Sam

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=John Buford is dying of Typhoid= Birth: March 4, 1826 Hometown: Woodford, Kentucky Gender: Male Profession: Union Cavalry Officer Political views: Union Religious views: Christian School: West Point Military Academy Hobbies: Military, Riding horseback

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Updates: 1860:Abraham Lincoln has won the election. I hope this will help resolve the growing tension and violence events in the South, but somehow I don't see that happening. Democrats in all the states don't trust him. I sense war is coming...

1859: I'm not sure how I feel about John Brown's rebellion. He was an abolitionist hero to some but his ways were too violent for me. His ways of taking control of Harper's Ferry, Virgina was too extreme. Even two of his son's died. People are becoming too violent about this I feel war is in the air and its coming fast.

1857: This morning I read about the supreme court case Dred Scott vs. Sandford. That slave (Mr. Scott) wasn't freed because he wasn't considered a citizen even though he was in a free state. He had taken residence in that state for three years and has sued for freedom. The scary part was it was in Illinois. If a slave isn't free in a free state is it really free. I fear that slavery is slowly seeping North.

1856: Blood has been spilt in Kansas. In Kansas there is war between free men (not necessarily anti-slavery) and pro slavery men. The whole area is now considered "Bleeding Kansas". A number of people on both sides have gone missing or been killed along with riots and destruction of buildings and property. Our nation is headed in a bad place, I am concerned.

1854: I read in the paper that the Kansas Nebraska Act was established. It brought forward two new states. The act was passed yesterday but the fight for slavery is already on. Will they be free or slave? Campaign groups are already starting to form. Hopefully this can pass over smoothly although I have a feeling it won't.

1852: Today I read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was very enlightening. I had visited a slave plantation once but I didn't see much. I never knew how families were split apart. I know of many other people that feel the same. Even some that are angry at the South. I sure hope this doesn't get out of hand.

1851: Today blood has covered the ground. The culprit; the Fugitive Slave Act. A slave owner was killed, and his son severely injured over the return of a slave in Christiana, PA. This is the one of the biggest public killing over slavery where whites were involved that I've heard of. My biggest concern is there's this affects the compromise that was made in 1850. The fugitive slave act was the Souths part of that and we aren't even complying with it. Tensions are building.

1851:My Cousin in Akron, Ohio went to hear a speech by Sojourner Truth called "Ain't I a Woman". She told me that Ms. Truth's speech was not only about black right but also women's rights. I never thought that women might be being oppressed.

1850: Today I heard of the Fugitive Slave Act. It says that runaways should be returned to their masters. I don't see the North supporting southern plantation owners in getting there slaves back.

1850: Last week Mr. Henry Clay brought forth a compromise that will hopefully fix this current conflict over the (used to be) Mexican territories. His idea entitled the people in those states to chose whether they would be slave or free. In addition the death of the slave trade in the District of Columbia is something I'm glad to see. Hopefully as our great nation grows this will be able to help quell the conflict over states.

1850: California joined the US and was considered free, but slavery for the Native Americans was legalized. I can't help but think if there is a free state with slavery in it then is it really a free state? Is the south finding loop holes to support their slave hungry way of life?

Photos:

Note 1 The Evolution of slavery in America Slavery started in America when the first slave ship showed up in Jamestown, VA in 1619. Slavery is the process of owning a slave. A slave is “a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant.” ([|www.dictionary.com] ). I think slavery first started because of indentured servitude. The idea was that in order to come from Europe to the New World one would pay off one’s trip by working for someone when they got there. The indentured servant would have to work but they were still treated like a human. They got shelter, food, and sometimes got to keep a bit of land when they finished, this system was called the head-right system. Indentured servitude could easily be seen as a way of paying back credit. Although slavery might have started out like indentured servitude, small things would change it into slavery. One example is the capture of 3 indentured servants (two whites and one black) that ran away and got caught. The two whites got their servitude extended while the black became a servant for life. Also the majority of Europe was white and so when they moved over the majority was white.

After the Revolutionary War occurred, the USA had to make its own rules. Along with that they also had to have a money source, they were on their own. Slavery had worked for many cultures before, and could have influenced they slavery was experimented. As time went on, slavery became a very reliably system of work. It became very common, so common it even made its way into the constitution. Slaves were property and not human. They were merely merchandise. Other political events happened, fueling the use of slavery. After a while slavery became a lifestyle. People followed it without question. Even some blacks that wore born into it never tried to running away, because the chances of getting away were assumed low and the consequences were too big. Inventions reinforced the power of white over black. Whites were already in power but with new inventions to make a slaves work harder and weaker, it gave whites more control. Inventions like the cotton gin in 1794 by Eli Whitney. It made the cotton plant into a bigger cash crop, being able to strain at 10 times the amount of time it used to take. Cotton was harvested by being plucked, although the work was hard and painful. The difficult part about the cotton plant was that sharp leaves, usually hurting the slave, surrounded the cotton. In addition the cotton picked couldn’t be used immediately, it needed to be cleaned of all the seeds inside the cotton. This was usually a long and tedious process that took many slaves just to clean a decently usable amount. But the cotton gin changed all of that. It strained the cotton easily removing seeds and it only took one slave to use. One important thing to remember is while slavery was growing in the South, it was dying in the North. As time continued, the two opposites began to tear the country apart and eventually this was one of the biggest factors that led to the Civil War.

Note 2

What were the ideals for which the Revolutionary War was fought?

As I sit here in Gettysburg, waiting for the army of the Potomac to arrive for the upcoming battle I wonder what are we fighting for? Is it just to free the slaves? Is it because we (the North) have just grown too far apart from our southern brothers? How did it all start and, more importantly, why? Lets start with slaves. To put it simply, we are fighting for their freedom. In fact the very damn same freedom we fought for against the British so long ago. The only difference is that slaves don’t have the chance to rebel. In fact, in my opinion what the South is doing to the Africans is much worse then what the British did to us. What they are doing is unconstitutional. But then again, are we getting into something we shouldn’t be? It is their life style and has been so for years. While we were living in a world of machines with our cities growing, relying on work in companies, they were relying on crops. Can we expect them to be growing raw cotton all by themselves. When I was young I visited a slave plantation. It was huge. It was full summer and the fields were open and wide, the only obscurity was the small moving black specks, bent over, walking slowly. I never saw the whippings, the torture that I didn’t know about at that young age. No, what I know now confirms that is unacceptable. Watching my candle flicker, my mind turns to think about the Revolutionary War. Are we repeating it? We are fighting to defend the Constitution. We should all have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In the years proceeding the Revolutionary War, Great Britain was harassing us. Harassing us with unreasonable taxes on tea, stamps and sugar etc. that even the richest of us (soon to be) Americans. The British oppression didn’t stop there it went into politics, too. “Taxation without representation” was what we screamed in the streets. Those British lobster backs wouldn’t let us talk. They thought that a single man could represent all of the colonies. The colonists believed that the British were abusing their ownership of there the colonies, and during the war they were fighting to declare their independence. The British on the other hand were fighting to maintain their control of the parts of the British Empire. The loyalists in America were saying that if the Rebels won they would never be able to manage the country, and the new free America would fall apart into chaos. In the civil war the North was saying that the south was violating the rights of the human black workers. Also some might have felt that the south was trying to take over the country, and were lowly seeping north. The north felt the same, the north was trying to give rights to material tools. They also feared that if the abolitionists got south, slave-plantations owners could be jailed. They kept us from life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and when we beat them in the war is made sense to put that in the Declaration of Independence.

Note 3

Where are their voices?

I remember as a child, visiting a slave plantation. I didn’t get to see much of the slaves or how they lived. I only saw them working. I stayed for about 3 days and I never met a single one. I tried to talk to one of the kids my age but they didn’t respond. They just ignored me and ran away. When I got older I went to a different plantation. I didn’t bother to try to talk to the blacks, and the only time I saw one, was while he was getting whipped. The violence in the whip and the sadness on the slaves face made my heart bleed. Even though the slaves face was ridden with pain he didn’t say a word, he didn’t make a sound. Those moments in my life made me realize something. That something was that blacks had lost their voices. They had lost what allows them to communicate with the world. The used to have them in Africa but when they came to America there voices were sold away and locked in chains. Now as I sit in my chair, at the dinner table reading an old article of David Walkers //Appeal//, he proved to me that blacks had not lost their voices. Mr. Walker had been a free black man and for him to be writing such a piece of literature he must have been brave. The article spoke of how blacks should stand up against their plantation owners. How blacks have been oppressed by whites. And who could disagree? I, myself may have not oppressed a black man but I know some who have, and I never did anything to stop such an injustice. In the //Appeal// he says “They want us for their slaves, and think nothing of murdering us… therefore, if there is an attempt made by us, kill or be killed… and believe this, that it is not more harm for you to kill a man who is trying to kill you, than it is for you to take a drink of water when thirsty.” This really spoke to me because it challenges one of the ten commandments. Murder in defense, is that all right? Those white plantation owners are murdering those slaves. So why can’t they fight back? Why is it so wrong if a black man kills the very same white man that had killed his wife or children? Another phrase that spoke to me was “America is more our country then it is the whites’ – We have enriched it with our blood and tears”. Mr. Walker had a point. The whole South is built on the labor of slaves. Without them, how long do those slave owners think they could last? I don’t think they would last but one week. Next to me was another article, this one was about a speech made by Sojourner Truth, it was called “Ain’t I a woman.” She made her speech in Akron, Ohio. This made me believe that blacks did have a voice because she was one. It must have been hard to speak by her self about slave rights, but what really impressed me is that she is a woman. Her speech made me think deeply about woman’s rights. One of the things she said was “That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages and lifted over ditches, or gives me a best place, and ain’t I a woman?” It made me think are we sugar coating our woman? As I have noticed we (men) think that we are the best at most things. We have never let women into the militias, and many don’t go to school. We had always thought they were helpless creatures that needed to stay indoors and do simple things. But by doing this are we keeping them from doing great things? It obviously makes it very difficult for them to own or work in big businesses and access the same opportunities that men have. We (the North) are screaming about equality that’s needed in the south, when we can’t even keep equality in our own homes.

Bibliography

Badimon, Clara Philadelphia PA, United States, 2010

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"Historical Document David Walker's Appeal 1829." //CBS//. WGBH Educational Foundation, 1999. Web. 21 Mar 2010. .

Nussbaum, Greg. "United States History Timeline." //mrnussbaum//. mrnussbaum.com, 2006. Web. 25 Mar 2010. .

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Vorenberg, Tom Philadelphia PA, United States 2008-2009