Ellis Island

In the early 20th century, immigration was a simple and controlled process: simply come to America, be examined, and start a new life. However, different ports of entry had different treatments of the incoming immigrants. Ellis Island was possibly the happiest, most organized of the three major immigration centers; the immigrants were treated right and were all given equal opportunity without criticism based on race or location. Angel Island on the other hand was much more harsh on the immigrants.

I believe that all of the immigrants should have been treated the same at all of the ports instead of the unequal treatment that they received based on where they went to enter the country. Also, immigrants should have been treated as if they were already American citizens, receiving polite, prompt treatment for minor illnesses and acceptance of all. Today, immigrants are treated more fairly and are given more oppportunity than in the early 20th century

Preserving a Nation

"Essential Question: Can the use of force (military and political) preserve a nation?"

When Sherman marched through the South, his men burned the Southerner's fields creating a path of destruction where ever they went. This was one of the major things that the Southerners had to rebuild during the Reconstruction period. Although Sherman's march created a lot of physical damage to the South, it was probably one of the things that ended the Civil War so quickly. If Sherman hadn't caused so much damage, the Union and the Confederacy might have been at war for a few more years, causing more damage to both sides' cities and also more casualties. Sherman's march may have caused less damage than if the war had continued.

I believe that the use of force (military force in this case) can be used to preserve a nation. If the force is used at the right time and at the right location, even the enemy nation can be preserved. Sherman's march is a good example of this. As I have stated above, Sherman's march devistated the South, perhaps enough to demoralize the Confederate troops and generals into surrendering to the Union. Because the Confederacy surrendered, destruction and bloodshed was avoided, therefore preserving much of the South and almost all of the North from damage.

-Caleb Hilley

Reconstruction and the force

After the Civil War many towns and families were destroyed. Lives were lost, devastation had taken over. After the war was over, amendments were passed to try and create a more stable type of government. Amendment 13 states that slavery must be abolished. Amendment 14 gives them the right to become a citizen. After these two things take place you have to let them vote, so they made voting rights Amendment number 15. The south disagreed greatly with this promise. So they passed laws that were called the Jim Code Laws, or in other words the “Black Codes.” These codes state that blacks must be able to read in order to vote. If you could do this, you also had to prove that you could write. There where other things such as pole tax, and your grandfather could not be a slave as well. Having these codes allowed the southerners to gain what they wanted, because most blacks could not read, or write. Johnson tried to bring back the South into the nation to enforce these new amendments that had be settled, the South was tried very hard to limit most, if not all of the blacks rights.

To be able to preserve a nation you have to come together, and everyone has to work with one another, which the South did not want to do. They were stubborn and wanted their way. There have been many wars in history to cause the exact same stresses this Civil War, and Reconstruction has done. Today we have a war going on right now, destroying families, and towns. People feelings cheated, and lied too, to get only what people want. Our military thought they were doing us a favor for fighting, but we can not force a nation to do what we want. It causes too many problems and makes people way more irascible. Our government today and the technology we have can preserve our nation. We have to all want to do this to be able to start a whole nation together, everyone has to be in on it and or it will not work.

Can the use of force really preserve a nation

Newton's third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When you look back to the civil war time period you can see this theory in action. When Sherman made his march through the south destroying everything in his path the reaction was the south surrendered. When the thirteen amendment was the reaction was that slavery was abolished. When the fifteen amendment was passed the south passed the Jim Crow Laws.

Force isn't the answer

Force can help and hurt a nation's balance. Either too little or too much force can cause a nation to lose control over it's citezens and cause overall damage to the nation as a whole. Too little force and a nation will instantly believe that it can just run itself. Too much force, and a nation will get angry and rebel against authority. Overall, just a good push in the right direction every now and then, will keep the country in balance, without angering them too much.

Sometimes, if there are inbalances from within the nation, it can become necessary to use more and more force to re-establish the balance. Using the military to maintain a forced balance has been used throughout time. The British didn't use military to maintain control on the colonies, they used salutary neglect and seriously payed for it. When reconstruction started, the North used soldiers to maintain control over the south, and it worked for quite a while. When the north eventually made the troops leave the south, they immideately started performing acts that the north was trying to prevent. All in all, force is incredibly necessary to preserve the balance in nations.

Amendments

Now that Reconstruction is over, the United States is trying to recreate the South from the awful effects from the Civil War. In this time, there were amendments made. The government passed three amendments that helped make all people equal. The 13th amendment freed the slaves. The 14th amendment made the African Americans citizens of the United States. The 15th amendment gave the African Americans the right to vote. Although the govenment was trying to make all people equal, it didn't turn out the way they thought, the black codes were passed, which were laws passes throughout after the Civil War in the South which severly restricted African Americans' lives. The laws prohibited carring weapons, serving on jeries, testifing against whites, marring whites and many more.
The black codes went completly opposite of the amendments that were to make all equal. The government did try to help the nation by creating the amendments, but there will always be controversy with the government and personal oppinions. The nation will always have someone who will work and change the ways against the government, which causes problems. The use of the political force can not perseve a nation, because their are to many diferent oppinions to make everyone content with the nation.

Reconstruction Era

After the civil war was over, there was much reconstruction to do, mostly in the South. The South had endured much damage from the war but mainly because of Sherman's 40 mile wide march of destruction. Not only was there physical damage but also ecomonic damage to their government and emotional damage to the families who had lost loved ones to the war. Some how the North needed to get the South back into the government, since the South had ceceded from the states to form their own nation called the Confederate States. This was a problem though, because the South is very rebellious when it comes to being controlled. Lincoln had been assasinated before he could make that happen, so Andrew Johnson came in to fill his place and try to get the South to join with the North again.

During all this, the slaves had been freed. But again the South had figured out a way to control them. The way they pulled that off is by saying that the only way black people could vote is if they could read and write. The South pulled a fast one there. The freed slaves from the South had to pretty much start all over, but they couldn't just run to the North for help. The North was having their own problems with jobs and other things. Immigrants were coming in left and right trying to start a new life for them and their families. This caused a big problem for the former slaves, because the immigrants were getting the jobs and not them. The ones that did stay in the south either rented land or did a thing called share-cropping, which basically means that they shared a farm with another family or whatever the case may have been. Also, there was no education offered to the former slaves at that time, so they didn't really have a chance to learn how to read and write.