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) 

Rise of Democracy

The essential question from class was, How should we define Democracy? How democratic was the United States in the 1800's? To learn more about this topic in class we looked at pictures of county elections are learned what people where able to vote during the time period, which happened to be white male land owners. We also looked at how people voted in the 1800's. In the early 1800's people were mostly elected by the legislature, but in the 1836 every state but South Carolina the President's electors were by people and not by the legislature. Hopefully, from what we learned in class we can answer the essential question.

Andrew Jackson, "The People's President"?

The essential question from class was. is Andrew Jackson's long standing reputation as "the people's president" deserved? Why? Why not? To learn more about this in class we watched a number of videos, including John Greene's crash course and Ted-ED. This videos included the topics of the Bank War, Spoils system and the Indian Removal, we learned about these topics to further our knowledge of how Andrew Jackson handled controversial topics like the Indian removal and how he dealt with problems like the Bank war and the Spoils system. 

Our Project!!:
 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ieW08p94fU4ZfEJFVK71SKw2Xy2k7y3mrzS5XX45S_4/edit#slide=id.g54c00edfc_079  

The Latin American Revolutions

The essential question from class was,  Why is it essential to acknowledge human value regardless of race? How are the events in the Latin American Revolutions evidence of this social imperative? To learn more about this in class we did a time line of the Brazil,Gran Colombian and the Mexican revolutions then shared them with classmates. Next we made a jigsaw and found two similarities and two differences between revolutions.

In class we were assigned to make a timeline about the Brazilian revolution our timeline was, Brazil

1789 elites in the captaincy of Mina's ferias revolted 

1807 and 1808 Napoloeon invaded Portugal and severed the connections between Portugal and Brazil 

1815 John VI elevated Brazil to the status of a kingdom 

1821 John left Portugal and his 23 year old son Pedro remained as the Prince 

1822 September 7th Pedro declares Brazil and independent kingdom

1825 Portugal recognize  Brazils independence 

1826 many citizens opposed the new constitution

1825-28 struggles with Argentina erupt into the cisplantine war 

1831 wide spread opposition to his rule, Pedro abdicated his throne and returned to Portugal. The revolutions had both similarities and differences, the differences we noticed about the three revolutions were the fact that the revolutions took place in different time periods and all of the revolutions included different types of people. The two commonalities we found between the revolutions were the goal of all three revolutions was to receive a constitution and all the revolutions happened to end around the same time period. Race was an issue of all three because all of the revolutions happened when the Spanish had control in said country. All of the revolutions were lead by people who were enslaved and wanted a constitution. After learning more about these revolutions I realized that race as been an issue for a long time and people need to find a way to fix it. 

An example of judgement being based on race is the issue in Ferguson. The people of Ferguson believe that the boy was shot because of his race which happened to be black. I don't know the whole story but I don't think the officer made the decisions to shoot just because he was black.  Another example of judgement based on race is the Muslim situation. The reason I think this is an issue because some people think that all Muslim are all bad and they all have bad intentions. I think that this is an issue that needs to be fixed because people need to realize that not all Muslims are bad, and that some are against the extremist. I think the issue of race is still a problem because people need to learn that everyone is the same no matter what religion, race or beliefs in god.