History Of The First American Flag
The flag of America is a symbol of its democracy, freedom and unity. It is the very essence of the country’s spirit. However, if you delve into the history of the American flag, you will find it extremely interesting.
Many of you may not be aware that the flag of the US has been altered a whopping twenty-seven times until 4 July 1960 when fifty stars were added to it.
Causes of the American Civil War – Federal Versus State Power and Abolition
For most American students, some of the best days of elementary school are the ones leading up to Thanksgiving. We make handprint turkeys from construction paper, learn about corn, beans, and squash, and hear all about the idyllically symbiotic early interactions between Europeans and Native Americans. Life is good.
A few years down the road, the picture changes somewhat. We hear tell of fighting and betrayal – or even death. It was all just a big misunderstanding, we’re told. We move on. But every so often, we get an additional glimpse of the horror surrounding early European involvement in the New World so that, by the time we’re adults, we can better handle the fact that a fifth of the planet’s population (guess which fifth) died as a result of Columbus sailing the ocean blue.
The American Civil War – Ends in 1865
Many recall the playing of “Dixie,” the standard-bearer of the white South, on the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, during the 1960s; this city is where many of the worst and most violent Civil Rights Movement protests occurred. The South was preoccupied with their deep losses during the Civil War. This preoccupation was not unlike that of Nazi Germany, after Germany’s deep losses during WWI, before the Nazis were even formed. Largely, like the Nazis, the pre-Civil War South had severe economic problems. Seven immigrants out of eight from other countries settled into the northern United States, and twice as many whites left the South for the North as the ones heading in the other direction.
There were deep-seated controversies over adding the slave state of Missouri to the Union, the acquisition of Texas as a slave state in 1845, and Manifest Destiny being used as an argument for gaining new territories where slavery would become an issue, which mostly occurred after the much less devastating Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. Meanwhile, the extremely popular anti-slavery novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 helped increase northern opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which was designed to recapture escapees.