Antebellum Slavery

Slavery became economically entrenched in American society by the early 19th century. Both proslavery and antislavery activists had strong arguments supporting their sides which made this controversy even more difficult. Slavery was a huge part of the south's economy, especially since the demand for cotton was increasing during this time. The higher the demand for cotton, the more slaves were needed to grow and harvest the cotton. Not only was the south dependent on slavery, but the north also benefited from slave labor because of their booming textile industry that needed cotton in order to make their products. Slavery continued to grow in the U.S. to the extent that almost 4 million slaves lived and worked in the U.S. during the Civil War.

A system of slavery based on race directly affects human dignity based on the simple assumption that one race is superior to another race. A system of slavery hides individual characteristics of a single human and combines all individuals of one race into a single stereotype. This system hides all talents and strengths certain people of a specific race have just because of the color of their skin. This system also ignores the pride and freedom of these individuals that are being enslaved. The second these people of a certain race are forced into slavery, they are no longer treated like the equal humans they are but instead not like humans at all.

Woman Reform

     Although there were many supporters for woman's demand for equality, the majority of society in the 19th century did not respond well to this demand. Woman were beginning to fight for the rights they knew they deserved in order to feel equal to their husbands. In the 19th century the job of a woman was to cook, clean, and take care of the children. Other than these tasks woman did not do much in their lives. When woman began to change this stereotype, reactions were not very supportive. The first known woman's rights convention took place in July 1848. Here not only men, but woman gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to discuss the moment they were beginning. The life of a woman during this time was truly unfair and needed to be changed. Society was telling woman they should get married, but if they did all their property and belongings would later be considered their  husbands. In both cases this was a lose lose situation that needed to be addressed and acted upon and that is exactly what woman's right activists were trying to do.

     Woman today are treated much more equally then they ever have been treated all throughout history. Woman and men have equal rights, but woman are still not always considered to be equals to men. In class we were shown a Pantene commercial that explains some different perspectives society has when woman and men carry out the same role. The part of the video that spoke the most to me was the scene where a man was up late working while his child was sleeping. In the background of the man, the word dedicated was displayed. The same scene appeared, but instead of a man it was a woman who was up late working. The word in the background of this scene was selfish. I though it was crazy how mothers who also work are considered to be selfish, the whole reason those woman are working is to support their families and provide a better life for them.
Pantene Commercial

Picture:
illustration from Godey's  Lady's Book, March  1850 Found at: http:// www.assumption.edu/ whw/workshop/ untitled1.html http://www.edline.net/files/_AIGmX_/90f5674f15c6c9f63745a49013852ec4/Activity_8_-_Lesson_Notes.pdf  acsessed, Febuary 2, 2015

Civil War Scavenger Hunt

Last week in class, everyone was assigned to create a poster for a specific battle during the Civil War. On the posters we were required to include the name of the battle, location, date, victor, theater, and two bullet notes explaining the reasoning for the victor. The battle I was assigned was The Battle of the Wilderness, which took place May 5-7 in 1864 in Wilderness, VA. This battle seemed to be a tactical draw since both sides, the Union and the Confederacy lost a great amount of men. Both sides also lost high ranking generals during this bloody war. After I included all this information on a google doc, I created and printed out a QR code that would link back to my google doc. Making a QR code is very simple, all you have to do is copy and paste the link of your google doc into a QR code generator site and within seconds a code is made. After printing out this code each person hung their sign somewhere around the school with a clue to the next sign that would have information on another battle. After the signs were hung, each person went around the school with an iPad obtaining the information that the signs provided. Once this was done we came back to class and looked at which side, Union or Confederacy dominated each theater (east, west, and naval).

After we collected this data we used it to help answer the essential question. It is clear from the data that the East was dominated by the Confederacy, the West was dominated by the Union, and the naval theater was dominated by the Union. In the battles of Fort Henry and Shiloh which both took place in the west, the Union was the clear victor. In both battles, the union greatly outnumbered the Confederacy in not only men, but also supplies. This was a huge advantage and was the main reasoning for the Union victory. The battles of  Fort Sumter and Bull Run are good examples of how and why the Confederates dominated in the Eastern theater. In both of these battles the Confederacy brought in reinforcements, they out numbered Union troops which lead to victory. And lastly the union dominated the naval theater in both the battle of Hampton Roads and the battle of Baton Rouge. In the battle of Hampton Roads, the Union ship the Cumberland was first sunk by confederate forces. After this setback the union strategically fought back and succeeded to victory. In the battle of Baton Rouge, the Union began to shell the Confederates, eventually the Arkansas, a southern ship's engine broke which lead to a Union victory.

Overall I thought the Civil War scavenger hunt was helpful in learning about specific battles during the Civil War. The activity allowed us to leave the classroom and take a new perspective on learning and actually searching for our information. The hunt made reading about battles much more interesting. I wish that the class was allowed another class to obtain the information on the posters because I still had three more posters to visit at the end of the second class we were given. I also thought it was helpful that we took all of the information about which side (Union or Confederate) dominated in the eastern, western, and naval theaters. 

North vs South

The North and the South both had different advantages during war. Overall, the North did have more advantages compared to the South which resulted in their success during war. The North had twice as much railroad track as the South, this made the transportation of goods and troops much easier and more efficient. The North also had twice as many factories than the South. They were better able to produce guns, ammunition, shocs, and other items needed by troops. The North also had a very strong economy, it was very well balanced between farming and industry which made the North very wealthy in comparison to the South. Since the North dominated in population, there was enough Northerners to stay and maintain farming and factory work while others could fight for the Union army.

Citations: http://pubpages.unh.edu/~icg4/project/images/slavemap.jpg

Emerson

     "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued adviser, who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church. On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested, — "But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, "They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the Devil's child, I will live then from the Devil." No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it. A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition, as if every thing were titular and ephemeral but he. I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions. Every decent and well-spoken individual affects and sways me more than is right. I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways. If malice and vanity wear the coat of philanthropy, shall that pass? If an angry bigot assumes this bountiful cause of Abolition, and comes to me with his last news from Barbadoes, why should I not say to him, 'Go love thy infant; love thy wood-chopper: be good-natured and modest: have that grace; and never varnish your hard, uncharitable ambition with this incredible tenderness for black folk a thousand miles off. Thy love afar is spite at home.' Rough and graceless would be such greeting, but truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, — else it is none. The doctrine of hatred must be preached as the counteraction of the doctrine of love when that pules and whines. I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my genius calls me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post, Whim. I hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation. Expect me not to show cause why I seek or why I exclude company. Then, again, do not tell me, as a good man did to-day, of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual affinity I am bought and sold; for them I will go to prison, if need be; but your miscellaneous popular charities; the education at college of fools; the building of meeting-houses to the vain end to which many now stand; alms to sots; and the thousandfold Relief Societies; — though I confess with shame I sometimes succumb and give the dollar, it is a wicked dollar which by and by I shall have the manhood to withhold."

     The author of this quote is Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was known as the father of transcendentalism and he initially got this idea into action. In this document Self Reliance, Emerson focuses on the power of one and believes that if an individual wants to accomplish a task that person must have the motivation to do what it takes in order to reach success. This source is reliable because it was directly written by Emerson. When this document was produced, slavery was a huge issue. Emerson was strongly against slavery and wanted to encourage more individuals to stand up and fight for its abolition. In self Reliance he talks about the importance of having your own thoughts in order to question society and decide for yourself what you think is morally right. This quote from the document teaches me about the importance of standing up for what is right, if everyone relied on others instead of themselves the world with be a conformed place. This document is very limited and mostly talks about the power of the individual and what they can accomplish when they are fighting for what they believe in.  Emerson believes that the greatest people think for themselves, even if it means risking their social status.

Ralf Waldo Emerson Texts, "Self Reliance(1841)" accessed January 12, 2015.http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm

Was Andrew Jackson Really That Great?

     In class we produced projects in groups in order to learn about president Andrew Jackson. Jackson was the 7th president of the US and served for 8 years from 1829 to 1837. He was known for being strongly against the Second National Bank and vetoed its charter. He thought that only rich people had a say in the bank since they, the stock holders were the ones who chose the directors of the bank. Since the the Second National Bank was the only bank in the US it controlled all international trading, he believed that this concentration of power wasn't good for the economy. He wanted to create a balance of power between the rich and the poor by creating smaller banks to avoid economic collapse and by doing this he is living up to his long standing reputation as "the people's president."
     This reputation isn't lived up to when it comes to the spoil system. Jackson elected voters who supported him to fill government positions. If people knew they had a chance of getting a position it would encourage them to vote a certain way. He wanted to shorten time in office; instead of having fewer people work for a long time who were good at their jobs he would rather a lot of people work for shorter amounts of time. It is clear the corruption can and will occur since people are being elected through loyalty and not by skill. He was also selfish and didn't listen to anyone who didn't support him.
     Lastly, this reputation is complelty destoyed when it comes to indian removal. Five tribes were forced off their home lands and were sent on a fatal march to their new, more concentrated land west of the Mississippi. More than 100,000 indians were moved from their homelands and had to adapt to a new environment and people they were complelty foreign to. This removal was to make room for more white settlements, since Jackson didn't think the indians and whites could live together. Over 10,00 indians died during this journey to their new land and death rituals were not allowed which made this journey even worse. They felt betrayed since indians have fought, and helped whites in the past. To the indians, Jackson is known as the white devil.

Our group's project was on the Bank War Prezi

Rise of Democracy

In class we examined documents that helped us answer the essential question; how should we define democracy, and also shows us how democratic the US was in the early 1800s. One of the sources was a painting that depicts men voting and discussing politics. These men are drunk and this shows how they aren't able to make clear decisions while voting. We also looked at two charts, one of those charts shows that over time more people were able to vote and not just white men who owned land. The other chart shows that over time the nation became more democratic since the president was voted for by the people rather than the legislature. With these documents our group made a video explaining them to further our knowledge.