Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Blatant Racism Sparks Revolutions in Latin America (and the US of America)

When Europeans came to the Americas they took over the current populations and created their own colonies which were controlled by the European powers. By the time of the Latin American Revolutions the idea of race had become so deeply intertwined with the value of a person that people rebelled against the unjust control they were under. Looking back now on the way race was perceived by authority it seems insane that people could ever think that way, yet it is an important topic to discuss if you take a moment to actually look at our society today, the biggest difference is really how blatantly stated the racism was back then. The amount of power, respect, and rights a person got was decided by their race.
The social ranking started with the most powerful:
  • Peninsulares (Born in Europe)
  • to Creoles (European parents)
  • then Mestizos (European parent/Native parent)
  • Mulattoes (European parent/African parent) and Free Blacks
  • Natives
  • and finally African slaves were the very bottom of the social pyramid
Peninsulares = less than 1%
Creoles = 23%
Mestizos = 7%
Indian People = more than 50%
Mulattoes & Free Blacks = 8%
Slaves = 11%
This was severely unfair not simply because of the lack of reasoning in judging a person’s worth by race but also since the most powerful group of people was also the smallest.

The revolutions we discussed were the Mexican, Gran Colombian, and Brazilian revolutions; my group had Mexico specifically so this is the timeline of events for the Mexican Revolution:

Of the three different revolutions we studied there were similarities between each country’s fight for independence. Brazil, Mexico, and Gran Colombia all fought against European rule and had some points of success in their revolution, splitting their ties from Europe. However, after gaining freedom, the first ruler of each newly independent nation did not last long and quickly lost their new-found power. As each was a different situation, there were also stark contrasts between the revolts too. The revolution of Brazil was significantly less violent than the others, no major warfare broke out as a result of wanting independence. Then, in Gran Colombia, from their revolution emerged several new independent countries as opposed to just one in the others. Small countries split off from Mexico as well but not until later. Nevertheless, the main comparison between the revolutions, and the reason we learned them all together, is the involvement of racial inequalities in each rebellion. In Brazil only Peninsulares were allowed to hold high government positions, they had to rebel because if only Europeans had power the people of Brazil would never be able to change that in itself or anything else. In Mexico the Cry of Delores which began the war directly states that it will stop racial discrimination. In Gran Colombia all different people of color banded together with the common goal of fighting the Spanish to stop racial discrimination.

Today race is still a large issue. Latino, Middle Eastern, and Black people are probably the most oppressed races in America currently. They are the most likely to be stopped by police for no reason and randomly selected to get checked at places like airports. Racism is deeply ingrained into society and so common that it tends to go unnoticed by people who are unaffected by the negative consequences. They assume that if there is not direct hatred for a group of people like a straight up “I hate black people” then racism does not exist, but it does in the way that there is already a system of inequality set up to make it much easier for a white person to gain power and money than a person of color. A white man with a criminal record is more likely to be hired than a clean black man competing for the same job. The media is a strong source of subtle racism that can influence opinions about a group of people well enough to trick a whole race of people into believing it doesn’t even exist. Most characters are played by white people and once people of color come in, they play mainly characters as stereotypical as possible or at least a certain aspect of their stereotype is played up. This leads to a subconscious type of racism where we begin to assume about a person by what we’ve seen of their race in media. It also makes white features the standard of beauty and makes it hard for people of color to identify with characters they like giving them a sense of displacement. (Also, why is Jesus depicted as a white dude when he’s from the middle east?) Black people are usually played up to be more “ghetto” and are shown in the role of being less educated and more aggressive than other races. That causes a superiority vibe amongst non-black people and can lead to unwarranted treatment of other races. 

Right now in American cities across the nation people are beginning to see the injustice for themselves, a recent increase in publicity for the Michael Brown situation has called attention to the amount of uncalled for violence towards innocent black people from white police officers. However, during these protests and trials there are many white people defending the police officers actions, as if possibly robbing a convenience store is reason enough to be murdered. If it somehow was though, it would only be fair if white people who robbed convenience stores were also shot repeatedly for their heinous crime. There are many claims disputing race as a factor in the situations altogether but statistics can show the actual race targeting of crime over many years. Just because racism isn’t happening to them, many try to erase its existence altogether. I personally have heard a white person say that white people have been through just as much as other races. This is why we need to study things like Latin America’s revolutions and slavery in school. We came to this half of the globe and forced our kind into power and enslaved people of other races yet today we deny those facts and even try to keep them out of history books so we can continue celebrating Christopher Colombus and mourning the holocaust while we ignore the American genocide of Native Americans. (The holocaust was horrible and should be remembered I am just pointing out how we ignore our own past genocides) 

There is a large amount of white privilege ignored by those who have it as they continue to publicize crimes against white people over things happening to other races and deny the existence of any racism. White people often get offended by things like white privilege, they feel they are being classified as racist, that they are being grouped together and judged solely on the color of their skin, and they don’t like it. This tends to end in discussions about “reverse racism” and then the consequential argument that all racism is just racism not reverse. But both of these things are actually wrong in their own ways. There can be racist comments/actions towards white people. (I heard a kid once say black babies were smarter than white babies) However, pure racism, the actual societal oppression, does not exist towards white people. We still hold the positions of power and have privilege that cannot be rejected. The stats of this very lesson, the population %s and social ranking pyramid, show that this is how it has always been and you can’t say that we’ve been just as oppressed as other races have, since we’ve been doing the oppressing for a long time.


Monday, December 15, 2014

Toussaint DBQ

Recently in America, we had elections to vote for congress, senate, and other types of governmental leadership. Picking a leader is always a long and controversial process because there are many characteristics a leader must possess and no one ever agrees on which are the most important and if they outweigh the negative qualities of the person. Political skill, toughness, moral leadership, honesty, eloquence, compassion, and humor are all valued differently depending on the needs of the country and the personal experience of whoever is judging. Abraham Lincoln is the most popular president of the United States. He may have been nicknamed Honest Abe but his honesty was not the reason he’s so well liked as a leader, he had strong morals which resulted in the abolition of slavery in America. Haiti around the 1780s, then named Saint Domingue, was France's most profitable colony thanks to the half a million African slaves working the vast 8,000 plantations covering the island. Saint Domingue needed a someone to lead them in a war for freedom and then rule them in a way that maintains the economy and protects the people. Toussaint Louverture was exactly what they needed. He was morally strong and tough as nails while making smart political decisions for his country. Toussaint Louverture should be remembered as a liberator of slaves, military commander, and the ruler of Saint Domingue.

Toussaint’s role as the liberator of slaves was the most important aspect of his leadership because it was the reasoning for almost every decision he made as a ruler. He began his work as an abolitionist in 1791 in the war against France’s enslavement laws, as a doctor to the troops a commander of his own small group of soldiers. (Doc A) He continues fighting, gaining power and support, until the French eradicate slavery in 1794. (Doc A) The Saint Domingue Constitution of 1801, created and signed by Toussaint himself ensures the termination of slavery in a very clear manner stating that “There cannot exist slaves in this territory, servitude is therein forever abolished. All men are born, live and die free and French.” (Doc C) He remains loyal to his cause regardless of what country he’s supposedly for. Once Napoleon gains control of France the freedom of the ex-slaves is once more going to be taken away. When Toussaint learns of this he threatens fighting his own country to death saying how “if they had a thousand lives, they would sacrifice them all rather than be subjected again to slavery” (Doc B) No matter what, he prioritized liberating slaves before anything else so he should be remembered the same way, as the liberator of slaves, before anything else.

In the fight for freedom, Toussaint became a powerful military commander against slavery’s supporters. His intelligence and bravery made him a trusted leader for his troops and made them a more than capable force in their battles. In Napoleon’s conquest to enslave the newly freed people once again 31,131 troops landed in Samana, a port city of Saint Domingue, ready to fight against Toussaint’s army. But with an inspiring battle cry and brilliant plan from Toussaint himself, the cities they arrived in had been decimated and his troops had taken up base in the mountains.(Doc F)  Napoleon’s soldiers had none of the resources, campsites, or regional knowledge they planned and two years later they withdrew from the country. (Doc F) However, Toussaint’s military command was not all positive, as with any war, he had to do harsh things to establish control sometimes. Toussaint’s adopted nephew, Hyacinthe Moyse, had been appointed commander of the Northern Department and in October of 1801 there was a massacre on the Northern Plain. (Doc E) The revolting men cried “General Moyse is with us - death to all the whites.” (Doc E) Toussaint had to prevent this from happening again and so he picked out men from the rebelling troops and made them shoot themselves in the head. He also then called for the firing squad execution of his nephew and had Moyse call the fire order. (Doc E) His harsh punishment was very effective in stopping revolts. Toussaint was strategic in his battles and ruthless when needed, we should remember this part of his life for the fights it won him and the success it brought the country.

After winning the country’s independence, Saint Domingue now needed someone to restructure its government in a way that excluded slavery. Toussaint Louverture was that person. He was named governor for life in an attempt to make the transitional time of the country go a lot smoother. (Doc C) He was already trusted and well known, providing a constant for the people while changes ensued. However, while he was very important and a prominent figure, Toussaint was not the most popular ruler, hence the revolts involving his nephew. Toussaint’s constitution states that slavery is abolished but also encourages agricultural work where the owner of the land has power and workers share in the profits. (Doc C) This is not a crowd-pleaser and soon he issues a proclamation, enforcing his statements about agricultural work. Citizens can be arrested if they don’t do what they’re supposed to, managers and workers had different punishments depending on the offense. (Doc D) The new freedom had provided people with the option to not work and let themselves be impoverished if they so pleased. This led to most agricultural workers quitting, a huge issue since the island’s main source of economic wealth came from plantations and farming. Toussaint knew he was forcing the people to work under the same conditions they had before but he had to enforce it in order to prevent the country’s complete failure. It was hard for many and a questionable decision but Toussaint did lead the first successful slave revolt and keep the country strong in the face of financial collapse. He may not have made the right decision in the eyes of some people but he was a valuable leader and his impact is important to study today.

Although Toussaint Louverture made some rules and decisions that not everyone agrees were right, his moral compass was always pointing the right way and that cannot be denied from any point of view. His work as the liberator of slaves was not only the entire reason he became a military commander and later ruler of Saint Domingue, but also resulted in the most successful slave revolt ever. He freed hundreds of thousands of humans from the torturous life of enslavement and should be remembered for that accomplishment above all else. His command of the military was the next best aspect of his achievements, inspiring and training troops of unprofessional slaves so well that they defeated some of the greatest militaries in the world at the time. His leadership extended into ruling the nation he saved, his display of power may have seemed severe at times but it was what the country needed in order to prosper. His triumphant legacy should live on forever, Toussaint Louverture: Liberator of Slaves, Military Commander, and Ruler of Saint Domingue.

Document A: Created from various sources.
Document B: Toussaint Louverture “Letter to the French Directory, November 1797.”
Document C: The Saint Domingue Constitution of 1801. Signed by Toussaint Louverture in July 1801.
Document D: Toussaint Louverture, “Proclamation, 25 November 1801.”
Document E: Madison Smartt Bell, Toussaint Louverture: A Biography, 2007.
Document F: William Wells Brown, “A Description of Toussaint Louverture,” from The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements, 2nd edition, 1863. Engraving of Toussaint Louverture, 1802.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Ideas Can Never Die

Although major war in Europe didn't break out after the congress of Vienna until 1852 there were many smaller rebellions around 1830 and 1848 that were suppressed throughout the continent. Since they did not lead to continental revolution, and in most cases were shut down by a larger controlling power, they have been written off as complete failures. But, as we discussed in class, there are different levels of failure. The worst possible outcome in a rebellion is that they try to fight, are decimated in battle, and current rule becomes even worse. But it could be only a mostly failure if the attempts at fighting are stopped and the current rule stays the same. It could end neutrally, where both sides lose the same amount in battle and as much is gained as is lost. On the success side there could be a partial success where some demands are heard and a few changes occur to the government. And the best is a total success where all the goals and wants of the rebels are met and there is a brand new government based upon the new ideals.

In 1848 France, Louis Philippe's government was widely hated for corruption and a recent recession which raised food prices and cost many French citizens their jobs. Tensions peaked once the government tried to silence their complaints through controlling the media. Liberals wanted voting for all men and the middle class wanted reform that wasn't as extreme as the poor. The goal of the revolution was a French Republic. The ideas of revolution were so strong that in a poem about the fighting  Alphonse de Lamartine says, "You have no need of
mingling in the contest, and shedding French blood. The genius of the revolution fights for all; the
monarchy is falling; it is only necessary to push it; before the sun sets the republic will have triumphed." In February 1848, riots broke out throughout Paris causing King Louis Philippe to step down from his position of power, leaving no official government set in his place. The wealthy stepped in during this period but with no one leader in charge the conflicting ideas of each group (wealthy liberals, socialists, poor liberals) caused distrust and unrest within France.

 By June the upper class liberals had taken control and shut down workshops set up for the working class to provide jobs and the workers rebelled. 1,500 people were killed before the fights were stopped by the government. To reunite the French people the National Assembly created a new French republic, in their proclamation stating "The provisional government has taken all the measures necessary to render impossible the return of the former
dynasty or the advent of a new dynasty.
The republic is proclaimed.
The people are united." The new government was to have a strong president, one house legislation, and the right for all men to vote; for a little while it seemed the revolution was a success. Louis Napoleon won the first election in 1848 with 90% of the votes and it was great until 1852 when he, with the support of the French citizens, declared himself emperor and turned France back into an empire.
Link to our quiz on the French Revolution of 1848
[answers from class]

Most of the revolutions failed pretty badly. The French Revolution of 1830 was what caused Louis Philippe to become ruler, which clearly didn't work out. And the Decembrists were basically wiped out completely when they tried to fight in Russia. However, the ideas and goals of each rebellion stayed for much longer and even spread to other countries in Europe and the rest of the world. While the actual attempts at change didn't work out during these revolutions the revolutionary ideas didn't die and inspired more uprisings in the future so they weren't complete failures.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014


Napoleon was a leader of France, both politically and militarily. He greatly affected Europe and how it was run, because he was running it; Napoleon was in control of most of Europe during his rule. He began in France, his original country, gaining power and later conquering nearby countries. He often redesigned how government ran in each nation and transformed the access and rights of  the people. His ideas lead to huge changes for each country he controlled and his accomplishments are easily seen by the world even today.
Napoleon Crossing the Alpsromantic version by Jacques-Louis David in 1805 

At the time Napoleon came to power class greatly influenced a person's freedoms, power, and education. However, he worked to change that, developing a system of meritocracy so people could get what they deserved by valuing each person's skills instead of rewarding them for their class. He also set up the bank of France, determined the country's budget, promoted industry, and created public works programs which built roads and canals for all of France. In other countries he set up education systems such as the institute of Egypt and removed trade barriers while supporting industry. The people of Europe had more rights to education and property than ever before. Yet Madame de Stael described his rule as having "profound contempt for all the intellectual riches of human nature: virtue, dignity, religion, enthusiasm" Which is strange because you'd think widespread access to education was intellectually rich. But it would make sense for her to think this way since she was part of the nobility and related to an advisor of King Louis XVI before Napoleon took over. She probably did not like that he eradicated titles of nobility and nullified the privileges previously held by the church.

Napoleon was widely disliked as well as praised. The former rulers of the countries he took over were not happy with his different ideals and their loss of power. Also, many members of nobility, aristocracy, the wealthy in general, did not like how he was taking away what they considered natural superiority. His control came through military strategy and war has never resulted in friendships so those who lost something in a battle would not be his fans. As well as people who were unwillingly forced to belong to France when they were loyal to their homeland. I don't agree with the way he took over but the improvements he made to social, economic, and political systems were important for the progression of human rights in Europe and the rest of the world.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna was held in 1814 as a way for the powers of Europe to reconstruct their nations after the corruption of Napoleon. Representatives from all over the continent gathered together in Vienna, Austria to construct the best possible solution to fix the mess of Europe. Prince Metternich of Austria, Prince Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand of France, Frederick William III of Prussia, Foreign Secretary Robert Steward, Viscount Castlereagh from Great Britain, and Tsar Alexander of Russia represented the most important countries at the grand peace conference. However, when a large amount of the richest, most vain people in the world get together for any reason not much gets done through the all the partying. This goes on until the next year and finally after Napoleon returns once again to attempt conquering the world, they start making some actual decisions.

Most Famous Painting of the Congress of Vienna

In order to stop any one country from becoming a dominating power in the future, the Congress of Vienna made sure to keep in mind a balance of power when redrawing the borders of each country. France was not punished for the actions of its leader, and was given back its original borders from before taking over everything. Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Austria were all given more than what they started with making them the five great powers of Europe. With the majors close to equal the only problem was the small countries, who ended up taken over, given away, or generally excluded completely. For the big countries to expand they took land away from others, angering many people from places such as Poland, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Belgium. This may have stopped fighting between the big nations but the little ones ended up fighting for their own freedom or inclusion.

Personally, I believe the Congress of Vienna was not horrible. They didn't make it as peaceful as they had planned to but in the face of the problems they had, the resolutions they came up with were pretty good. It would've been better if the smaller states were listened to by the big ones instead of ignored and disrespected, so they wouldn't end up so bitter about their fate. Also, each country probably could've been able to reconstruct their own government instead of installing the monarchies back to every single country since that worked out so well before. They shouldn't have let other countries storm in with their military and stop rebellions without permission, it just sounds like a bad idea. But the choices made during the peace treaty were pretty good at preventing any future Napoleonic power from wiping out the entire continent, which was one of the most important concerns they were supposed to deal with. They even managed to stop major warfare for like 40 years, which is pretty amazing for Europe.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Which ideology is the most ideal?

Between the first French Revolution and the many conquests of Napoleon, 19th century Europe saw many huge changes to who controlled what and how they chose to lead. Each ruler had different ideas as to what makes the best society. People who shared similar ideals were grouped together resulting in the three major political ideologies of the time: Conservatism, Liberalism, and Nationalism. To distinguish the 19th century meaning from what they have come to represent today we discussed what we believed their meanings to be based on what we know. Then we split into groups to each read about it and create a creative one minute project explaining what our ideals were trying to do during the 19th century.

Different groups of people in Europe discuss their feelings on liberalism. 
My group had Liberalism and our project showed how different groups of people felt about it. The liberal leaders believed in the natural freedom and rights of the people. Famous leaders of liberalism were philosophers known for their contributions to   like Adam Smith and John Locke who thought free will and human rights of people would help the economy and society the most. Liberals questioned traditions Europe had been following forever deeming a lot of them to be oppressive. The use of logic in laws and rules evolved into Utilitarianism later on. Liberals believed a middle class was necessary for power to be spread in order to prevent tyranny. They did not think the aristocracy should be the only privileged people. The aristocracy however did not like sharing their power especially with people who weren't nearly as rich as them. Forgotten in this movement were the poor and women who were once again denied power and basic human rights. 

Conservatives and Nationalists also had a large part of the 19th century. Conservatism wanted to uphold the old way everything was and preserve the monarchy/absolutism. Conservatives supported tradition to prevent revolutions from happening again. They believed New ideas and change had caused many wars and failed revolutions. Everything worked better when it was run the way it always had been and that was the safest way for a government to run, the way they knew how. After Napoleon was defeated, the main powers of Europe decided to put the monarchy in again since they were led by conservatives. Finally, nationalism is the idea of unification by a shared culture, language, and history. Nationalists thought that banding together as a nation made them stronger as a country and would help the progress of society. Some wanted to kick out all foreigners while other nationalists wanted to expand their country to other lands. Italy and Germany adopted this ideology after Napoleon gave their many separate groups a feel of unity. 

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Sadness: The Story of a Young Success Who Lost Everything

In class last week we did an interactive lesson with candy so clearly it was very fun. However, the purpose of it was not nearly as fun, we learned firsthand how Karl Marx's theory on the evolution of economy would start with the anger of the poor and eventually end with total communism for everyone. It started unfairly to begin with everyone had two Hershey kisses except for two jerks who were handed eight with no reasoning. As the war of rock, paper, scissors went on most people lost their two and had to sit down, all angry about the loss of their candy and how the people who started with eight were still in. I happened to be great at rock, paper, scissors and after losing my very first match quickly gained a lot of candy through my hard work.
A sad reminder of my humble beginning

Though each match was nerve-wracking and I had some ups and downs along the way I ended up more successful than those who had started with a guaranteed wealth.

"Started from the bottom, now we here" -Drake
But the harsh realities of unequal class systems and a struggling economy were not through with me yet, and soon the oppressed rose in protest of the inescapable poverty they were trapped in. The complaints and actions of the large majority forced the government stepped in to steal from the successful in a socialist redistribution of resources. They took control of everything and seized the fruit of my life achievements to give everyone no matter if they had nothing or everything to begin with. We each got two pieces of candy in the end, and the government could have as much as they wanted while acting like everyone was equal. When given the opportunity to play the free market again, the majority of kids said no since they didn't want to risk losing what they had. 

Karl Marx's theory of the people taking a road of anger and fear until they reached communism worked out perfectly in our class. He believed that the clear divide between rich and poor would drive those in poverty, most of the population, to lash out at the wealthy through violent protests until the government interferes in an attempt at creating a class-less society. The goal is to achieve complete communism, a society that agrees to share resources equally and does not need a government to regulate the distribution. 

Karl Marx

Adam Smith had a different approach to helping the poor and the economy while still keeping freedom of businesses and a better class system that allowed for people to succeed or fail themselves. He called this system the invisible hand, which we now refer to as Capitalism. The invisible hand is the idea of competition and consumers choice. In order to be the most successful businesses had to draw people in by selling the highest quality products for the lowest price. It would help the poor by encouraging any company that wanted to be successful to pay their workers enough that they could then go out and buy from the business they work for. Eventually, once people were paid enough to engage in commerce and spend less for higher quality of those  products, they could, if they wanted to, create their own business and new ideas and products to keep the market moving and improving and making consumers even happier. With this system, the free trade of the people would run the economy, businesses constantly changing to the consumers's wants and needs. Government would not need to interfere in the process at all. 

However, capitalism wasn't perfect. It takes a very long time to work itself out and often has long ups and downs in the middle, as anything run by the general population would. It also still has class divisions, very successful business owners become wealthy enough for the rest of their future generations to never need to work again and with competition, for one person to win another one has to lose, leading to job loss and bankruptcy which causes the government to try to help again. It's even worse today with things like advertisements and name brands guiding consumers more than high quality and low prices do. 

American hero Ron Swanson sums up the true result of capitalism in modern day economics. (from the Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness as seen on Parks and Recreation)

Even if capitalism isn't as great in practice as it is in theory it is still much better than practiced communism. While communism looks like a sort of brilliant idea on paper, no one has succeed in actually reaching complete communism of the people. Instead it has been used more for the basis of socialistic and dictator run countries like Russia and North Korea where no one can be rich or poor, unless of course you're part of the government, which strictly regulates every facet of business and trade. Either way with communism and every form based from it, it is impossible to get any higher in life through hard work and effort. I believe that neither form of economy is flawless and as long as humans live, we never will create one. It is impossible to have freedom and progress without class, in order for anyone to be successful others have to fail; if everyone is successful then technically no one is and you're back at complete and total equality with no individuality.  

The Lowell Experiment

The Industrial Revolution caused great changes in the way people worked and produced goods. Factories started hiring teen girls to move to the mills to run the machines. In Great Britain poverty was high and living space was low so they had plenty of cheap laborers all the time. However, in America people could always just move further west to get more land and there was less of a pestering thirst for work. In order to draw in laborers Lowell decided to appeal to people. They would make the town seem nice and highlight the benefits in order to convince girls to move out and work there.
"Starting for Lowell" a girl says goodbye to her family and leaves for work at the mills

The girls were attracted to the idea of the nice city environment. In the video Daughters of Free Men Lucy Hall is invited to move out to Lowell to work there. She really wants to go because she wants to earn her own money to buy things for herself. The girls are also enticed by the idea of freedom from their families, as all teen girls are. It is great for them because they are able to live on their own and work yet the mill makes sure they still are presentable and virtuous so they can get married later on. 

While the young workers did get education, free hours, room/board, paid, and a family environment, there were also many drawbacks that they had not been warned about. Lucy tells about her first day working and how if she didn't tie up her hair it could be caught in the machines and she could die, it happened to some other girls. The conditions of the work are also unpleasant. There's cotton dust in the air that makes it hard to breathe, she has long hours, repetitive motion that leads to chronic injury, and must sneak out in order to get any water or fresh air. She learns how to sneak away for breaks in order to not get in trouble with the supervisor who was the man that she was first told would be like a father figure. 

These girls are also powerless to wage cuts. In the video Lucy and her friends suffer pay cuts and try to stop it. At the time there was nothing like workers unions or strike laws, these were also women, who no one bothered to listen to anyways. The group of females in the streets were mostly regarded as unladylike freaks who would probably never get married. Yet they tried, the workers gathered whoever was brave enough to stand up for themselves and organised a march. The girls all refused to work until their normal pay was restored. But there weren't enough of them to make a huge impact on the factory work, the protesters were fired and replaced. 

Sunday, October 5, 2014

MOSI Google Hangout

Recently my history class held a video chat with some of the workers from the Museum of Science and Industry in England to learn about the factories there during the Industrial Revolution. But before we could call the other side of the world we had to prepare back in America. The first thing we did was read the textiles page on the MOSI website and some of their linked documents on the side. Next, we watched a video of Jamie, the guy we would be talking to, explaining some things around the museum. We wrote down the names of important machines and other things that we didn't know and then looked them up so when we talked to him later we would be able to know what he was talking about. The final thing we did to prepare for the chat was create questions for Jamie to answer about the textile process, the evolution of machinery, impact of industrialization on people, and being a real life historian.

On the day of the call we went to class in the morning since England is 5 hours ahead of us and we got a chance to ask him our questions. Someone asked how long the entire textile making process would take. It's hard to know though because no factory did the whole thing, some even only did one part.
Google video chat was on the smart board for everyone to see
 We started by looking at the older machines and how families worked together to make their own clothes. This changed with the invention of the water frame. The water frame did the job a mother used to do but faster, better, and more efficiently. It would spin and twist four threads at a time and was powered by water. Jamie also taught us about the workers who used these machines. There were a lot of them going at once and each had a ton of moving parts so it was very loud, dangerous, and stuffy inside the factories. The work was not sanitary, women would put their mouths on wooden shuttles to suck the thread through giving each other whatever diseases they had while also inhaling machine oils and cotton fibers.

There were no windows in mills because these would misfire and could shatter windows
(lethal to be hit with since they were big and fast but workers were cheaper to replace than glass) 
 Often times the women would bring the wood up to their face too fast and knocked their teeth out with them. However, the most dangerous job was probably cleaning under the machines as they pulled out and slammed back in seconds.

Boy cleaning under machine 
 This was so dangerous that orphans were used so that nobody who worked there would be sad about losing someone from their family. If they weren't fast enough they would be cut in half by the machine.

I really liked this activity. It was a lot more exciting and interesting to have someone who works in a museum showing us the stuff and explaining at the same time. It was nice to see someone in the real world who had to know the things we've been talking about in school since we're always so confined to our classroom. I also felt like the aspects of mill work that we talked about went more in depth and the actual machines helped show what it would've actually been like. I liked how we learned about everything first so it made sense to us and then we got to ask questions on what we wanted to know more about. I would like to do something like this again for another topic if we could.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Stolen Childhood

Close up

Analyzing the documents for our exhibit was very important, We had to read the source and then find how it tied into our topic of child labor and what the information told us about it. In our exhibit on child labor we had six documents. There's a table with information about the ages of factory workers, a written account of factory conditions, pictures of things they had to go through with descriptions, and official legal statements about it from the time. When making the exhibit we put these sources in order based on the time they were about so it would go in chronological order. The title "Stolen Childhood" came from brainstorming the main idea of child labor. We came to the conclusion that these kids didn't get to do childlike things and had to intensely work as if they were adults, that their childhoods were stolen by this system. It goes with our chained documents and neutral color scheme to show sadness. We hope people who see our exhibit learn the bad side of the Industrial Revolution. In all the new inventions and societal changes the children who suffered because of it must be recognized and we hope visitors will know that it was not a fun time for many of the people living through it.

It was fun to see the other exhibits too. I liked seeing what each group did differently and how they presented their information. All the groups' exhibits were hung up around in a square area so when walking around from where mine was I saw the exhibit on slavery in the industrial revolution. I liked how the group had a big wheel to spin to read the information with their title "Behind the Scenes" right in the middle and the images around the poster to better get their point across. I felt this topic was similar to ours since it was also about the hidden suffering of laborers in the Industrial Revolution.
Next, I saw "Tearing Down Families" an exhibit that showed the evolution of looms during the industrial revolution. It talked about how industrialization was impacting families of the time. The title is useful because it keeps the focus of their sources and information on the people of the time so you weren't just reading facts but thinking about how the actual people felt.
Unlike the more serious topics the poster on transportation called "All Aboard" was fun and colorful. It used train tracks and rivers to connect the information. The two types of drawing around it show the two main focuses of transportation during the industrial revolution, the locomotive and steam boat. There's a picture of a steam engine at the top which shows how it works and powers the two inventions.
The last exhibit taught me about the negative impact of the Industrial Revolution on the general people. Over-industrialization caused much poverty for families. The factories also dumped waste into the river causing pollution of the waters.
The exhibits we made were a great way for us to learn about the side of industrialization that is often hidden by the new ideas and creations and it was good to be creative in our showcase of the information.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

The Most Revolutionary Revolution

There have been lots of revolutions throughout history which have impacted people far into the future, but the one that has changed our lives the most is probably the industrial revolution. Recently, my history class watched John Green's CrashCourse video on the Industrial Revolution and discussed exactly how the "Industrial Revolution" was, in fact, revolutionary.

The Industrial Revolution was possible because of changes and advancements in the technology, people, resources, and transportation around the time of the 17-1850s. The most radical developments however were brought about by the innovations in technology which gave us the real catalyst for all of this, the steam engine. The steam engine was used to power all sorts of new machines and is still used for energy today. The first steam engine, created by Thomas Newcomen, was used to pump water out of mines. It was powered by coal and also made coal more accessible as a resource. Coal was an essential fuel in the making of machines out of metals such as iron. Iron was also improved upon around this time, it became a stronger and less expensive material, making it popular for the construction of railroads when they increased in use later.

Even wizards use steam engines.
 (Screenshot from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)
The industrial revolution was successful because all parts of it worked together and happened at the same time. Thanks to the steam engine and better iron, steam powered transportation made it possible to transport goods further and faster than ever. The invention of the steam locomotive opened the door to cities being located on land instead of just along major waterways. With these faster and more efficient ways of transporting goods, food and other perishable items were able to be produced somewhere else and then sent to cities. A wider assortment of foods were available and fresh so people got better nutrition and became healthier.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Using The Internet Properly For Education

For students the internet can be very useful to find information and helpful facts. However, it is a waste of time to search things on Google if you don't know how to use it or check the websites it gives you. In class we did two activities in order to search effectively and use online resources correctly.

The first thing we did was Google A Day, a sort of online scavenger hunt where Google gives you three very specific, very random questions and you have to scour the internet for the answers. To make sure you can't cheat it provides you with a search bar that only brings up what would've shown up before the game was created. It is quite frustrating and very difficult especially with the timer counting up and turning from green to red the longer you take to find the answer. It teaches you how to search better to find specifically what you are looking for and narrow down the results that would come up. I learned to figure out what I am looking for exactly, a person, event, article, before trying to find the whole answer.

Now after you find a website with information on your topic, you must make sure it is a good source to use. A good source is accurate, authentic, and reliable. Accuracy is how correct and precise the information is, while authenticity describes the source, does it come from who it says it does, does the site do what it claims to do; and finally, reliability, is the author or publisher trusted to know their stuff and be both authentic and accurate. To see the what the words truly meant in regards to a real website we looked up information on the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. The website seems very well researched, with many pages, links, pictures, headings and a bunch of real official looking text boxes. But once you go to a page and start to read the information and look at the pictures, it quickly becomes apparent that the creature is made up and that the pictures are of toy octopi thrown in trees.
Clicking on the link to the author of the site brings even more doubt, as the page looks like something out of a children's secret agent game.
By now it is obvious this is a sham and cannot be used as a source for anything. The website cannot be accurate since the animal it gives information on doesn't exist, and it obviously is not reliable if the author wrote his own false information about himself. But it may still be authentic, it does what it says it does, informs people about the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. 

Thursday, September 4, 2014

How to Teach Well and Improve Mankind

As a student in my second year of high school I have had many different teachers, some I've liked, some I've disliked and many more in between. For me, the better teachers, to start with, have a good handle on their subject matter. A teacher who knows more than just specifically what they are told to teach us is great because they can explain the information in many ways, approach it from different angles, connect it to more things, and help us learn our way around the subject in a way that is easiest for us. Sometimes you get teachers who explain things in the one way they know how to and when you ask a question or need it said a different way you end up confusing them and getting even more lost yourself. My best teachers have been the type of people who are very passionate about their job. Teachers who are enthusiastic about what they teach tend to know what they're talking about and try their hardest to make their students interested in it too. However, they have to love the teaching aspect as well because if they only like the subject and hate most behaviors that teenagers are prone to, they end up getting angry or irritable, making us upset and uninterested. It is great when teachers are patient and understand that we, one, don't know nearly as much about the subject as they do, and two, probably have a different learning style from them. Just because it works for one person doesn't mean it works for everyone. What would make this year better is if teachers did not assign as much after school work. We have jobs now, on top of sports, clubs, friends, school, and getting eight hours of sleep while getting up at 6 am. Homework should be used to help us practice or review important concepts and information, not for us to learn on our own or just to keep us busy, because trust me, we're already busy.

I think John Green is right in that we do need to use our education to benefit the world. If we don't do anything new and exciting then there was really no reason for us to be forced into taking math courses in high school that our parents took in college. Humans as a species have been improving since before recorded time. Each generation builds upon the ideas and discoveries of those before them. Obviously we're gonna do the same. However, advancing the evolution of mankind is a bit big for a high school student to strive for so my goals for the year are to simply better myself. I would like to maybe do my homework more often than I did last year, draw more, get stronger, be nicer to people. I can do these things by simply focusing and putting in the effort to try, although it is much easier when the people in charge of teaching me how to do these things teaches well. If I get smarter and work harder then, as a human myself, I am helping to improve people as a whole and the world we live in.