African
Essays

American individualism' is a phrase that is often bandied about in the popular media. However, it is seldom given a coherent historical definition. Rampant individualism is often seen as a societal negative that is…

The state of Florida is faced with a serious crisis in which there is no easy solution. The state is currently failing to provide adequate shelter and affordable housing for its rapidly increasing homeless population.

Community Health Nursing Health Education Plan

Discuss the myths and realities of the Underground Railroad.

The American Labor Movement – The Labor Question, Racism, Sexism & Xenophobia The "labor question" is the foundation of the American Labor Movement. Concerned with the ideal of an industrial democracy, including a more equitable society with social and financial betterment of working class people, the "labor question" arose during and in response to America's 19th Century (Second) Industrial Revolution. The American Industrial Revolution transformed America from an agrarian society to an industrialized society and feasted on child labor, convict labor and work schedules of 10 – 16 hour per day, six days per week, for wages of approximately $1.00 per day. At that time, "the richest 1 percent owned 26 percent of the wealth, and the richest 10 percent owned 72 percent." This widely disproportionate division of wealth and power between affluent capitalists and their industrial workers was rightfully considered by the workers to be unjustifiable in America's democratic society. The struggle for industrial democracy resulted in many material gains. The "labor question" is still vital in American society because the central problems of the labor question remain central. While the "labor question(s)" focused on the ideals of democracy and financial/social equality, the proponents did not mean that those ideals were for everyone. Racism, sexism and xenophobia – "hatred or fear of foreigners or strangers or of their politics or culture" - certainly played a role in the history of the American Labor Movement. Unions tended to be the bastion of the working-class white American male and the American Federation of Labor, founded in 1886, was often overtly racist and anti-communist. Scholars suggest some methods of overcoming racism, sexism and xenophobia in order to make unions truly democratic and to help unions regain their power and relevance in modern America and the global economy.

Slavery in America Introduction – The Beginning of Slavery The first year that African slaves were brought to Colonial America was reported to be 1619 (Vox, 2012). The ship that docked at Point Comfort, in Jamestown Virginia, was owned by the Dutch. The Dutch crew was said to be starving and they wanted to make a trade with the colonists – slaves for food, Vox explains in The New York Times-owned publications About.com. There were a reported twenty slaves on board, and this was verified by a letter from Dutch crewmember John Rolfe to the treasurer of the Virginia Company, Edwin Sandys. It is possible that African slaves actually arrived prior to 1619 – perhaps in the northern colonies – but Vox explains that the only "hard evidence" available as to the presence of slaves came from Rolfe's letter. The British were involved in the slave trade at that time but Vox writes that they were "reluctant to institute slavery in their new American colonies." Historian Betty Wood reports that by 1625, there were just 23 Africans in the Virginia colony, and thirty-five years later that number rose to 950, which was approximately four percent of the entire population of Virginia (Vox).

Minority populations are represented in disproportionate numbers in the United States special education system. The discussion here considers some of the biases which might be responsible for this inequality of representation, including a cultural, sociological and global theoretical explanation for the phenomenon. The research also considers a counterpoint to the theories of bias.

Artifact in Socio-Cultural Context -- the Help (touchstone, 2011)

Capital Punishment or the death penalty is the execution of a convicted criminal by the State as punishment for capital crimes or offenses (Wikipedia 2006). It is called "capital" because it literally and historically…

The 1960's refers to the years between 1960 and 1969, however over the last two decades, the term, the Sixties, has come to refer to the complex of inter-related cultural and political events that occurred in roughly…