Ethnic Pluralism in Us

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------------------------------------------------- “The Ignominious Origins of Ethnic Pluralism in America” ------------------------------------------------- “The Ignominious Origins of Ethnic Pluralism in America,” written by Stephen Steinberg, published in 2001, explores the history of America’s immigrants from the late 18th Century through the early 20th Century. Steinberg divides this period of time into four different phases. According to Steinberg, the first phase was settlement. While Native Americans had inhabited America, the Englishmen were the first to settle and drive out the Natives. He briefly touches on the fact that America was predominantly composed of Englishmen up until the end of the 18th Century. At this time, there was too little English immigration into America to populate the growing country. This opened up opportunity for other groups such as the Irish, the Germans, the Dutch, and even the Scotch to come to the New World. Many of these people were brought over as indentured servants, meaning they had to work for seven years in order to earn their freedom. The new opportunity for immigration led to the second phase of Steinberg’s writing: expansion. Over the next one hundred years, the new country utilized its English imperialistic roots and “rightfully” took all of America’s land. Forcefully, the Americans pushed the Natives farther and farther West, eventually taking a large amount of Mexican land. ------------------------------------------------- American control of this land ended the expansion era and began the era of agricultural development. The need for labor in the U.S. sparked the growth of forced African immigration to create a strong labor force of slaves. Even more so than most immigrants, the Africans faced heavy discrimination and brutal prejudice after arriving in America. As the economy grew agriculturally,

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