The American dilemma: from slavery to the institucionalization of the racial discrimination

• Main Author: Francisco Javier MAESTRO BACKSBACKA
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca 2011-04-01
• Series: Studia Historica: Historia Contemporánea
• Online Access: http://revistas.usal.es/index.php/0213-2087/article/view/7818
• ISSN: 0213-2087; 2444-7080

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: normal; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: ";Garamond-Light";,";serif";; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond-Light; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">This article «The American Dilemma: from slavery to the institucionalization of the racial discrimination» is an approach to Afroamerican history, from slavery to 1929. The first part deals with the roots and development of slavery as related to Americas muti-ethnic build-up and how it became embedded into the cultural and political system. The abolitionist movement marked in the pre-war years the difficulties to fully integrate Afroamericans as citizens to the extent that prevailing racism, blatant in the Southern States, but also present in the Northern States, was the main obstacle thereto. The second part focuses on the legacy of the Civil War and the Reconstruction period —which can be labelled as the Second American Revolution— leading to the abolition of slavery and the constitutional entitlement of Afroamericans as citizens. However, in the aftermath, racial segregation became institutionalized throughout the nation, but severely so in the Southern States. This outcome goes hand in hand with failed colonization plans to create a white homogeneous America. The last part highlights the new 20</span><span style="font-size: 6.0pt; font-family: ";Garamond-Light";,";serif";; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond-Light; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">th </span><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: ";Garamond-Light";,";serif";; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond-Light; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">century context: the «racial dilemma» shifts from south to north. The new industrial cities and plants witnessed the growth of different Afroamerican approaches to create a black selfidentity —the «new negro»— both at a cultural as well as at a political and social level.</span></p>