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.

Protecting a Nation

The essential question from class was, What makes a nation? To what extend have people in history gone to defend their nation?  How far should people be willing to go for their nation? To learn more about this question in class we learned about the United states, Germany and Italy and how far they are willing to go to protect their nation.

The United States should be considered a nation because they were bound together by shared culture and language and that is the definition of a nation. Since the United States were a new nation there were a couple threats to their national security, one of which was the Holy Alliance of the Europeans powers. As Monroe stated that any European power were to, "Extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety".(Monroe's woes) Monroe is stating that if the European powers tried to extend their power in this part of the hemisphere that the United States would find it a threat to their national security. Monroe said that he will not mess with the Europeans power's existing colonies as long as they keep out of the new Latin American colonies. If Europe decided to attack the new Latin American colonies, the United States finds it an attack on them and they are allowed to use their military power to fight back. President Monroe was so willing to protect the United State's national security that he formed an alliance with Britain in case they go to war with the Holy Alliance and that was how far President Monroe was willing to go to protect the new nation.

Across the pond in Europe during the 1800's Italy and Germany started to consider themselves a new nation. Germany was made up of 39 states organized by the German Confederation that was run by Prussia and Austria. Prussia wanted to become a unified nation but out breaks of revolutions kept getting in the way. Bismarck was appointed the new minister and he could not get the influence from the Austrians to become a new nation so he started a war with France called the, Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871. As stated in the article, " The south German states were obliged to ally with Prussia against France in this conflict, and Austria was too weak to participate". This forced the people who did not want to be united to fight WITH the people who want to be united. After the Prussian victory they were identified the ruler of the German states and after a couple of years Bismarck was able to coexist all the states with a imperial parliament. In other countries like Italy, they also wanted to be unified. After Napoleon's rule ended the Holly Alliance broke apart the land that Napoleon controlled  and gave it back and made it a monarch, but instead the people of those lands wanted to be one unified nation without monarchs instead by a liberal constitution. Austria controlled most the land that Italy owned and was not willing to give it back. Instead Italy started revolting and started to fight against the Austrian dominance to get their freedom back. As one Italian said, I will not say of country or of liberty – but an idea that we Italians could and ought to struggle for the liberty of our country",  this quote is explaining that he is willing to fight for his liberty and that other Italians should too. After years of fighting the last Italian states were free from Austrian Dominance, Venice in 1866 and the Papal States in 1870. What we learned from the German and Italian fight for unification is that their leaders are willing to risk the lives of their people by fighting revolts and wars just to get the freedom and unification they deserve.

I absolutely agree with every decision that the leaders we studied made the right decision. I think individuals should be willing to do anything to protect their nation and willing to sacrifice anything.  For myself I would be willing to make any and every sacrifice to protect my nation.

Sources:
 Italy: http://www.edline.net/files/_6TKkB_/3efb40601739875f3745a49013852ec4/Italian_unification_overview.pdf
Germany:
http://www.edline.net/files/_6TKkb_/d6d88cb77903ec1a3745a49013852ec4/German_unification_overview.pdf
United States:
http://www.edline.net/files/_6TKiQ_/03d8e15f28b67b443745a49013852ec4/Unit_3_Lesson_1_Lesson_Notes.pdf