Buffalo Soldiers and Native Americans

The essential question from class was, Did the government have good intentions from enacting policies for westward expansion? In what ways did this affect the Buffalo soldiers and Native Americans? I do not think that the government had good intentions when enacting policies for westward expansion. They ended up killing a number of tribes that included Sioux, Dakota, Nakota and Lakota. The reason this happened was because the government wanted to expand into the Midwest and they needed for troops. The Buffalo soldiers saw this as a opportunity to get respected and well feed. I don't think that the government had good intentions because i think they knew that the Native American would fight back so they brought soldiers in.
 The government declared a state of total war which meant destroy everything and anything you can. After everything that was said and done, most of the Native Americans land and people were destroyed, the government left 90% of the land to the public. To answer the essential question, I do not think that the government had good intentions when trying to expand westward because they knew that the Native Americans would fight back. Yet they still declared a state of total war.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/Liberators_of_Cuba.jpg/220px-Liberators_of_Cuba.jpg 

Robber Barron's or Captains of Industry

Freedom from Above or Below?

The next unit that we did in class was titled, Freedom from above or from below? The essential question from class was,"Who 'gave' freedom to enslaved Americans? Did freedom come from above or below? To what extent were Abraham Lincoln's actions influenced by the actions of enslaved Americans?" We saw an image that represented Freedom from above, and it was called Freedom of the Slaves. The next thing we did in class was we read a couple of documents, the goal of the document was to analyze the documents and find out what the goal for the war was. The last thing we did in was watch a video and answer two questions from the video. The questions were How did fugitive slaves influence the government’s and Lincoln’s actions on slavery?' and 'What did Lincoln claim that he did not do more for abolition at this point in the war?'. 

To answer the essential question we had to learn what Freedom from above and Freedom from below actually meant. Freedom from above was when people with more power and influence than the slaves helped the enslaved people gain their freedom. Freedom from below is when the slaves themselves actually work together to make a difference without a higher authority. There were times during this period in history were Lincoln definitely stepped in and helped the slaves. During the Emancipation Proclamation he stated that all men are created equal, "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal". Although Freedom from above did exist so did the idea from Freedom from below. The idea of Freedom from below was a big part of what the Civil war all about, document X and document Y are examples of freedom from below, Document X was a letter from General Burnside to the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, "They seemed to be wild with excitement and delight— they are now a source of very great anxiety to us; the city is being overrun with fugitives from surrounding towns and plantations— Two have reported themselves who have been in the swamps for five years.." This quote was significant because it shows that the slaves are forcing people to pay attention to them which was their man goal. Document Y Slaves from the plantation of Confederate President Jefferson Davis arrive at Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi from 1863. This image is powerful because it shows slaves taking action and trying to make a difference by working as a unit. In my opinion there was more freedom from above because it was more common but I do think that Lincolns decisions were influenced by the actions of the enslaved people. 

 Slaves from the plantation of Confederate President Jefferson Davis arrive at Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi 

http://mdah.state.ms.us/timeline/zone/1863/ 

Civil War scavenger hunt

Matt weber 

The next unit we learned about in the Civil War were the important battles. The essential question from class was, Who was the ultimate victor In each of the the theaters, East, West no Naval? What we did in class to learn about this was, each person from class learned about a battle and created a google doc that gave a summary of the battle which included the victor, theater and why each side won. Then each person created a bit.ly and a QR code to their Google doc so classmates could get to it. Next, we put up our google docs that we printed out around the school so our class mates had to go find them.

 Battle of Bull Run

The second essential question  from class was, who was the ultimate victor, and who won each of the theaters? The first theater is the Naval theater. The Union dominated the Confederacy in the Naval theater. Te reason for this was because the Union had a much larger navy than the Confederacy. The Union forces that had about 16,000 men, while the Confederacy had about 3,000 men. This caused the Unin to dominate the naval theater.  The Eastern theaters were mostly dominated by the Confederate, at he Confederates had the advantage in the Eastern theater becuase they were able to constantly ambush the Union and most of the time outnumber them. For example, at the second battle of Bull Run the Union lost about 13,830 troops while the Confederacy only lost about 8,350. The last theater was the Western theater, which was owned by the Western theater becasue they always outnumbered the Confederates. For example, the battle of Vicksburg and the Chattanooga Campaign. One commonalitie that I could find in the battles were that which ever theater it was in he he side with the more people usually won. In the end the Union owned two of the three theaters that there was fighting in. 

first image: http://cdn.history.com/sites/2/2014/01/Second_Bull_Run_-A.jpeg 

Link to our padlet: 

The Election of 1860

The next civil war unit we did was the Election of 1860 and the essential question from class was, " "How were the results of the Election of 1860 representative of the deep divisions over slavery?" To learn more about this topic in class we a crash course video in class, which was very helpful because crash course videos are my favorite. The country was divided in section, Lincoln was against slavery, Stephen A. Douglas was popular sovereignty which was when people were able to vote on whether not slavery existed, John Bell wanted to conserve the constitution and the union as it is, which included slavery. and John C. Breckenridge said that all slaves were inferior to whites and that slavery was the number one priority. Breckenridge was expected to win the Southern states because slavery was already entrenched in the South, Lincoln was expected to win the North because they were already against slavery and Douglas was expected to win Missouri because the Missouri people were already pro slavery.  Lincoln ended up winning the election of 1860.  We then analyzed five photographs. Then we used educreations to create a video explaining the election of 1860.

 link to our video: https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/civil-war/30193864/?s=m7jS4P&ref=app 

Info graph for the Civil War (updated)

To start off the unit on the Civil War we learned about the various strategies and resources that both the North and the South had. The essential question from class was, "How did the differences between the North and South affect each region's strategy and success in the Civil War?" To begin the the unit we read three documents and analyzed them. The first article was called, "Railroad and Slave Density". It was about the railroad of 1860, slavery and cotton production of 1860. The second document we read was a pie chart that showed the various resources that the North and the South had. The Final document was Slavery by the numbers. This document just showed that numbers never lie.

The main assignment from this unit was to create an info graph that showed both the advantages that the North and the South had. The way I made was design was an info graph by using "Piktochart", which was hard to use. I choose the resources and advantage I had because I thought they were the most important to them. For example the most important thing to the North was the fact that they had more than double amount of railroad that the South had, this allowed them to move supplies and troops across the country faster. The major advantage that the South had was the fact that they could cut off the cotton supplies to the North and to Europe. This was because the South controlled all the exports of cotton. The North had the advantage of war plans. The North's plan was called the Anaconda Plan. The plan was to blockade the saltwater trade routes and stop all trade on the Mississippi so no war supplies could be imported and no cotton could be exported. In conclusion the North had better resources and better tactics which won them the war.

Link to Info Graph!: https://magic.piktochart.com/editor/piktochart/4869394
Anaconda plan link!: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaconda_Plan

Causes of the civil war

The essential question from class was  How we know the debate over slavery was the "elephant in the room" for American politics in the  early 19th century? To learn about this in class we read about Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, Gadsden Purchase, Kansas ­Nebraska Act ,  Bleeding Kansas, Caning of Charles Sumner, Dred Scott Decision, Lincol/­Douglas Debates and John Brown's Raid.

The Missouri compromise of 1820 was that no state could enter as a slave state it was above the 36 degree 30 minute line. During the Gold rush of 1849, California's population increased so much that it proposed to become a free state. The problem with this is that if California enters as a free state then there would be a uneven amount of free and enslaved states. The decision about California was a 5-part compromise. While all this was going on we learned about Washington D.C being a massive slave market. The first compromise was that slavery was that slave trade would be abolished in but slavery would still be permitted. The second part of the compromise was that Texas was allowed to keep the land that it won from Mexico but in return it would be given 10 million dollars to pay off it's debt to Mexico and this part of the compromise the pleased the pro slavery advocates. The Third part of 1850 compromise was that New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah being organized without mention of slavery. The decision would be made by the territories' inhabitants later, when they applied for statehood. This part of the compromise just made everything hectic because the North and The South were sending people to the new land so they could make it either free or enslaved. California would be emitted as a free state but this angered the slave states politicians, so to loosen the tension another slave state would have to emitted to keep the balance of free to enslaved states. This created the fugitive slave act, which was the last part of the 5-part compromise The Fugitive slave act required citizens to help in the recovery of fugitive slaves. It denied a fugitive's right to a jury trial. Instead cases would be handled by commissioners who would be paid $5 if an alleged fugitive were released and $10 if he or she were sent away with the claimant.) The act called for changes in filing for a claim, making the process easier for slave owners. Also, according to the act, there would be more federal officials responsible for enforcing the law. The Fugitive Slave act made the South happy so everything was alright in United States for the time being, which didn't last long.  
http://www.counties.org/county-history,     California in 1850!

W also learned about the Gadsden Purchase, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Bleeding Kansas, The Caning of Charles Sumner and this events really just proved that slavery was the elephant in the room. The Kansas-Nebraska act abolished the Missouri compromise which made it easier for slave states to expand into the Northern states. This act led to a large amount of violent outbreaks that was latter called Bleeding Kansas. A Senator named Charles Sumner would give a two day speech called "The crime against Kansas", The senator from the North criticized the South for forcing slavery into North. Sumner also insulted Rep. Preston Brooks, a member of the House of Representatives. Brook's nephew was so mad that he went up to Sumner the next day and beat him with a cane. The caning of Charles Sumner just shows that slavery can turned the most civilized men into savages. After they got rid of the Missouri compromise of 1820 it just showed me that politicians were ignoring slavery and it truly was the elephant in the room. 

Our timeline: file:///C:/Users/jonathan/Downloads/Elephant%20in%20the%20room.pdf 
In our timeline it discusses the events of the 5-part compromise, caning of Charles Sumner, Kansas- Nebraska act and Bleeding Kansas! 

Slavery Entrenched in America

The essential three questions from class were, How did slavery become economically entrenched in American society in 19th century? How did a system of slavery based race affect human dignity? and  What human characteristics does such a system tend to ignore? To answer these question we read multiple articles and sources on each topic and answered each question.


First, How did slavery become economically entrenched in American society by the early 19th century. During the early 19th century cotton was not very significant because the south only produced 1.5 million pounds. In 1790 the slave population of the United States was about 690,000 and was only in the areas of Chesapeake and Carolina areas. Demand  of cotton grew and so did the number of slaves. If you look ahead to the year 1830 the amount of slaves in the United States was approximately over 2 million and the United was also producing about 331 million pounds of cotton, More than double the amount of cotton the produced 10 years. By around the early 19th century the South was producing an amazing 2.21 billion pounds of cotton annually and the amount of slaves were around 4 million. It seems that the amount of slaves seems to relate to the amount of cotton being produced, the cotton was constantly increasing as well as the amount of slaves. At this point the American economy was built on slavery and could not run without it.


Second, How does a system of slavery based on race affect human dignity? To learn about this in class we read about multiple people including Frederick Douglas who gave speech the day after 4th of July calling the United States hypocrites for celebrating freedom and liberty for all when the blacks of the United States were all enslaved. Another person we read about was George Fitzhugh, he believed that slaves were in a "better position"than non slaves. Fitzhugh believed they were in a better position because they didn't have to worry about food, clothing or water because they were all provided. I think this system tends to ignore the rights of slaves and also their intelligence, Most Americans thought the blacks were inferior and less intelligent than themselves so they should be slaves. We watched a movie in class about a enslaved prince who nobody was believed was a Prince until he was much older. After they realized that they have enslaved a Prince they let him go home. He movie just proves the point that some Americans thought that all blacks were inferior to them even though that was false. All of these resources that we used just showed that blacks were not treated the way they were supposed to be, like everyone else. 

Links: http://mappinghistory.uoregon.edu/english/US/US18-02.html 
http://princeamongslaves.org/module/comparing.html 

Women's Reform

The essential question from class was, how did mid ­19th century American society react to women's demands for equality? Does 21st century society still react  differently to men and women? To learn about this topic more in class we read numerous newspapers to see what their reactions were to the meting that women had in Seneca falls about women;s rights.

There were numerous reactions to the newspapers we read in class. Some people thought that the women's rights movement would just go away if we ignored it. In the National Reformer, it was stated, "The absurd argument will soon be obsolete". Many people did not agree with what the women were saying so they wrote about how women's rights were not important. Others saw it as a serious problem that needed to be fixed. Most women wanted equal rights so they believed that this convention was the first step to having equal rights.

I think in the 21st century, men and women think  of themselves as equal, but some people still believe that men are superior than women or women are superior than men. I think that all people should be treated equally. We have come a long way but there is always room for improvement.

Link to the newspapers: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr040.html

19th Century Social Reforms Final

19th Century Prison reforms.

Philip: I do not know; what did you see there?
James: We saw a great many men shut up in the rooms, the doors of which were three or four inches thick, and large nails or spikes driven through them, with flatted heads, and so close together that they almost touch each other. The doors were locked with a padlock so large that I could hardly have carried it. The windows had bars of iron in them crossing each other, and so near together that a child could scarcely creep through; and the rooms were so dark and gloomy that we could but just see how dirty and frightful they looked.
Philip: Why were the men shut up in those ugly rooms?

Source: http://www.teachushistory.org/Temperance/t-ten.htm

During the time that this document was made, the 19th century prison reforms were in full stride. People during this time were starting to fight against how people were treated in the Insane asylum and that the people inside deserved better treatment. The document also talks about how people reacted to being treated unfair in the Insane asylum. In the document, the people did not understand why people were treated in such a bad way. They were confused why there was spikes driven in the door and why the room was so dark and scary. This document gives a great image of the 19th century prisons were run and how bad people actually were treated and how bad the insane asylum really was. The source is believable because it's a dialogue between a father and his two kids. The authors claims are that all the people in the asylum because they are drunks and that the drinking is making them act this way. I do not believe that this is completely true because not everyone is a drunk and some people have real problems. So I don't believe his claims are completely true. I think the author created this document to showcase the conditions that the people in the asylum were in. Also, I believe they made this document to show the reasons that they were in there. Some people believe that everyone in the asylum was a drunk and they acted the way they did because they were drunk.

 https://reformproject.wikispaces.com/19th+Century+Prison+Reform+(7A)