Impact of Nature on U.S History Nature is nurturing yet detrimental to humanity. It is also unavoidable and essential to life. It plays an unnoticed pivotal role in influencing American thoughts and actions, which is recorded and becomes history. In the novel, “The Republic of Nature” by Mark Fiege, Fiege analyzes nature and its impact on American history. In every chapter Fiege first explains in detail about the environment Americans lived in and the hardships they faced from nature. He then applied the effects of nature as motivation and reasons as to why Americans during a certain period acted the way they did and how political changes occurred. The use of nature as a lens to analyze American history is exceptionally useful because humans
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Americans landowners who think they have power over nature had control over others living on their land. White plantation owners in the south not only profited from cotton, but also from slaves. African were taken from Africa to force to work in their fields. Americans even kidnapped free African Americans from the north to sell them in the south. Plantation owners heavily profited from the blood, sweat, tears and sometimes death of Africans. The natural difference in skin color seemed to be give a natural right for white Americans to own darker skin colored people and treat them cruelly. White plantation owners acted like God in front of their slaves. One master drove a slave women “to mental illness and physical decrepitude by the force sale of her children” (134). They had control over their slaves diet and bodies. Women were forced to have kids so in the future the masters can sell them for even more money. They were not even people, they were treated like objects because of their natural differences. The inhumane treatment of Africans led to the American civil war, one of the bloodiest wars that had an influential impact on history. After slavery was abolished, similar situations like slavery occurred during the railroad construction and industrialization. The owners of the railroad employed Chinese, Mexicans and Irish to work hard labor for an incredibly small amount of of money. They initially refused to hire Asians at first, they believed the small statures of Asian people could not handle the job but hired them anyway since they were cheap labor. The white owners looked down upon the minority workers and referred to the Chinese like insects. White owners treated basically like slaves and they refused to talk to them like proper people. When the Chinese refused to work any longer in the harsh conditions and went on strike; the white owners cheated them by holding their
Americans landowners who think they have power over nature had control over others living on their land. White plantation owners in the south not only profited from cotton, but also from slaves. African were taken from Africa to force to work in their fields. Americans even kidnapped free African Americans from the north to sell them in the south. Plantation owners heavily profited from the blood, sweat, tears and sometimes death of Africans. The natural difference in skin color seemed to be give a natural right for white Americans to own darker skin colored people and treat them cruelly. White plantation owners acted like God in front of their slaves. One master drove a slave women “to mental illness and physical decrepitude by the force sale of her children” (134). They had control over their slaves diet and bodies. Women were forced to have kids so in the future the masters can sell them for even more money. They were not even people, they were treated like objects because of their natural differences. The inhumane treatment of Africans led to the American civil war, one of the bloodiest wars that had an influential impact on history. After slavery was abolished, similar situations like slavery occurred during the railroad construction and industrialization. The owners of the railroad employed Chinese, Mexicans and Irish to work hard labor for an incredibly small amount of of money. They initially refused to hire Asians at first, they believed the small statures of Asian people could not handle the job but hired them anyway since they were cheap labor. The white owners looked down upon the minority workers and referred to the Chinese like insects. White owners treated basically like slaves and they refused to talk to them like proper people. When the Chinese refused to work any longer in the harsh conditions and went on strike; the white owners cheated them by holding their