EdCafe Day

This past week in class we did an activity called an EdCafe. With a partner we discussed slavery based on different narratives and sources. Together as a partnership we created questions which we would ask the attendees of our EdCafe based on an aspect of slavery. Once all the partnerships in class choose when and where they would like to hold their EdCafe, we could pick which EdCafe interested us and attend it. I really liked how each EdCafe wasn't very big unlike a socratic seminar which I dislike because there are too many people.  I also liked how the EdCafe was independent for the group presented. The group leading it had the job of keeping the group on track and keeping the session moving by not getting tied up on a single question. To make the EdCafe better next time I think that the groups should have a wider range of topics. The two EdCafe sessions I attended and the one I presented all had similar questions so it was repetitive at times.

When I presented it went well. The other students attending had very detailed answers to our questions which sparked up good discussions. With the questions we had quotes from the Solomon Northup Slave Narrative which added to the answers. To improve next time I would include more visuals since we only had a minimal amount. The visuals would help the attendees to understand the questions more or add to the answer.

I think that I was a good attendee to the sessions I attended. I contributed the best I could to the questions asked by the presenters. What helped me was my group had similar questions to the questions that were asked by the presenters. This was also not beneficial because at times I wasn’t expanding my knowledge of slavery because of the similar questions. My notes are a good representation of what I learned because on the questions that were alike I have ample notes and good notes on the topics that only came up once.

Slavery in the North

Slavery in the North was not frowned upon nor was it promoted. Inhabitants of the North knew slavery was wrong morally but knew that if it wasn't present then their business would suffer. Even though slavery wasn't allowed in the North, the people of the North still benefited greatly from slavery.  There was a cycle between the North and the South where the North needed the slaves in the South to pick cotton. That cotton is sent to the North and then cloth is sent back to the slave owners for their slaves. People from the North knew that if there wasn't slavery then they would have to pay more for cotton or not receive the amount needed to make sufficient cloth. If there wasn't slaves in the South then there would be not cheap labor to harvest the cotton. The Northers knew that slavery was wrong t they couldn't not support slavery because they had to continue to buy cotton so their business wouldn't suffer. In the "Public [Anti-abolition] Meeting" Broadside, August 21, 1835 Abbott Lawrence, mayor of Boston held an anti-abolition meeting. He said  “We believe that the sectional jealousies are thereby engendered, which threaten to disturb the harmony of our political system.” Anti-abolitionists knew that slavery should be abolished, but they didn't want to ruin their political system. The Americans in the North were only morally against slavery while they knew it had to be present so their profits didn't decrease. Recently in class we watched the movie "Traces of the Trade" which is about the DeWolf family and their slave trade. The DeWolf family was the largest slave trade in the United States. They brought over 10,000 slaves from Africa through a process of the triangular trade. The DeWolf's had a sugar plantation in Cuba where sugar was produced for the rum the made in Rhode Island. They traded rum and sugar to gain possession of African slaves. They were successful in the slave trade business and made very much money because the people in government that could put a stop to them looked the other way. Overall the Americans in the Antebellum North where only morally against slavery but let slavery help the profits of people's factories and business'. 

This is a picture of DeWolf's trade route. 

Amelia Bloomer: The Lily

Bloomer, Amelia Jenks. The Lily. Seneca Falls: Amelia Bloomer, 1849-1853.

Amelia Bloomer was a woman's rights and a temperance advocate who wrote a newspaper called The Lily that was focused mostly on temperance and then later on in publication she also wrote about women's rights.  Amelia Bloomer in The Lily wrote about how people should drink in moderation instead of banning alcohol. She also wrote about how women are victims of drunk men's behavior and that women should speak up about the men's behavior. Amelia Bloomer is a reliable source because she used true stories from women on the effects of alcohol. She also wrote her own newspaper so she could write what she wanted, and not skewed news.  Bloomer focused mostly on temperance because drinking at the time was a serious problem. Men were getting drunk very often and causing problems. This newspaper teaches the reader how excessive drinking effects families and how woman need to stick up for what is right. Bloomer's newspaper gives you a decent picture of the event, it describes the a major problem of the time. Amelia talks about how alcohol affects families in a negative way. She backs up her claims with stories from women that have been abused because of alcohol. The author is trying to convince the reader that alcohol should be used in moderation.

This picture is an ad that tries to prevent heavy drinking.

picture: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-18816576

The Presidential Veto and Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson is one of the most controversial presidents. He is considered by some people as the "People's President" while others think the opposite. The Presidential veto is when congress sends the President a bill to approve and the President rejects it. This is controversial to some people because some think that it is a display of how to President has too much power over congress. Unlike the previous presidents Jackson used the veto much more than the other presidents.  In Jackson's eight years in office he vetoed twelve bills. Of those twelve bills seven of those vetoes were "pocket vetoes" which kills the bill by not signing it after congress has adjourned. The six presidents before Jackson only vetoed ten bills combined. The artist created this political cartoon wants to show the viewer that Jackson wasn't a good president. This cartoon displays how Jackson thought that he was above and  shows disregard of the constitution because it is torn up while being stepped on along with the arms of Pennsylvania. It also displays Jackson abusing the veto to use its power to only have the bills he desires and to show his power over the constitution and the Bank of the U.S.. The cartoon shows that Jackson use of the veto makes him like a king.  The artist displays Jackson as thinking of himself as better than others because of the scepter and the apparel of a king.  Jackson was not the peoples president. His actions were not for the people; but more for himself. He used the veto for political reasons that affected him instead of being unselfish and vetoing unconstitutional bills. Jackson put himself above the law and was undemocratic making him not the people president.

Did Everyone Really Have a Say?

In the United States democracy has not always been like it has been today. Democracy is a government run by the people where the majority rules. Back in the 19th century things were run differently but the United States still considered itself as a democratic union.

The United States was less democratic in the 19th century. Instead of having a government that was run by the all people it was run by the property owners. There was a significant amount of people who didn't have the right to vote because they did not own property. Benjamin Franklin said, "Today a man owns a jackass worth fifty dollars and he is entitled to vote; but before the next election the jackass dies.  The man in the meantime has become more experienced, his knowledge of the principles of government, and his acquaintance with mankind are more extensive, and he is therefore better qualified to make a proper selection of rulers – but the jackass is dead and the man cannot vote." Benjamin Franklin is saying that even though the man has become more knowledgeable but because his donkey died,  now the man doesn't have fifty dollars worth of property and can't vote. In the 19th century the democratic system was based more on your material possessions rather than the persons intelligence. Today in in the 21st century voting is kept track of by someone so a person can't vote more than once, but in the 19th century all someone had to do was raise their right hand to the judge and say they haven't voted yet. The problem in this is that someone could go to another county and vote again, skewing the results by telling the judge they haven't voted. The results of an election could be changed because everyone casts their vote aloud to the judge and the people close can hear the vote. If a person wanted another person to vote for a different person than the voter wanted to it could cause problems since people can hear vote casted. A voter in the 19th century could be pressured into voting a different way than they wanted to and a judge could write down a different vote than what the voter said.  Today voting is done with panels around the voter so people can't see the vote and it's on paper written by the voter so there is far less chance for the election to be corrupted today unlike in the 19th century. The 19th century was less democratic from the rules of who could vote, and the privacy of the voter. 

In this picture it shows how an election was important and a public occasion.

Picture image:  http://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Bingham_George_Caleb-The_County_Election

Romanticism 



The Romanticism period of time where there was a movement in literature, music, and the visual arts that reacted to the order imposed by the enlightenment. During the Romanticism period the fine arts had special themes that were included in works,  such as: awe of nature, emotion, importance of the individual, grotesque, and or irrational. In the painting above Death of Sardanapalus by Eugene Delacroix, it displays Romanticism themes such as grotesque, emotional, irrational, and the importance of the individual. This painting displays a grotesque theme because in the circle on the right side that includes a man and a woman; the man is stabbing the woman in the neck. I chose this portion of the painting as grotesque since it is a helpless naked woman being murdered by a man with a vicious look on his face. This painting also has a emotional theme. The woman laying on the bed with her arms spread and head down is one of the emotional parts of this painting. It is an emotional part of the painting because it displays by her body language that the woman is sad because everyone else in the painting will be killed. This painting is also very irrational. The theme irrational is not circled because the whole painting doesn't make sense and is irrational. The story behind this painting is Sardanapalus the last king of Nineveh who is represented being the man laying down on the bed in white, found out his city was going to be attacked. Since Sardanapalus didn't want to a humiliating defeat, he decided to burn and destroy his concubines, horses, slaves, and himself. This entire painting is irrational because displays everything that was destroyed and all lives people and animals that were lost. It is also irrational because the painting is based on an event where instead of fighting the king just assumed a loss, burning and destroying this he cared about in his life. This painting displays the theme importance of an individual because it has king Saranapalus wearing all white clothes making him stand out more than other parts of the painting. It is also has this theme because he is important part of this painting, he's the one who made the decision to not fight causing harm to others and himself in the painting.   


source: http://www.artble.com/artists/eugene_delacroix/paintings/the_death_of_sardanapalus

picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Delacroix_-_La_Mort_de_Sardanapale_(1827).jpg

Revolutions of 1830 and 1848

The revolutions of 1830 and 1848 were failures as many historians have concluded. No country had a complete success during these revolutions but some countries suffered more harshly than others. For instance  the Hungarian revolution would be considered as a complete failure. In this revolution their goal was to gain independence from Austria and to make a constitution. There was a terrible result for the Hungarians in this revolution, they didn't gain anything and they started in a worse place than they were in before. Many people died and the people that didn't die were exiled. Although gaining a constitution was a complete failure they Hungarians did manage to force Metternich out of power and have him flee to Vienna during the early stages of the uprising.  

Another revolution that blatantly shows as a complete failure is the Decembrist Revolt in Russia. In this revolution the Russian's goal was to obtain a constitution. Many young people in Russia saw what was going on outside of Russia and could compare to how life was in Russia and wanted a change. The result of this revolution was terrible. They did not gain a constitution and the peasants lost some of their rights putting them in a worse place than before the Decembrist revolt. One of the main reasons for failure was the revolt was not well organised and was in a spur of the moment while the government was in a period of instability. 

Another revolution that was not a complete failure but was close is the Polish Revolution. The goal of this revolution was to gain independence from Russia. The outcome was that Poland gained independence and remained independent for a short while but after a Russian victory at Ostroleka. After the Russian victory the Russians occupied Warsaw, leading to the takeover of the Polish government. This revolution should not be considered a considered a complete failure because there was hope and they gained independence even though they lost it a few months later. 

This just goes to show how the revolutions were concluded as failures. The revolutions described above were the ones with the worst outcomes but the other revolutions like the one in Germany and the two in France weren't complete successes either. Since the majority of the outcomes from these revolutions were negative with little positives historians can conclude that the revolutions were failures. 

This map shows territories revolts of 1848

Showme of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848: http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=h8MbOZk  (not mine, my groups show me did not work)

image link: http://fc.greensboroday.org/~ldrewiczewing/Revolutions1848.JPG