Third Class Reflection Post class 2/18

The professor mentioned in class that everyone was very quiet and unenthusiastic. For me, I was very quiet because the whole topic of slavery in general is something I dont like to discuss, I think for a lot of us its something that we tend to keep hidden and not bring up very often. The mistrel shows are very appauling to me because here slaves are getting abused and stripped of their rights and dignity while people of a different skin color are ridiculing them publicly, this reminds me of the episode at Abu Ghraib prison a few years ago where American soldiers were caught sexually abusing prisoners. So even though its important to learn about, I feel like its something people are ashamed of and dont necesserily like to bring up in conversation.

As for the art of deception, its very intriguing that it sprung from the minstrel shows and P.T. barnum, how he got so popular from that creature he tried to publish. It shows that people actually like being fooled and lied to, to some extent. It surely shows how human nature has a tendency to be egocentrical and think that to believe something is true or false we would have to judge it for ourselves.  Our history is filled with leaders and celebrities who made their name by being self-righteous.

Anyways, I liked doing the make your own utopia thing in the class, I think its very intersting how our only choices of utopias to make are socialist, capitalist or religious…I wouldnt necesarily want to give a title to my community as some of it could be religious and some of it could be capitalist….. so this will be interesting.  Stay tuned until next week.haha.

Assignment#1: Reading the Runaways- Hopeful Hercules

    For a large period of time in the history of the United States, Slavery plagued society. Up until 1926 when the Slavery Convention was created, African Americans and other minorities were viewed as tools of the ‘white man’. As wrong as this sounds now, the refutation of such a claim would have been completely ignored by the majority of Americans back in the 18th century. The real producers of the America that we know it as today are the people that were condemned to slavery back in the period of colonization. But who were these people? Did they have names? Where did they come from? To seek answers to these few questions, advertizements from old newspapers such as “the Virginia Gazette” and “the Norfolk Herald” have been consulted. These ads for missing or runaway slaves help to shed light on the lives of slaves as well as Americans during the period of colonialization.

    The website that featured thousands of ads had a unique search function where one is able to specify who they would like to learn about. Personally, I first began by entering in my own name, Elizabeth, into the search box, but oddly there were very few to choose from. Then I progressed to search for those under 20 years of age, since this is my age I wanted to learn about those younger than I, who were forced to work the land. Here is where I came across Hercules. Juding by solely the name, it is quite understandable why this particular slave might have perked my interest. I was very suprized by the fact that someone named their child/slave after a greek mythological god. I noticed from some minor details in the Ads that this one slave ran away multiple times. Also, his ad was comparatively longer than some of the others which were only about a sentence or two long.

     Hercules turned out to have many more interesting characteristics besides his name. Interestingly enough, at one point he decided to try and change his name, this is probably due to the fact that it is pretty hard to forget that name, especially back in the 18th century. Hercules was described as “a very black well set Fellow, about 5 Feet 5 Inches high” in one ad when he was 18 and then when he was 25 an ad claimed: ”his visage rather long for a Negro, stands with his knees a little turned out, is well made and active, wears ear-rings in one or both ears, and his wool in a little queu behind and at the temples; is very dressy, and had a variety of clothes”. These descriptions are quite interesting because they claim that he wore earrings. It is very suprizing that a slave could afford earrings. Nonetheless, Hercules ran away atleast 3 times in attempt to flee the country (as states one of the ads).  Judging from the ads, Hercules must have not had a good relationship with his Masters because they changed frequently and none give details about his personality.

      These ads enhance my understanding of colonial American history and slavery by making me more aware of how Americans acted and were respected back in that time period. The slave owners from the ads seem very cocky and selfish, not showing any concern for the well-being of others. From the descriptions of the slaves it is apparent that they were more competant than some history literature states. The wikipedia articles state exact dates and documents such as the “Code of Hammurabi” describing slavery whereas the ads illustrate vague biographies. Slavery had a long existance in history but represented a large learning experience for the early Americans.

Second Class Reflection Post: On Class 2/11

Ahh, the American Revolution. The day we obtained our freedom from the British. As stated in class, our (as Americans) interpretation of this battle is that it was a great victory from us and that it was won by great men and produced great ideas. Although I have not read Thomas Paine’s book “Common Sense” I agree that it was common sense for America to be a separate state from Britain due to many factors such as the location and culture differences.

 In my opinion, the documents that emerged from the revolution, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights served as a foundation for International Law as a whole. The rights defined by the Bill of Rights were born from an idea of Natural Law, a concept derived from Thomas Hobbes which states that there is a universal law common to all mankind. I think the Bill of Rights is very important for humanity because it declares that every human being has rights, an idea that many nations in this day and age do not agree with. Anyways, I believe that more credit should be given to the American Revolution, these men fought for our country not out of religion or greed but for justice and freedom.

P.S. I’m not sure how I’m suppose to tell you my wikipedia topic but it is Child Savers from the list of USA history stubs….this is ok right?

First Post on Class 2/4/08

This was actually my first class since I was sick with acute bronchitis for the first one, and my first impression is that it is going to be a great year. I am curious though as to if the professor does have a wife, Jill, where is his wedding ring? Why would he not wear his wedding ring? Anyways…

Slavery is probably the toughest subject to cover in US history so I’m glad we’re getting it out of the way first. The problem lies with the information provided, back in the 19th century the number of slaves that actually were taken from Africa varies tremedously, I guess people weren’t all that concerned with recording their names and affiliations at this time, instead it was all about colonialization of the Americas and Britain.

 The question posed during this class period touches on the misnomer of “New World”, who is it actually new to? It sure isnt new to the natives that have lived there since the beginning of humanity. Instead it is new to the ‘immigrants’ who decided to make the nation their own. So hence this notion of ‘new world’ implies that the colonizers felt they were superior to the natives already settled there. Maybe this could be seen as the first instances of discrimination.

The slave classifieds were quite interesting. I had no idea these existed- ads put in papers from masters of slaves requesting their return in exchange for a reward. I knew slavery was ubiquitous but I didnt think it could be advertized publically. But besides that, it amazes me how far America has come since that time, in regards to human rights and equality. Of course there is still racism and discrimination but in my opinion its to such a less extent than in the early 20th century.

 So already I learned a lot in just the first class, I also love the atmosphere and the discussion basis of the class. I cannot stand classes where your participation is limited and you are required to devote your attention to one person speaking the entire class, thats when my ADD kicks in and its drawing time or something. This class is a breath of fresh air and I look forward to Monday.