranchising ordinary people.

At which point, increased amounts of violence was targeted at these groups to vent their frustrations about what was taking place. ((Norton, 2010, pp. 493 -- 520) When you look at the violence.