Modern definition of success in America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Modern definition of success in America - Essay Example Black Americans have been able to establish different expectations and attitudes compared to their white counterparts. This has accrued from the historical evolution of the American society (Lipsitz 371). This essay will focus mainly on the African-Americans because they have been known to face the most humiliation and discrimination as compared to other races namely Hindu and Hispanic. The most common form of prejudice was slavery which entailed slaves being owned as properties with no legal rights whatsoever. They could be bought, sold to clear debts and even leased to interested parties. Statistics in the 19th Century showed that the African- Americans comprised of the largest number of slaves who were immigrants of African descent that had crossed the Atlantic sea. Slavery was used as a means of getting slave laborers to produce certain goods for the world market namely sugar and tobacco by working in large plantations (Moon 234). The living conditions of slaves were intolerable at best therefore leading to a number of deaths of African-Americans. The causes of death were mainly poverty and sickness and in some cases, thorough beatings by their masters (Moon 234). Despite this, many Africans still came to the western hemisphere with hopes of a promising future only to be disappointed in the long-run. Slavery died with the Civil War but there was still existence of slaves in various States up to 1840. This the period whereby the one-drop rule came into being which mentioned that any individual who had any level of African ancestry was a negro namely black. Children who had mixed parentage were automatically considered to be black because they had â€Å"one drop of negro blood†. The man behind this rule was known as Thomas Jefferson although historical records have found that he bore children of mixed race with his slave known as Sally Hemings. This