American Identity

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American Identity
The backgrounds that people come from and the experiences they go through shape their identities and unique ideas that they subscribe to. This is where it starts for a person to be attributed to a particular country, culture or belief. In the context of America, the history of the country shades the identity of its people. The country was formed by the British and the principles they introduced shaped the foundation of the society. With time, the identity left by the Britons changed as the American Identity developed over many years based on the history of the country. Some landmark historical experiences such as slavery redefined the identity of the country regarding ethnicity, religion, culture, and race. With time as the struggle for various rights persisted, the identity grew to include aspects of freedom, struggle, and human rights. Identity is however not static and can be redefined depending on the context. Based on the historical context, the American identity can be viewed as the character and ideas that make an American citizen based on the historical experiences of the country.
In chapter seven of the American Yawp online textbook, a major historical experience redefined the theme of the American identity. This is the struggle for freedom. The aspect of slavery in American history portrays the American identity being that of struggle to attain the desired freedom and rights. This is well captured in the struggle for freedom by the black Americans as captured in the second paragraph, “Some of the conspirators would set diversionary fires in the city’s warehouse district.

Others would attack Richmond’s white residents, seize weapons, and capture Virginia governor James Monroe” (Clark et al. 2). The struggle is captured in the 8th chapter of the book, where blacks had to find ways of escaping from their masters in pursuit of freedom “Quicker routes to freedom included escape or direct emancipation by masters. But escape was dangerous and voluntary manumission rare. Congress, for instance, made the harboring of a fugitive slave a federal crime as early as 1793. Hopes for manumission were even slimmer, as few northern slaveholders emancipated their slaves.” (Kelly Arehart et al. 1). The same struggle is independence also captured in the 9th chapter. This chapter portrays a continued struggle even after slavery was abolished, “many northerners feared that the southern states common interest in protecting slavery was creating a congressional voting bloc that would be difficult for free states to overcome. The North and South began to clash over federal policy as northern states gradually ended slavery but southern states came to depend even more on slave labor” (Beupre, et al. 1).
With the aspect of slavery being a recurrent event in the three chapters of the history of America book, it can be said that the theme of American Identity contains within it the struggle for freedom. It is such a significant aspect that was one of the factors that led to the American civil war. Slavery portrays an unfortunate event in the history of America where blacks were not viewed as an equal race of people and ended up being used as a resource for menial labor. The struggle to abolish slavery led to other struggles in pursuit of different forms of freedom. One example is the women suffrage movement. This led to major struggles and at last women got their suffrage rights. It can, therefore, be concluded that the theme of struggle is greatly represented as a form of American Identity in the three chapters of the textbook.
Works Cited
Arehart, Kelly et al., “Market Revolution,” Jane Fiegen Green, ed., in The American Yawp, eds. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018).
Beupre, Myles et al., “Democracy in America,” Jonathan Wilfred Wilson, ed., in The American Yawp, eds. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018).
Clark, Justin et al., “The Early Republic,” Nathaniel C. Green, ed., in The American Yawp, eds. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018).