New York Divided
When thinking of the Civil War and the slave issue, one usually thinks of two different factions: the Union and the Confederacy. In simplistic terms, all people in the Union states were against slavery and all people in the Confederate states supported it. However, reality is never that cut-and-dry and simple. For example, the New York Historical Society's exhibit "New York Divided" clearly demonstrates the fallacy of this notion. While in most cases, the North was against the South during the Civil War, some regions of the North clearly showed inconsistencies. New York is included in these places. The residents were divided in their racial beliefs, class structure, economic goals and loyalty to the Union. When the war first broke out, the majority of New Yorkers showed their support. However, there was another group of individuals who had strong cause to find a compromise with the Confederacy if not actually support the South completely.
The Civil War is not the only time in American history, of course, when there were such divided loyalties. Generalizations can and often do lead to stereotyping and, at worst, persecution. The only way that America can continue to grow as a country, especially with the population demographics that are becoming increasingly diverse, is for individuals to be more tolerant and understanding of others who are different from themselves. " Many New Yorkers turned their heads and ignored comments by the Southerners who "ridiculed black aspirations for equal rights in voting, education, and employment. Further, many people in New York City had close business relations with those in the South. " In fact, even after slavery was abolished in New York, southern visitors could keep the slaves they brought north for up to nine months. From the arrival of the first settlers, even before the Revolutionary War, people felt differently about England's involvement with the New World. Their pro-slavery principles were echoed by almost every New York newspaper. Not only is this unfortunate due to the fact that the wrong information is being taught to students, but it is also a problem because it makes people believe in generalizations. It is important for people to understand the reasons why such divisions occur and, more significantly, what can be done to find a consensus. Unless people are aware of such divisions, they will have naive misconceptions about what occurred in American history. They are very one-sided with the erroneous belief that most, if not all, people in the North supported the war. The information in most text books in schools to this day does not talk about divided situations such as this. Those who did find work, most often struggled in the low-paying work that other residents refused to do.
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