Cultural Differences In American Culture

On the issue of whether culture in America is one culture or instead cultures, I believe that due to the vast variety and distinctness of the cultural groups that make up the United States the name should be American Cultures. To further examine why we will look at sources from several different figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Harriet Jacobs, Jackson Turner, John D’Emilio, Gerda Lerner, and Fredric Douglas.
To start, we will first look at Harriet Jacobs and her biography detailing her life as a slave. Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery, however was unaware of this until the loss of her protection, her father who was a skilled slave, she is shocked by the realization saying “I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise”(Jacobs, 8) This

This difference in roles is also largely defined by class with the lower class continuing to fill the role of the “mill girl” while the upper and middle class took on the, somewhat forced, role of the Lady, beautiful and never dirtying her hands. In a way a lady was a symbol of how well off a family was financially. (Lerner, 11) Similar to before we see splitting of what was once one main group into two groups that while both existing at the same time in America, are now very different. Featuring different interests, experiences, knowledge, and ideas creating clearly different

(Douglas) Though Douglas’ is primarily addressing the terrible treatment of the African people by the Americans and the in effect ironic nature of him being asked to give a speech for the celebration of Freedom in America where they were not free. By making the distinction that there is a difference in how the two groups of people think and operate, he is showing that though it is all one country it is not all one