Oppression during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth century was widespread

because it benefited the upper class. The Upper Class depended on the poor to do
manual labor. Without an oppressed lower class the costs of the Upper Class would
have been much greater. The upper class in the United States emulated the
nobility in other countries.
Sharecropping was put in place in the south after the civil war to provide
plantation owners a source of labor that wasnt legally slavery. Sharecropping
allowed white plantation owners to legally force black workers to work their fields.
Standard Oil used its immense size to eliminate oil fields owned by the
middle class. Owner of small Oil Companies were often ruined by the greed of
standard Oil.
The United States used race as an excuse to oppress Filipinos and steal their
natural resources. The real motivation of the Philippine war was to capture more
territory for the United States. (Savage Acts) The phillipine was a boon to wealthy
Americans because it made trade with China much easier. (Savage Acts)
Workers in the meat industry were used as a cheap source of labor and were
forced to live and work in poor conditions in order to provide the owners of these
businesses with a greater profit margin. Workers were not given adequate working
or living conditions.
One of the main motivators behind prohibition during the nineteenth century
was controlling the immigrant working class. Business owners were fearful of
drunken immigrants and saw prohibition as a way to keep them down.
Immigrants were lured to New York so that they could be used as a cheap
source of labor. Tales of the great riches that could be found in America convinced
many to immigrate to the United States.(Power to the People) Subsequently these
people were used as a cheap source of labor and exploited by American businesses.