The Election of 1860

In class, we were told to answer the question: " How were the results of the Election of 1860 representative of the deep divisions  over slavery?", and show how we got that answer in an educreations video made in small groups. After watching the John Green Crash Course Video about the Election of 1860 and what issues were going on at the time such as the Fugitive Slave law, (which meant that no matter where you were in the country if you found a fugitive slave you had to turn them in), and Bleeding Kansas (which is the nickname for a period of violence over the Kansas- Nebraska act of 1854, because it went against the Missouri Compromise). As seen in the photo below, the election split the country into groups depending on which of the candidates they agreed with. Abraham Lincoln was strictly against slavery, where his opponent Stephen Douglas tried to hide his bias by suggesting that they let it be the peoples' choice, then John Bell and John Beckenridge were both opposed to getting rid of slavery. As shown in the photo, since the anti-slavery states were some of the largest Lincoln was almost guaranteed a spot behind the desk in the Oval Office, which he did eventually obtain. Next, we got our information and photos to analyze from Civil War and Art, among our own sources.

The Power of Numbers

In class we were asked to answer the essential question :How did the differences between the North  and South affect each region's strategy and  success in the Civil War?. To answer this we were given documents and articles showing the advantages and disadvantages of both the union and the confederacy during the civil war. To show the answer and how we got it, we were asked to use a presentation making tool. I chose Infogr.am. In my presentation, I share the population as well as the slave population of the north and south since the side with the most troops is almost guaranteed to win, briefly refer to the railroad mileage of both territories which would've been essential in transporting the troops along with their supplies, the most famous war tactics used on both sides, as well as refer to the South's control over the nations cotton supply. With my presentation, I hope you'll agree that the North did in fact have the advantage in the Civil War.

The power of numbers | Create infographics

Antebellum Slavery

Slavery today is known as the worst thing to ever happen in the history of the United States, but not many people look beyond the common knowledge aspect of it to see the big picture. In other words, not many people really know just how it got to be such a solid part of the country not just economically, but politically. In class, we were given 3 essential questions, the first being: "How did slavery become economically entrenched in American society by the early 19th century? . To answer this question, we were given excerpts of  The Founder's Constitution, which contain detailed information about slavery. In Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3, it says "No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due., which we interpreted as a class to say that any slave who runs away from their owner in a state allowing slavery is still lawfully their property, even if they run to a state prohibiting slavery, and will be forced to return and work for them, which really highlights the strictness and seriousness of the way treated and thought of their "property". Also, in another article titled, Cotton is King: Slavery is Entrenched in American Society Antebellum Slavery, we read that at the time the people of the U.S. were under the impression that slavery was declining and were even beginning to help free slaves, as some slaves were taking matters into their own hands and running away or revolting. Many slave owners were inspired to emancipate their slaves by the ideals of equality and liberty, and after 10 years since this started roughly 10,000 slaves were released. Just as things were looking up for the slaves, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. The cotton gin was a machine that made the production of cotton remarkably easier, and they were a hit throughout the country. This meant for the slaves that rather than being emancipated they'd now be manning the new machines. Since these machines were so widely used throughout the country, the slave population doubled and eventually tripled, and as did their price. Where one slave had once cost $500, by 1825 were worth $1,500. In only 17 years, by 1860, the yearly amount of cotton produced in the South made a drastic jump from 1.5 million to 2.28 billion, which shows how greatly the demand of cotton had grown, along with the slaves needed to produce so much of it.

In this picture, you see that in just 70 years the cotton frenzy spread quickly through the country, dragging slavery rates along with it. 

Shown in the picture above, we know that as the demand for cotton grew so did the price.

The orange words were those from our source from him, Canniballs All
or Slaves without Masters, that we found to stand out and
support our answers to the essential questions.

In another section of the lesson we focused more on the morality of slavery, and were asked to answer the questions: "How does a system of slavery based on race affect human dignity?" and "What human characteristics does such a system tend to ignore?". To answer these questions we were broken into groups and were all assigned an important person from this time, who was either pro or against slavery. The period before the civil war was called the Antebellum Period, and we were trying to figure out how people looked at the issue from both sides. We were each given a primary source document from edline My group was assigned George Fitzhugh,shown in the picture to the right,  who was pro-slavery. His argument that the slaves in America were the happiest in the world since only the well and able were put to work, but every one was provided room, board, and protection. He even said that slaves are freer than people being paid too work in fields, because they were free from worrying about money or food. Then, on the other side there were people like Frederick Douglas, who had been born a slave and then went on to be the most important black man of the 19th century by being an avid slavery activist and author of slave based books. 

Then in class, we read an article  which compared the slavery in Natchez, Mississippi to Futa Jallon, Africa, which we had just watched a video tying the two worlds together and were now reading it in article form. Both the movie and the article are titled Prince Among Slaves, which is in reference to Abdull Rahman, who was taken from his father (the king of Futa Jallon), and sold as a slave in America. This article really shed light on the lives of slaves, in particular their treatment. For example, if a slave woman and free father were to have a child, that child could achieve political greatness. However, only non-muslims were to be enslaved, and Muslims were to be free regardless of any circumstance. While watching the movie in class, we gathered on a live feed at TodaysMeet.com to share details and insights with one another that we picked up on. Some of the things on the live feed were that Rahman was captured in his own country while he was on a mission with his men in the woods, and they were then ambushed and forced to walk 100 miles to the coast where there was a ship waiting to sell them. Once they got to America, he was sold in Natchez, Missouri to a man named Thomas Foster who, after a time began to refer to Rahman as "Prince" since he had tried so hard to convince him of his social ranking back in Futa Jallon. After losing his long hair which is an African sign of nobility, running away from his master only to return in defeat weeks later, and then finally getting used to his new life, Prince gained a role of authority on the plantation, and was in charge of making sure the slaves were working efficiently, which ended up making it one of the most successful plantations around. Prince was freed after a man named Marshak printed his story in a news paper, and then Prince and his wife who he had bought with borrowed money toured the country trying to get the funds to free the rest of their family, though they failed. However, he had given the people supporting him false information about himself and once they had all withdrawn their support he had no other choice but to return home to Futa Jallon with only his wife. The main point of this class was that though many important figures in history such as George Fitzhugh and others like him tried to hide it, slaves were not thought of or treated as human beings and didn't even have the luxuries of basic human rights.

Women in the 19th Century

Roles:

In the 19th century (an even today), women were expected to be the caretaker of her home an family, and keep things calm an put together as her husband worked. In the photo to the right, you see a woman behind drapery, which was to hide them from the rest of the people in the house, and with her is a young boy and girl, who she is teaching to read, a dog which is the artists way of showing that even though the husband was the man of the house, when he was away the wife was the one everyone answered to. She is also holding a baby while she was tending to the other children, which shows how good she's become at what she does. Also, you'd think that since her husband leaves her alone to care for the children that the house would bee a mess an the kids would be out of control, but if you look at the picture you'll see how neat and organized she keeps the home, and how tame and put together the children are which shows her hold on everything within the home. Since women had so many responsibilities, an were so good at doing what they did within the home, the men in charge were taken aback by their demands and didn't take them seriously.

Seneca Falls Convention:

http://evanhistory10.blogspot.com/

During this time, the rights of women needed to change. The Laws and Practices included some of the conditions and laws for women, some of which were almost painful to read as someone who would have been directly influenced by them had I lived during that time. These include the law stating it legal for a man to beat his wife, for a woman's children to be taken from her upon the death of her husband, and the practice of silence among women in public, as it was seen as improper for them to speak. At the Seneca Falls Convention in upstate New York, the idea/ demand of women gaining the right to vote was publicly expressed for the first time. Resolutions to the harsher laws in Laws and Practices were addressed in the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, which included the retraction of the restriction of women being able to attend colleges/ gain a worthy education for themselves in the United States.

Reactions:

In class we were asked to answer the question: How did the mid-19th century society react to the women's demand of equality? Well, there really is no simple answer. Like any movement, there were people for and against the cause. A lot of the publicity for the movement was through newspaper, such as the Oneida Whig, which was strongly and clearly against the women's rights movement and their demands which is shown in one of their publishings of August 1, 1848, which said "They should recollect however, the illustrious member of their bolting sisterhood who had not long worn the nether garments before she found it in her heart to disgrace her man's apparel and to cry like a woman." which shows that much like another newspaper called The Recorder, who posted a similar article, they didn't take the movement seriously. However, there were also newspapers who were all for equal rights, such as the National Reformer, which wrote on August 10, 1848, “We think it the duty of every candid person to hear every proposal for the elevation of our race...", which shows their respect towards the women and their cause. All in all, people were finally beginning to acknowledge that women were treated unfairly compared to men, and rather than ignoring it they were helping to fix it.

Women vs. Men:








Another question we were asked to answer was very similar to the first, but hit a little closer to home. It was: Does 21st century society still react differently to men and women? Well, the answer is simply yes. However, contrary to the video embedded above, which is clearly stating that a woman is shunned for doing the same thing a man is praised for, I say women are not always the victims. In no attempt to belittle the daily struggle of women trying to break free from the social boundaries made for us hundreds of years ago, I'm not afraid to say that men are also struggling. For example, if a boy so much as wears a pink shirt to school, he's going to be called "gay" or "soft", because everyone else is too afraid to break free from the boy's uniform consisting of all Nike everything, with the occasional college football sweatshirt. In short, yes, 21st century still does react differently to men and women.