Slavery Took Over the 19th Century

One of the causes of the Civil War was the increase in slavery in American Society.  Slavery was huge in the 19th century because the people thought it was necessary in order to have a successful economy.  Although some people opposed slavery, they still used it because they didn't know any other way to run the economy.  

Slavery became entrenched in American society by the early 19th century.  One reason it became so entrenched was because of its mention in the Founders' Constitution.  Article 1 stated, "The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person."  This still promotes slavery and legalizes it as long as each enslaved person is taxed at such a price that doesn't exceed ten dollars.  People then began to trade slaves and use them more and more.  Statistics show that the amount of slaves in America increased from 69,000 in 1790, to 3,954,000 on the eve of the civil war.  That shows how big of an increase in slavery there was over time.  Another thing that caused slavery to become entrenched in American society was the invention of the cotton gin.  Cotton was not even considered as a commercial crop in 1790. By 1860, cotton had increased across the South. With the increase in cotton being planted, more and more labor was needed, so Southern planters began transporting large numbers of African-American slaves westward into the new cotton lands, where the planters used their social, political, and economic power to keep slavery legal. This resulted in a sharp demarcation between the Southern states.  The slave labor helped produce large amounts of economically valuable cotton.  Meanwhile, the rest of the nation, where the economy was more diversified and slave labor had been outlawed.  The website Mappinghistory     has a virtual tutorial showing the spread of slavery and cotton from 1790-1860.  There were many things that caused slavery to become entrenched in American society by the early 19th century.

A system of slavery based on race affects human dignity because it shows that the people within the system see people who look different or have different backgrounds as inferiors.  This shows that these people have no empathy and marginalize people based on their skin color.  It also means that they don't have good morals especially if they allow people to be treated so poorly because they are "different."  Systems like these ignore many human characteristics.  All humans are equal no matter what skin color or beliefs they have.  Just because someone appears different on the outside it doesn't mean that they aren't equal to everyone else and it certainly doesn't mean that they should be enslaved.  Overall, when a society uses a system of slavery based on race it affects human dignity because it shows that the people don't have empathy or good morals.  Systems like these tend to ignore human characteristics such as the fact that everyone is equal and should be treated equally.  Also, they tend to ignore that people have rights and should not be treated like animals.    

In conclusion, slavery became entrenched in the 19th century because of the mention of it in the Founder' Constitution and the invention of the cotton gin.  When societies use systems of slavery, it shows that the people don't really have a dignity and that they don't have empathy or great morals.  Lastly, these systems tend to ignore characteristics of humanity such as the fact that everyone is equal and that no one should be treated differently.    

Gender Equality

In the 19th century, and even before that in our history, women have been looked at as inferiors or less than men.  They have been separated from the rest of society and kept from doing many things that men could do.  In the 19th century there was nothing equal about the rights of women and men.


 In 1848, at the Seneca Falls Convention, many women and some men abolitionists gathered to demand the right to vote for women.  It was known as the first organized woman's suffrage gathering.  At the Seneca Falls Convention, the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions was published.  It listed all of the grievances in the ways women have been wronged.  The resolutions were demands from the women.  This was one of the ways the women tried achieving gender equality.  In a list of the laws and practices that women were forced to follow called "Rights of Women", it shows just how extreme the restrictions were on women in the 19th century.  One of the laws legalized the ability for a man to beat his wife.  Another stated that it was considered improper for women to speak in public.  Those are just a few examples of how disgusting and unreasonable the restrictions really were.  In the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, these restrictions along with many others were demanded to be abolished.

Although the abolitionists put up a fight for better treatment and gender equality, the men were not on the same page.  After word got around about the Seneca Falls Convention, tons of newspaper articles discussed the event.  The men were very unhappy with the women's actions and in one particular article, it stated, "We are sorry to see that the women, in several parts of this state, are holding what they call, 'Woman's Rights Conventions,' and setting forth a formidable list of those Rights, in a parody upon the Declaration of Independence."  This shows that men saw the movement as completely unnecessary and inappropriate.  Below is the news article which is full of the opinions of the men based off of the Seneca Falls Convention.          





Now a days, gender equality has become a lot better than it was in the 19th century.  All of the ridiculous restrictions that existed during that time don't apply to women today.  However, there are differences between certain aspects of men and women.  For example, when men go out with women a lot and have fun they gain reputations as being "cool" but when girls do the same thing they get judged and called mean names.  Another instance is in the athletic world.  Girls are looked at as inferior to boys when it comes to sport because boys are "tougher" and "stronger".  Although there are no restrictions like the extreme ones women faced in the 19th century, there are definitely judgments and stereo types towards women today.
 

Link to YouTube video describing how women are looked at in society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K2kfgW7708&feature=youtu.be

Tanner, John.  Mechanics Mutual Protection.  Edline.








  

Early Democracy in the U.S.

Essential Question: How should we define democracy?  How democratic was the united states in the early 1800's?

      Democracy is defined as a system of government that arose in the United States in the early 1800's.  It is defined as a system of government in which the people have a say and they vote for the rulers and the laws.  To learn information about democracy in the U.S. in the 1800's, we began by looking at a painting which takes place in the center of town where all the people gather to vote.  In the picture, one of the men running to be leader is trying to get more votes by bribing people with booze.  Even though everyone supposedly has the right to vote in a democratic government, the women and colored people were not allowed to.  Therefore, to answer the second part of the essential question, the United States was not entirely democratic in the early 1800's, since not everyone was able to vote.  Also, since alcohol was a HUGE problem for the people of that time(it still is today), it made it a lot harder for the best man running for president to be actually elected since most of the people went for the man running that was bribing them with alcohol.  My groups thoughts on democracy are shown in the video we created.  Click the link and enjoy!      

Prison Reform

“…The great evil of our present Insane Asylum System lies in the fact, that insanity is there treated as a crime, instead of a misfortune, which is indeed a gross act of injustice…” —Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard, The Prisoner’s Hidden Life, p. iii.

Parsons Ware, Elizabeth Packard. Opinionated Wives, to the Asylum: The Case of Elizabeth Packard. http://www.ushistoryscene.com (January 12, 2015)

The author, Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard, was sent to live at an asylum for a very unjust reason, as were many of the other people that were admitted to asylums during the 19th century.  Packard was sent to the asylum because her husband, who was a minister, got angry when she disagreed with many of his teachings.  This shows that people were sent to asylums for extremely unnecessary reasons.  Packard wrote a novel called The Prisoner's Hidden Life, which described what really went on in the asylums and how unjust they were.  The source above was obtained from her story.  The source is believable because Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard seemed to have been a normal 19th century woman for the most part because everyone is entitled to their own opinion and she wasn't afraid to stand up for what she believed in.  Therefore the source is trustworthy because she had no reason to lie about the way she felt toward asylums and the unjustness since she had personal experience with them.  During this time, there were other people who saw the cruelty of the asylums as well as Packard.  For instance, Dorothea Dix was a woman who lived during the 19th century and she visited many asylums and jails to investigate and observe the treatment of the people there.  She would then make reports to legislatures in hopes of improving the treatment of the people.  This shows that other people during this time also felt wrongly towards the asylums.  Although the source is limited to a small portion of the book it was obtained from, it still gives an overlook on what the rest of the story entails.  The author claims that it is evil for the insane people to be treated as though they have committed a crime for being who they are.  Although there is no reasoning to support Packard's statement in this source, the evidence of her having to live in an asylum for time is enough.  Packard was trying to convince people to stop treating the mentally insane as though they are bad people and to be treated fairly.  In conclusion, this source is very reliable when studying the prison reform.       

EVERYONE is equal.

Essential Question: 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?

The essential question is extremely important to think about because racism can have a huge impact on how we perceive people.  Just because someone has a different skin color or ethnicity, it does not mean that they are inferior.  Everyone was created equal and therefore everyone should be treated justly.  Racism has been a problem dating far back into our history and it's a shame that it is still a problem in the world today.  The class studied the impact of race on the Latin American revolutions for independence by analyzing summaries on each of the revolutions and by creating timelines to represent each revolution.

Timeline created for Gran Colombia Revolution:

The commonalities discussed in the jigsaw were that all of the countries had a primary goal of achieving independence, it was in the 1800's, and after declaring independence, the first rulers were not in power for very long.  Also, all of the revolutions were successful.  The differences were that the Brazilian Revolution was not very violent while the others were very violent.   Next, the Gran Colombian revolution for independence resulted in several independent countries while the others resulted in one.  Thinking back to the essential question, race was an issue in all three different routes to independence.  It was an issue in the Brazil revolution for independence because the ruler Pedro only appointed peninsulares to high government offices and the other people saw this as discriminatory against other groups so they began to oppose him.  In the Gran Colombian revolution for independence, the people were unhappy with how the peninsulares treated them so the races came together to fight off the common enemy.  Lastly, in the Mexico revolution for independence the Mexicans of Spanish descent were originally seen as inferior to pure Spaniards and the Mexicans of mixed or pure Indian blood would have lesser rights.  Racism was an issue in all three revolutions despite the different routes they each took to gain independence.  

Today, judgments are still made based on race in society all the time.  Especially in movies and TV shows, people with different ethnicity and skin color are constantly made fun of or looked down upon.  A real life example that happened not too long ago was in Cleveland when a police officer shot a 12 year old colored boy because he had a toy air-soft gun.  The cop made the inappropriate assumption that the boy was twenty years of age.  The article also stated that cops tend to look a black boys as less innocent.  This crime probably would have played out a lot differently if the boy carrying the toy gun was white.  The world really needs to take action and stop making judgments based on racism.  Racism has a serious impact on the way we perceive people and this is just one of the examples of a recent event.              

Andrew Jackson, Good or bad president?

Essential Question: Is Andrew Jackon's long-standing reputation as "the people's president" deserved?  Why?  Why not?

In the History of the presidents' of the United States, Andrew Jackson was remembered for being "the people's president".  This reputation does not make sense considering Andrew Jackson's actions towards the Native Americans.  He does not deserve to be remembered for being "the people's president" because that would mean that he was good to all of the people and did everything on their behalf.  Although that is quite impossible for a president to do, Jackson absolutely did not have to force the natives to move west away from their homes and into a territory where they were easy targets for other tribes in the west.  Jackson made them leave because he wanted to expand the United States.  This is the main reason why Andrew Jackson definitely does not deserve the long-standing reputation as "the people's president."  Here are the major events that occurred during Andrew Jackson's presidency briefly summarized:

 The spoils system was a practice where a political party after winning its elections, it gave the jobs to its supporters so they would keep supporting the party.  Andrew Jackson created the Spoils system and not everyone was a fan of it.  In fact, 919 officials were removed and therefore, the idea of loyalty being better than competence was popular.

Next, there was the event where the Indians were removed from there homes and sent to live in the west with the dangerous threat of the other tribes living there.  Since the white settlers were moving in on their land, and with the command of the president to leave, the Indians had no choice but to venture west.  The trip to the west took place in the harsh winter and 10,000 Cherokee Indians died on the trip.  Many of  the Indians along the way went their own path and the pack grew smaller and smaller.  All of this happened because Andrew Jackson wanted to extend the United states.

Lastly, the Bank War was a  major issue that occurred during the presidency of Andrew Jackson.  The bank was established by congress as a part of the American system.  It gave unfair treatment to the wealthy classes over the poor.  Jackson was strongly against the bank as an institution.  He wrote a letter to congress stating that the bank had too much power and that it was a threat to liberty and independence.  This was one of the good things that Jefferson did to help the unfair treatment of his people.

My group created this fun video describing the Bank War, enjoy!

Toussiant Louverture, a Leader to Remember!

        Ray Kroc once said, "The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves."  The leader and ruler of the western half of the large Caribbean island, Hispaniola, went by the name of Touissant Louverture.  Louverture was a former slave.  The western half of the island was called Saint Domingue but renamed to Haiti in 1804.  Saint Domingue was one of the richest colonies in the world while under French control.  It was producing 40 percent of the world's sugar, and more than half of the world's coffee in the 1780's.  Of course, the people behind all of this hard, successful work were 500,00 slaves.  Everything changed for the people of Saint Domingue when word of the French Revolution spread across the island in 1789.  Shortly after hearing the word, in 1793, Touissant assembled an army of slaves to fight the French.  Touissant ruled from then on and eventually in 1804, Haiti became an indeendent nation.  Touissant Louverture should be remembered for his roles of being a liberator of slaves, a military commander, and being the ruler of Saint Dominque.

         First, Touissant should be remembered for his most important role of being a liberator of slaves.   When he grew up, he was freed and strangely he had slaves of his own doing all sorts of work for him on the plantation.  This was how his life went on for sometime.  Then, in 1789, word spread across the island of the French Revolution and when the slaves heard, they became interested in revolting themselves with encouragement from Touissant.  The slaves achieved freedom for some time after they revolted.  However, in 1797, when the French Directory was looking to reinstate slavery, Touissant demonstrated his commitment to being a liberator a slaves in a letter he wrote to the French Directory.  He stated in the letter,"Could men who have once enjoyed the benefits of liberty look on calmly while it is taken from them!" (Document B).  Touissant argued in the letter that it was totally not fair for the men who had just gained freedom to have to lose it and become slaves again.  In the end of the letter he even set up a threat to the French to show that the slaves will put up a fight to preserve their freedom.  This shows Touissant's determination as the liberator of slaves to keep the slaves free forever.  Another example that shows how much Touissant cared about liberating the slaves is in the Saint Domingue Constitution of 1801.  Although the slaves were free, they still needed jobs to make a living and unfourtunately they were still working for the same bosses as when they were enslaved.  Touissant made sure that the Constitution stated that all men were equal and that the former slaves will get their pay and be treated like a big family who works on the plantation with the owner of the plantation being like the father.  Clearly Touissant's role as being a liberator of slaves is something he definitely should be remembered for.

         The second most important quality that Touissant should be remembered for is being a military commander.  In 1802, Napoleon sent troops to Saint Domingue in hopes of gaining control over the island again and reinstating slavery.  Touissant demonstrated his great military commanding skills by having every one abanon the towns and hide in the mountains to wait for the French to arrive.  The French had no idea what guerrilla war style so Touissant cleverly told his men to use that method of war to totally confuse and surprise the French.  Athough this example of Touissant's role as a military commander showcases greatness, there was also something he did as a military commander that indicated otherwise.  In 1801, the colored people were so fed up with being forced to work all day for the same cruel bosses as when they were slaves that they revolted and massacred whites from Fort Liberte.  When Toussaint heard of the revolt, he was so enraged that he ordered his men to fire at the colored people.  This shows that Touissant had a different harsh way of commanding the military.  Even though Touissant did things that were bad there were also a number of good things he did as a military commander and that is why his role of being a military commander is the second most important quality he should be remembered for.

         The third most important quality that Touissant should be remembered for is his role as being ruler of Saint Domingue.  Touissant did everything he could to keep order among the people of Saint Domingue.  Being a ruler, Touissant had to make extremely tough decisions to keep the people in order.  In the Procamation written in 1801, Toussaint stated," All male and feale citizens must obtain a security card.  Such card shall contain the family name, address... age and sex of the person who bears it."  This statement and rule was to ensure that everyone could be identified.  Another example that shows how good of a ruler Touissant was is in the Constitution of Saint Domingue.  This goes along with his role of being a liberator of slaves but it also has to do with his ruling.  Touissant made sure that all of the people he ruled over were treated equally and that there would be NO unfair treatment or slavery existing among them.  It is very important for rulers to ensure that all of the people will be treated fairly and Touissant did a great job in doing so.  Therefore, Touissant should be remembered for his role of ruling Saint Domingue.

        In conclusion, Touissant should be remembered for his roles of being a liberator of slaves, a military commander, and the ruler of Saint Domingue.  His role as being a liberator of slaves is most important because he did so many things to make sure there was an end to slavery.  Next, Touissant's role as being a military commander is important because he made a lot of good moves but also a few bad one's.  Lastly, his role of being the ruler of Saint Domingue is important to remember because he went out of his way to make sure the people were treated fairly and that there was order among them.  When looking back in the world's history, Touissant Louverture should definitely be remembered for the roles of being a liberator of slaves, a military commander, and the ruler of Saint Domingue!