Ryan

Name: "Walter F. Jameson" Birth: December 4, 1826 Religious Views: Atheist Political Views: Independent Profession: Photojournalist of "The Truth Behind Them"

Bio: Hello my name is, well I can't tell you. But instead I'm going to give you people an alias of mine. "Walter F. Jameson" I'm on the run from the Confederacy. I published a newsletter called "The Truth Behind Them" which tells about the South from mostly personal experiences and inside sources. Also I've been feeding info to the North about the South which is why the North has had a keen advantage over the South. I've already said too much!! But until then......I shall return!!

Status Updates

1850 - This Compromise they're introducing opens an interesting conundrum. Basically most of the New Mexico territory the Union gained, any states that formed from will become slave states through "popular sovereignty" In a nutshell, If most of the votes are pro-slavery the state will become a slave state. It's interesting because it completely disregards the Missouri Compromise which was instilled about 30 years ago. I wonder how all this will play out.....

1850 - Also because of The Compromise created this new land by the name of California is admitted into the unity. Form the news I hear it's going to be a free state. This is our 31st and who knows if we'll get more. which

1851 - The first blood has been drawn over this Fugitive Slave Act. Which is passed along with The Compromise of 1850, it's says that any former slaves are to be returned to their slave owners, wether they were in a free state or not. I read in a newspaper that one slave owner, his relatives, and a few deputy marshalls went into the city of Christiana, PA to retrieve his slaves. Instead they refused and a battle broke out, leaving the owner dead and his son injured. The "fugitives" fled to Canada and escaped arrest.

1851 - The first railroads are up and running! The Erie Railroad is the first railroad to be established, and I hope they will be more a mainstream thing so that transportation can be easier, because my feet hurt.

1852 - I managed to steal myself a copy of a new published by the name of "Uncle's Tom Cabin" by a woman named Harriet Beecher Stowe. Written by a white abolitionist woman, it shows the hard times of a an ordinary slave family. I must say it's quite an interesting read.

1854 - Seems like they got another "fugitive slave" This time it was Anthony Burns, living in Boston, was backed up by many of the residents in Boston to ensure he wasn't going back to slavery. Hell, they even got the president in this, who brought in Federal Troops to drag him back to his owner.

1854 - I guess The Missouri Compromise means nothing anymore. This new Kansas-Nebraska Act which basically leaves the status of the states Kansas and Nebraska. Nebraska itself knows it going to be a free state. Yet Kansas, can't really be a free state but it also can't be a slave either. It's above the Missouri Compromise line which would make it free state, but on the other hand there's already a free state so to keep the balance it would have to be a slave state. This is going to really troublesome.

1855 - Ok this really got out of hand. All these Northern organizations rallied to the state of Kansas and the were met with just as, if not more Southern organizations. And the South voted early and often ultimately making it a slave state. The Northerners that still opposed slavery were called "free soilers" and even established a little government in Topeka. Yet in time a bunch of pro-slavery raiders burned down half of a free state by the name of Lawrence. This is surely a sign of even more worse things to come.

1856 - So this is what is going down with the Kansas problem. The vote is either it's a slave state or it's a slave state but the amount of slavery is deterred. Well what happened to equality? The North has no say in whether it's free state or not. Either it's a slave state with lots of slavery or with little slavery. I hardly thinks that's much of a compromise to me. Just give Kansas to the South what's the point for the vote?

1859 - It hurts me to say that one of my favorite authors by the name of Washington Irving. His books: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle were some of favorite books of all time.

1859 - So this man by the name of Charles Darwin has just had his book, called //The Origin of The Species, published. Sounds like something I'd like to dig into.//

1859 - This is one really interests me, to the point where I might write an article about it. This man by the name of John Brown and a group of 18 other men revolted on Harpers Ferry in an attempt to have a slave rebellion. Sadly the rebellion had failed, all of John Brown's men were killed and he was hanged.

























Notes:

Note 1: Want to know the reasons for me for becoming a photojournalist? We'll here you go. I am the son of both a slave and a slave owner. Yet I was born out of true love. My parents loved each other extremely. When word got out, you bet the upbraid of my parents was horrendous. First, I was taken away to some shack in the night, when I was just 8 years old. (I can't quite remember) They told me they would kill me for the mulatto child that I was. I couldn't understand why. But the second I got a free chance I untied myself and just kept on running. And I ran for 11 years. Second, I was encounter by a few members of this so-callewho made it very clear they didn't like me. They came at me with pitchforks, torches, everything!!! They finally caught me and flogged me constantly, I have the scars to show it. God the pain was unbearable. Finally, it was this that made me who I am today. I am 19 years old, on my way to the North, were I met a young woman by the name of Rosalynn Stuart, a writer and small-time photographer. She was a white woman, the first white person ever to not come at me with a deadly object. She took me in and taught me everything the white people were learning. She even taught me in the ways of writing and photography. She told me I was a prodigy, everything was like I already knew it! But one night is a night I'll never forget. Rosalynn had was in her room doing some writing when I heard a very loud noise and a scream. I quickly got up to see what was happening. The sight I saw was horrendous. I found Rosalynn dead on the floor dead, aknife protruding from her chest. There was also a note right next to her corpse. I picked it up and it read: "Nigger Lover" I knew who had done this, and I would exact my revenge in the best way I could. I would write, the truth and nothing but the truth.

Note 2: Slavery? You ask me what slavery is? Well I'll tell you. Slavery is oppression, suppression, destruction, it's tearing families apart from one another. What is it does it it dismantles a race of people, wether they are black, white or whatever. It started when our own people sold us to the white man, shipped to the foreign land to by worked to bone by people who massive amounts of land. Since the South is mostly agriculture, the people can work these massive amount of land by themselves. So what do they do? Buy slaves of course!! This dates back even further with Egypt enslaving the Jews to build To heir pyramids and things of the like. They to were whipped, flogged, and beating just myself and my people. Also with the slaves of today, they were found by the Portuguese, who traded them to various places across the Atlantic Ocean. This created what was known as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Then when the Union had outlawed slavery, all they had to do was first transfer the slaves to places in the Mediterranean then smuggle them into America in the dead of the night. Yet they kept us alive, because they need us. Without slavery the South would just fall apart. It's economy depends on slavery it's one of it's very foundations. This is why the breed the strongest people to keep them working until they're old a brittle, but even then they work them to the bone. In some odd way the white people depends on us blacks in order to keep their lifestyles sustainable. Without us the South couldn't exist fully.

Note 3: In my opinion this is how America is standing as a country: First, this issue of state rights. What I heard this started with The Compromise of 1850, where a new territory by the name of California found being highly praised for a sudden rush of gold about a year back. The Union thought that it should admit it as a free state. Yet with the creation The Missouri Compromise, keeping the amount of slave and free states equal, this territory would threaten that balance. So a man by the name of Henry Clay, set out to create a series of bills that would keep the nation untied. One of the most controversial bills was the Fugitive Slave Act. This, in return for making California a free state, said that any and every slave would be returned to their owners. This has made all the former slaves scared for their lives. To keep balance for the South, they are hunting down these slaves who have escaped to the North. I hear that most of them are escaping to lead lives in Canada. They felt as though that they had create a solution but it doesn't seem to be working. The South feels that the North is overpowering them, and they don't feel equal. Another example of that would the Election of 1860, Where the candidates were John Bell, Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge, and no other than Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln from I here wasn't even on the ballet in the South. Yet when the election had ended, it was revealed that Lincoln had one the election. This had shocked the South and they truly thought the North was seizing the control of the Union, I feel a though the South is threatening to break away from the union. Yet even before then the North and South were still divided on their ideals. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was another, where the newly founded Nebraska Territory would instead be split into two states one free and the other slave. But Kansas itself didn't really fit into the criteria of a slave under The Missouri Compromise, it was more to the criteria of a free state. So the government decided that the fate of Kansas being a free or slave state would be from a majority vote. And in the end the South had won by a close vote. Surprising huh? Of course the North was angry because Kansas fitted the criteria of a free state under the Missouri Compromise. Both northerners and southerners moved to Kansas and while there the massacre known as Bleeding Kansas occurred.

Note 4: The ideals for which the Revolutionary was fought for were: Freedom, Taxes, and Independence. The Colonies wanted freedom from the English who control almost every economic aspect of the colonies. They also taxed The Colonies extremely highly. Of course the colonists were outraged by the British which lead to conflicts like The Boston Massacre and The Boston Tea Party. They were also taxed extreme amounts of money that they couldn't keep up with the payment to the British. Yet the most important thing that Colonists fought was for Independence.They wanted to break from the control of the British. They wanted to be able to lead a country on their own free will with their own government, their own every thing.

Note 5: I have just read about two of the most heart felt speeches are to come from an african american. First is the speech called "Ain't I a woman?" by woman named Sojourner Truth. In this speech she talks about how her life was as a slave where she was put through such hard work that even a man couldn't go through. Constantly in the speech she keeps asking the question: "Ain't I a woman?" She felt that her feminine status was completely destroyed because she was a slave. The other is Fredrick Douglass speech called "Self-made Man" In it he talks about how today's man is no longer self-man in which he takes his success from other people suffering or own hard work. He examines that a person is truly self-made when their work is of their own suffering, hard work, and dedication.

Bibliography:

"1850-1860." History Central. MultiEducatorInc, 2002. Web. 26 Mar 2010. . "Bleeding Kansas." Judgement Day. PBS Online, n.d. Web. 26 Mar 2010. . Douglass, Fredrick. "Self-Made Man" 1859. "Student Essays ." Road To The Civil War 1. Web. 26 Mar 2010. ."The Basics." Topic: Revolutionary War (1999): 1. Web. 26 Mar 2010. .Truth, Sojourner. "Ain't I A Woman?" 1851, Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio.