The Creation of White Supremacy in the Nineteenth-Century United Essay - 1

The Creation of White Supremacy in the Nineteenth-Century United States - Essay Example ’ and to maintain this status they needed to place their allegiances with those in power that had the resources who could divvy up the benefits† (McVey 18). Basically speaking, an emphasis on racial rather than class unity has traditionally been an emphasis in America. This essay explains the reasons the United States had become a supremacist nation by mid-1800s. This essay argues that white supremacy emerged in the United States during the 19th century because of economic exploitation (e.g. slavery) and racial myths (e.g. Manifest Destiny). The creation of white supremacy was a critical occurrence in the emergence of American capitalism. The concept of white supremacy emerged in the United States due to several major developments: the legacy of British exploitation of the Irish; the opposition to slavery, which concluded in the subjugation of the Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia in the latter part of the 17th century; the self-recognition of emancipated laborers as members of the White population in the antebellum North; and the creation of the White nation in the latter part of the 19th century. The United States could not have emerged as a White supremacist nation in the absence of slavery. It was enslaved Africans who facilitated the economic development of the United States. This economic progress climaxed from the early to mid-1800s, the era referred to as the Market Revolution. The major driving force for the emergence of the Market Revolution was the cotton trade, and this was facilitated by indentured servi tude (Roediger 32). Another thrust to the emergence of the United States as a white supremacist nation was the occupation of a large portion of Mexico. This gave the United States the opportunity to successfully gain Pacific expansion, and hence embark on a massively profitable trade with Asian markets. It also gave the United States the opportunity to tap the immense supply of agricultural resources in California and mineral resources in