History of America from 1492 to 1877

This assignment focuses on the history of America from 1492 to 1877, with a particular emphasis on the impact of slave trade and the struggle for independence. It explores the formation of the American Republic and the challenges faced in building a united nation.

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American History
Everything that takes place today becomes history once done. Future events will also
become part of history as soon as they unfold. It only the current time and the future that cannot
be regarded as being part of history. In light of this, history leaves marks that are indelible. It is
impossible for one to change what has already happened. Nations also have their histories of
where they have come from and their originalities. Long ago, land was open to any occupant and
some people spread all over the world to acquire land which they wished to dominate and rule.
America has its history too. We can trace back its history back in the colonial period when it was
being colonized. There are people from different nations who came to America to acquire land
and rule the people that they met there. These events tool place in 15th century and were geared
by the industrial revolution (Brubacher, 14). America did not have any organized government in
those years and this made it possible for their colonizers (the British) to settle in their land.
America is composed of people of different origin. It has Asians, Blacks white men and this is a
result of slave trade that was taking place in the land. As we all know America has had a long
history. This assignment is going to focus on the history of America from 1492 to 1877.
The history of America between 1492 and 1877 was greatly characterized by slave trade
(Coupland, 14). It is imperative to have a brief background of the slave trade in order to lay a
good foundation for this assignment. Slave trade was common in Africa and most other parts of

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the world even before the 15th century. However, most of the slaves were captured from
prisoners of from people who were considered to be low caste in the society. Muslim traders of
North America particularly practiced slave trade. The British started the process of colonization
in 1492.
After establishing colonial rule in America, Britons did not have enough people to work
on plantations. Earlier, the Portuguese had starter importing slaves form North America to
provide cheap labor on their plantations. Soon, the British joined the slave trade. In fact, the
joining of Britain intensified the slave trade (Swaminathan, 21). Slave could be transported from
Africa to America to work on Britain’s new colony. It is important to note that slaves were often
mistreated. This was both during transport and when working in the plantations. Slaves would be
transported for almost 3 centuries in what came to be known as the transatlantic slave trade.
Slaves would be transported by sea. What ensued as a result of the trade has been regarded as
some of the greatest form of human rights abuses. It is due to the transported slaves that America
has African Americans. It is sad to note that discrimination against the black people is far from
ending many centuries after the slave trade.
When Columbus went to occupy a territory in North America in 1492 it made America a
center of attraction to many European nations (Campbell, James, Matthew and Robert, 7). Many
European nations came and did all they could to make sure that they outshine the other nations to
occupy the land of America and establish their rule there. This led to slave trade where the
human beings were trafficked from Africa to work in newly established plantations. Due to many
European nations wanting to dominate the land, there were a lot of political struggle that was
experienced for a long period of time. This struggle went on for more than two centuries
(Jenkins, 28). When British saw that there were European nations that had a lot of interest in

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America, they also came in the land and their main objective was to make America their colony.
The British came to America as missionaries and set up churches (Schlozman, 21). This was a
way that many people were drawn by the British. As time went on America became a colony of
British. The British did not get it easily as they were engaged in war with France which lasted for
seven years. This forced the France out of the land as the British took control of almost all of
American land. The Britons were engaged in large scale farming because they had slaves to work
and cultivate in their farms. There is a unique thing that all the European settlers had in common.
This was the Magna Carta which was renewed by the glorious revolution that took place in 1688
(Lindert, Peter and Jeffrey, 277). The revolution was against the British monarchy and sort to
limit the Magna Carta so that indigenous American people could be given the right to choose the
one to represent them. During this time, America was occupied by three main European nations:
France, Spain and British.
After the seven years of war in the land of America, the British won and took control they
evicted France out of the land and Spain were only left with half of North America. The rule of
the Britain did not last for a long period of time as the America led by George Washington
started to demand for their freedom. The British had suffered a lot of expenses due to the war
that lasted for seven years and now having more territories to look after than before they decided
to introduce tax which could be paid by the Americans. When the tax was introduced, it did
receive a lot of opposition. This stirred up the people of America where they now started
demanding for a representation in the government. There was a king who refused to hear the
Americans appeal and this forced them to come together and in one accord in July 1776 when
the British declared the independence of America. George Washington was given the role of
General by the second continental congress (Blomberg, 28). Thomas Paine was a great politician

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who encouraged people of America to demand for their independence. There is an article that he
wrote which really encouraged and boosted the morale of soldiers who had offered to fight for
their land. Following this the America got into a war where they got victory forcing the British to
surrender. The British had no option left rather than to surrender and this is the time than the
American Republic came into existence. George Washington was one of the military officials
who led the war to independence. When America got independent, he was appointed the first
president.
The Americans had now a republic which was comprised of thirteen original states. They
could now celebrate for they were free from the leadership of Great Britain. After attaining
independence, Americans started the process of forming the government and to put into place the
structures that are required to run the republic. There was establishment of policies and even the
land policy was introduced so as to ensure that there is unity among the states that formed the
American Republic. The Americans had to come together to form a strong government and in
1787 they had a convention known as Philadelphia where they came up with the draft of the new
government and the constitution that could be followed (Balleisen, 29). After a short duration of
time, they realized that the new system that they had adopted to use had its shortcomings. They
realized that much authority and power was being given to the federal government and they need
a mechanism which could put into place to protect the freedom of the people and the authority of
the American state. They came up with proposals which were put in place as the bill of rights.
After they had got the independent, they had not yet done any election. George Washington was
chosen by most people to be the nation’s first leader under the new constitution that they had
come up with.

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In the year 1790 there was formation of America’s first political party, Federalists, which
was led by Alexander Hamilton and John Adams (Noyes, 17). These people articulated for a
federal government that could unite the states into one national economy where they wanted the
banking system to be centralized and also to establish a central fund to finance the national
economy. The federalists advocated for the formation of a strong federal government. There also
arose another group of the Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. They had
different opinions from their colleagues who were federalists where they wanted the tradition of
local representation in the government. They advocated for devolution of government power
because they feared that the federal government was becoming too powerful (Merriam, 27).
Many things did change as a result of their independence. The Americans were not happy with
the slave trade that was going on and there were leaders who were condemning the act. The
supreme court of America was against the trade and the slaves were granted their sovereignty
(Na, 70). The government also came up with a process which would see to it that there was full
nationalization of the slavery regime. American government help the slaves to settle down and to
start their lives again as free people. They fought for the rights of people and they opposed slave
trade thus making it to come to an end. Americans believed that independence was not complete
without freeing the slaves.
America had been united due to the constitution which they had adopted but in 1788
there was a great shake up where ten states that had slaves left the union (Howard, 78). There
was a civil war that was being rekindled by two brothers who were involved in a contest and it
had a big impact not only to the slaves but also the future of the Republic of America. By now
Abraham Lincoln was the president and he tried all that he could to restore the unity of
Americans that was there as they were fighting for their freedom. He also worked extra hard to

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free the slaves before he was killed. The congress came up with a way of how to build the union
and stop the slave trade where they even stated and guaranteed equal rights of citizenship to all
African Americans (Zinn, 77). This equality would be achieved by treating each and every one
equal rights. The constitution was amended so that it could guarantee to all people despite their
race an equal right to vote. This brought sanity to the nation and it encouraged the blacks even to
vie for elective position in the government. This history has been significant in influencing what
happened after 1877. Modern American has had a long history and always endeavors to become
better by the day.

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References
Balleisen, Edward J. Fraud: an American history from Barnum to Madoff. Princeton University
Press, 2017.
Blomberg, Thomas G. American penology: A history of control. Routledge, 2017.
Brubacher, John. Higher education in transition: History of American colleges and universities.
Routledge, Hindman, Hugh D. Child labor: an American history. Routledge, 2016.2017.
Campbell, James T., Matthew Pratt Guterl, and Robert G. Lee, eds. Race, Nation, and Empire in
American History. UNC Press Books, 2017.
Coupland, Reginald. The exploitation of East Africa, 1856-1890: The slave trade and the
scramble. Pickle Partners Publishing, 2017.
Howard, June. Form and history in American literary naturalism. UNC Press Books, 2017.
Jenkins, Virginia. The lawn: A history of an American obsession. Smithsonian Institution, 2015.
Lindert, Peter H., and Jeffrey G. Williamson. "Unequal gains: American growth and inequality
since 1700." Juncture 22.4 (2016): 276-283.
Merriam, Charles. A history of American political theories. Routledge, 2017.
Na, N. The character of American history. Springer, 2016.
Noyes, John Humphrey. History of American socialisms. Princeton University Press, 2018.
Schlozman, Daniel. When movements anchor parties: Electoral alignments in American history.
Vol. 148. Princeton University Press, 2015.

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Swaminathan, Srividhya. Debating the slave trade: Rhetoric of British national identity, 1759–
1815. Routledge, 2016.
Zinn, Howard. A people's history of the United States: 1492-present. Routledge, 2015.