Dan

**Biography**: 
 * Name:** Austin Whiles
 * Gender**: Male
 * Born**: January 29, 1845
 * Live**: I was born, raised, and still live in Georgia
 * Religion**: Atheist
 * Profession**: I play the piano for the slaves
 * Relationship status**: It's complicated
 * Hobbies**: I play the piano and draw
 * Dislikes**: Abuse on slaves, eating candy, and eating chocolate.
 * Likes**: spending time with family and helping slaves
 * Favorite quotes**: If there is no struggle, there is no progress. - Fredrick Douglass

I am the boy of a plantation owner. My daddy's name is Cody Whiles and let me tell you he is not a nice person. I have two houses one in which is the plantation and the other is up in a sicluded area where all the problems just escape you and go somewhere else. media type="custom" key="5641459" 1. Abraham Lincoln president of the united states 2. Robert E Lee: General of the Confederates

 **3. Pro slavery raiders burned the town of Lawrence provoking the civil war 4. Louisiana purchase: Purchase of a large amount of land.

5. Confederacy flag 6. John Brown: Hung by robert E Lee for trying to form a slave rebellion

** 8. Fugitive slave act: Says slaves escaped and traveling to the north must be returned
 * 7. Ulysses S grant

** 10. Union flag 11. Jefferson Davis: president of the confederacy 12. President Taylor died on 1850**
 * 9. Underground railroad: Allowed slaves to travel to the north


 * Entry Number one**:
 * Blacks are smart that cant be possible, can it?**

The date November 24,1859. I am now 14 years old. Yesterday, I watched as daddy beat the life out of one of the slaves. It was a woman. She was beat to her knees. I watched as daddy took her into the house and I could only hear the screams coming from the girl. “Why must my father do this,” I asked myself over and over again. Daddy was going to a party and I wasn't invited. So I took my supper to the slaves and gave them my food. It wasn't much but it was good food, so every little bit counted.

I saw the other day that a slave had faked being sick. I found it to be quite clever because he didn’t have to work now. Never had I ever seen a black person with such intelligence. I went up to him yesterday and talked to him. He said he aint never been a free man and that he been doing our labor for many years. He didn’t know how old he was because he didn’t know how to count or to read the date for that matter, but he was smart. He told me about how his father had been beaten to death by my daddy. I felt guilty like as if it was my fault. He told me not to worry and he knew that I was kindhearted. This made me feel good about myself.

His father actually out witted my daddy a few times as well. Only the last time that this mans father out witted my daddy, he actually got caught. One of the guards that daddy pays to watch over on the plantation found him digging a hole with one of the spoons that we provide with dinner. That was when my daddy beat the man to death for trying to escape. I am actually considering helping them. I don’t agree with the way daddy treats these people. I mean they are people right? Just different on the outside.

Well to get back to today, I am going to help them. When the clock hits that 12. I will leave with my shovel and start digging. I feel as though this is my duty and I will complete it. Wish me luck.

Side note: The American Dental association was established on this year. Charles Darwin publishes “On the Origin of species “On the Origin of Species" A day before my birthday (January 28, 1859): Arkansas legislature requires free blacks to choose exile or slavery On june 30 Charles Blondin is 1st to cross the Niagara Falls on a tightrope. 1860 Lincoln was elected as president. He represented the republican party and he was liked by the south which produced conflict. This makes it important because it is Lincolns election and without him we could still have slavery.

Entry Number two: Why did slavery start papa? The date is 1862. I was curious on why daddy had all of these slaves so I went up to him today and asked him why exactly we owned these people. He told me it could have started as early as 1400’s. It had actually started in Europe and by the time 1441 came around the start of the European slave trading started in Africa. There were two Portuguese captains by the names of Antão Gonçalves and Nuno Tristão and they captured 12 Africans and took them back to Portugal to be slaves. Then a man by the name of Lançarote de Freitas whom was a tax collector formed a company to trade with Africa and the first big group of slaves brought to Europe was on August 8th 1444 with a total f 235 slaves. The pope of that time, Nicholas V issues Dum Diversas, authorizing that the Portuguese can reduce any non- Christians to the status of slaves. Just two years later on the date of January 8th 1454 pope Nicholas V issues Romanus Pontifex, which grants Portuguese a perpetual monopoly in trade with Africa. I was beginning to not like this pope! The actually started making trading forts and they named there first one the castle of Arguin which was completed in 1461. In 1476 a guy by the name of Carlos de Valera brought back a grand total of 400 slaves from Africa. At this point in the conversation with my papa I am becoming uncomfortable. Why are these people using these Africans to do their dirty work. Then he rambled on and on and when he finally got to the 1800’s i started to get interested. He said that on February 23 1807 British parliament voted to try and abolish the trade in slaves. A glimpse of hope arose inside of me but not in my dad he seemed to get angry. I didn’t understand why I mean I think slavery was wrong and that black people are the same as us white folk. So the question came to me. I asked my papa what he thought that the definition of slavery was. And he answered saying, “Slavery is us white folk using people that are lower then us to do our dirty work, and it gives them black people a reason to live.” I proceeded to ask him why he thought they were lower then us white folk. He replied with pride, “because they are black and people shouldn’t be black.”

Entry number three: The British are coming the British are coming!

So I had another great question to ask my papa. I heard some people talking about the revolutionary war. I wasn’t quite sure what it was so I wanted to ask my dad. He made a giggle when I asked him. He said, “well son that is a great question.” He went on to tell me that the revolutionary war had to do with the Americans (former Europeans). See the fighting began on April 9th, 1775 and the Europeans planned to crush the rebellion of the north. Somewhere in 1778 the fighting had shifter to the south. The British succeeded in capturing Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. Although they eventually lost and in 1781 when an American and French force defeated the British at York-town in the war's last major battle. I was surprised in why it was even going on because he also told me that it had to do with the fact that the British kept putting tax’s on all the Americans stuff. I don’t find that to be right how the British can just dictate how America runs. Then the reality hit me. He started to explain what happened as a result of the war. He told me how about 7,200 people died from battle during this war and that 10,000 died from disease and then in top of that 8,500 people died in British prisons. So many people died in such a short amount of time. Although it seems that when ever my dad talks about slaves being free he seems to get mad so when I saw a grin come across his face that could have dimmed the room with such sadness. He proceeded to tell me that about a quarter of the slaves in South Carolina and Georgia escaped from bondage while the revolution was going on. So the ideals for which it was fought was over taxes, independence and freedom. freedom from Europe and the will to make there own laws and taxes thus giving them independence. Anyways, my dad was so mad I can just see it in his face. Come to think of it I rather like seeing the anger in my papa’s eyes. It shows how weak he truly is.

Entry Number four: Conclusion of civil War.... Well the war is over and many are dead. The war finished in the west. Robert E. Lee actually surrendered on April 9th 1865. The day that the fighting was over. Well most of it anyways. It wasn’t until June 23rd 1865 that the last of the major fighting was actually over when general Stand Watie surrendered. Although a big part of the reason they lost is also because they were lacking in food and resources. I am pretty sure that more people died than any American war so far (more deaths than any war today). Before April 9th on the date of April 7th Lee’s forces were surrounded and they were forced to surrender their equipment (guns and such). Then on April 14th 1865 the United States was shocked well at least half of it for that matter. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. He didn’t die instantly. In fact he died that very next morning on April 15th 1865. In the end I mean I am glad it ended. It was a bad time and now I am living with my daughter and my wife. I tell her stories of how the war went (except the graphic info she is still young). Hopefully she will grow up to be a wonderful women and have the right mind set and know the difference between right and wrong. General Ulysses S Grant went on to become president of the United States since we lost the late great Abraham Lincoln. Ya know, looking back on this actually makes me mad that people are so ruthless. It is an eye opener for me and I plan on doing everything I can to fight for others equality. Everyone has a right, and everyone should be able to live the American Dream.

Status Updates:

1850- The Fugitive Slave Act is passed and it says that any slave found in a northern state must be returned to its owner. Not cool. If they are free I think they should be free.

1855: March of 1855 after pro-slavery Missourians and anti slavery Northerners cross the Kansas border to elect a territorial legislature, Kansas' vote to outlaw slavery and set up their own capital at Topeka. I think some people would be mad at this because this causes conflict. It was a moral conflict because they believed in different things. There was also political because things were separated and different between the south and the north.

1857: On the 6th of March the Dred Scott decision is delivered by the Supreme Court. After being brought to free territory (Illinois) by his owner, Scott proceeded to sue for his freedom but the Court ruled that he had never stopped being a slave, and so he was denied citizenship and therefore was denied the right to sue in a court of law. This was important because this was a black man trying to sue against the inequalities he was forced to encounter but the Court ruled that the owner would have been denied due process if his property were freed simply by entering another state. This is why he wasn't able to sue.

1858: President Buchanan asks that Kansas be admitted as a slave state, a request that was rejected. This could help the union by having more land.

1859: October 16 a man by the name of john brown lead a brigade of 21 men to seize the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.John brown was captured, and was executed. He raided the town and for his actions they executed him. He was a man with bad intentions.

1859: A day before my birthday (January 28, 1859): Arkansas legislature requires free blacks to choose exile or slavery

1859: Georgia passes a law forbidding owners from manumitting (to release from slavery) slaves in their wills. This means that they cant free their slaves which I dont agree with.

1860- South Carolina secedes from the union making less support for the north. This obviously is important because it changes the possible outcome of the war.

Bibliography: http://americancivilwar.com/north/grant.html http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/tm/american2.html http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/tl1865.html http://www.historycentral.com/dates/1850ad.html#Anchor-16214 http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/revwar/index.cfm http://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono6.htm http://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/chrono2.htm