America in 1876 - Status of a 100 year old nation

It’s hard to imagine that women were denied the right to be heard during the 1876 centennial celebration in Philadelphia which boasted the technological and societal progress that this country had made. There were many positive, extreme changes that took place in the US after the civil war that included transformation from an agricultural to industrial economy, a growing population of different cultures due to a huge increase in immigration, and the expansion of transcontinental railroads that gave people access to areas and products from all over the country. One would think that societal and moral progress would keep pace with technological progress, but it did not; otherwise, by that time women’s equality would have been widely accepted.

The transcontinental railroad system could take a traveler all the way from New York to California, and unfortunately as it brought more and more settlers to the west this prompted the final stages of Indian displacement and isolation and the erosion of Mexican-American communities. During the centennial year, the South still remained largely devastated by the effects of the Civil War, and many African Americans were not much better off than they’d been before the war and subsequent constitutional revolution; however, they were free and this was a start.

By the 1870’s the south was beginning to rebuild its land and economies and there were many changes that brought about challenges like racial and gender discrimination and violent confrontations over labor issues. By the nation’s centennial, while blacks were given legal equality, the nation struggled with enforcing blacks’ rights and equality for women and Indians was still largely ignored.

Throughout history, different literary works have raised the question of whether or not Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemmings, Jefferson’s slave. In 1998, DNA testing was done and confirmed that Jefferson fathered at least one and possibly all six of Sally Hemmings’ children. This surfaced the notion that America is much more of a mixed-race society than we may have typically thought previously.

I do agree with James Oliver Horton that race is really constructed by society. Ultimately, race shouldn’t matter and we should consider ourselves all one single race of humans. Over time, I do believe that more and more will also believe the same.