Dede Stone

The Red and Black American Foundation

In the process of researching and writing this journal, I am hoping to prove how the American Indians and African Americans have been used as a means, indeed, a variable stepping-stone, to build the American Dream into what it is today. To learn this, I will delve into the history of the commonly known and taught, plus the history that the people of today hide, so they can pretend the evils of time have not occurred.

          In this paper I plan to show that the African Americans built the American Dream with the sweat and blood of their lives, integrating a part of themselves into that dream the dominant culture holds. As my primary source, to prove this, I will cite Fredrick Douglass, who not only was a slave but saw the sweet end of freedom. I also wish to show that American Indians not only had their culture brutally taken from them in order for intruders to gain the land on which to build their erosive dream, but American Indians were also enslaved both physically and spiritually. Once failing in slavery the dominant culture utilized broken promises, imprisonment, and genocide to gain the results they wished for. As the primary source showing the removal and treatment of the American Indian, I will cite Grant Foreman who, in his book Indian Removal, documents the removal of five different tribes because of the white man. I have chosen him not only for the way he represents the history of the Indian removal but the fact that he puts the voice of the sympathetic or racist white man in his works as well. As example when in his book Colonel Gaines says:

“[. . .] this [the removal of the Indians] is truly painful to witness; and would be more so to me, but for the conviction that the removal is absolutely necessary for their welfare.” (Foreman 56)

This shows that some whites not only thought that they were moving the American Indians for their own welfare, but that there was a sympathetic voice out there for the Indians, even if it rarely spoke.

 The American Dream is build on the blood, spirits, and forsaken dreams of not only one, but two minority groups. I have chosen to write and learn on this topic because of the controversial issue it embodies and the reaction that conversation of this topic creates. I decided to become more knowledgeable on the humanistic, minority foundation of the American Dream. Through the reading of history books we get glimpses of what occurred leading us to the American dream, but even today when controversy is practically embraced, this topic is not brought out in the open unless one searches and presents it in an educational paper; therefore I have come to see what I can, and to air what I find.

First, let me introduce you to the two men who have documented history as it happened. Fredrick Douglass was born about 1817 in Eastern Shore, Maryland, under the name of Fredrick Bailey. Douglass was taken away from his mother and raised by his grandmother along with several other children before his twelfth month of age; this being a common practice in Maryland. He knew his father was a white man, but which white man was not known and to this day is still unknown. At the age of about six or seven Douglass realized that he was a slave. In the brief time that he was a slave, he had two masters, and at the age of seven or eight, he was given to his second master. Here he learned to read, so he could read the Bible, before the mistress learned that it was wrong for him to have this knowledge: by then it was too late. From then on, he taught himself to read, and years latter while working in the shipyard for his master, he taught himself how to write (Douglass, My Bondage 128-129). At the age of about twenty, he escaped from his master and gained freedom in New York, this is where he picked up the name Douglass, shortly after arriving, he married Anna Murray. Douglass and Murray had five children. In 1841, Douglass started his public life fighting against slavery. After his wife died in 1882, he married his secretary. In 1895, Douglass died in his home from a heart attack (McElrath). During Douglass’ lifetime, he accomplished a great deal in furthering the fight against slavery. Douglass gave numerous speeches and wrote multiple books, a list of his works is as follows:

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Blassingame, John W., John R. McKivigan, Peter P. Hinks, Gerald Fulkerson, eds. New York: Yale Univ. Press, March 1, 2001.

 -------. My Bondage and My Freedom. John Write (Introduction). New York: Washington Square Press, 2003.         

-------. Frederick Douglas: Selected Speeches and Writings (Library of Black America) Foner, Philip S., Yuval Taylor, eds. 1^st ed. New York: Lawrence Hill & Co, April 2000. 

-------. Frederick Douglass on Women's Rights. Ed. Foner, Philip S. Reprint Ed. New York: DaCapo Press, December 1992. 

-------. Escape from Slavery: The Boyhood of Frederick Douglass in His Own Words
 New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers, December 28, 1993. 

-------. The Frederick Douglass Papers: Series Two: Autobiographical Writings: Narrative. Blassingame, John W., John R. McKivigan, Peter P. Hinks, eds. Ser. 2, Vol. 1. New York: Yale Univ. Press, August 1999. 

-------. Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Civil War: Selections from His Writings.
 New York: Dover Publishers, November 12, 2003.

Grant Foreman was born on June 3, 1869, in Detroit, Illinois. He graduated from a Michigan law school in 1899 and set up a Chicago practice. In 1899, he moved to Muskogee as a worker for the DAWES committee concerning the Five Civilized Tribes. While living in Muskogee he met and formed a law partnership with Judge John Thomas, a few years later he married Judge Thomas’ daughter Carolyn Thomas. After the death of Judge Thomas he had financial trouble and started to write in the 1920’s to compensate. Foreman lived his life out with his family in Muskogee until his death in 1953 (Hopkins). He is famous for his books detailing the lives and trials of the American Indians. Some of his works are as follows:

Foreman, Grant. Indian and Pioneers, the Story of the American Southwest before 1830. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1930.

-------. Advancing the Frontier, 1830-1860. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1933.

-------. Sequoyah. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1938.

-------. A History of Oklahoma. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1942.

-------. The Last Trek of the Indians. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1946.

-------. Indian Removal. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972. Reprint.

Foreman also has numerous articles published in the Oklahoma Chronicles and well as other Chronicles.

As follows are secondary sources about the primary authors that I have chosen to use to back my belief.

McFeely, William S. Fredrick Douglass. New York: Haddon Craftsmen, Inc., 1991.

Stanley, Clark. Chronicle of Oklahoma, XXXI, Number 3, Autumn 1953, Page 226-246.

To back up the primary sources that will be used to bring forth my thoughts I will use Milton Meltzer who was born on May 8, 1915 in Massachusetts. By 1968 he was a full time writer, writing non-fiction books for youngsters and biographies. He lives in New York today, and has several medals for his books. Meltzer has over one hundred books published (Worchester), all of them covering minority groups.

Meltzer, Milton. All Times, All Peoples: A World history of Slavery. New York: Harper & Row, 1980.

-------. The Black Americans: A History in Their Own Words. New York: T.Y. Crowell, 1984.

-------, Langston Hughes, C. Eric Lincoln. A Pictorial history of Balckamericans. New York: Crown Publishers, 1983.

-------. Hold Your Horses. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995.

An anthology of history used in many Colleges has provided interesting information, so for the outcome of this paper I will be citing quotes from it:

Nash, Gary & Jeffery, Julie Roy. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. Brief 3^rd ed. New York: Longman, 2000.

Zitkala-Sa was covered in American Minority Literature because she was an American Indian. While reading her book, I came across several phrases that confirmed the treatment of the Indians by the whites. One such citation is much more impressive on the outcome of whites settling America in search of the Dream than any others in the book. It is the stronghold to the American Indian view of what occurred to them. Zitkala-Sa a Sioux Indian has written many books usually as co-author with other minority writers. Some of her works are as follows:

Zitkala-Sa Fisher. American Indian Stories. Dexter (Forward). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Reprinted from 1921.

-------. American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings. New York: Penguin Books, 2003.

-------. Dreams and Thunder: Stories, Poems, and The Sun Dance Opera. Hafen, P. Jane, ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.

Another important secondary source for the removal of the Indians is the Indan Removal Act of 1830.

U.S. Government. The Indian Removal Act of 1830. 1830. April 20, 2004. <http:// www.civics-online.org/library/formatted/texts/ indian_act.html>.

 It is my belief that the American Indians and Africans are the stepping-stones that were used by the white to build the foundation that the American Dream has been built up on. It is commonplace knowledge that whites took over the land that belonged to the American Indians:

American Indian tribes [. . .] in the wake of America’s great expansion westward, found themselves dispossessed of their ancestral lands, depleted in numbers, and confined to reservations. (Fisher, v)

Though it is taught that the Indians had to suffer the hardships of being displaced from their lands, it is not widely known that the whites, as the dominant culture, not only eradicated the Indians’ culture by outlawing the practice of it, but also practiced genocide to be a permanent solution to the Indian population. At one time, men were paid up to twenty dollars for every Indian scalp they brought to a government official, i.e. sheriff, Texas Ranger, or commander.

Though it did not last long, there were cases of Slavery of the Indian population “business soon turned into a trade in Indian Slaves [. . .] plunging the colonies into a series of wars” (Nash, 49). I can only speculate that the reason that Indian slavery was not successful, other than the fact that the spirit of the American Indian is too strong to be broken in bondage, is that the tribes would mount raiding parties to free their people from bondage on the plantations. In the 1830’s, when the spread of the white man became more prominent, the government had to take action and find a way that they could take over Indian lands without loosing settlers. With this in mind, Andrew Jackson had the Indian Removal Act drawn up and made law.

 “This act authorized the president to transfer Eastern Indian tribes to the Western Territories, which were promised “in perpetuity” (Indian Removal Act). The actual relocation culminated in the 1838 ‘Trail of Tears’ forced march. . .” (Studyworld), which resulted in the death of thousands of American Indians so the white man, could obtain their land. This Act states that an exchange of lands will take place and that the president, if he chooses to, will provide protection to the Indians from enemy tribes and white settlers, and supplies for one year. However, it also states that if any improvements should be made to the lands the government has the right to take such improvements for profit. Held in trust for the five civilized Indian nations was to be the sum of around nine million dollars, to be used to supply and aid the Indians; yet they received worm riddled meat, holey blankets, and no medicine to fight the white man’s illnesses. The treatment of the Indians during the removal act was barbarian at best as seen in this excerpt:

“Families at dinner were startled by the sudden gleam of bayonets in the doorway and rose up to be driven with blows and oaths along the weary miles of the trail that led to the stockade. [. . .] In many cases, on turning for one last look as they crossed the ridge, they saw their homes in flames, fired by the lawless rabble that followed on the heels of the soldiers to loot and pillage.” (Foreman 287)

Sharing in the torture that was freely given out with the building of the white dream were the Africans. Brutally snatched from the bosom of their homeland they were crammed into the hold of ships and viewed as cargo: “A Dutch warship brought the first cargo of twenty Blacks to Virginia in 1619” (Meltzer, 3). Almost fifty percent of the Africans that started out healthy at the beginning of the voyage to America were either dead or close to it when they arrived.

“I was soon put down under the decks, [. . .] I received such a salutation to my nostrils as I never experienced in my life [. . .] I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me [. . .]” (Meltzer, 5-6).

When the Africans reached the land of America, they were taken in their chains and auctioned off to the plantation owners, where their lives would be controlled or abused with no interference until the end of their days. Though they did not loose their land to the white traders, they did loose their freedom and their individuality: they turned from humans to commodities that were to be used to further the dream of the white men.

Today the Internet highway is a major way to gather information, and to prove several points, I indeed, did have to relay on the Internet. It is through this highway that I found a site which has several documents by different authors talking about the building of America with slavery. Through the University of Houston, a series of courses were given on slavery and African Americans. Within the introduction of this topic, I found a second mentioning of American Indian Slavery: “under the conditions of slavery by the enslaved  [emphasis mine] Africans, African Americans, and Native Americans [emphasis mine] ” (Brown), shows that American Indians were slaves at one point. I also found another site that talked in depth about slavery and the meaning of slavery to Indians.

“For Native American peoples, slavery describes three distinct experiences: the aboriginal practice of holding war captives; the capture or purchase of native peoples by Europeans for use in plantation agriculture [emphasis mine]; and the acquisition of African Americans by southern Indians for use on their own plantations” (Encyclopedia of North American Indians).

The introduction by Ken Brown lays down the foundation for the courses that were taught in 2003 over the African American and his contribution to the American Foundation/ Dream. Thought it is not easily located in history books, it is known that slave labor was the source of a workforce that thrived in America. However, the credit is rarely given to those who are worthy: “The accomplishments of African Americans and their contributions to our society have been left out of most history books. Therefore, most African Americans do not know of their contributions to history” (Derousselle). It is not known what would have happened, or how the American Dream would have developed without slavery. I can say, however, that for those that believe that slavery did not play a major part in the development of the Dream in America, that they are wrong. For even though only white men that were wealthy enough to own large farms or plantations were the only ones who owned slaves, not only was slavery used in the North—however briefly—it thrived in the south, and provided the labor to produce the crops that the industries in the North used to trade and sell. The Slaves labored to grow edible crops to feed not only the South, but also the North, so even though the North became a slave-free haven they still depended on that slave labor: “Enslaved African labor was necessary for the survival of European colonial economies in the Americas from the 16^th through the 19^th centuries” (Derousselle).

Through this research, I have learned that not only have whites sinned the greatest in how they obtained the American Dream, but, in the rush to gain their own freedom they stole the freedom away from two cultures, and eroded the morality of the American Dream. Knowledge of African slavery is not surprising because of the history lessons that are taught from childhood about Black History. However, the fact that today we are still hiding the fact that not only where the slaves who were brought over to America talented in their own crafts, but they did provide work that was necessary for the survival of the whites, and ultimately, the American Dream. I am not sad that I decided to research this topic, but rather I am disappointed that my views were not changed. I have always, and will always, believe that even thought the American Dream is a good dream, and just in its existence, the way that it was obtained was not only unjust but it was a wrong that penance has not been made for. My outlook on slaves has changed. No longer will I approach the reading of a slave story, or stories of American history, with the dread of knowing that I will hear another person complaining over wrongs that were done in the past and cannot be changed.

I have seen through this research that the American Dream was founded in the minds of white men and built up on the blood, sweat, and tears of not only the African Americans we all hear of today, but also the American Indians that have been forgotten with time. I discovered in my research that the entire nation of what was America at the time, acquired benefits from slavery whether the people owned slaves or not. This occurred because even if you did not own plantation slaves because you owned no plantations you could still own house slaves. The slaves that were owned by the plantation owners served not only their owners but the rest of the American population by working the fields to provide agriculture and tradable or manufacture-able goods.

If the American Indian lands were not taken and even the people treated like animals then there would be no land for the slaves to work in the first place and the American Dream could not have been founded in its glory. I have already stated that with out the slavery there most likely would not have been an accumulation of work for the dream to thrive on. Therefore, it reasons that these two crimes had to go hand in hand so that the American Dream could come to fruition as seen, if imperfectly, in today’s society.

Now that the evidence has been found and brought to light it can be seen how American Indians through the lost of their land and in minor ways through slavery help build the American Dream to what it is today. The fact that they were abused, slaughtered, and imprisoned was the natural outcome that would have to occur for the land hungry whites to succeed in their Dreams. No, this is not fair, and no, we can never make it up to the appallingly small number of tribes left today, but I am not here to say what is fair but to prove that American Indians were one of the major stepping-stones to the American Dream.

Slavery seems to integrate into the very lives that we live today. Even though slavery no longer exists in America, it is still used as bases for complaints for the African American people. Though legalized slavery is no longer an in America it still exists in today’s world and it is not just blacks, the white slave trade thrives as well. Through the African capture and slavery trade, in which Africans freely participated in, in Africa, in order not to become slave and to make profit for themselves, we have the work force that was used to build the foundation in which the American Dream has been cultivated on. Slavery was not, and could never be a just thing and in researching this paper I have come to realize that the injustice played upon the American Indians was imposed onto the Africans in much the same way. The stories are startlingly alike in the aspects of: slavery/imprisonment, being forced off homeland/taken from homeland, and death of slaves as punishments and for greed/death of Indians out of hatred and greed. Seeing this, for me, has brought new meaning to the minority groups and their suffering, bringing home the impact that the American Dream had and has on other cultures. It has also made me decides to be extra careful in my actions while trying to obtain my slice of the American Dream, so that I don’t cause unintentional inflictions upon others.

Work Cited Page

Worchester Polytechnic Institute. Worchester Area Writers. June 26, 2003. April 29, 2004. <http://www.wpi.edu/Acadimics/Library/ Archives/WAuthors/meltzer/bio.html>.

Hopkins, Jacque. Bibliography of Published Works by Grant Foreman. March 2004. April 29, 2004. <http://www.genealogy4all.org/ Foreman.html>.

McElrath, Jessica. African American History: The Life of Fredrick Douglass. April 27, 2004. <http://afroamhistory.about.com/ library/weekly/aa03190a.htm>.

Douglass, Fredrick. My Bondage and My Freedom. John Write (Introduction). New York: Washington Square Press, 2003.  

Meltzer, Milton. Indian Removal. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972. Reprint.

Nash, Gary & Jeffery, Julie Roy. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. Brief 3^rd ed. New York: Longman, 2000.

Derousselle, Jacquelyn. Houston Teachers Institute. African American Slavery in the New World: A Different Voice. #3, Building America: Contributions of African American Slaves. <http://www.uh.edu/hti/ curriculum_units/2003/v01/03.htm>.

Brown, Ken. African American Slavery in the New World: A Different Voice. University of Houston, Department of Anthropology. Introduction. April 30, 2004. <http://www.uh.edu/hti/ curriculum_units/2003/v01/intro.php>.

U.S. Government. The Indian Removal Act of 1830. 1830. Civics-online. April 18, 2004. <http://www.civics-online.org/library/formatted/ texts/indian_act.html>.

Studyworld. Indian Removal Act of 1832. March 19, 2004. April 18, 2004. <http://www.studyworld.com/indian_removal_act_of_1830.htm>.