Particularly on matters of race relations, federal law no longer recognized the absolute superior position of the white man over persons of African descent and for the first time in history, blacks could theoretically claim a higher social and economic status. However, the States did not want to cooperate and fought hard to make new rules to combat the modifications socially, politically, and economically. When the Union's victory in the American Civil War moved Congress to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, the action destroyed the country’s cultural norms by endorsing equality for all persons. As a result, acts of violence, disfranchisement, and exclusion defined the new color line. Concurrently, while the government favored the Northern States over their previously seceded Southern counterparts, ideologies of white supremacy in the nation focused power and wealth to the Caucasian males based on social classes and political influence. Naturally, the abolition of the deep-rooted slavery system in the United States caused chaos as traditional philosophies faced possible extinction.
Extensively, the whites either exploited the non-whites to create riches or removed them from the cluster of eligible and payable workers to create more job opportunities for their lot. For instance, in cases where free blacks sought work from factories and other places of employment that white people owned, the use of “violence to intimidate [them]” was common. Hence, non-whites were easy prey and the mentioned racial divisions defined by slave ownership and biased employment prospects ensured that white supremacy prevailed. Expectedly, the Emancipation Proclamation and the ensuing total abolitionism caused significant disruptions because ex-slaves and their previous masters had to co-exist as equals where each side had rights to the same privileges. Perhaps the worst form of retaliation by the whites was through the formation of the Ku Klux Klan that terrorized black people through extreme violence and brutal executions. As an explanation of the given claim, there is the case of John Walthall, an African American man whom members of the Klan targeted for allegedly sleeping with white women. For his punishment, the white mob whipped and shot him in Atlanta, Georgia. While one may understand the anger of the Ku Klux towards the man, the fact that they also beat his wife and another man who was unlucky enough to be his neighbor hints on foul play. Evidently, similar to the black codes and the Jim Crow laws, persecutions by the Ku Klux Klan sought to impose “rigid racial segregation” in the country.
With the given facts in mind, racial hierarchies defined American societies and anything that threatened them subsequently put white supremacy to question. Now, as evidenced by their secession before the Civil War, the Southerners were never for the idea of abolition. After all, the South consistently declared its pro-slavery stand and, much to their chagrin, the Northerners advocated the opposite by embracing emancipation. The given differences did not stem from the minor issue of one group owning black persons and another opposing the same; on the contrary, the divisions between the North and the South encompassed economic and political systems. In the words of A Gentleman from Mississippi, the “interests and pursuits” of the American territories were different. States in the South and West embraced agriculture, and those in the North and the East thrived on businesses and factory produce. Consequently, the Democratic Party was no longer sufficient for the two opposing sides and in response, the Republican Party materialized as a means through which the North could have proper representation at the national level. It was on the Republican ticket that Abraham Lincoln won the Presidential elections of 1860. Afterward, out of their fears that the federal government was favoring the Northern abolitionists, the South seceded to form the Confederate States.
About gender, men exercised more power than their female counterparts did and as a result, dominated societies and the household. Concurrently, while women were only authoritative if they had influential spouses, those who acquired wealth outside the marriage institution became targets of power hungry men. Meanwhile, in The Devil in the White City, H.H. Holmes’ murderous sprees propelled female vulnerability to new heights as he used his “warmth and charm” to hide his horrifying habit of luring female guests in his hotel to their deaths. However, the understanding of gender responsibilities during the Gilded Age and one of Holmes’ antics begs a response to the question of whether or not people would have believed a woman who dared to accuse a prominent hotel owner of murder. If Laura’s assumptions on the possible responses societies would give to a female accusing a man of any misconduct, then “the law would protect [Holmes] and make [the female victim] an outcast”. Apparently, absolute male superiority before the law and the portrayal of women as individuals in need of strong and manly protection maintained gender divisions.
Conclusively, all forms of groupings on American soil existed for the white man’s gain as he utilized a different understanding of liberty to benefit himself through the economy, politics, and social traditions of the country. When slavery was legal, whites enjoyed higher rankings in society, and upon its abolition, Caucasians maintained their position as persons of power but instead of using the colored individuals alone, the poorest white people and every female became new targets. Consequently, racial divisions persisted but at the same time bore gender and class divisions based on the interests of the distinct places: the Northern and the Southern States. American societies operated through multiple factions even after the Civil War because the problems of creating a new social order were too difficult to fix within two decades.
Works Cited
A Gentleman of Mississippi. Secession: Considered as a Right in the States Composing the Late American Union of States, and as to the Grounds of Justification of the Southern States in Exercising the Right. Mississippi: South-Western Confederate Printing House, 1863. Web. <http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/secessright/secessright.html>.
Carnegie, Andrew. "The Gospel of Wealth, 1889." August 1997. Fordham University. Web. 10 March 2016. <http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1889carnegie.asp>.
"Ku Klux Klan Violence in Georgia, 1871." 21 October 1871. History Matters. Web. 15 March 2016. <http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6225>.
Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City: A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America. New York: Vintage, 2004. Print.
Roediger, David R. The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class. New York: Courier Stoughton Inc., 2007. Print.
Warner, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley. The Gilded Age. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Print.
