Period 7 (1890-1945)
Contextualization
During the period 1890-1945 innovations in communications and technology contributed to the growth of mass culture, while significant changes occurred in internal and international migration patterns. During this time the Great Migration had occurred from 1905-1930. The Great Migration was the relocation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the cities in the North and had a major impact on urban life in the United States. The African Americans were driven from their homes by unsatisfactory economic conditions and harsh segregation laws, many African Americans headed up north, where they took advantage of the need of industrial workers during the first World War. As New York, Chicago and other cities saw their African American populations increase, they were forced to deal with poor working conditions, competition for space, and also widespread prejudice and racism. Throughout the Great Migration, African Americans began to build a new place in America, actively confronting economic, political and social challenges and creating new black culture that would have influence on the decades to come. In 1924 the Immigration Act of 1924 or the Johnson-Reed Act was passed.The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. The quota provided immigration visas to two percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census. The literacy test alone was not enough to prevent immigrants to coming to the country so they only gave 350,000 visas each year for immigrants. In the 1930’s the Dust Bowl had hit the Midwest. The Dust Bowl had caused a massive drought encompassing a 150,000 square mile area. This caused many Americans to move west to escape the Dust Bowl. On August 4, 1942, the United States implemented the Bracero program. The Bracero program was a series of laws and diplomatic agreements that allowed Mexican immigrants into the United States for exchange for work. They were promised “basic human rights” such as adequate shelter, food and sanitation, as well as a 30 cent an hour pay. They were also promised that the braceros would not be subject to discrimination such as exclusion from “white areas”. The program was made to fill in the labor shortage in agriculture.
All in all, through the period 1890-1845 migration and settlement played a very large role in shaping America through our period of war.
Primary Source
H.I.P.P
- Historical Context: During the 1930's the Dust Bowl had hit the mid-west. the Dust bowl was a period of severe dust storms that severely damaged the agriculture and ecology of the United States. The dust storm had caused a severe drought which caused many people in the mid-west to migrate to the west to escape the dust bowl. After the Dust Bowl had occurred dry land farming was introduced to prevent another Dust Bowl from happening again.
- Intended Audience: The author of this political cartoon expects to inform the general American public about the Dust Bowl and the issue occurring due to it.
- Point of View: The author of this political cartoon did obviously not support F.D.R and his presidency by criticizing him over what he was doing to take care of the U.S. people during the Dust Bowl.
Purpose: The purpose of this political cartoon is to influence people and realize that F.D.R isn't doing much about the American people in the Dust Bowl and left them to fend for themselves.
- Historical Context: During the 1930's the Dust Bowl had hit the mid-west. the Dust bowl was a period of severe dust storms that severely damaged the agriculture and ecology of the United States. The dust storm had caused a severe drought which caused many people in the mid-west to migrate to the west to escape the dust bowl. After the Dust Bowl had occurred dry land farming was introduced to prevent another Dust Bowl from happening again.
- Intended Audience: The author of this political cartoon expects to inform the general American public about the Dust Bowl and the issue occurring due to it.
- Point of View: The author of this political cartoon did obviously not support F.D.R and his presidency by criticizing him over what he was doing to take care of the U.S. people during the Dust Bowl.
Purpose: The purpose of this political cartoon is to influence people and realize that F.D.R isn't doing much about the American people in the Dust Bowl and left them to fend for themselves.
Secondary Source
"After the post-Civil War Reconstruction period ended in 1876, white supremacy was largely restored across the South, and the segregationist policies known as Jim Crow soon became the law of the land. Southern blacks were forced to make their living working the land as part of the sharecropping system, which offered little in the way of economic opportunity, especially after a boll weevil epidemic in 1898 caused massive crop damage across the South. And while the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) had been officially dissolved in 1869, it continued underground after that, and intimidation, violence and even lynching of black southerners were not uncommon practices in the Jim Crow South. After World War I broke out in Europe in 1914, industrialized urban areas in the North, Midwest and West faced a shortage of industrial laborers, as the war put an end to the steady tide of European immigration to the United States. With war production kicking into high gear, recruiters enticed African Americans to come north, to the dismay of white Southerners. Black newspapers–particularly the widely read Chicago Defender–published advertisements touting the opportunities available in the cities of the North and West, along with first-person accounts of success."
This is a excerpt from History Channel's article about the "Great Migration"
- This excerpt has much significance because it helps explains the struggle African American people went through just to make it in the United States. They had to deal with Jim Crow laws, Ku Klux Klan, economic hardships, and more. This caused many African Americans to move out of the south to the north to try to escape from those issues. This excerpt is also significant because it explains how the African Americans got jobs when they migrated from the south.
Synthesis
The Great Migration could be easily compared to Caucasians settling in the West for better opportunities. During the Great Migration African Americans migrated out of the South because they were driven out of their homes due to unsatisfactory living conditions,racism, segregation, and more. They soon later settled in the North and found work in industrial work due to a shortage. Much like the Great Migration many people Caucasians in the East came west in search for more land, food , and jobs.
Sources:
http://ap.gilderlehrman.org/period/7
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration
http://ap.gilderlehrman.org/period/7
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration