In the United States’ early years, the country’s leaders often seemed to support the idea of “civilizing” American Indians. They believed that tribes should give up their old culture in exchange for settlers’ culture and be encouraged to mix with white society. This meant that tribes should be encouraged to wear Western clothing, learn English, and adopt Western foods and economic activities. Later, many leaders like Andrew Jackson began to pursue a policy of removal. They believed that, rather than encouraging tribes to assimilate, the government should simply take tribes off land that settlers desired. Tribes should be moved to the West, where they could be kept away from new settlements and towns.
After the slavery was abolished in the south, the type of
cheap labor that the plantations rely on is through sharecropping. This is
considered to be a form of agriculture in which the tenant has been allowed by
a landowner in using his or her land but in exchange of sharing the crops that
the tenants produced on the land.
