A Big Issue with Little Resolution

The controversial topic of slavery continued to be a topic of constant debate and change through the nineteenth century.  You have the antislavery North against pro slavery South. Both have strong feelings for what the believe in and both can't seem to permanently compromise on the matter. Some may say that slavery was an "elephant in the room". This phrase is used to describe something that is known but being ignored. So how do we know that slavery was an elephant in the room? That was our job to find out.

As a class, we looked at many events leading up to the civil war. In groups, we made a timeline using the RWT timeline application. We started with the Compromise of 1850. This compromise was a temporary solution to a never ending problem. The Gadsden Purchase that followed in 1853 worried Northern antislavery advocates because they couldn't get to this new territory as fast as the southerners could to settle it and vote it as either a free or slave state. As a result, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed which allowed Northerners to get to these new territories and settle them by railroad easier than the South could. They wanted to settle and get enough people there to vote them as salve states. The result, "Bleeding Kansas" The Missouri Compromise no longer is relevant considering it isn't being put into affect. The solutions still didn't do the trick.  To follow, Dred Scott thinks he should be free because he and his wife live in a free state, but court rules he is a slave and slaves aren't free or citizens. There was still so much controversy and no solution. This is shown when Charles Sumner makes a fiery anti slavery speech and is later attacked with a cane by Preston Brooks. This proves that slavery is still an ongoing unsolved issue that cause civilized men to resort to violence to show what they believe.

My timeline of events that I created is below.

The information used to create this timeline has been linked above in the text and from the class notes slides I linked to word "class". The images are from Wikipedia, ushistory.org, causesofthecivilwar.wikispaces.com, gadsdenpurchase.com, pbs.org, and licoln.lib.niu.edu  .Also used was the "America: Pathways to Present" textbook.  

Just A System

Slavery was a much debated issue in American during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. People began to think that slavery was declining in the eighteenth century, but they would soon find out that they were very wrong. To begin our discussing slavery before the civil war, our class took a look at slavery in the  Founder's Constitution. We found that in the constitution, there was a ten dollar maximum tax on each imported slave. Also in article 4 section 2 clause 3, it states that any enslaved person should not be permitted to escape into another state and if they do, they have to be returned to their work place. The final clause we read says that for every five slaves, three would be counted in the House of Representatives. This document is evidence of slavery being entrenched because people during the time would know this constitution and respect it and take it as slavery being established in the country when it was founded.

Next, we took a look at the cotton gin by reading Cotton is King: Slavery is Entrenched in American Society 

Cotton is King: Slavery is Entrenched in American Society.and watching a  video on the cotton gin.  The cotton gin was invented in 1792 by Eli Whitney to increase the profit margin for cotton by cleaning the sticky seeds from it. Little did he know, this invention would have a huge impact on American history. By looking at a module showing the relationship between the cotton production and slavery after the cotton gin was invented. The spread of cotton and slavery over the course of almost 100 years shows a demarcation in slavery. In 1790, the entire south produced only 1.5 million pounds of cotton. That number rises to 331 million pounds in 1830. Then, it goes onto to rise to 2.28 billion pounds of cotton that was being produced in 1860. Obviously, there is a clear demand and rise in production of cotton. While the amount of cotton that is being produced keeps rising, so does the slave population. In 1790, the slave population is at 690,000. It increases to 2,010,000 slaves in 1830 and to 3,954,000 in 1860. Take a look at these pictures from the module below. 

Then, we started to take a closer look at the morality of slavery. First, we analyzed three documents on Frederick Douglass, George Fitzhugh, and John Brown. John Brown was against slavery. He wanted to lead his men into Harper's Ferry Virginia to gather weapons and create an uprising against slavery. He was stopped and most of his men were killed and captured. Smith didn't believe in peaceful protest. His stride to abolish slavery took him to extreme lengths and his actions cause mixed reactions from the north and harsh reactions in the south. George Douglass was for slavery and thought that it was beneficial to society and protected the poor. He says that slaves are being treated better than the free people of the north. Also, his sates, "negro slaves are the happiest and freest people in the whole world". That is a quite shocking statement to hear today because we know that that is definitely not the case. Frederick Douglas was the first black citizen to hold a high ranking position in society. He was asked to speak at a Fourth of July celebration years prior to the civil war and he made it clear that he didn't feel like celebrating the Fourth of July and liberty was right because there were so many people enslaved.

In groups we were asked to read about one of the three men I described above and create an image surrounded by words form the documents we analyzed about them. My group did John Brown and the image is below.

To further look into slavery, we watched the docudrama Prince Among Slaves. This video told us the story of Abdhul Rhaman. Abdhul was a prince from Futa Jallon until he was sold into slavery. Once he was sold into slavery, his hair which represented his nobility from Futa Jallon was forced cut. He was mocked and given the nickname "prince" when trying to explain his high ranking position from his home. Because of his race, Abdhul Rhaman was forced into slavery and forced to adapt to a new life where he was part of the lowest ranking class. His identity was stripped form his and his life was taken up by unhappiness and working. When a system of slavery is based upon race, it makes people feel as if they are better and worse the others which is no way to think. The system of slavery  ignored everything about their slaves except the fact that they were owned and used to work and make profit. It ignored the fact that these slaves had identities and were all individual people, and instead they were seen as just a system. 

The Women Work Wonders

For many years women have been seen as less than men. However, the opportunities given to women and the role of women in our society has become greater as the years go on. The Women's Reform movement in the mid 19th century was able to give this issue a jump start. Take a look at this image below.

This image is the Sphere of Women. I marked this image up in class on the app to skitch to highlight the parts of the image that gave us an insight on the role of women in the 19th century. As you can see the obvious jobs that of women from that time and still today is cleaning and taking care of the children which includes educating them. Also, the curtain in the background suggests that the women's job is done "behind the scenes" and in the comfort of their own homes. 

The document The Rights of Women: Laws and Practices, gives us an idea of just what restrictions were put specifically on women during this time. For example, it is stated that is is unacceptable for women to speak in public. They also cannot own land once they are married and men beating their wives was not seen as such an awful thing like it would be seen as today. Women were something that a man could own and control. 

Finally, something was done about this issue. The Seneca Falls Convention was held in New York and The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions was created. This was resolutions to some of the restrictions I mentioned earlier from the Laws and Practices document. Reactions to this sudden demand for women's rights created mixed reactions from the public. This was the first time that the women's right to vote was publicly demanded. One newspaper, The Mechanics Advocate, Female Department, was speaking out to all the women saying that if they really were a true women they would know that demanding rights and promoting equality was  not womanly and not right. This newspaper even apologizes for the womens' actions. However, The North Star published an article saying that since the rights of colored people are now being recognized than women's should as well. 

Obviously, the way women are looked at and treated has drastically changed today since this time. I as a women do not feel like I have any less power than a male. Some people do still find inequality between sexes as an issue today. For example, women are sometimes still payed less then man for the same jobs. Women have gained a better reputation and been given more rights as the years have passed and I think a lot of this was a result of the women who organized the Seneca Falls Convention and finally spoke out about equality.

For a quick clip with additional information and quotes from the convention, watch the video below: