Split Over Slavery

The essential question for this lesson was “How were the results of the  Election of 1860 representative of the deep divisions  over slavery?” This asks how the results of the election displayed how different people viewed slavery at the time. To answer this question we first watched a Crash Course video about this election. Next we looked at a map from the class lesson notes on edline. This map showed that Lincoln, who was against slavery and felt as though it should be contained, completely won over the north of the country. Douglas believed that the way slavery should be spread is only if the people decided on it, and the only state he managed to convince was Missouri. Breckenridge maintained that slavery should have no limits; he won over the majority of the South. Lastly Bell wanted to keep the union the way it was including all of the slavery going on in it; he won the in between states. Finally we made an explanatory video using educreations of The Election of 1860 that contained 5 images of events that helped aid the story from Civil War in Art, and 3 additional events.

The results of this election caused so many different reactions. The fact that some states seceded clearly shows how divided the South was over the slavery issue. The different politicians that won over each state also indicates how divided the nation was; The two more successful candidates of this election, Abraham Lincoln, and Breckenridge had the north and the south completely on opposite sides of the issue. This election demonstrates the deep divisions over slavery and causes a spark of a war.   


Sources:

http://www.civilwarinart.org/exhibits/show/causes/introduction/the-election-of-1860-and-seces

http://www.nps.gov/resources/story.htm?id=196 

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/Homer_Letter/Homer_Lincoln_Inauguration.jpg 

http://www.edline.net/files/_CJKPB_/20eb6e3d67b5015b3745a49013852ec4/Election_of_1860_Lesson_Notes.pdf

https://nerdfighteria.info/video/crashcourse/roNmeOOJCDY 

Teaching with Infographics

North vs. South: Success in the Civil War | Create infographics

The point of this infogram was to teach people about the differences between the North and the South and how they affected each region's success in the Civil War. To start mine off I used population, this sets the scene as to how many people there are and what the Country’s total population was at the time. Next I compared each region's industrial assets; as in things like industrial workers, and value of manufactured goods. In this category it seems that the North pretty much dominated. Next I showed the major crops that each region was producing, these were corn and cotton, the North produced more corn, but in cotton production they were completely overshadowed by the South with a ratio of 0: 5,000,000. The next topic was war strategies, in this department the North came out on top as well. The south had a good idea, to pressure other countries into helping, and it would have worked if it hadn’t been for Egypt and India that could instead supply France and Britain with cotton. Finally in my infographic, I discussed the ultimate advantages of both sides. The North has more railroad mileage, factories and the majority of the population lived in the North. The South had more military colleges so this made the more trained military officials side with the confederacy, they also did not have to initiate any military action but only had to defend their front. Overall both sides had advantages and their were many different aspects of each side that gave them an upper hand on the war.

Unfair and Undiscussed: What Else but Slavery?

The unit that we have been working on in history has been about slavery and the civil war, most recently we have been discussing how slavery has impacted all of the systems in the U.S. The question that we were trying to answer in this section is; How do we know the debate over slavery was the “elephant in the room” for American politics in the early 19th century? The expression “elephant in the room” refers to an obvious truth that is either being ignored or going unaddressed. This applies to slavery because there were certain aspects of different situations involving slavery that people ignored to achieve what they wanted regarding the issue.

My groups timeline.

Clear and concise descriptions of the events shown on our timeline.

To answer this question, in small groups we created a timeline to analyze certain events that gave slavery the controversial reputation that it has. The first largely important event on our timeline is The Compromise of 1850, this was proposed by Henry Clay and it contained 5 parts. The first was that Texas had to relinquish part of its land and then they would be given $10 million this is money that would be used to pay off it's debt to Mexico. This satisfied proslavery advocates. The second part was that the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Utah would be later be determined slavery or a free state by the inhabitants when they applied for statehood. Next the compromise of 1850 stated that the district of Columbia slave trade would be abolished, although slavery would still be permitted. This satisfied anti-slavery advocates. The next part was that California it would be admitted as a free state. This obviously satisfied those that were against slavery. The last part of the compromise of 1850 was the fugitive slave act. This required citizens to assist in the recovery of fugitive slaves; and it also denied a fugitives right to a jury trial. All of these parts to the compromise of 1850 applied to slaves, but the decisions were made regarding the states and territories not the slaves themselves. The politicians and representatives should have paid more attention to the slaves part in the whole ordeal.

The Gadsden purchase occurred in 1853. The US paid $15 million for all of Nevada, California, Utah, and much of Arizona and New Mexico but this was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Gadsden purchase was where the US paid $10 million for a much smaller strip of land. This land would later be used as a route for the transcontinental railroad. This ridiculous purchase shows how slavery was ignored because the government was willing to spend this money on a tiny strip of land just so the railroad would satisfy proslavery advocates. The trains would transport people to these territories and then the classification of these states (slave state or free state) would be determined by popular sovereignty. Since this railroad would be in the south where more proslavery advocates live they would be able to move themselves to these new territories and claim these new states as slave states.

The Dred Scott decision occurred in 1857 this was where Jets got in and slave man living in Missouri filed suit against his owner. He argued that he and his wife Harriet were free because they had once lived with their owner in states and territories where slavery was ill legal. The Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 against the Scotts. The effects of this decision were that slaves, because they're not citizens were denied the right to sue in court. Enslaved people now cannot win freedom simply by living in a free territory or state. And the Missouri compromise was ruled unconstitutional and all territories are now open to slavery. Here the one act that was protecting the balance of slave states and free states was abolished; this shows that slavery was the elephant in the room because again the people who were proslavery were doing what they wanted and did not consider the effects on the system of slavery and slaves themselves.

Another event that took place during this time that clearly demonstrated that slavery was the elephant in the room was John Brown's raid in 1859. An anti-slavery activist John Brown entered Harpers Ferry Virginia and intended to start a slave revolt. This was unsuccessful but brown managed to drag five slaveowners from their beds and murder them. Brown was eventually put on trial for treason and hung but still people were avoiding discussing the topic of slavery and taking actions that would make it more and more difficult to discuss later on. Overall slavery was clearly the elephant in the room during this time and people would do whatever it took to avoid discussing and addressing it.

Slavery in Early American Society

Slavery is Entrenched

Recently in History class we have been focusing on slavery and how it impacted American society. The question that we were trying to answer in this section was; how did slavery become entrenched, both economically and politically by the early 19th century? To do so we analyzed three clauses from the founder’s constitution. The first basically determined that the importation of slaves cannot be prohibited or taxed before 1808, but Congress can impose a tax on the importation of slaves after 1808, the tax will be a minute maximum of $10 per slave. The second determined that if a slave escapes from the state in which they are in servitude they are not free of their owner and they must be sent back. And finally the last determines that for the purpose of representation and taxation every five people bound to slavery are counted as three free people. And each free person and indentured servant count as a whole person, Native Americans are not counted. We also read an article named Cotton is King: Slavery is Entrenched in American Society. Through this we noticed that in the late 18th century people did think that slavery was declining as a result of the American and French revolutions. This article also talked about Eli Whitney and his invention of the cotton gin. This new invention was a machine that would get rid of the seeds in the cotton so it could then be spun into threads. This increased the amount of slavery because it made cotton production more prosperous therefore needing slaves to keep the industry moving. Now the economy completely relied on the production of cotton which was run by slaves. These interactive maps clearly indicate that the increase in cotton production directly affected the increase of slave population in the US.

Comparison of slavery and cotton in 1790.

Comparison of slavery and cotton in 1820.

Comparison of slavery and cotton in 1860.

Morality of Slavery

In the next section of the slavery unit we focused our attention on the morality of slavery and what people thought of it. The essential questions that we were trying to answer were; how does a system of slavery based on race affect human dignity? What human characteristics does such a system tend to ignore? To do this we analyzed three documents in class on Frederick Douglass, George Fitzhugh, and John Brown. We wrote biographies on these figures and then found a portrait of them and decorated it with words or phrases that applied to their view of slavery. George Fitzhugh was one of the best defenders of slavery in the south, he was a lawyer and an author. He thought that without an orderly system such as slavery society would self-destruct. He wrote a book named Cannibals All and he also wrote an article called Slavery Justified. He viewed liberty and equality as destructive morals and ones that got in the way of society's happiness. He also proposed the point that slaves had better lives than free laborers. Next Frederick Douglass was enslaved in the early parts of his life, while he was enslaved he defied a ban on slaves learning to read and write by learning to do these things. His second attempt at escaping he succeeded, he then went on to write a newspaper and became an active slavery abolitionist. Douglass gave a speech where he told his audience that celebrating a small reduction in slavery is wrong because there is still such a significant amount of enslaved people. Lastly John Brown believed in using violent means to end slavery. He was an abolitionist who was willing to commit very violent crimes for his cause. He led the raid of Harpers Ferry, this is where he brought 18 men to Harpers Ferry, Virginia and intended to start a slave revolt. But instead this movement backfired and the majority of his men were killed and he was captured and put on trial for treason.

This is my groups portrait of George Fitzhugh. 

Next we analyzed an article that was about the differences between slavery in Natchez, Mississippi and Futa Jallon, Africa. One of the differences that I learned about was that in Africa slavery was based on religion not race. Also in Futa Jallon only non-Muslims could be enslaved.

The slaves in Africa could hold property and they were also able to work in the fields and gardens two days a week to feed themselves and their family. Also in Futa Jallon, if one of your parents were free you could obtain the highest echelon of power. In class we also watched a PBS movie called Prince Among Slaves. This was about the son of a Futa Jallon king named Abdul Rahman who was captured while returning home from a battle. He was then traded to white settlers and shipped across the ocean to Mississippi. On that journey people were cramped together and conditions were no where near sanitary. Once he arrived in Mississippi he tried to tell his slave owner, Thomas Foster that he was a prince in his home country, but was laughed at and mocked by being given the nickname “Prince”. He escaped once but returned after realizing that he would never return home. After a while he was confirmed as a prince and would be granted freedom to return home, but he actually used his freedom to go around and try to raise money to free his children, and to lecture about the problems of slavery. Once people found out that he wasn’t Moorish they stopped supporting him and he eventually has to return home.