It's hard to believe but we are such a young country, yet we have been leaders ever since WWI in 1914.It's as country made up of a few native born, but most have been unhappy refugees of another country looking for something to satisfy their soul.
Thomas Jefferson wrote the famous line, "all men are created equal," in the preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence. The phrase expresses the ideal that all people are endowed with equal rights, though the historical context of Jefferson and the other founders who owned slaves is a subject of ongoing debate and contradiction.
Jews hadn't been thought of as equal either, even having a hard time landing a boat of 23 on New Amsterdam (New York) soil. Anyone not white or of a differing religion such as Jews, were not acceptable in thosedays as first class citizens.
When Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address during the Civil War in November 1863, 87 years after our birth, several months after the Union Army defeated Confederate forces at the Battle of Gettysburg, he took Jefferson’s language and transformed it into constitutional poetry. “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,”
Lincoln declared. Blacks were freed but many had little idea of how to conduct their life of freedom. There was no direction given. Black citizens have never been fully equal with white citizens in the U.S., but legal equality was established with the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868 and the 15th Amendment in 1870, which granted citizenship and voting rights, respectively. However, it took the civil rights movement and the passage of laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to dismantle the systemic discrimination that prevented trueequality.Today, I would say that the main division is education and spoken English.
When were our native Americans treated as equals and given their freedom? They were people first born on this soil. We whites invaded their land and took it away from them. They were a people unified at the tribal level, with some going beyond that point. Native American groups were unified in larger units beyond tribes, most notably the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) and Tecumseh's Confederacy. The Iroquois Confederacy was a powerful alliance of six nations (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora), while Tecumseh's Confederacy was an alliance of various tribes that aimed to resist US expansion.
A very ancient people, Before European invasion, North America had a rich and diverse history of Indigenous peoples with complex societies, with some estimates placing the population at over 10 million in what is now the United States and 50 million in total. By the time of Columbus's arrival in 1492, many distinct cultures had flourished,from the Paleoindian period (c. 13,000–10,000 BCE)to the development of major civilizations like theZapotec(c. 6th century BCE – 1563 CE) and agricultural societies in various regions. This timeline outlines major milestones leading up to and following the arrival of European colonizers.
Post-colonial Era (From 1492 Onwards)
1492: Christopher Columbus lands in the Caribbean, marking the beginning of European contact with Indigenous peoples.
1513: Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León lands in Florida and makes contact with local Native Americans.
1519: Hernán Cortés begins his conquest of the Aztec Empire, a civilization that had already faced internal conflicts.
1607: English colonists establish a settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, and the first Indian Wars begin as tensions over land escalate.
1607: Pocahontas is born, daughter of Chief Powhatan. Her relationship with Captain John Smith becomes a pivotal event in the early history of Jamestown.
1609:European colonizers bring new weapons, such as muskets, which have a significant impact on conflicts between different tribes and their relationships with European powers.
1649: The Huron are conquered and scattered by the Five Nations after being devastated by disease and internal divisions following their alliance with the French.
1664: The British seize control of "New Holland," which includes New York and parts of the Hudson Valley. (New Amsterdam)
1677: The Iroquois form an alliance with the British, known as the "Covenant Chain," for mutual protection and to establish a network of trade and defense.
1759: Spanish forces are defeated by the Comanche in Tejas, leading to ongoing raids on Spanish settlements.
1828: The Indian Removal Act is passed by the U.S. Congress, leading to forced relocation of Native American tribes from their lands to areas west of the Mississippi River, including the "Trail of Tears".
1850–1878: The Reservation Era begins as Native Americans are moved to reservations in an attempt to control them and separate them from non-Native settlements.
1934: The Indian Reorganization Act is passed, ending the allotment and sale of communal lands and promoting tribal self-governance.
Native Americans were granted U.S. citizenship on June 2, 1924, when President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act. Prior to this, citizenship was granted inconsistently through other means, such as military service, property ownership, or assimilation policies like the Dawes Act of 1887.
The 1924 act declared all non-citizen Native Americans born in the United States to be citizens, though it took until 1952 for all states to grant them the right to vote. Calvin Coolidge was president then.
Indian Citizenship Act of 1924: This act, also known as the Snyder Act, was signed into law on June 2, 1924. It granted full U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.
Prior to 1924: Citizenship was not uniform. Some Native Americans had become citizens through specific legislative acts, such as the Dawes Act of 1887, which granted citizenship to those who accepted individual land allotments. Others gained citizenship through military service, particularly those who served in World War I, or through other means.
Impact of the Act: The act was passed, in part, to recognize the service of Native Americans in World War I. It granted them the legal status and protections of other U.S. citizens, including the right to own private property and access governmental services.
Voting Rights: While the 1924 act granted citizenship, it did not automatically grant the right to vote in all states. It took until 1952 for all states to allow Native Americans to vote, and some Native Americans still encounter significant barriers to voting today. So now we'll look at the treatment of Jews.
Saul was first king of Israel, son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin.He lived in he 11th century BCE, probably reigned in 1050 BCEto 1010 BCE. We'll say he reigned for 2 years, maybe 10.
King David, youngest son of Jesse, born in Bethlehem in about 1040 BCE, David was from the tribe of Judah.According to the Torah, Judah was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, and David was the son of Jesse, a member of this tribe who lived in Bethlehem. (Judah is where today's Jews come from).
Now maybe people will get the idea of the fact that Israel wasofficially declared a kingdom by King David who reigned from 1010 BCE to970 BCE, (40 years) 3,035 years ago this year. His son, Solomon,then reigned after he died from 961 to 920 BCE another (41 years). The kingdom of Judah after Solomon died and Israel was divided in half, continued on till King Zedekiah's reign of Judah from 597-586 BCE, and the Kingdom of Israel with KingHoshea's reign from 730-721 BCE. Then No single king reigned after King Hoshea in Israel because the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrian Empire in 722 BCE, ending its monarchy.
From that point until 70 CE, the Land of Israel was under the rule of various foreign powers, primarily the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, Persians, Hellenistic kingdoms (Greeks), and finally the Romans, who divided the region into different administrative regions ruled by Roman-appointed officials like the Herodian dynasty and procurators until 70 CE. The northern kingdom of Israel ended when the Assyrians conquered Samaria in 722 BCE and deported many of its people.
Judah lasted longer because the Babylonians were their conquerors
also in 586 BCE. Babylonian Conquest:The Babylonian Empire, led byNebuchadnezzar II, destroyed Jerusalem and ended the kingdom of Judah. Post-Judah Rule:After the fall of Judah, the territory was under Babylonian, and later Persian, rule, with no independent Judahite kings. 70 CE: This date marks the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred long after the Babylonian exile and was a separate event from the end of Zedekiah's reign.
Eastern European Jews entering United States in early 1900s. My
paternal grandparents could be among them.
From 70 CE to today, Jews have been treated as a persecuted, dispossessed, and often restricted minority, facing violence, segregation, expulsions, and systemic discrimination in various parts of the world. They were forced to become a diaspora people after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, which shifted their cultural and religious center and led to a history of displacement and persecution. Despite this, they have also been viewed with suspicion, at times subjected to special laws and forced identification, but have also maintained their unique religious and social customs.
Jefferson learned his ideas through reading on his own and what education he had. George Mason's
Virginia Declaration of Rights
stated that men are by nature equally free and independent and possess inherent rights, including life, liberty, property, happiness, and safety. Thomas Paine inCommon Sensealso wrote that humans were "originally equals". Other thinkers like John Milton and Medieval scholars also touched on concepts of human equality. Jefferson drew on these and other Enlightenment ideas.Precursors to the idea of equal rights include John Locke's argument in his
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