Lila Scott
Mr. Stepsis
American History Tutorial P. 4
3/29/16
Racism and Sexism in the Late 1800’s and Early 1900’s
Although the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, that didn’t stop wealthy white men
from discriminating against the African Americans. There seems to be a constant pattern of
white men having power over others. The white men also felt overpowered because of gender.
They felt that since they were men, they could take advantage of younger women who didn’t
realize their intentions. The court system wasn’t as developed as it was today regarding rape
cases. For girls like Evelyn in
American Eve
, it was much harder to get justice. Since these men
knew this, they had the chance to trick these girls into becoming their mistresses. Evidence of a
system of racism and sexism was shown greatly in
American Eve
by Paula Uruburu, the Plessy
vs. Ferguson case, and The Red Scare: Haymarket.
In the story of
American Eve
, there is a man named Stanford White, who is essentially
Evelyn’s agent for her modeling career. He starts off by treating her nicely and showering her
with gifts. As the reader, his actions toward Evelyn seemed very odd. Evelyn thought nothing of
it, and neither did her mother. One day, her mother was persuaded by White to go back to her
hometown in Pittsburgh while Evelyn was in the hands of White. White almost made it too easy
to commit this crime. He built up all of this trust with Evelyn and her mother just for one night of
pleasure for himself. He must have known that he would scare Evelyn, but he also knew that she
had no choice but to stay under his contract. She either had to be poor or be the “girlfriend” to
him. The way that White pulled this off was sickening. He lured her up to a “secret” room, only
to drug and rape her, and then have her wake up feeling abused and embarrassed. Evelyn
explained her feelings when she was asked about the incident later on; “Unable to sleep, Evelyn
was overwhelmed by a sense of immeasurable emptiness: ‘I felt nothing, neither repulsion nor
hate. He was a strange being to me; an aspect of life [had been] revealed in a flash and chang[ed]
all my perspectives’”(Uruburu). White had successfully fooled Evelyn into thinking he was a
