ya'll is dumb.

 In the south slaves were not allowed to be educated in any way. Slave owners thought that if blacks were educated then they would come together and revolt. When the slaves were freed after the Civil War they encountered many problems as a result of being illiterate. One of the biggest problems they faced was when it came time to read the contract for the Homestead Act. Many slaves were taken advantage through the Homestead Act because the plantation owners would write the contract in a way that would not allow the slave to gain enough income to ever become self sufficient. As a result of being illiterate blacks did not have as many job opportunities and could only go into the agricultural business. Gradually over time future black generations were taught to read and write so that they did not have to endure the same hardships as their ancestors.

Remember back in the day when everyone used pens and paper....

The experiences I had with learning were very different when I blogged because it was easier to rearrange my ideas when typing as opposed to writing on paper and constantly having to erase and rewrite my ideas. Working with the blog has had its advantages and disadvantages. When working with a blog you cannot post to your blog unless you have internet connection which is not always a reliable way to turn things in. While when working with paper it is easier to turn in assignments and it is easier to improve your writing because your teacher can write feedback on what you write. Personally I like blogging because it is easier for me to articulate myself in an organized manner.

Its my Favorite

My favorite blog topic was the one that was assigned to us in the beginning about whether or not we think history matters. I liked it because it allowed me to express what I think without having to analyze a document or have prior knowledge on a specific subject. This topic wanted my opinion and outlook on a subject where as a lot of other blog topics wanted me to give my opinion on songs or documents but support it with facts which is very difficult for me to do because many times I don’t know how to prove my opinions with facts. Supporting opinions with facts is difficult because many times I do now know where to find credible information. I it would be much easier to use facts if I knew where to find them and if I knew how to use them to support my opinion.

Song of the Shirt

Reading the “Song of the Shirt” showed me the toll that the textile factory workers were taking both physically and emotionally. Through out the song there was a lot of repetition of the word “work”. By repeating this word it emphasized how long and monotonous their days were. The song also stresses how long the workers day is and it says that they work from morning to night. This poems tone is extremely apathetic as though the textile worker is to tired and over worked to feel emotion. The narrator of this poem welcomes death which shows how miserable the life of a textile worker is. I feel like when someone welcomes death he or she has hit rock bottoms and feels as though there in no other way to escape their problems and misery. 

African-American Tribulations

Through out history African-Americans have always been segregated and mistreated by society. Two of the most prominent times in history where African-Americans were mistreated were during the reconstruction period and during Civil Rights Movement. The reconstruction period occurred from 1865 through 1877 while the Civil Rights Movement occurred during the 1950’s and 60’s. Though these two periods in history occurred many decades apart African-Americans were continuously treated with the same disdain.

The reconstruction period was the period after the Civil War when the southern states were reorganized and reinstated into the Union. This time period spanned from 1865-1877. During this time black codes were put into affect; these codes limited the basic human rights and civil liberties of African-Americans. Some of these codes required African-Americans to pass a literacy test and pay poll taxes in order to vote. These codes were mainly implemented in the southern United States because even though the Confederates did not win the war, they still supported the idea of slavery. In 1866, only a year after the beginning of the reconstruction period, the Ku Klux Klan was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee. The KKK’s main purpose was mainly to intimidate African-Americans and white supporters of the Republican Party. Acts of violence from the KKK towards African-Americans occurred frequently through out the reconstruction period. Law enforcement attempted to control the violence but was not always successful. Jonathan Bryant states, in The New Georgia Encyclopedia, that there were“336 cases of murder or assault with intent to kill on freedmen across the state from January 1 through November 15 of 1868”.

By 1955 the African-American’s tolerance of segregation had reached an end. The civil rights movement began when an African-American woman named Rosa Parks was arrested because she refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man. This event sparked other people like Martin Luther King Jr. to take action against segregation and push toward equal rights. Unlike the reconstruction period law enforcement did not protect the rights of African-Americans, in fact they enforced segregation laws. One of the most well known cases were law enforcement did not protect African-Americans was the murders of James Chaney (an African-American), Andrew Goodman, and  Schwerner. On June 21, 1964 these three men were arrested on a false speeding charge and incarcerated for the remainder of the day. Later that night the Neshoba County's law enforcement illegally handed the men over to the Ku Klux Klan who proceeded to murder them. Unlike the African-American in the reconstruction period the African-Americans of the 1950’s and 60’s organized non-violent protests such as the boycott of Montgomery bus systems and sit-ins at restaurants that refused service to African-Americans. These anti-segregation protests were effective because African-Americans stood up for what they believed in and eventually began the process of implicating equal rights.

As you can see there were many similarities between the treatment of African-Americans through out the reconstruction period and the civil rights movements. Both the reconstruction period and the civil rights movement were times that were very difficult for African-Americans. The biggest difference between the civil rights movement and the reconstruction period was that foe the first time in history African-American had joined together to taken action against segregation and fight for equal rights.

Resource:

Bryant, Jonathan. "Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction Era ." Athens: 2002. Web. <http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-694>.

Image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Ku_Klux_Klan_Virgina_1922_Parade.jpg

Rocky Raccoon

The song "Rocky Raccoon", by the Beatles, portrays the wild west as violent place where you can do what you want without having to worry about the laws. After Rock'y girlfriend leaves him he goes to town with the plan "to shoot... the legs of his rival" because he is angry. Later on in the song it talks about how Rocky storms into a saloon with the intention of killing Dan, the man who ran away with Rocky's girlfriend. In my opinion this makes the west seem like a lawless place because in modern day society police can usually intervene and keep everyone safe. At the end of the fight Rocky ends up getting shot and then proceeds to die at the end of the song which clearly portrays the west as a violent place. When I first read the lyrics of "Rocky Raccoon" I thought that it was accurate but only to a certain degree. It was accurate because it showed the lawlessness of the west. We learned in class that the west was formed by miners who traveled west to mine and needed a place to stay, so they set up towns. The majority of these towns did not have any law enforcement which allowed people to do as they please and not get in trouble, just like Rocky did in the song. What I found to be least accurate was the depiction of violence. I do believe there was violence in the west,  but not as much as was described in "Rocky Raccoon". Over all the Beatles wrote a partially accurate song that portrayed the west as a violent and lawless place.

Gaming is Fun

Recently in class we have been studying the Wild West and the people who traveled across the America to arrive there. At the end of class I was assigned a homework assignment that involved going online and playing Oregon Trail. As I got home and began playing I realized just how difficult the journey was for the families who chose to travel across the country. By the end of the game most of my virtual family had died and I was barely at the halfway point. This game showed me the common things pioneers faced everyday such as sickness, lack of food, extreme weather conditions, and death. Using games to teach students and children can be very effective because they are fun yet instructive at the same time. Let’s be honest, students hate it when teachers assign homework. As soon as the teacher says “the homework for tonight is…” the studnet's brains completely shut off. I think that if they were told to go home and play a game then they would be much more open to the idea of homework. Gaming could not only change student’s out look on homework, but it could also change their out look on learning. Instead of coming into the class room and being lectured to for an hour, teachers could give us games to play that would taught us that days lesson. Personally speaking, I would much rather play a game than have to sit in a boring class all day.