In “The Present and Probably Future Condition of the Three Races that Inhabit the Territory of the United States” chapter by Tocqueville, there is a heavy emphasis on the three groups that occupied North America at the time: the Indigenous people, African Americans, and the Europeans. The indigenous people along with the blacks faced much of the systematic influences that were being pressured upon them by the Europeans. The Indians were seen as useless to the development of American land and the blacks were used as slaves under European rule. Racism is a reoccurring theme that takes place in this chapter, but the focus is more intended towards blacks than the Indians. Tocqueville disapproves of African Americans. He asks his readers to envision being on a steamboat ship in the Ohio River. To the right of him is the Northern state of Ohio and to the left is the Southern state of Kentucky. He claims that opportunity arises in Ohio while idleness plagues Kentucky. The ideas of coexistence between blacks and whites are not present in Tocqueville’s eyes.
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