...Reaction Paper Even though the emancipation of slaves was one of the consequences of the Civil War, the general ideas about freedom and liberty did not apply to African-Americans during the nineteenth century. I agree with this statement because although the Civil War eventually abolished slavery, the ideas, and meaning of freedom and liberty, were not necessarily universal. With the rising of the Abolitionist Movement many changes came to the United States. Slavery was banned in the North-West territories with the Ordinance of 1787 and by 1804 most of the Northern states passed laws that would eventually abolish slavery. In the South however, slavery not only remained legal, but it grew. But with the Southerner's fear of losing the anti-slavery battle they tried to reach compromises with the North. Both the North and the South figured that if slavery didn’t expand, it was doomed to extinction. So in the 1850’s issues on slavery sky rocketed. Many people in the South believed that liberty and economic independence was defined by ownership of land and slaves, and they saw the opportunity of maintaining that lifestyle gradually dwindle. When the Republicans continued to gain strength, the South fell deeper and deeper into debt. The South felt that if they remained in the Union, they would be restricted of freedom and liberty, which lead to the foundation of an independent South, and thus the idea of Southern Nationalism was born. The Election of 1860 was quite eccentric. Essentially...
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..."As much as Americans like to think that we invented democracy, liberty, and freedom in the modern world, the reality is that almost every good idea of the founding period was stolen from European, and especially British, sources. Thus, America's founding ideas are really just the ideas of the English 'country party' put into action in British colonies. This is an achievement, to be sure, but it is in no way an especially or exceptional American achievement." There are many sources of influence for America’s ideals of liberty, freedom, and democracy in the modern world. Such as Democracy of ancient Greece, The Republic of ancient Rome, and the writings of Baron de Montesquieu. Many of these sources are distinctly English such as English common law, The Magna Carta. In regards to the specific comment above we look at the ‘Country Party’ and ‘The Cota Letters’. As an American I would like to think that our founding fathers’ have created something new and completely unique in t our country, however my readings have lead me to the understanding that the founding fathers had several sources of inspiration as to how to form and what kind of government to form in these states, united. The “Country Party” as mentioned in the quote above, is of particular importance to the ideas of Democracy, liberty, and freedom. The Country Party was especially inspired by political theorist, writer and philosopher Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke. Bolingbroke’s ideology was that of opposing...
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...that pertained to this history class so my friend that works there was able to sneak me into the American Historical Society right next door. This was a goldmine of information and exhibits pertaining to history during all different types of eras. Right in front of the museum was a life size statue of Abraham Lincoln and to my surprise, he was really tall. One document that really caught my eye was a rare handwritten copy of the Thirteenth Amendment, signed by Lincoln himself. I was intrigued by this document because all I was doing was looking at this piece of paper and imagining Lincoln sitting down actually signing this with a feather and some ink. Trying to picture yourself living back in those days is The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution declared that "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 Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect on January 1, 1863, was a major step towards the abolition of slavery, helping to fulfill the promise of the Declaration of Independence and renew the nation’s founding philosophy of human liberty. Due to the Civil War, Lincoln realized that changing the Constitution itself would not be sufficient enough to solve the issue of slavery. Even though the senate was two votes short of the two-thirds necessary for passage in the House of Representatives, they approved...
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...Should Dred Scott have been seen as “property”? I believe there is only one argument here, that Scott was wrongfully judged. He is a person, a living, breathing human with basic rights to life, liberty, and happiness. Racism is, and has been proven, to be a hateful thing, and should be banished from the lives of everyone, not just Americans. Dred Scott didn’t get to feel the sweetness of freedom in his life, but acted as a mile marker for civil rights in our country. His story inspired people, armies, and groups to stand up for what is right, that a person is a person, human is a human, and we are all the same. Our basic rights cannot be stripped of us, and we plainly deserve to hold our own destiny; to choose how we live our lives no matter what color our skin may show. Thank you Dred Scott, for opening our eyes and lighting a candle for the long battle ahead to defeat hatred and racism, and to plant love and acceptance in the hearts of Americans as a...
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...America became a symbol of “a better life” for Puritan Pilgrims when they were faced with religious persecution in their European homeland in the mid-1600s. These people took a step into the unknown by leaving behind all that they were familiar with and traveling to America in search of the right to exercise their beliefs. They faced many obstacles on their journey, as described in Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford, one of the original Puritan Pilgrims: “In sundry of these storms the winds were so fierce, and the seas so high, as they could not bear a knot of sail, but were forced to hull, for diverse day later” (Bradford 59). In addition to inclimate weather, the Pilgrims were plagued by many diseases and poverty to such a severity that they were lucky to survive the trip itself. When they arrived on land, they celebrated and prepared for the difficult winter ahead of them, described by Bradford: “Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and bless the God of Heaven, who had...
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...Persecution, death, despair and glorified agony describe the ways in which African Americans felt during the 19nth century leading to social change and the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was sparked by the pain that African Americans felt being slaves and in turn they moved to the more urbanized and industrial north. It was considered a Renaissance because the liberal arts like, music, literature and art were uplifted independently for African American culture. This in turn created a social change for African Americans to have more freedom and liberty. Social change associated with freedom in the Harlem Renaissance can be attributed to three different reasons, literature, art and music. Literature played a gargantuan role in the...
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...Mississippi seceded from the Union, David withdrew from the U.S. Senate. Davis was appointed the provisional president by the provisional Congress of the Confederate States on February 18, 1861. Davis held the title of the President of the Confederacy until the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865. II. DAVIS: THE AUTHOR Jefferson Davis wrote the work entitled: “A Short History of the Confederate States of America” published in 1890 and in Chapter 1: Before Secession, The Causes of the War Between the States Davis writes that: “Ignorance and credulity have enable unscrupulous partisans so to mislead public opinion, both at home and abroad, as to create the belief that the institution of African slavery was the chief cause, instead of...
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...Name Instructor Subject Date Slavery in America from Beginning to the end The commencement of slavery Buell gives the an analogy of a modern day kidnapping in an effort to give light to what the slavery experience really felt like (Buell 4). The slaves were led; huddled together in chains like a group of animals and matched through strange lands to the docks, where they would be kept in the lower deck all through the journey in the high seas. Upon arrival they would be relieved to see light, only to be taken to an auction and sold to the highest bidder (Buell 4). This was the beginning of the life of a slave and it would be the end of their freedom as they would now be owned by a master who determined under what conditions they lived. Language was a major issue to the African slaves on the onset of slavery. One would find that the people they were grouped in did not speak the same language and as such, this was a plus for the slave owner who knew that without communication, all the slaves would do was work (Buell 4). The living condition for the slaves was pathetic. They would live in a small room with no furniture and in case one got to have a family, they would live in the same quarters with the whole family. Slaves worked for long hours and ate little food. In the south, their main work was in the plantations. Some of the harvests from these fields were used for the masters’ home and the rest was for sale (Norton and Katzman 113). There were...
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...to all men. Indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.[i] It regard to the treatment of Americans of African descent, it is no secret that the nation, at large, treated individuals with great contempt. The question is whether or not this new faith group was any different. How did treatment of African Americans among the Saints differ from that of the general population of the United States during the period from 1830, the church’s founding, to the end of the century? What was the LDS church’s position on slavery and did practice follow policy among members of a church founded on the principles of “faith, hope, and charity”?[ii] And, how was the view towards and treatment of free colored persons different that that toward slaves? The Contemporary view The treatments of African Americans in the United States varied throughout the general population. From the slave states of the south, where cruel masters held little hesitation in inflicting whippings, lashings, food deprivations, and other inhumane treatment, to the...
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...Labor Struggle At the middle of the 20th century, factory owners were faced with a dilemma. Due to industrialization, they could now produce output far greater than they could ever imagine, but the demand for these goods only continued to rise. What could they possible do to produce more and keep this output up? Simple! Hire more than enough people to work in the factories. More people means more production which means more profit. Then another problem aroused. Even though I’m producing much more, im not seeing the incrase of profit I expected because im paying it out to the employees. What should I do? Simple! Cut their wages! Good, now we are finally starting to see some decent cash flow. At the turning point of the 19th century, we began to see a major clash between two factions, the corporations running the factories, and the workers who toiled there day in and day out. But why the conflict? One problem that lead to this clash was the conditions that these workers had to deal with everyday. Most of the workers were young woman or children, and the work they performed was grueling and sometimes dangerous. When Charles Dickens visited the town of Lowell in 1871, he described it as a very beautiful industrial town, with shops and churches that appeared to have been just constructed the day before his arrival and no worse than what he saw over sea’s. He was noted to say, “I saw a baby of some weeks or ten days old at a street corner, I found myself unconsciously asking where...
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...of the Social Contract, Rousseau reveals several ways in which these shackles have yet to be released. In the following paragraphs I will consider what these chains are, give my own opinion on the subject, and discuss what it means to be truly free. To begin, in the radical and sometimes confusing political book, Rousseau believes that executive power does not belong to the people because it deals with particular acts and rather that the people should focus on general concerns. The people must have some sort of middle man or “agent” to pursue the general will and to be the messenger between the state and the sovereign. The purpose for this is to “full fill in the political entity the function that is performed in a man by the union of body and soul.” (2) For the government to carry out the general will, it must have its own life and be able to distinguish itself from the sovereign. While reading the “Social Contract,” it appears that Rousseau, while critiquing various forms of government, supports government being separate from the people, almost as if the government should be god-like. Be that as it may, he also says that the corporate will should always be less of a priority than the general will. To him, government should be an “intermediate body set up between subjects and sovereign to ensure their mutual correspondence, and [be] entrusted with the execution of laws and with the maintenance of liberty, both social and political.” (3) In book three, Rousseau begins to...
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...Most Americans nowadays like to think that they have the American Revolution pretty well figured out. Conventional wisdom starts the saga in 1763 when Britain, saddled with debt at the close of the Seven Years' War, levied new taxes that prompted her American colonists to resist, and then to reject, imperial rule. Having declared independence and defeated the British, American patriots then drafted the constitution that remains the law of the land to this day. With George Washington's inauguration as president in 1789, the story has a happy ending and the curtain comes down. This time-honored script renders the road from colonies to nation clear, smooth, and straight, with familiar landmarks along the way, from Boston's Massacre and Tea Party through Lexington and Concord, then on to Bunker Hill and Yorktown before reaching its destination: Philadelphia in 1787, where the Founders invented a government worthy of America's greatness. Those Founders are equally familiar. Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison, Sam and John Adams, Patrick Henry and Alexander Hamilton: in the popular mind this band of worthies, more marble monuments than mere mortals, guides America towards its grand destiny with a sure and steady hand. "[F]or the vast majority of contemporary Americans," writes historian Joseph Ellis, the birth of this nation is shrouded by "a golden haze or halo."(1) So easy, so tame, so much "a land of foregone conclusions" does America's Revolution...
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...Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey edited by Amy Jacques-Garvey 1 Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey edited by Amy Jacques-Garvey The Journal of Pan African Studies 2009 eBook Dedicated to the true and loyal members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in the cause of African redemption. Preface This volume is compiled from the speeches and articles delivered and written by Marcus Garvey from time to time. My purpose for compiling same primarily, was not for publication, but rather to keep as a personal record of the opinions and sayings of my husband during his career as the leader of that portion of the human family known as the Negro race. However, on second thought, I decided to publish this volume in order to give to the public an opportunity of studying and forming an opinion of him; not from inflated and misleading newspaper and magazine articles, but from expressions of thoughts enunciated by him in defense of his oppressed and struggling race; so that by his own words he may be judged, and Negroes the world over may be informed and inspired, for truth, brought to light, forces conviction, and a state of conviction inspires action. The history of contact between the white and Black races for the last three hundred years or more, records only a series of pillages, wholesale murders, atrocious brutalities, industrial exploitation, disfranchisement of the one on the other; the strong against the weak; but the sun of evolution is gradually rising...
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...The Story of the Fourth of July The Declaration of Independence We celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation. But July 4, 1776 wasn't the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence (they did that on July 2, 1776). It wasn’t the day we started the American Revolution either (that had happened back in April 1775). And it wasn't the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was in June 1776). Or the date on which the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain (that didn't happen until November 1776). Or the date it was signed (that was August 2, 1776). So what did happen on July 4, 1776? The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. They'd been working on it for a couple of days after the draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally agreed on all of the edits and changes. July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (the copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) It’s also the date that was printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence...
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...ambience and ongoing conflicts of the extant society. Babbitt means worshipper of material success and despiser of intellectual values. Babbittry is a new word which came in American literature after its publication which means to be mean, complacent and snob. This scathing portrayal of a hypocritical and conformist businessman George F. Babbitt ignited controversy, debate and ample discussion through the length and breadth of the country. Lewis was blamed to attack the pioneer image of Americans for they were proud of everything that they had whether it was right or wrong. Robert Morss Lovett observes that : A leading trait of the American people is a youthful self -consciousness amounting to an inferiority complex, which makes us impatient to all criticism. Everything which we have done is right because we did it. All our wars were just; all our statesmen are pure, all our business is honest. Ours is the land of liberty, of tolerance, of opportunity, of righteousness. ( Schorer 32) The novel Babbitt commences with the glorification and pride of materialism: THE TOWERS of Zenith aspired above the morning mist, austere towers of steel and cement and lime stone, sturdy as cliffs and delicate as silver rods. They were neither citadel nor churches, but frankly and beautiful office building (1) It presents an accurate picture of the declining culture of the society, people’s unswerving fidelity, their adherence to the meaningless social values and material possession. The novel...
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