As Clear As Black and White

During these past few weeks, as bright white snow has taken over New England, Honors History 10 has studied another period during which the color white dominated-- the US's early 19th century. As cotton became a large industry, slavery became economically entrenched and the white population dominated the blacks, forcing them to submit to slavery.



At the start of the 19^th century, slavery looked like it was on its way out. But with the invention of the cotton gin, there became a desperate need for people to work the rapidly expanding cotton plantations—slaves were the answer. When Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793, cotton plants became economically profitable to grow. Down south cotton grew easily, so as the crop grew in export revenue, the number of slaves working southern plantations also expanded. Between 1790 and 1800, cotton became 7% of the nation’s total export revenue with a slave population of about 690,000. As cotton’s export revenue grew to be 22% in 1820, the slave population expanded in turn to 1,191,000. Slavery became economically established by the early 19^th century because cotton became a large part of the industry, and slaves were necessary to run cotton plantations. 

Frederick Douglas's on whites on the 4th.

 

The system of slavery that became economically entrenched in the US’s early 19^th century affected human dignity in the sense that it degraded African members of society by singling them out as slaves. Anti- Slave activist and American author, Fredrick Douglas responded to white American’s hypocritical celebration of freedom on the 4^th of July. Upon asking what the 4^th meant to an American slave, Douglas stated that it, “reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.” White Americans treated blacks as so much lesser than them that they were able to declare freedom for all members of society, while completely overlooking the massive African slave population that lacked freedom. Many African Americans, like Douglas, felt so offended by the discrimination that they faced because of race based slavery that they spoke out about it.

Douglas's response to the whites' hypocritical 4th celebration.

In this system of race based slavery, African Americans had many of their rights ignored, and their right to freedom taken away completely. As mentioned above, Frederick Douglas argued against the hypocritical white American declaration stating all men free. According to Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Founder’s Declaration, any slave who escapes, “shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.” Slaves were bound to their owners for life—they lacked the right to escape and live freely. Already without freedom, slaves had even more dignity take from them by being counted not as a whole person, but 3/5 of the person in deciding state population. Race based slavery discriminates against a particular race, and ignores the needs, rights, and characteristics of that race. 

For more on 19th century US's race based slavery, check out the this article about the life of Abdul Rahman, an African prince who was captured and enslaved in the US. 

Gender Equality, or Lack There Of

After years of male dominance, 19^th century society was taken aback when women began talking and writing in an effort to earn equality. Never before had women voiced their thoughts, much less argued with those of the male gender. But in 1848, that began to change. Women from all over the country gathered at the Seneca Falls Convention to discuss the current social, civil, and religious conditions of women and fight for equal rights in these areas. Form this convention sprung more, causing both positive and negative reactions.

After the Seneca Falls Convention in July of 1848, newspapers all over the country had something to say, and that something was not always very nice. “It requires no argument to prove that this is all wrong,” declares The Mechanics Advocate about the rights of women. While women’s reforms upset a large portion, a chunk of the population was in support of women’s equality. The North Star Newspaper considers women member of the “human family” and argues that, “we cannot be deterred from an expression of our approbation of any movement, however humble, to improve and elevate the character and condition of any members of the human family.” As an abolitionist newspaper, The North Star agrees that ALL humans should have the same rights, including black men and women of all kinds.

Over 150 years after the Seneca Falls Convention and the start of the women’s reforms, one would think that gender equality should be prominent in the US—sadly that is not quite the case. Although today’s society likes to think that both genders are treated the same—women work until they have to stay home and watch their kids, laws forbid abuse within a relationship, etc.—there are still many VERY prominent differences in the treatment of women and men.

One of the most obvious ways to see the different treatment of females and males in our society today is through social media. Let’s start with Instagram. One of the easiest ways to rake in compliments and boost your self-esteem is to post a quick selfie—IF you’re a girl. What is considered “cute” when posted by a girl, is called “soft” or ever “gay” (sadly and WRONGLY used as an insult) when a guy posts it. Now on to twitter. There is nothing more annoying than a heated feminist on twitter complaining unequal treatment, right? But somehow it’s funny to make a parody account called “meninist”, where users make fun of these attempts as gender equality.

Yes, society has come far from the day’s during which women weren’t allowed to speak, and men were allowed to beat their wives at a whim. But is our society, one rich with double standards, really THAT much better?
 

Check out this Pantene commercial, pointing out ways women and men are treated different in society today. Can you relate?

The Father of Free Thought

Emerson points out the importance of one's own thoughts.

Ralph Waldo Emerson is considered to be the leader from which the transcendental movement emanated. In his 1888 essay, “Self-Reliance”, Emerson works to convince his readers that it is right to believe one’s own thoughts and declare them aloud, even if others disagree. The transcendental movement took place just after the Industrial Revolution- am epoch bursting with new technologies and ideas. Emerson writes that amidst these new ideas, we must not lose ourselves. Amidst these new ideas we must strive not to conform, but to “believe what is true for you in your private heart.” That having been said, holding beliefs not contradictory to those of the general population should not be looked down upon. Although Emerson states that “To be great is to be misunderstood,” it must be taken into consideration that one’s beliefs may truly accord with those of society. In these excerpts, Emerson is trying to convince the reader to follow their intuition and shirk ideas not aligning to their own beliefs. As he went on to lead the transcendental movement, Emerson continued to preach self-reliance as opposed to conformity.

Emerson explains why trusting one's own thoughts it good.

For the rest of "Self-Reliance" click here.

Formal Citation of text: Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Self Reliance. 1841. Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.html. January 12, 2015.

Andrew Jackson: For the People or For Himself?

Walk down the street in November and you'll see lawn after lawn full of signs supporting different presidential candidates. Drive along Main St. and you'll see protestors shouting for the candidate they want to win. When the election comes to a close, only one president can win, leaving half of the people unhappy and resentful and the rest overjoyed that their vote won. Just like there is lots of controversy over whether a president is "good for the county" or the "right pick", there is lots of that same controversy with 19th century president Andrew Jackson. Jackson's reputation as the "people's president" is being questioned, so in Honors History 10 we explored this topic to form our own opinions on whether or not this title is deserved. After watching Crash Course and Ted-Ed videos to understand the context and the arguments, we split into groups to analyze 3 different aspects of Jackson's presidency- the Spoils System, the Bank war, and the policy of Indian removal. By analyzing primary sources and using them to create skits and videos, each group shared what they had learned with the class. Collectively, we decided that although Jackson may have been for the American people, he certainly was not for everyone in the sense that he favored his supporters and was brutal towards the native Americans. 

To learn more about the Spoils System, check out the Common Craft that my group made!
 

Our 10th Grade Class is More Democratic Than 19th Century America

While Mrs.Gallagher was away on a conference for the week, our Honors History 10 class stayed in touch and used each other as resources to learn about the Rise of Democracy in 19th century America. In the spirit of a true democracy, we held a class meeting the day before Mrs.Gallagher left. Here, we all added our input to decide how we would learn the curriculum while our teacher was away. The verdict came to analyzing primary sources and constructing a poster that would answer the essential question: How should we define democracy? How democratic was the US in the early 1800s? Mrs. Gallagher set up an entire-class Google doc where we put our lesson outline and goals for each class. At the end of every day, 5 or 6 students wrote in detail about our progress and Mrs. Gallagher responded with questions and suggestions to help us along. With clear communication between teacher and students, and the help of technology that allowed us to overcome our distance barrier, our class analyzed 5 primary sources and formulated our ideas to create posters about the Rise of Democracy.

Here is my group's digital poster using Glogster!

Is the US On Track for A Revolution?

In class we recently studied an issue that still plagues our country today—race based inequality. In the United States, a variety of races are represented and by law are considered “equals”. This means that a black man should have the same opportunity as a Chinese American girl at making it into college, and a Mexican American boy should be looked at the same as a white girl before making an impression. Sadly, this is not always the case, and neither was it in 18^th century Latin America. In class we studied the importance of recognizing human value regardless of race by focusing in on the Latin American Revolutions. We analyzed documents to find that in Latin America, each race was given a name, for example the whites born in Europe were called peninsulares, and that the more European blood you had, the more power you could obtain. The blunder in this social system was that more than half of the population was of native American or African descent, meaning that they could easily gang up to remove the white people in power. By breaking off into groups to study Mexico, Gran Columbia, and Brazil, we learned that the driving force behind most Latin American revolutions was the unequal opportunities given to each race.

In class we constructed this chart to represent the percentages of
each race living in 18th century Latin America.

After each group analyzed the revolutions in either Mexico, Gran Columbia, or Brazil, we all came together to discuss how they were alike and how they differed. It seemed like prior to their revolutions, each country was dealing with racial inequality which resulted in the lower classes, typically Native Americans or Africans, revolting against the whites who had power. Each country also happened to have been colonized by European countries, which is probably why Europeans were given the most rights, but this distribution of power proved to fail. Although all three revolutions were caused by the same underlying issue, the Brazilian revolution seemed to stick out. The evolutions in Gran Columbia and Mexico both involved brutality and violence, whereas that of Brazil was rather peaceful. Perhaps this could be related to the fact that these first two were colonies of Spain, and Brazil a colony of Portugal. Regardless of their differences, all three of these Latin American revolutions were fueled by the unfair powers asserted reading to race.

 

Here is a timeline that we made in class of the Mexican Revolution

Just like race played a key factor in the power and opportunities of the 18^th century people of Latin America, it still plays a role in the opportunities and treatment of American citizens today. Although we have laws declaring all humans to be born equal, racial prejudices often blind Americans into stereotyping and placing false accusations. One well know case of this is that of Michael Brown—a Missouri teen shot dead in August for little more than his being black. Although some argue Brown attacked the police officer who was forced to shoot him, many witnesses say the officer simply shot him for walking down the street. In a country where all people are considered equal, race shouldn’t hinder a person’s social standing, opportunities, or ability to walk down the street without being shot (!!). the unequal treatment of different races is still an important issue to consider today because just like it lead to problems 200 years ago, it leads to even more today.

Freedom; the Driving Force Behind Everything

From grade school, everyone learns the story of civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr.—growing up he faced racial discrimination, and as an adult he fought to put an end to it. Similar to MLK, 18^th century liberator of slaves, Toussaint Louverture, faced unfair treatment as a child and grew up to fight against it as an adult. Louverture spent his childhood as a slave on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola where he lived under French rule in Saint Domingue. Soon after Louverture’s owner set him free, word got to Saint Domingue about the French Revolution, a movement that liberated thousands of French slaves. Yet regardless of the fact that Saint Domingue belonged to France, its slaves remained bound. Angered by white refusal to end slavery in Saint Domingue, Louverture emerged as a leader in the movement to free its slaves. In his efforts to liberate the slaves of Saint Domingue, Louverture sided with and against French forces, depending on whether or not they followed in suite with this cause. Toussaint Louverture should be remembered primarily as a liberator of slaves who, in this pursuit, also took position as ruler of Saint Domingue and military commander. (Background Essay)

 

Toussaint Louverture should be remembered chiefly for his role as a freer of slaves. In the Timeline of Abolition in Saint Domingue, it is depicted that Louverture first joins the revolution in 1791, when he leads troops to fight against France for the abolition of slavery in Saint Domingue. In 1794, when the revolutionary government in France abolishes slavery in all of its colonies, it says that Louverture stops his revolt against French colonial troops. This proves that everything Louverture did was in the pursuit of liberating slaves. When France supports this cause, he sides with them. When France refuses to free Saint Domingue slaves, he fights against their colonial troops. After the slaves of Saint Domingue have been freed, Louverture writes a letter to the French Directory to ensure that this freedom prevails. In this 1797 letter he states “We have known how to confront danger to our liberty, and we will know how to confront death to preserve it.” What Louverture is saying, is that he and the people of his island will go to any measure they have to in order to preserve freedom for all. Louverture should be remembered primarily for his role as liberator of slaves because that cause is what motivated him to do everything he did, and freedom for all slaves is the cause he would die for. (Documents A and B)

 

Although he took this position in an effort to liberate slaves, Toussaint Louverture should also be remembered as ruler of Saint Domingue. As ruler of Saint Domingue, Louverture states in “The Saint Domingue Constitution of 1801” that “Servitude is therein forever abolished.” Louverture used his power as a ruler to ensure that slaves remain liberated. A few months later, Louverture describes the harsh rules for the people of Saint Domingue and the consequences that will be enforced upon breaking them in the “Proclamation, 25 November”. Some of these rules include that children must be employed as soon as they can walk and that anyone who commits seditious libel will be brought before a military court and punished as suitable. In writing that even young children must work, Louverture diminishes the need for extra slave help, and by making seditious libel punishable, he ensures that everyone will do as he says. Toussaint Louverture should be commemorated for his role as ruler of Saint Domingue in that he used it to help protect the freedom of the slaves he had fought to free. (Documents C and D)

 

Just as Toussaint Louverture should be remembered for his role as Ruler of Saint Domingue, he should also be recognized as a military leader in the pursuit of maintaining the freedom of slaves. In Madison Smart’s 2007 biography of Louverture she discusses his response to a revolt against his military whom he had had support and enforce the use of plantations. Louverture responds by having the leader of the revolt, his own nephew, executed. Although this is a rather malicious move, it supports the idea that as a military leader he worked to maintain the liberation of slaves. Louverture knew that in order to prevent slavery from becoming necessary again, people would have to work hard on plantations so that enough profits could be made without the necessity of slave workers. By shutting down a revolt against this action and by using his own military to enforce that plantation work be carried out, Louverture worked to keep the people of Saint Domingue free from slavery. Louverture is also portrayed as a military leader trying to maintain the abolition of slavery in William Wells Brown’s “A Description of Toussaint Louverture” from The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements (1863). When Louverture realizes that the French are coming to the port city of Samana to enslave his people, he orders his generals to abandon the towns and head for the mountains. This is yet another example of Louverture using his military leadership in an effort to keep his people free from the wraths of slavery. Louverture should be commemorated and remembered for his role as a Military Commander who acted according to his pursuit of freedom for all. (Documents E and F)

 

Although Louverture was tricked into a negotiation meeting where he was taken prisoner and sent to France where he died in 1803, he was still very influential in leading Saint Domingue to become free of slavery and eventually break away from France to become Haiti in 1804. Toussaint Louverture should be remembered mostly for his role as a liberator of slaves who also ruled Saint Domingue and was a military commander in his efforts to ensure that the abolition of slavery.