Grant Armstrong
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Mrs. Lawson
First Semester Summary Speech
In United States History class this semester, I was
pleasantly surprised to learn about the resilience of people in hard times.
Whether through the oppression of slavery before the Civil and segregation during
Reconstruction, or the fight of Native Americans to keep their culture and
homelands during Western Expansion, Americans were constantly fighting
adversity. The American dream of hope and triumph was created by these figures
of the past, and today, I can look at the obstacles in my life and conquer them. Just as workers in the Age of the City
fought against the corruption of immerging business ideals, I can push through
the challenges in my life and succeed. Although these heroes of the past are
long gone, their legacy is timeless and their lesson remains: greatness is
achievable.
However, I was unpleasantly surprised to learn about the
hatred and brutality that was shown towards blacks after the Civil War. The history
of the United States was arguably at its worst during Reconstruction. Despite
hundreds of thousands of soldiers dying to eventually achieve victory, the
ideas that helped start the war would plague the country for decades. Groups
such as the KKK actively and violently sought ways to intimidate and scare
blacks. Jim Crow laws enforced segregation, and African-Americans were treated
as unequal. Racism is the scar of our nations past, as I learned.
Ten years form now, I will likely remember the power of
movies in the class room. Simply by exercising the skill of empathy, valuable
information can be learned from a historically accurate film. I really enjoyed
watching Glory and 12 Years a Slave. Although these films
did not match the events of history completely, they provided information in a
memorable format. I will surely remember the ideology taught by Glory and 12 Years a Slave for years to come.
During the emergence of industrial supremacy in the
nineteenth century, native-born Americans struggled to be accepting of
immigrants from across the globe. This remains a problem today. Just as immigrants
from Europe and Asia were condemned and hated in the past, immigration to the
United States today is occasionally looked down upon. Although some may support
immigration, there are still opinions that it should cease and even be
reversed. Immigrants in modern day society are stereotyped and judged as
inadequate, just as in the Age of the City. Even if immigrants have nothing to
hide, Americans may suspect the worst. Some Americans today hold the opinion
that immigrants cause crime, take jobs, or even illegally enter the United
States even though it is not always true. Hopefully this issue disappears in
the years to come.
I would name the period of United States History from
1865 to 1920 the “Great Advancement”. On all levels, economic, social, and
geographic, the United States advanced in the world. Reconstruction marked the
end of the war and the first step towards equality. The settlement of the west
made hundreds of thousands of square miles usable, and the Industrial Revolution
brought America cities, groundbreaking technologies, and its modern corporation
that produced the wealthiest men in history. Child labor and working conditions
dramatically changed due to the efforts of worker’s unions and protestors. Despite
the many difficulties and obstacles that troubled America during these years,
the United States advanced to become a world superpower and a place of
progress.
