Andrew Jackson

The essential question for this week was "Is Andrew Jackson's long-standing reputation as a "the people's president" deserved? Why? Why not?" I believe that it was deserved. Jackson was set on pleasing everyone. He wanted the poor and the rich to be equal. Jackson thought that the bank had too much power so he tried to even it out with the Bank War. Also he came up with her spoils system, that is when a political party gives government jobs to voters / supporters after an election victory. Also called rotation in office. Some people didn't like this approach so Jackson sent s letter. Jackson's letter to congress was basically saying there is nothing wrong with change and just because someone's been doing a job for very long doesn't mean you have to keep them at that job, you need to shake things up.

This is a message from Andrew Jackson to Congress. Jackson is saying that it is wrong to remove the Indians because it was their land first. He thinks that they should move voluntarily not by force. He wants to have a designated area for each tribe to use in anyway they want. Jackson is a people person from the point of view of the Indians they probably like him because he isn't persuading them or forcing them in anyway to leave their home.

Congress of Vienna

This week the essential question was "What should people in power do when their power is threatened?" In class we learned about the members of the congress. We learned about the motives and decisions of each person. Kelmens Von Metternich of Austria was the host of the Congress. Napoleon wanted peace with Metternich because he lost all his troops in Russia. Metternich agreed on having peace between them. There was just one catch, Napoleon had to give up his conquest and return to the original boundaries of France. Napoleon refused. He even threatened to destroy Vienna if Austria   Started a war against France. And when he escaped exile he kept to his word. So he continued his conquest until his final defeat on June 8, 1815 at the battle of Waterloo. In class we pretended to be the people of the congress and made decisions about how we would handle things. We were given many options and we were trusted to choose the option we would have carried out if we were in charge. Then we had to explain our reasoning as to why we picked that one. After the class guessed and explained he found out which really took place during the real Congress of Vieena.

Another key concept was The Holy Alliance was initiated by Czar Alexander of Russia. During this time Monarchs had divine right of rule. Also they believed that any revoution was treason and was taken as you fighting against God. All countries involved with Congress of Vienns participated but the only one that didn't was England. During this they ensured everyone that the next ruler of France would not be "another Napoleon." Also that they would not be able to access that much power like Napoleon. 

The Congress of Vienna in the end did do the right thing by everyone. They helped everyone rebalance and calm back down after the chaos of Napoleon. The representatives of the congress did a good job at separating their personal feeling toward what they were doing and just got things done. 

Social Reform: Public Education

This letter is written by Horace Mann. Horace Mann was know as the "father of public education" because he was just that. He was the man who made it possible for not only wealthy children but poor children to get an education for free. Horace wrote this letter to the Massachusetts legislature to get the point across hat all children should be born with the right to an education. This source is trustworthy because I read about the website and they are well recommended and reliable. Also it is from 1846 and Mann was alive during that time so it is believable that he wrote this. During the time in which Mann wrote this not a lot of children were being educated, just the wealthy ones. So, he felt the need to make it so all children could have education no matter their economic state. The document taught me that Mann was dead set on getting an education for everyone that wanted one and that he would stop at nothing even if he had to do it all on his own. This letter only gives you Mann's perspective on the event. As support to Mann's opinions he states that "Massachusetts is parental in their government." Mann's letter to the legislator is meant to open up the eyes of the government to what is going on with the future of the world.   

URL Link: http://unveilinghistory.org/wp-content/lessons/2013/donohue/B_document-set.pdf

Citation: "Horace Mann, 1846 to the Massachusetts Legislator." Letter to Massachusetts Legislator. 1846. MS. N.p.

Latin American Revoultions

During the time we were studying the Latin American revolutions the essential questions were,  "Why is it essential to acknowledge human value regardless of race?  How are the events of the Latin American Revolutions evidence of this social imperative?"  It is important to have the essential question because it helps us to have a deeper understanding of what we are learning as we learn it and so we don’t veer too far from the main idea and main focus. it is important to think about this particular essential question because even today we still have people that make judgments, decisions, and opinions based on race. Even though we have come so far from where they were during the Latin American revolutions it is still a current problem. In class we made a pie chart showing the percentages of the population of each race in Latin America. We found that there was 50% Indian people, 23% Creoles, which are white Europeans born in the New World, 11% black slaves, 8% Mulattoes, and free blacks which are half white European and half black, 7% Mestizos which is people who descend from a white parent with Indian decent, and lastly only 1% of the whole population were white Europeans, also know as Peninsulares during the time. Even though there was only 1% Peninsulares they were still the most important and highest up on the social scale. anyone else was thought of as below them or little. The only reason why anyone was where they were on the social scale was by the color of their skin. The only reason why someone was thought of as more was because they had light skin.

Gran Colombia Timeline-

• April 19, 1810- a junta expels Spanish governor of the province of Venezuela and takes control
• July, 1811- National Assembly in Caracas formally declares Venezuela's independence
• July, 1812- Spanish authorities rally and recover a military initiative, regaining control of the entire province
• 1813- Simón Bolívar returned to Venezuela and won 6 successive engagements against Spanish forces
• August 6, 1813- entered Caracas and took dictatorial control and power
• July, 1814- Bolívar lost Caracas again, then headed to Bogotá and recaptures it from Spain temporarily
• 1817- back in Venezuela, built an army on Orinoco River, deciding there that he will strike the capital city of New Granada
• 1819- Bolívar's small force of 2500 men crossed a succession of flooded tributaries of the Orinoco, followed by a mountain crossing where a significant number of his men died
• August 7, 1819- the Spanish army surrenders in an engagement at Boyocá
• December 17, 1819- the republic of Colombia is proclaimed, covering the region of modern Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela
• June 24, 1821- "The Liberator" wins a battle at Carabobo in Venezuela, giving him Caracas.  
• May 24, 1822- Bolívar's favorite general, Antonio José de Sucre, wins a battle at Pinchicha, Ecuador, bringing the patriots into Quito.  
• May, 1830- Bolívar resigns and later dies of tuberculosis
• September, 1830- Ecuador and Venezuela formally secede from Gran Colombia

The group I was a part of was assigned to create a timeline for all the events that took place during the revolution in Gran Colombia. After we did the jigsaw, which was unscrambling the events and putting them in a chronological order, we were to figure two commonalities/ similarities and one difference between the revolution in Gran Colombia and any of the other revolutions. Our difference was that every battle was fought in a different country. Our two similarities with Brazil and Mexico were that there were wars and battles fought during all of the revolutions. We also found out that and that all of revolution were being fought against European powers at the time.  Even though all three revolutions were taking different routes, race was still an issue in all of them. In Gran Colombia it was an issue because the Spanish governor of Venezuela that was overthrown because he was bringing Spanish ideas about racial inequality to Venezuela along with him. Because of the control Spain had people were being treated differently so they wanted to be free of that and be independent so they tried to break free of the unjust form and treatment by the government. Race was a problem in Brazil because of the mine-workers. All the people of color were working exhausting jobs without rest that none of them wanted to do. This made them extremely aggravated because they had these jobs only because of the shade of their skin. In Mexico Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla fought against the racist royals who were taking land from the Indians and Mestizos because they were dark.

Race is still a problem in modern day. Recently a Ferguson, Missouri police man, Darren Wilson, shot a black man, Michael Brown who was supposedly unarmed. When I was watching the news the television anchor asked the officer “Mr. Wilson, if Brown was a white man coming at you, would the situation have gone down differently? Or, would you still you have shot him?” This question caught me quite off guard because that is a very racist thing to ask. this shows that even though the anchor probably didn’t mean it to be racist, it shows that they are not thought of as equals because they are being contrasted not compared. Most music and rap people listen to these days is quite racist if you listen to the lyrics or watch the music videos. in the the song Hello Kitty by Avril Lavigne, she uses all Asian back up dancers in her music video and that is thought of a racist because that is saying that all Asians love hello kitty and that only Asians can like it. So, I believe that race is still a very relevent thing to consider.

Revolutions of 1840-1848

During class this week we learned about the Revolutions of 1840-1848. The activity we did to help us learn in a fun and effective way was that the class was split up five groups and each group was assigned a revolt. Each group made a Survey Monkey about their assigned revolution. A Survey Monkey is a way to make an online 10-12 question test. Once all the surveys were done the class took all of each others survey after reading about the revolts. after all the people had submitted their answers we looked over the correct answers and saw the percentages of the answers that people chose. We mostly focused on the last question of each survey, “Would you rate this revolution on a scale from a success, minor success, neutral, minor failure, to complete failure?" the question at the end was there to help us answer the essential question which was, “Would you rate this revolution as a success, minor success, neutral, minor failure, or complete failure?"

My group was assigned to the Hungarian Revolution. The Hungarian Revolution was in 1848, in Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic. The revolution began in Austria. Metternich fled right when the revolution started. Louis Kossuth led the Hungarian Nationalist Movement. This movement was about them wanting an independent government, end to serfdom, and a they wanted a written constitution. It wasn't just the Austrians that felt this way. The Czech people  wanted similar things that the Hungarian nationalists in Prague did. The Austrians were in over their heads so they agreed to the reforms. But then the Austrians and the Russians teamed up and put the rebels that were in Budapest in jail, exiled them, and even executed them. Kossuth fled. We used a lot of these facts and others from the other information provided to create our survey monkey. This is a link to our survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TDY99M2

We said that our revolution was neutral. It didn’t really make anything better or worse it just happened and nothing came from it. Some of the other groups had slightly more successful revolutions, but there were no real successes. For example, The French revolution was a partial success. First of all the biggest reason why it was not a great success was because their President Louis Napoleon I was an awful leader. The people of France made a great decision by letting all adult men vote and that they elected Louis Phillipe to be the new leader. “It created a strong president and a one-house legislature.” (French Revolution of 1848 document) There were even some revolutions that were more of a failure, like the Decembrist Revolt. This was a complete and utter failure, many people were killed in very harsh and cruel ways. The people that were killed were mostly the leaders and instigators of the conspiracy. All this revolution did was cause a commotion and all of Russia was taught a lesson because of it. Even though most of the revolutions weren’t complete successes there was more revolutions that ended in a neutral or positive way than there was negative outcomes. So all in all the revolutions of 1840-1848 were more neutral and successful than they were failures.

Rise of Democracy

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   In class we learned about democracy. What is democracy? Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives

   . We talked about what it took to have a good nation. How democratic was the U.S in the early 1800's? We looked at charts, quotes and painting that depicted democracies over time, well functioning democracies as well as a corrupt democracy. In the painting of the corrupt democracy the men were drunk so obviously they were not all there or taking any of it seriously. All people did not have a fair opportunity to vote so a man by the name of Dorr tried to fix that we discussed this and put his in out final project as well as the other documents. After we talked and took notes we made posters showing what we learned.

Tossaint Louverture DBQ

George Washington is by far one of the best military commanders and rulers of all time he was also one of the all time biggest slave owners. Even though he seems like the best men in history he was only the best in some aspects. But, if you look at him in others ways he can be seen as one of the worst. Toussaint Louverture was three main things in his life. Most importantly, Louverture should be remembered as a liberator of slaves. Secondly, he was a military commander. Lastly, Louverture was the ruler of Saint Domingue, a French colony, known as Haiti today. Back in 1789, when it was still called Saint Domingue, there were about 500,000 slaves spread across approximately 8,000 plantations which were owned by 32,000 rich, white planters. Louverture spent most of his adult life focused on freeing the slaves.

            Toussaint Louverture is known as a liberator of salves. This means he helped to free the slaves and abolish slavery in Saint Domingue. Document A, A Timeline of abolition in Saint Domingue created by various sources, states that in 1791, a slave revolt broke out in the north part of Saint Domingue. Louverture joined the revolution by servings as a doctor. Not only was he serving as a doctor but he was helping to command a small group of slave soldiers. Then in 1794, the French ruler at the time, Robespierre, abolished slavery in France and all it colonies so “Toussaint and his troops stop their revolt and now support the French.” This quote from Document A, shows that all Louverture wanted was for the slaves to be free and once he got that he was content. But, in 1802, Napoleon, the new French ruler, sent in 21,000 of his soldiers to reinstate slavery in Saint Domingue as well as all the French colonies. Since the slaves now had a taste of what freedom was like there is no way that they are going down without a fight and that is exactly what Louverture told the French. “Could men who have once enjoyed the benefits of liberty look on calmly while it is taken away from them!” Toussaint Louverture said to the French Directory in Document B, Toussaint Louverture, “Letter to the French Directory, November 1797.” Louverture tells the French that “… if they had a thousand lives, they would sacrifice them all rather than be subjected again to slavery.” This quote from Document B is implying that Louverture and the formally freed slaves of Saint Domingue will die trying before they will surrender to slavery. Toussaint Louverture will do anything even risk his own life all in the pursuit of giving all the black men women and children of Saint Domingue a happy and free life.  Document C, the Saint Domingue Constitution of 1801. Signed by Toussaint Louverture in July 1801, states in the third article of the constitution “There cannot exist slaves in this territory, servitude is therein forever abolished.” This quote is showing that Toussaint’s life work was accomplished. All people of Saint Domingue with be born and die free.

            Toussaint Louverture was an excellent military commander. In Document F, William Wells Brown, “A Description of Toussaint Louverture,” from The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements, 2^nd edition, 1863. Engraving of Toussaint Louverture, 1802 “Toussaint, with an experienced wing of the army…” Toussaint always had his soldiers alongside him ready for anything. He always had soldiers by his side because “Toussaint, by his superior knowledge of the character of his race, his humanity, generosity, and courage, had gained the confidence of all whom he had under his command.” (Document F) All of these traits were what made him such an exceptional military commander because it made the soldiers feel good about serving for him because he was a genuine man. Document E, Madison Smartt Bell, Toussaint Louverture: A Biography, 2007, tells us that even though Louverture was a really great guy he also had his moments where he seemed like a not so great guy. For instance Louverture once “…summoned certain men to step out of the ranks and blow their own brains out.” (Document E) Louverture did this not because he wanted to but because he felt as though he had to. This shows his military side, which is not always pretty but, in order to be a good military commander you have to do what is right for the army and safety of the people and Louverture was good at making sure everything stayed in line. Document E tells us about the revolt that broke out on the Northern Plain October 29^th 1801. The revolt was because even though the slaves were free they still felt like slaves. The freed slaves were forced to work at the same plantations under the supervision of the same white planter for the same long hours as before so they felt like nothing has changed except they were now getting paid and they themselves could not be sold. Louverture knew that if he gave the freed slaves too much freedom they would abuse it, do nothing and be bums or run wild so he had to keep them under some set of rules. But the slaves did not like the way they were living so they set into action. Louverture would not stand for this so, he ordered the leader of the revolt, who also happened to be his nephew, to be executed.

            Lastly, Toussaint Louverture should be remembered as the ruler of Saint Domingue. In Document C, Louverture signs the Saint Domingue Constitution of 1801. This shows that the people of Saint Domingue trust him to be their highest form of power and to make an official set of laws. Document D, Toussaint Louverture, “Proclamation, 25 November 1801.” is stating clear rules about who is working and where they work. “As soon as a child can walk, he should be employed on the plantation according to his strength in some useful work…” This shows that everyone has to work even toddlers. Louverture also states what will happen if people break the rules. “Any manager or driver of a plantation upon which a foreign cultivator [field worker from another plantation] shall have taken refuge shall denounce him to the captain or commander of the section within 24 hours under penalty of one week in prison” The jail time shows how serious all the crimes are and that the people need to know the laws. The laws are quite specific so if they get in trouble by doing something illegal there is a specific punishment for that crime. As a ruler Toussaint Louverture has to set rules and be a role model for the people of Saint Domingue.

            Although Toussaint Louverture can be remembered as the ruler of Saint Domingue and as a military commander his most identifiable characteristic is that he was a liberator of slaves. He always put freeing the slaves first and he would die trying before he would let them live their whole lives as slaves, and he would do anything to protect their freedom.