Buffalo soilders and Native Americains

The class started a new lesson called "buffalo soldiers". To prepare for this lesson the class watched videos on ABC-CLIO. We then came up with the essential question which was, " Did the government have good intentions when enacting policies for westward expansion? In what ways did the policies impact the natives and buffalo soldiers?". To answer these questions, we analyzed documents the created multiple choice questions that not only were for our exam, but to help better comprehend the essential question.
 

When enacting the policies for the westward expansions, the government had good intentions. The goal of the westward expansion was so that the government had more control over America and to accomplish that, they created policies to wipe out the Native Americans. An example was the Dawes act. Stated in the Dawes act reading, it was "an act to provide for the allotment of lands in severally to Indians on various reservations". This policy specifically focused on trying to wipe out the Native culture although it was said to help reserve land for Native . Another example was the Carlisle school system. This system was created to Americanize the Indian youth. Henry Pratt, founder of this school system, thought this would be good for the native children. It stated " kill the Indian in them and save the man." This shows that Pratt had good intention because he believed that the better way was to take way the native culture.

http://mtviewmirror.com/western-expansion-leads-to-imperialism/

 With all these policies created it caused a rise up in which was when the Buffalo soldiers were created. Buffalo soldiers were African American soldiers that were ordered to fight against the Natives. The government provided the Buffalo soldiers with handed down weapons and a low supply of horses. The war gave African Americans opportunities to jobs in the military. At that point, the African Americans were seen higher than the Natives since they were doing the government a favor.

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/18/news/la-yosemite-buffalo-soldiers-national-recognition-20130618 

 

I don't think that the government had good intentions when enacting these policies for the Westward expansion. I think they were just thinking about themselves and becoming successful so they did anything to achieve their goal. They tried to make it seem like they wanted to better the Native Americans lives by creating all these policies when really, they just wanted gold and to rule more land and find gold. They also used the African American troops to fight for them in the war so they did not have to lose men.

Robber Baron or Capitian of Industry?

The class started a new lesson called Carnegie and Rockefeller. For this lesson the teacher assigned the students to come up with an essential question. As a class, students watched a series of short video clips on The business of America.  As students watched the videos, they took notes in small I digital group google docs. Students then chose to read primary documents and take notes in those groups. As a class they came together and decided on the essential question, "Should Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller be classified as robber barons or captains of industry".

Robber Barons was a term used in the 19th century to describe the industrialist that would  describe a leader who had a personal fortune the positively contributed to the country. Robber barons were seen as corrupt, cruel, and sportsmanship-like. They bribed government officials, hired personal army's, treated workers poorly, and destroyed rival business. Although they had many bad characteristics they advanced the U.S. by moving forward American output but not by modern day standards. Captains of industry appeared during the time of intense economic and industrial growth after the American Civil War during the 19th century. They were very successful who created successful American companies. They were compassionate and serious about their job and their job usually had an important impact on the country.

Andrew Carnegie was considered captains of industry because he donated towards the New York Public library. He also was a steel tycoon. He published an article in 1889 called "Gospel of Wealth"  to exhaustive philosophy of social Darwinism. However, he was also considered a robber barons because he was influential on starting employees working up to 72 hours a week in harsh conditions and paying them low wages.

http://www.slideshare.net/bright9977/life-of-andrew-Carnegie

John D. Rockefeller was also considered both captains of industry and robber barons. Rockefeller was a prime leader of the Standard Oil Company which was the first great U.S. business trust. He was a notable philanthropist who donated millions of dollars to help education and found public library. He was considered robber barons because he paid his workers very low wages. He demanded rebates from the railroads. These methods were used to to reduce the price to his consumers. He also compelled  smaller companies to acquiescence their stock to his control.

http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=37986#.VYHwYX8o6Uk

In today's world robber barons and captains of industry still exist. A current example of Robber baron company is the iphone company. Although is very helpful and has positively contributed back to society, they run sweatshops that are in terrible conditions. The workers in the sweatshops work long hours and do not pay them on fair wages. On the other hand, the apple company could be considered captains of industry because it often gives back to the community. Just recently, they donated 50 million dollars to Stanford University hospitals. I think that all company founders can be considered both robber barons and captains of industry because sometime they have bad techniques that could achieve great things.

http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/01/apple-inc-aapls-india-strategy/

Freedom from above or below?

The class started a new lesson called "freedom from above or freedom from below". The essential questions of the lesson were, "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?"The questions were asking;How did the slaves become free? Did their freedom come from the help of a higher authority or did it come from taking action to be noticed? To what point did Lincoln's action affected by the slaves actions? To answer these questions, we did several class activities. Some of the activities included the class analyzing documents, drawing a social pyramid, and watching several Ken Burns video clips.

Enslaved Americans got their freedom from above that was influenced by acts of freedom from below. An example of freedom from above was when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation stated, "all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free". It allowed for only slaves in the rebelling states to be free. It influenced slaves to leave their plantations. Another example was during the Gettysburg address. Lincoln based this speech on the equality of people. He stated, "that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." He emphasized the equivalent amount of freedom each human deserves. This was a beginning act to freeing slaves and it came from above.

On the other hand, slaves got freedom from below to attain attention from higher authority. In a letter from General Ambrose E. Burnside to Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton mentions  how slaves were flooding into the cities that the Union army had taken over. The slaves were able to bring attention to the general and take action.

The image presents slaves walking into Chickasaw Bayou where the troops are. They are there to be noticed and so others can take action.

Finally, on April 8, 1864 senate passed the 13th amendment that presented, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." The 13th amendment formally abolished slavery in the U.S. It took Lincoln awhile to official lay abolish slavery but the slaves were able to fight for their right and get their freedom.

I think that the slaves got their freedom from below because if they did not take action to be noticed, they would have never got the help from higher powers such as Lincoln, the senate and others in order to be free. The freedom from above made it so that people with higher power could help abolish slavery but with the acts of freedom from below.

An example from modern day "freedom from above" are the acts of police brutality. Police have been taking advantage of their authority. Recently, 25 year old Freddie Gray was taken into custody for possession of a switchblade. While being transported, Gray fell into a coma and later was pronounced dead. Witnesses believe that the cause of his death was to the excessive use of violence when arresting Gray. There have been many other events of police brutality. An order for change there have been ongoing protest on the injustice in the "justice" system. People are taking actions from below to get changes from above.

Scavenger hunt

In class, the teacher started a new lesson called Civil war battle scavenger hunts. The essential questions were, "Who was the Ultimate victor in each of the theaters of war: East,West,Naval? What are some common tail you can identity in the reasons for the results of the battles?" To help understand and answer these questions each student  looked at a description of many battles. Each student then chose the battle description they were interested and found information on the battle such as the name,date, location, victor and description of the battle. After students  found information on their battle, they were then assigned to create a QR code and print it out. Students then posted their QR code around the school and then scanned onto other people's code to find out their battle. Students were to take notes on the battles that they scanned onto to answer the essential question. Later the teacher assigned to answer these questions on a website called padlet:Who was the ultimate "victor" in each of the theaters. Was the ultimate victor winning all along? What are some commonalities you can identify in the reasons for the results of the battle?

Created with Padlet

This is the pad let that the class created to understand why the Confederate won in the East and why the Union won in the West and Naval.

Based on the information that was collected in class,  the ultimate victor in the Eastern theater was the confederacy. One of the reasons why the Confederacy was the general winner was because the south was already accustomed to the area. The East was densely populated so they were able to easily attack the Union. Since the North invaded the Southern territory, the South fought defensive battles. For example, the union was the victor in the Battle of Bull Run. The large simultaneous mass assaults in the war crushed the union which caused them to retreat. Another example of a confederate victory was the Battle of Chancellorsville. The confederates ambushed the Union troops in a defensive position, the attack was overwhelming, the Union troops railed and counter attacked.

On the other hand, the Union was the ultimate victor in the West and Naval theater. South had a poor navy while the Union had an advance navy. Union also controlled most of the ports already because of their anaconda plan which was a previous strategic plan of attack. the Union won the Battle of Baton Rouge because they came under protection of their gunboats. Also, the Arkansas ship’s engine broke which made it impossible for the Confederate to battle. The union ultimately won in the West because they were superior to the confederacy. they were also well prepared and had more supplies. The battle of Fort Henry was a successful win because the Union outnumbered the confederacy. They also won the  Battle of Shiloh because the confederate army had less than 30,000 men so the Union easily outnumbered them with more than 40,000 soldiers.

The elephant in the room

The class started a new lesson called elephant in the room. The essential question was, "How we know the debate over slavery was the "elephant in the room" for American politics in the early 19th century?" To help answer this questions, students were assinged to create a timeline and as the class  proceeded into the lesson , we would add the event to the timeline. 

Slavery was major issue in the early 19th century. Most people, especially Americain politics, never brought it up and that's why it was called "the elephant in the room." They knew slavery was an issue and it needed to be fix but no one cared to fix it.

 One event that occurred was the Missouri compromise. The Compromise made it so that there was 11 slave states and 11 free states. This made it so some were in favor of the North and some in favor of the South so that it did not anger the balance of free verses slave states. If it was thrown off balance, the free states no longer had equal number of votes from the senate. Since California became a free state, Anti-slaves were happy with the compromise. 

Another event was the Kansas Nebraska Act. It made it so that Chicago would be the center of the Northern transcontinental railroad, making it an advance economy.  It allowed southerners to move into land that was previously anti-slavery, so slaves  had the opportunity to move into the Western territories.  This Missouri compromise was violated because it gave pro slavery an opportunity to spread slavery which maked it harder to abolish slavery. 

The Kansas Nebraska Act then leaded to an event called Bleeding Kansas. Since the Nebraska act violated the Missouri Compromise, the residents  had to decide on whether the areas became free state or slave states. Pro slavery and free state settlers tried to influence their decision by coming to Kansas. Violence then erupted which led the name. One of the most known violent outrages of this act was  the pottawatome massacre which was when John brown and his men mustered five salve owners in front of thier families. Another was when a proslavery mob burnt down several buildings in a abolitionist town in Lawrence Kansas. This made Topeka and antislavery Capitol and Lecompton a proslavery capitol. 

This event angered Charles Sumner especially because he was antislavery. He delivered a fiery speech called,  The crime against Kansas. It  proved that the controversy of slavery can cause even the most civilized men to resort to violence, included direct remarks towards Butler. His speech led to the The Caning of Charles Sumner in 1856. Butler's nephew, Preston Brooks, was angry that Sumner  offended his uncle in the speech. He  ran up to Sumner in the senate chamber and beat him with his cane. People supported Brooks and even sent him canes in the mail. There was never a solution to solve the big issue of slavery .That was why they called it the elephant in the room because it was there, people just never took the time to deal with it.

What do they do with the slaves?

The essential question for this lesson was "How were the results of the Election of 1860 representative of the deep divisions over slavery?"  To help answer this question the class watched a crash course video which provided basic and background information on the election of 1860. The teacher then assigned students to take notes on the pictures that were provided on the Civilwarinart website. The images on the website help students better comprehend why the election of 1860 started.

 Students were then to look for three additional pictures that helped sum up the result of the election of 1860. Next,  Students  turned thier notes into a storyboard by using educreations or storyboard. Creating the storyboard helped students understand how the slaves were impacted by the election. In addition, it helped us comprehend the process of how Abraham Lincoln was elected although he was not slavery advocate.

My partner and I created our video using educreations and below is the link to our video.

Election of 1860

Stats and Strats

The class started a new lesson called Stats and Strategies. To help the class better comprehend this lesson,, the teacher assigned each individual to read documents about the North and South and collect information.  Once  information on Statistics and strategies that Union and Confederate did, students were assigned to then create an infographic based on the statistics  (visual chart or diagram that helps represent information). The information collected also answered the essential question,“How did the differences between the North and South affect each region's strategy and success in the Civil War?” 

North VS South...who had ADVANTAGES? | Create infographics

Creating the infographics helped students better understand the situations faced by the Union and Confederacy at the start of the war. I chose information about the population, slave population, business, and strategies and tactics to win the war. The North had a higher population than the Confederacy which made it more of an advantage because they were able to leave some people behind to work on farms and in factories.  Also, the slave population was higher in the South which led to a higher production of cotton and made it able for the South to keep their economy stable.  The North had a higher percentage in everything else in business because of the number of factories and the high population.  In addition, the Union had better strategies than the Confederate states. The information listed above helped me better understand the advantages that Union and Confederate states and the tactics they use to fight the war.

Sourcing:

Document  B

Slavery-the numbers

American: pathways to the present. Chapter 11 section 1. Prentice Hall. PearsonsuccessNet.

Slavery was entrenched

In the 1700s cotton wasn't yet a popular crop to grow. The entire South produced about 1.5 million pounds and the population of slaves was about 690,000. As America advanced into the early 19th century cotton became ubiquitous across the South as a dominant crop. As a result of increased cotton production, southern plantation owners required more slaves to tend the fields. More slaves moving Westward caused separation between southern states where slave labor produced large amounts of cotton. On the other hand, the rest of the nation was more diverse which made it possible for slave labor to be outlawed.

The 18th century was a time where slavery was reduced due to the American and French Revolution. Many slaves escaped during revolts or they ran away from their owners during this period. Widespread ideas of freedom and equality also encouraged many slave owners to free their slaves in countries like the U.S, the Caribbean and Latin America. However, this took a turn in the early 19th century as an increase in slavery occurred. This boost in slavery took place specifically in southern states such as Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, among other states. Part of this boost in the population of slaves was the result of Eli Whitney, a former Yale graduate. After realizing that southern planters were desperate for new techniques to increase the production of cotton, Whitney created the Cotton Gin. The cotton gin was a machine that made it quicker to separate cotton fibers from its seeds. Consequentially, the slave population in the United States rose 33% than a decade later rose 29% in the first decade of the 19th century. The more demand for cotton meant a greater demand for slaves.

The system of slavery greatly affected human dignity: instead of treating slaves like humans, they were treated like property. They were bought, talked to like animals, and treated as disposable commodities. In  Article 1, Section 9, Clause 1 of the constitution of slavery it states, "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." Before 1808, the government was prohibited from imposing a tax on the importation of slaves but after 1808, this changed. That tax was limited to no more than $10 per slave, but this showed that slaves  were seen as property because they were taxed just as property was during the period. Another example  from Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 stated, "Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons." Slaves were not fully represented and they accounted for 3/5 of what all other (free) people are worth (for tax and representation purposes). Native Americans were not taxed and weren't even considered as U.S. citizens. Free people were accounted for fully, including indentured servants. Although the constitution is just one of many examples of how the system of slavery affects human dignity, it shows the most important part which was that slaves were stripped of their pride. By being an African American slave, one's humanness was denied and they became treated more like commodities than people.

The system of slavery also made it possible for many characteristics of humans to be ignored. In the morality of slavery unit, my class received documents to read. One of the documents was written by Frederick Douglass, an African American abolitionist. Frederick's speech, The Meaning of July Fourth to a Negro, is a prime example of how the system made it possible for characteristics of a human could be ignored. In his speech, he mentions how, in the eyes of many Americans, the Fourth of July was seen as a day celebrating freedom, but for slaves, it was a slap in the face because they weren't free. Another document was an excerpt from Cannibals All or slaves without Masters written by George Fitzhugh, a sociologist from North Carolina. In the book, he wrote about how he believed that people were born slaves were weak. He also stated that slavery was good for all because it made the southern agricultural economy function optimally. He thought that negro slaves were better than free laborers because the had fewer responsibilities. According to Fitzhugh, free laborers had responsibilities of such as housing, their health, and whether they make enough money. Conversely, slaves had fewer things to worry about because their owners took care of them. This book showed how the system ignores the human characteristics of slaves because the slaves were considered "lucky," ignoring that fact that most slaves lived in poor conditions and were treated harshly.

The class was divided into groups and each group was assigned to read a document an look up key words from the document. the groups were then suppose to look up the person who their document was written by and put the key words around a picture of them. Above is a picture of Fredrick Douglas and the words around him are from his speech, The Meaning of July Fourth to a Negro.

Women rock!

The 19th century was an age that played a big role in gender inequality.  In The Rights of Women: Law and Practices of Women, it lists the social and political rights women did not have .

They couldn't vote, could not sue or be sued, couldn't testify in court, had limited control over personal property, and were Limited from a higher education. Women were held to very high expectations. They were expected to be manageable and calm.they were also expected to  be quite and peaceful. Women were also in charge of caring for their children and with all thier responsibilities they were expected to take all roles in a private way so it seemed easy.  Slowly, things started to change and women started to stick up for thier rights. In the 19th century, when women started to demand for equality, people started to open thier eyes. Seneca falls was the first women rights convention and was led by  Lucretia Mott and Elizebeth Cady Stanton, two abolitionists. This  convention was the start to women fight for equality. Although this convention caused outrage because women were speaking for thier rights, it eventually created change for the women then, and further generations. 

Today, women have many rights that was not provided back then. Now, women are outspoken and eligible to do anything they please. Unfortunately because of history, women are still held to high standards and men are still the dominant sex. This commercial shows how women are precieved differently from men.http://youtu.be/-K2kfgW7708

Transcendentalism

"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place

the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries,

the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided

themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception

that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through

their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must

accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors

and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution,

but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and

advancing on Chaos and the Dark"

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance,1841

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a philosopher, poet, and journalist in the early 1800s. Aimed at any audience, the purpose of this  passage is to inform to promote individual self-trust. In addition, Emerson sought to encourage individuals by thier own ideas and to trust the truth in their own intuition. This source is a credible one because it is an excerpt from one of Emerson's primary sources. 

During the time this document was written, it was also a time that social reform movements were taking place. Self Reliance was one of very famous essays that Emerson wrote, providing pieces of what Transcendentalists believed. This essay gives people an idea of what Transcendentalists believed: the idea that one must be confident in themselves and strive for non-conformity. Additionally, they must strive for harmony between man and nature. This document had no limits because Emerson stated his full opinions and he was a well respected man that many winters respected.

Emerson provides multiple justifications for why one must rely in themselves. In the passage he states, "great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of thier age..." Great men are always willing to be curious about life and they have absolute confidence in themselves to find the answers to such curiosities. Emerson believed that one must take action and accept the fact that humans make mistakes and not be scared to take action.