Above the Law; Below Legitimacy

During the 2nd of our 3 week creation of the questions for our Honors History class final exam, we created 40 more questions for the topic of Buffalo Soldiers and Native Americans.  To start the week, we watched the ABC-Clio videos and took notes on a Google Doc shared by the entire class.  The class took notes on key people, important events, key terms, and main ideas just like last week. 

Buffalo soldiers were Union African Americans who were part of the nation's army.  Native Americans are considered to be the first groups of people that were living in the Great Plains and more of Western America.  They lived in peace because there were no enemies living out in Western America of course before Westward Expansion occurred.  They were very dependent on Buffalo for their resources.  They would use the meat for food, the skin for clothing, and the bones for hunting weapons and other tools.  There were vast ceremonies and other rituals.  Being a kid as a Native American seems to be more fun than being a kid today; at least when you look at the first time.  Children would get to spend time playing games and doing certain activities also being taken by their fathers learning how to hunt.  Women would often make the clothing and it was also more common that women would find the herbs and plants for medicines though the plants were somewhat useful, there was never an actual cure to an illness.  For a boy, becoming a man was probably the most exciting time of his life as he would complete a puberty ceremony into adulthood. 

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was a law that said Indian tribes in the South had to leave where they were and move west of the Mississippi River or they will live under the laws of white Americans which really means they could be treated poorly, beaten, raped, and go into slavery when it was still legal just about 25 years prior to the Civil War.  However, Andrew Jackson was a pro-slavery guy and certainly wouldn't make a law to protect the Indians that stayed if they decided to.  The reason for this expansion; just so Jackson and the "real Americans" in which he called about 100,000 more could have more land to settle with.  While many of the Indian tribes did move westward just out of either fear or not wanting violence, they were reluctant to do so because the territory where Jackson was making them move to which he did say if they did so without conflict they would be able to live in peace, the land was unknown, and there were fewer natural resources that they could use.  Then in the 1840's, there was the great gold rush that brought more and more whites westward.  This resulted in whites settling on the new Indian territory, you know the territory that Jackson promised there would be no problems had they moved there peacefully.  From the 60's to the 90's, American Indian wars occurred in the great plains as Gold was discovered in the Dakotas.  Immigrants were abusing the Sioux tribe until they decided that they had enough and fought back.  Congress in the 1860's created the 6 regiments making Buffalo Soldiers.  They fought against the Indians for years until 1876 when the government ordered all Indians to return to their reservations though many took a long time to reach the plains and others were ignored leading to more confrontation amongst natives and whites. 

We looked at other documents.  One document called A century of dishonor discusses the Indians' experiences throughout all of the expansion.  One quote says "These Indians found themselves surrounded by gold seeking settlers from the East."  At this point, whites were already settled in the new areas for Indians and conflict was already arising.  It was too late for the government to do anything that would have a huge affect on the problems.  And the only thing that they would consider doing is making the Indians move again most likely because of a circumstantial change in this case, the gold that was being found all over the western part of the country.  The Indians followed the order of Jackson by moving westward and by doing that, it was agreed that they would live in peace.  Yet, when gold suddenly rises out of the ground, the rules change because it's a new circumstance and the government sees an opportunity to make money and are completely oblivious to the law they had created on Indian Removal.  The fact the word Removal is linked to the word Indian and is a law gives off the feeling that the main purpose of the law is to slowly and gradually diminish total Indian population making it look like it is only pushing them out west.  There was also the General Allotment Act which tried to get Indians to embrace American culture so maybe this is a sign that some policies didn't bring the worst if followed or not.  In 1890, at Pine Ridge, over 150 Sioux Indians were killed in a massacre between American Indian ghost dancers and the U.S. army and Buffalo Soldiers.  While the policies may have led to some good things, I personally believe that some policies like Jackson's had long lasting affects that would destroy the native in the long run and may have been discriminatory towards them while others did not have discrimination put within them yet the enforcement of the policies led to it anyways.       

Industrial Experts

This week in our Honors History class, we began preparing for the final exam.  For our midterm back in January, we were given two hours to write two essays.  We were given time to prepare the notes two weeks prior to midterm week.  However in May, we finished a five page research paper and our teacher didn't want us to have to do what we did for midterms.  Instead, we will have an actual exam.  But, from last week until Finals, we will be studying new lessons and creating notes and questions to be put on the final.  For each lesson, the class divided amongst our groups has to create 40 questions each week.  This week's lesson was called Carnegie and Rockefeller.  To begin the unit, the class made a Google Doc accessed by everyone in the class, and the groups were assigned certain categories.  We got the notes from watching a series of video clips on ABC-CLIO.  The categories were main ideas, key people, important events, and essential terms.   After taking the notes, the class had to come up with an essential question for the lesson, which was 'How did the actions of monopolistic leaders such as Carnegie and Rockefeller affect the common American workers?'

John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839.  He was a part of the creation of the petroleum industry.  He was a strong supporter of the Union army in the Civil War.  Also, he donated nearly $500 million dollars to advancements of education and medicine.  He became a business powerhouse by 1870.  He then founded the Standard Oil company which became a monopolistic corporation in oil production.  He continued to find ways to make more money and put other oil producers out of business clinching a nationwide monopoly.  As he proceeded to do this, the public started to think that he was making all of this money and trying to be the only producer just for his own good.  People also believed that he was trying to be a business icon with the motive of not doing good for the public, just for himself and trying to end his competition.  In an interview with William Hoster, he says "I believe the gift of god is the power to make money."  He also said "I believe it is my duty to make money and still more money."  This statement shows a rich non charismatic man who just wants power but while he made this much, yes he put towards himself but also to charities as he did prior to 1870s.  He also did provide jobs to the millions of Americans while at the same time putting so many others out of work.  But donating 500 million to charity is a huge contribution.  I believe he did help American workers because while he may have made other companies lose jobs, he certainly did provide much more. 

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish rich man in the United States.  He began his life in poverty and as he got older into adulthood, he became more powerful as he controlled the U.S. steel industry.  He had a huge role in the telegraph as he wad the first man to be able to operate messages by differentiating wire transmission sounds.  He now could read messages via sound.  He became an operator of the country's telegraph lines and then eventually becoming the superintendent of the military telegraph lines.  He was a coordinator of rail transportation for the Union in the Civil War.  Once he got into the Steel Industry in the 1870s, he gained popularity amongst workers and people because there was a huge need for steel.  It boosted during the war and he became one of the leaders in production in the United States.  He provided millions of jobs as his corporation became more powerful.  This also took other jobs away but there were other popular steel companies in the U.S. that weren't selling prior to Carnegie's existence in the industry.  However, once his company boosted, so did theirs but they still were not as popular as him though very high up on the ladder.  Carnegie was a huge creator of jobs for the American workers.  He was also fair to the workers in terms of conditions and working hours.  He was a much more decent man than Carnegie was in terms of fairness to the workers.  Carnegie provided stable paying and well conditioned but very physical jobs for American workers and he had a positive impact on the commoners of the nation. 

Granted From Above or Below?

As the Civil War was coming to an end, slavery in America would also be.  Now, when the South officially surrendered the last of its troops, it didn't mean that slavery was automatically abolished.  For slavery to be abolished, it would have to pass through the Senate and the House of Representatives and eventually to President Lincoln.  The conclusion of the war marked the South's decision to allow slavery to be up abolition if passed through the United States' Government.  On April 8th, 1864, the a Senate passed the abolition bill and it was them passed by the House on January 31st, 1865.  It was then passed by Lincoln the next day and put into the Constitution symbolizing the official abolition of slavery in the United States.  This was the official grant of freedom from Lincoln, the man at the very top.  However, other sources can tell us otherwise.  Many documents that we read over and analyzed in our class have different opinions on whether or not the freedom the slaves gained came from above or below.  As a class, we analyzed an image called Freedom to the Slaves.  The man kneeling down is most likely thankful because he is being freed.  The children are either too young to understand or are thankful as well.  Now, I believe that many slaves felt that freedom should have been granted years before this image depicts.  The mother is probably thinking it is nearly too late for us to live a life every person wants, but at least my children will be free and grow up like everyone else.  The image is an example of freedom from above.  Then, our groups analyzed the documents of Lincoln.  Now, in his open letter, he says that the goal of the war in his mind was to keep the United States the way it was and he would do it any way he could as he says “If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.  Abolishing slavery was behind saving the Union on the importance ranking.  Lincoln’s main goal was to save the Union as he said in his letter.  He also said how what he does about slavery is done to help the Union so his personal beliefs are centered around the Union.  After watching the Ken Burns video, we determined that fugitive slaves were a lot to deal with as Union troops moving into the South could not support them.  Slaves followed the troops and the Unionist military did not have food and other necessities they needed.  They also could not provide them weapons to fight and would have a shortage if they met Confederates with the fugitive slaves.  Now, with the North invading the South, Lincoln did not make it public that he intended to abolish slavery as a result of the war because he would lose Delaware, Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland who were loyal to the Union but were slave states.  They would not fight for the Union if they knew the main cause of the war was to end slavery.   

 

 

 

Freedom from above means someone with higher authority or power grants freedom to those enslaved below them.  In Lincoln’s open letter, he states “What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do it because I believe it helps save the Union….I intend no modification of my often expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.”  He is focused on saving the Union but he knows the slaves must be freed which shows freedom from above.  The, we read his Emancipation Proclamation.  It also shows freedom from above because, well, he basically said all current and future slaves (offspring of female slaves) would be forever free.  In the Gettysburg Address of 1863, he stated “Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedication to all men being equal.  Lincoln cared very much about the slaves and he wanted them to be free.  He believed many had fought for slaves to be free and were very nobly advanced.  Now, many sources can argue that freedom came from below which is when the slaves themselves work together and stand up for themselves to make change.  Documents X and Y say a slightly different story.  Document X is a letter from General Ambrose E. Burnside to Edwin M. Stanton in March of 1862.  “They are now a source of anxiety to us, the city is being overrun with fugitives from surrounding towns and cities.  This shows freedom from below because all of the slaves made themselves a hassle to deal with and they gained freedom that way because the troops could not put up with it.  Document Y is a photo showing slaves making a difference and standing up for rights they deserve on a Southern plantation in Missouri.

 

While official freedom came from above, the real reason why Lincoln got more focused on slavery as the war started to come to an end is because of the slaves working as a whole and fighting for what they believed in.  Therefore, freedom was fought for which was recognized by as well as freedom being granted from above.         

 

Civil War

In this lesson, we learned about all of the battles during the Civil War.  To learn about each, everyone in the class got a different battle on a chart of battle descriptions numbered 1-20.  Every student has to find a scholarly source to get information on their his/her battle.  We had to find the name of the battle along with the date(s), the theater in which it occurred, the victor, and the reasons for the results that occurred.  Then, we were instructed to create a QR Code and print it out on a piece of paper making a sign.  The next day, everyone took their signs and put them in different locations of the school.  Each person had to know the location of the battle number above his/her battle so that when people scanned in, they could find the next sign's relative location.  On the scavenger hunt, when we scanned into each code, we had to copy and paste the information that the code brought us to into our Google Doc so that way, we would have all of the information about each battle.  The next day, we used Padlet and everyone posted the information on two battles.  There were two clear patterns forming as everyone made entrees about who dominated the Eastern and Western Theaters.  The Eastern Theater was from the Appalachian Mountains to the coast.  The Western Theater was west and beyond of the mountains.  There was also the Naval Theater which was in the ports and on the ocean.

The first pattern was dominance by the Union in the Western Theater.  The majority of battles that occurred in the Western Theater were won by the Union.  In the battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh, the Union had soldiers that were very familiar with the area and they were able to surround the Confederate troops and forced their surrender.  Also, the battle of Chattanooga Tennessee had the Confederates unorganized and struggled from poor communication and were defeated by the Union.  Another example would be at the battle of Vicksburg and Henry Fort.  The Union had stronger lines   and stronger tactics of warfare.  At the battle of Baton Rouge, the Union had more men which was a huge advantage over the outnumbered Confederates.  In the Eastern Theater, battles like the Battle of Chancellor and the Battle of Fredericksburg were won by the Confederates.  In the Battle of Spotsylvania, the Confederates had planned well ahead building fortifications and entrenchments allowing them to defeat the Union.  A major battle won by the Confederates was the Battle of Fort Sumter where the Confederates were well composed and well supplied. They launched an air attack on the fort which destroyed it.  In the Naval Theater, the Union dominated.  In battles such as the Battle of Fort Henry/Henry Fort, the Confederate owned fort only had outdated guns as weapons.  It was an easy target located on the Tennessee River as the Union used superior weapons to blast the Confederates.  Also, the Battle of Fort Donelson was located on a river and the Union had large gunboats to surround the Confederacy with the rivers around them. 



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In all of the battles, the victors won with similar strategies.  The Union in their victories in their battles had outnumbered the Confederates.  Also, Union victories could fall into the responsibility of outdated or unsupplied weapons fought with by the Confederacy.  That could also go against them as well in the Battle of Fort Sumter and the Union troops couldn't defend themselves against a raging Confederate siege.  However, the majority of Battles were won by the Union because of a more soldiers and more supplied weapons.



Battle of Chattanooga Photo:

Image Citation:

"Battle of Chattanooga." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 10 Nov. 2014. Web. 08 Apr. 2015.

The One that Started it All..

The Election of 1860 ignited the start of the civil war.  It is also responsible for being the reason for the deep divisions of slavery.  These divisions can help explain the reason behind the events of the Fugitive Slave Act and Bleeding Kansas.  The photo below shows how the country was mostly divided between Lincoln and Breckenridge.  Lincoln was against slavery and won every Northern State.  Breckenridge saw slavery as a priority so the Southern states supported him.  Steven A. Douglas only was victorious in one state along with the New Jersey mess.  He split Jersey with Lincoln.  Douglas believed that people should vote on whether slavery should exist or not.  Missouri supported him because people crossing into Kansas to fight where pro slavery.  John Bell wanted to make no changes to the Constitution, which meant he thought slavery should stay so he won the states as you can see are between pro and anti-slavery.  Lincoln went on to win the election with just the support from the North.  The class groups then analyzed the five images of Civil War Art.  One of the images drawn (shown in our video) shows an American flag in the sky on April 11th, 1861.  That was the night before the confederate attacks on Fort Sumter.  Lincoln's men on April 12th fought the rebellions which was the official start of the Civil War.

Link to our Educreations Video 



https://www.educreations.com/lesson/embed/30080837/?ref=embed"

Who has the Keys to Success?

The pull of the trigger to start the Civil War had been inching closer and closer during the 1850's.  Our class learned about the North's and the South's statistics and how their strategies.  We analyzed many documents to figure out how each sides' differences could help lead them to victory.  The first document my group looked at was a railroad and slave density document.  It showed the railroad system and the entrenched slavery cotton production in the South.  The next one was called Slavery by the Numbers.  It gave facts about what the slaves did, how many there were, and what typical master was.  We then looked at the Resources for each side.  There were many pie charts that showed each advantage including population, slave population, and industrial and agricultural advantages.  We also read the Strengths of the North and South.  It showed what each side was particularly strong in and how they could benefit from them. 

After the document analysis, everyone in the class had to make their own Infographic.  The point of making it was to show how the important advantages of each side could affect the outcome of the Civil War.  There were many important points.  One was population where the North occupied 75% of the entire United States' population so that way, they could send people to go to war and have others stay back and help work farms and industries.  Another important point was the railroad mileage.  The North had 22,000 miles of railroads which is 13,000 more miles than the South at only 9,000.  The North had a big advantage here because they were able to transport more people, goods, but most importantly weapons and ammunition for fighting.  The next big point was the agricultural resources.  In our previous units, we have determined that slavery was entrenched in Southern-American society to produce substantial amounts of cotton and crops.  By the 1860s, the South had produced 2.28 billion pounds of cotton reaching a revenue of almost $200 million dollars in exports.  The South sold to foreign countries and the North.  The North's textile mills needed cotton for production and their economy would decrease dramatically had the South stopped selling cotton to them.  The South had the power to do that if they wanted to.  However, that would also lead to their economy degenerating as well.  Lastly, there was the war plan.  The North had a very clever strategy called the Anaconda Plan.  The North cut off the oceanic ports of the South and stopped the shipping through the Mississippi River.  That meant that goods nor weapons and supplies could be imported.  The South used an act of attrition, and they waited for an attack from any direction inland.  The North overall had more advantages than the South did.  Oh, and they also had the right kind of people, like the ones that wanted to abolish slavery, not keep it.




Link to my Piktochart

 https://magic.piktochart.com/output/4854999-untitled-infographic
          

Laws are Being Passed, but Not One Helps the Big Problem

There were may causes to the Civil War.  Slavery entrenched in our society and the country's morality of slaves were the overall reason.  Between the span of 1850 to 1859, many events occurred that got the attention of the government.  All of these events led to acts or laws being passed resolving it.  However, no one was really focusing on the big picture and that was slavery itself.  The 'elephant in the room' which was our class lesson is the debate over slavery for 19th century American politics.  In class, we read and learned about all of the events that took place.  Prior to these events, we learned about the Missouri Compromise that took place in 1820.  The South wanted fair representation in Senate so the compromise split the northern free and the southern slave states to 11 each.  However, all territory north of the 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude line would be free states.  Then came the gold rush in the unclaimed area of California in 1849.  California requested to join the union as a state in 1850.  This would be unfair to either the North or South because one side would have more representation than the other.  Henry Clay then proposed a five part compromise.  The first part was Texas.  Texas got to claim land in dispute and were given $0.01 billion (just a complicated way to say $10 million).  They were given this to pay off their debt to Mexico from the previous Mexican-American war.  This helped pro-slavery.  The second was part was the matter of Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah.  The decision on whether or not they would be slave states would be determined by the inhabitants when applying for statehood.  This also favored pro-slavery.  Third was the abolishment of the slave trade (buying and selling) in D.C..  Although slavery was still allowed there, this favored anti-slavery.  Then California got to join the nation as a free state which obviously satisfied anti-slavery.  Lastly was the Fugitive Slave Act which overall stated that if a slave escaped to the North, they were not free and they had to be returned to their owner.  So, if you were a slave, you were a slave no matter where you were and this went for pro-slavery.  Another big event that occurred was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.  Senator Steven Douglas wanted to have a northern transcontinental railroad.  However, the land which it was going to pass through would only be beneficial to slave labor.  He suggested that slave labor should extend into Kansas and Nebraska but that would violate the Missouri Compromise.  However, the act did pass and it made it much easier for southern slave owners to extend northward over the line.  This benefited pro-slavery because slavery was extending and American politicians passed the act without worrying about the Missouri Compromise.  This helps show that the 'elephant in the room' is the decisions and laws within slavery, not just slavery as a whole.    

 (I give permission to Liam Dwyer, Ben Fischer, Jamie Callahan, and Julia Pustizzi to use this image.  We all helped make it but it was created by me.  Just so Mrs. Gallagher knows.) 

 

Clearly, slavery as one big topic was being ignored by American politicians.  The Kansas-Nebraska Act led to more hell revolving around slavery.  Bleeding Kansas of 1856 is safe to say probably the most violent of these acts.  Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner gave a speech that lasted two days.  It was called The Crime Against Kansas.  The bold senator was an anti-slavery advocate and he criticized southerners attracting and forcing slavery upon these territories.  He made insults to Senator Andrew Butler.  Butler's insane      nephew Representative Preston Brooks took it to heart and two days after Sumner's speech, Brooks went to Sumner's desk and brutally beat him with a cane.  People in the South honored him and this made the North very angry.  Southern advocates also burned down the anti-slavery capital which was Lawrence, Kansas.  The other capital was for Pro-slavery was Lecompton, Kansas.  In return, another group of insane people only this time from the North roused five pro-slavery supporting men from their beds, dragged them to their homes, and executed them in front of their families.  This event you could say favored both pro and anti- slavery because both sides inflicted violence on the other.  One last event was the Dred Scott case in 1857.  Dred Scott was born into slavery.  He was a slave in Missouri.  However, the importation of slaves was illegal at that time.  This led to him filing a lawsuit against his owner because he and his wife had lived in states where slavery was illegal.  He wanted to apply for citizenship but his slave owner would not let him.  However in his case, the United States Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 against the his case.  This definitely favored pro-slavery because now slaves could not become citizens nor sue in court.  Slaves were slaves no matter where and the Missouri compromise turned out to be something that kept going further and further away in the distance.  This is what eventually led northerners to the attack which was the beginning of the Civil War.  All of these events help show that the 'elephant in the room' is slavery as one, but it the surrounding aspects caused by slavery and no one saw nor cared and probably there were politicians that didn't want to care but want to make it seem like they did.