The Election of 1860

This week in class we learned about the election of 1860 and the events that lead up to this big election. To learn about these events we watched a crash course video on how the slavery issue caused divisions for the fugitive slave law, railroads, republicans, and bleeding Kansas. The essential quest this week was, were the results of the election of 1860 representative of the deep divisions over slavery? To answer the essential question we made a video on educreations to explain the events that took part during the election of 1860.

The Election of 1860

Click the link below to watch the story of the election of 1860

Lincoln finally won the election, but many people were angered from the south. The South did not 
agree with Lincoln about trying to end slavery like what the North wanted. The South wanted to encourage slavery which is why many of them voted for Breckenridge.

Strategy and Statistics of the Civil War

Strategies and success in the civil war: North vs. south | Create infographics

This week we learned about the statistics and strategies of the civil and the advantages both the North and South had. To learn about these statistics we made infographics. An infographic is a visual image such as a chart or diagram used to represent information or data. This infographic really did help me learn about the strategies and statistics of the civil war. Seeing different numbers on a piece of paper than thinking about the how big the difference is and how this could really effect the result of civil war is so much different than having a graph or a pie chart or any of the other tools that you could use in Infogr.am actually show you the different in an easy and understandable way. It helped me see how many more people were in the North compared to the south, but how many more slaves were needed in the South because that was where the only cotton bales were produced. More slaves were needed in the south to be able to produce all of that cotton that was being produced.I also learned that most slaves lived on large plantations and only 10% of slaves lived in the city. And I learned that slaves in different areas may react differently to the war depending on where they were located. Slaves on small plantations because they could be freed, but it is less likely for a slave to be freed on a big plantation.

Sources:

http://www.edline.net/files/_CCBV6_/39d28344c59e45213745a49013852ec4/Railroad_and_Slave_Density_Maps.pdf

http://www.edline.net/files/_CDHeg_/849bf0de56cb0eae3745a49013852ec4/Resources_Pie_Charts.pdf

http://www.edline.net/files/_CCBWZ_/257d654637b0aff83745a49013852ec4/Slavery_by_the_Numbers.pdf

http://www.edline.net/files/_CCBWz_/21e469c533466ada3745a49013852ec4/Strengths_of_the_North_and_the_South_Reading.pdf  

There's an Elephant in the Room?!

Last week in class we discussed how we know the debate over slavery was the “elephant in the room” for American politics in the early 19th century. The phrase “elephant in the room” describes a specific topic that no one cares to address. To learn about this we learned about different people and events from this time period and then made a timeline through the 19th century. The essential question for this week was: How do we know the debate over slavery was the “elephant in the room” for American politics in the early 19th century? The first thing we did it class was go over the Missouri compromise in 1820. The Missouri compromise creates and even split of 11 slave states and 11 Free states. Also, all new territory north of the 36 degrees, 30 minutes latitude line will be free in the future. Then in 1850 California requests to join the union as a free state. Henry Clay anticipates the inevitable controversy of the loss of equality between slave and Free states, so he proposed of five-part compromise. The first part was that Texas would give up the land in dispute, but in return given ten million dollars and the money would be used to pay off its debt to Mexico. In part two the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Utah would be organized without mention of slavery, they are still not considered states because they are not very populated yet, once they get more populated it will be decided if they are slave and free states. Next in the third part the slave trade would be abolished in the District of Columbia but slavery will still be permitted meaning that people who already have slaves are allowed to keep them but no more slaves are allowed to be purchase in DC. The fourth part it says California would be admitted as a free state. And the final part, part five says to pacify slave-state politicians who would have objected to the imbalance of free and slave states they created another free state, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. It was supposed to help the recovery of fugitive slave. It denies a fugitive slave to a jury a trial. These are only two events from the timeline we made in class. These two events should how there was an “elephant in the room” because even though they are trying to decide which states should be slave and which ones are supposed to be free; the people aren’t discussing how they are going to try to end slavery.

This is the timeline we made in class to show all the even causing the “elephant in the room” for many politicians during the 19th century.

Slavery Increasing

Recently in class we have learned about how slavery was entrenched in American slavery in the early 19th century, how the system of slavery based race affects human dignity and what human characteristics does society tend to ignore. The three essential questions are: How did slavery become entrenched in American society, both economically and politically, by the early 19th century? How does a system of slavery based race affect human dignity? What human characteristics does such a system tend to ignore?

People thought that slavery was going to decrease because as the result of the American and French revolutions many slaves escaped and planned revolts, which made people, believe that slavery going to go away. But, then the cotton gin was invented which was a machine that took the seeds out of the cotton so that it could be woven into threads, this increased production so more slaves were needed to keep up with the supply and demand. During the time when the cotton gin was first invented slaves price almost doubled and the number of slaves in the United States increased by 33 percent. In 1793 short staple cotton was easier to make and there was more demand for it by 1800, the production increased to 85 million pounds; during this time the total slave population in the United States was about 690,000 all located in Virginia and the Carolinas. Then by 1860 the south grew 28.2 million pounds up from about 1.5 million cotton exports produced 191.8 million pounds which is 57 percent of the nation’s total export revenue; as the south was producing more and more cotton the amount of slaves also increased to 3,954,000 throughout the south. Slavery was entrenched in the early 19th century because there was a high demand for cotton so they needed more slaves to produce the cotton increasing the slave population drastically.

One antislavery activist was Frederick Douglass. Frederick was the son of a slave women and an unknown white man, he was born in February of 1818 on Maryland’s eastern shore. As a child he was a slave and he experienced brutal whippings and spending much time cold and hungry. He did teach himself to read and write in defiance of laws while enslaved. He escaped for good at 20 years old and continued to try to make African American lives better. As an active abolitionist, he wrote an abolitionist newspaper called the North Star and wrote his autobiography. He was also known as a powerful speaker in the abolitionist movement.

Here is a picture of Frederick Douglass. We put words from one of his speeches that we felt were powerful to make the portrait come alive.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1539.html

A system of slavery based race affects human dignity. Most people lose their dignity when they were forced into slavery, they become the lowest of the low and they aren’t treated with any respect. They are beaten and starved just because they are slaves; they aren’t really even treated like humans. One human characteristic that society usually overlooks could be that everyone is free and have the same rights. People who are enslaved don’t have the rights to say no to becoming a slave and to be owned by someone, and not being free anymore