The Photos of Jacob Riis: A Revisionist View The late 1800’s put the North and South regions of the newly developed North American country through some drastic and radical changes. Newly established amendments, such as the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, led to new rules that challenged the ways native-white men had thought before. Jacob Rii’s collection of photos introduced the menaces and dangers of the middle class’s horrible living conditions, dirty work places, unhealthy children’s wellbeing, and everlasting discrimination issues. Had these photos been available for the civilians living through these circumstances to view at the time, may have had an indicative effect to have motivated those readers to take action and potentially …show more content…
The middle class workers had to deal with low wages, resulting with poor living environments. The first two photos from Rii’s set showed men sleeping in rooms and buildings that were very crowded and filthy with other workingmen. From these images, it’s evident that a great deal of men slept where they could: on crowded bunk beds, with ragged blankets, and sometimes on the cold floor. In the 7th of Rii’s pictures, the outside view of worker’s homes are shown in just as bad conditions; broken windows, shaky staircases, and trash thrown around the house. It’s unfortunate that workers had to live in the conditions they did at …show more content…
In multiple pictures, children are seen living in the harsh surroundings of what their parent’s provided. It’s very unfortunate, but a common result during this time period for the middle class. In the second picture from Rii’s collection, there are children sitting on the ground of an alley, that’s possibly cold and damp. They look sad and almost depressed by what they are surrounded by. In another similar picture, the 9th one, there are children seen in a happier place, playing around outside! One child is inside a barrel out on the street and the rest of the kids surround him. The image provides a happier scene and tone to it, but in reality, the children are left with no toys or safe tools to play with, only items they find in trash cans or things left out on the streets; yet another harsh living factor. Evidently, however, even if the civilians had seen what environment they left their children living in, not much could have been done to improve either the parent’s nor the children’s living
Over the past few years the white working class has become docile in means of what Sara Palin describes as “Real America”, a thriving class of individuals who pride themselves on worth ethic. However, the article takes the more known impression of this group of Americans by providing the historical upbringing of the “white trash” as it first appeared in print in 1821; similarly, to how Outing Whiteness,
American Indians shaped their critique of modern America through their exposure to and experience with “civilized,” non-Indian American people. Because these Euro-Americans considered traditional Indian lifestyle savage, they sought to assimilate the Indians into their civilized culture. With the increase in industrialization, transportation systems, and the desire for valuable resources (such as coal, gold, etc.) on Indian-occupied land, modern Americans had an excuse for “the advancement of the human race” (9). Euro-Americans moved Indians onto reservations, controlled their education and practice of religion, depleted their land, and erased many of their freedoms. The national result of this “conquest of Indian communities” was a steady decrease of Indian populations and drastic increase in non-Indian populations during the nineteenth century (9). It is natural that many American Indians felt fearful that their culture and people were slowly vanishing. Modern America to American Indians meant the destruction of their cultural pride and demise of their way of life.
The word tenements means shanties, or dwellings where people of low income in a community lives. In the book, “How The Other Half Lives” the author begins by showing the worldview of riches and poverty. In the introduction of the text, the author indicates that people from rich places shunned tenements. Tenements have numerous problems. They were over-inhabited; people lead awful lives, poor sanitation, and general low living standards [1]. Jacob Riis in this text indicates that there was a time the tenements were intensely violent and the upheavals great. Meaning, people living in the tenements defied a lot of pressure and appalling circumstances to survive, something that the author says that people from the other half of the world did not grasp[2]. However, despite the generalities, the author gives prime preferences for some of the things that he thinks caused major problems in the tenements. Such as the overcrowding, poverty, the greed and impunity.
Since the beginning, the United States` government, racial slavery had conquered various American identities. “Racism sprung early colonial times due the slavery riot incidence misinterpretations, leading full men, women, and children racial slavery of all different ethnic backgrounds” (Hooker 1). African-Americans held a life long work and Caribbean island shipment originating and affective progression to American colonies. “An importation of 4,000,000 Negroes were held in bondage by Southern planters” (Webstine).Advanced time went, and Northern states nurtured a rapid industrial revolution; Factory introduction, machines, and hired workers replaced any agricultural need of existing slaves. Southern states, however, maintained their original work, continuing the previous circular agricultural system. This suited the firm economic foundation of United States government. However, even continuing economic growth, some Americans still recognized moral rights. The moving disagreement era, America’s Antebellum period grew a deep internal struggle within the American society’s families. “Abolitionists, anti-racial discrimination groups, demanded an end to dehumanized labor treatment in the Southern states” (James 94). However, during this time, women discrimination was also another hot topic taking place. These movements pursued, and women joined numerous groups, and became more society perceived, standing with the thousands African-Americans, immigration workers, and women’s rights, demanding their societal rights. One particular woman advocating her own level in society, gender, race, and all, bringing her standing beliefs was Sojourner Truth. A former run away slave, Sojourner Truth, who originally contemplated no Ameri...
The reforming time period from 1775 to 1830 was full of changes. However, the “peculiar institution” and its changes was one of the most noteworthy. These years brought an increase in enslaved African Americans, but surprisingly, also freed ones. In this essay, both the unfortunate and fortunate groups of these people will be our focal point.
A main factor in the storyline is the way the writer portrays society's attitude to poverty in the 18th century. The poor people were treated tremendously different to higher classed people. A lot of people were even living on the streets. For example, "He picked his way through the hordes of homeless children who congregated at evening, like the starlings, to look for the most sheltered niche into which they could huddle for the night." The writer uses immense detail to help the reader visualise the scene. She also uses a simile to help the reader compare the circumstances in which the children are in. This shows that the poor children had to live on the streets and fend for themselves during the 18th century. Another example involves a brief description of the city in which the poor people lived in. This is "nor when he smelt the stench of open sewers and foraging pigs, and the manure of horses and mules" This gives a clear example of the state of the city. It is unclean and rancid and the writer includes this whilst keeping to her fictional storyline.
The period in American history between 1875 and 1910 was one of incredible upward mobility in terms of industrialization, urbanization, and immigration. This increased rate of agricultural production due to the growing momentum of technological innovation, an outdated rural labor workforce battled against the up and coming nature of industrial and diverse cities.New inventions paved the way for better sanitary standards and overall public health, new lifestyles in emerging cities, and a faster-paced way of life for all. These innovative timed marked a profound shift in American identity, how individuals associated with the idea of property, and an overall class system that developed to stratify new immigrants among the old workforce. There
In the early 1900’s, America was a place of racial division and inequality. The early
Mankind has struggled, since the beginning of civilization, to see beyond race and cultural differences when defining human value and dignity. The ideas of slavery, oppression, and genocide have all been cultivated by ignorance and the degradation of misunderstood people by a powerful majority that claim to be assimilating the minority. Both Charles Eastman and Gertrude Bonnin give a powerful depiction of Native Americans as they come to understand their place in the new world and desperately cling to traditions and a culture that give them their dignity. Both autobiographies attempt to educate white readers about misconceptions and prejudices that they have been exposed to about Native Americans. These prejudices have caused a majority of white America to fear and dehumanize the Indian populace to the point of oppression. Through their storytelling, Eastman and Bonnin give a perspective of Native American culture that is relatable and real. These writings bring a sense of human dignity to Native Americans and dispel the idea that “Indians” are a savage people who are unintelligent, heathenistic, and in need of guidance by the white man.
William Graebner and Leonard Richards. The American Record: Images of our Nation’s Past. McGraw-Hilll; 5 edition. May 27, 2005
Throughout the first half of the 19th century, and especially after the War of 1812, America has taken on yet another revolution. In this time period, the country saw a rapid expansion in territory and economics, as well as the extension of democratic politics; the spread of evangelical revivalism; the rise of the nation’s first labor and reform movements; the growth of cities and industrial ways of life; a rise in abolitionism and reduction in the power of slavery; and radical shifts in the roles and status of women.
... Conference.” Reader’s Companion to American History. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991. Online. Internet. Available at HTTP: http://www.historychannel.com/. 23 Sept 2001.
“She wakes to the sound of breathing. The smaller children lie tangled beside her, their chests rising and falling under winter coats and wool blankets. A few feet away, their mother and father sleep near the mop bucket they use as a toilet. Two other children share a mattress by the rotting wall where the mice live, opposite the baby, whose crib is warmed by a hair dryer perched on a milk crate.” (Elliot, pg.1) Dasini, an 11 year old child, lives a arduous life with her family in the projects outside New York City. The article, Invisible Child, written by Andrea Elliott, successfully portrays the difficulties Dasini and her family endure on a daily basis.
Writing around the same time period as Phillips, though from the obverse vantage, was Richard Wright. Wright’s essay, “The Inheritors of Slavery,” was not presented at the American Historical Society’s annual meeting. His piece is not festooned with foot-notes or carefully sourced. It was written only about a decade after Phillips’s, and meant to be published as a complement to a series of Farm Credit Administration photographs of black Americans. Wright was not an academic writing for an audience of his peers; he was a novelist acceding to a request from a publisher. His essay is naturally of a more literary bent than Phillips’s, and, because he was a black man writing ...
As written in Literature and it's Times, a distinct place where racism and prejudice took place was the South. In the early 1900's, the South remained mostly rural and agricultural in economy. Poverty was everywhere, and sharecropping had replaced slavery as the main source of black labor. Blacks who remained in the South received the burdens of poverty and discrimination. The women faced sexual and racial oppression, making th...