9/30/15

Today we finished the video about Custer's Last Stand.

We learned that Custer was a a foolish man, as said by Sitting Bull. Even though this was the truth, many press didn't say it that way. What they did is said that they, as in Custer's army, was "massacred" and "fought for three days", when in reality, the fight took no longer than it took "finish dinner."

Even with these burdens, Elizabeth Custer, his wife, took the story and wrote three novels which became best-selling novels and gave her more than enough money before she had died. This lead to also many silent films being made and later films with audio, all of the showing the foolish man Custard as a hero.

Lastly, we started another documentary, which instead of focusing on the lives of the rich and prosperous people of those times, will focus on the lives of those who worked in these factories, on railroads, and oil.

Key numbers about these times, 1% of the companies control 1/3 of the production, the 1% made/had more money than the rest 99%.

Other things to note is that they strongly believed in Social Darwinism.

8/31/2015

Today during class we reviewed the Amendments made to the Constitution.

The First Amendment was reviewed to simply be:
Freedom of Speech, but with many limitations to support the safety of others.
Freedom of Religion
Freedom of Press (Media)
Peaceful Assembly and the Right to petition the government.

The Second Amendment is:
The Right to Bear Arms.

The Third Amendment:
Basically we don't have to house soldiers in our house (while in a time of peace.)

The Fourth:
No Search and Seizure without reasonable suspicion.

The Fifth:
Prevention of double jeopardy (multiple trials for one crime) and self-incrimination (cannot be used as a witness against yourself unless you say so.)
Also allows due process.

And the Six.
Trial by Jury and all of the rights given to the accused.

Da 7th:
Allowing Civil Trial by a Jury.

Da 8th:
No excessive bail, and no unusual and cruel punishments.

Dath 9:
Protection of rights not mentioned in the Bill of Rights.(important for many things)

Duh 10th:
Power to the state and the people!

Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie was only twelve years old when he started working in an office for twelve hours day getting paid less than a dollar. Andrew was a very hard working boy and his mother wanted him to succeed which led him to learning how to decode morse code at the age of sixteen. Andrew was then hired to work as the head of railroad and his road to being one of the richest men and American history started from there. Andrew gained his wealth by investing money in railroad companies and in exchange he would get a seat on the board of administration which at the time was a very prestigious job. At the time, the railroad industry was going through massive changes by switching all the railroad to steel which allowed Carnegie to gain even more money after he had invested most of it in steel companies. Carnegie soon took control over all the steel companies which allowed him to makeover 2 million every year, besides being a powerful man, Carnegie did not treat his workers the same way, they were paid the lowest annual salary and only had one day off in the whole year, this working schedule had caused his workers to turn against him and cause a worker’s strike. Carnegie was a selfish men and people said he put his needs before others. At the age of 75, Carnegie decided he wanted to spend most of his money because he states that “a man who dies rich dies disgraced”. Carnegie built libraries all over the united states and built a university with the rest of his funds. Carnegie did not die the richest men in america but he sure did have a lot of power over the united states economy.   

9/28/15

Today we started a video about Custer's Last Stand.

We began the video explaining that the Indians didn't want to move and would fight if anyone tried anything funny. But as the white people moved west onto their lands, they began to slowly and slowly get outnumbered, almost 4:1. As these settlers moved, they also began to start killing off the buffalo in the area, which was quote, "the equivalent of the modern day Wal-mart for Indians" (Mr. Stewart). This really made the Indians mad, especially one specific one named Crazy Horse.

When the economy almost crashed in 1873, and the reason why it didn't was because railroad owners began to sell the land near their railroads to cities and people. Some of this land went near the land reserved to the Indians through the Laramie Treaty.

One of these places inhabited by people was the Black Hills. A sacred place to the Indians, and since people found gold there, caused the Indians to become extremely pissed. Crazy Horse, mentioned earlier to be one of the most angry and vengeful, would find lone miners and kill them. Whenever the U.S. brought an army they would be pretty confidently defeated because the soldiers they had were usually immigrants and low-wage-seeking workers, not fit for battle in any way.

Tl;dr The White People are screwing with the Indians and will probably lose the battle in Custer's Last Stand.

Wealth and Power notes / Cristian Flores

The Vanderblit

Vanderbilt was very competitive for shipping things.

Became best steamship operator in the world.

Vanderbilt railroad empire grew so much, it was the biggest railroad system.

Had more money than the U.S. government. Had about $100 million dollars.

Started losing money after a while because of Steamboats rising popularity

Brought his all his rivals out of business within a year

Had more money than U.S. treasury

Andrew Carnegie

Carnegie know Mor’s Code by ear

Carnegie started producing steel after he found out America was going to change railroads from iron to steel.

Carnegie was making more than $2 million dollars a year.

He funded libraries.

He sold his company for $480 million dollars.

He gave $300 million dollars to charity.

He wanted to bring people out of business that were producing steel.

12 hour shifts/ 7 days a week - workers doing hard work.

workers paid $520 every year.

Riots broke out because of Carnegie’s payment for his workers.

He choose power and money over his people.

J.Pierpont Morgan

Morgan at age 7 or 8 studies business.

The product he is making is money, he’s a banker.

He invested europeans money and give fees.

Morgan payed to be inderectory to get control of the company.

The president went to Morgan because of government was running out of money.

The second time, Morgan gave money to different President this time.

Morgan used his workers money to become in directory.

If the newspaper people placed his nose on their papers, Morgan would put them out of business.

He had way more money than the government.

John D. Rockefeller

Rockefeller started his first company for getting oil.

20 year Rockefeller started first to refine oil, instead of drill oil.

Things started to be invented like cars, planes, and more new ships.

Rockefeller owned 90% of oil (somewhere).

He gave millions for schools.

portraits himself as a good guy when he gets old.

half of his money went to charity.

Rockefeller said to his refinery oil competitors to join his company or else….

he owned $900 million dollars.

The End of Slavery - Beginnings of Jim Crow Segregation notes/ Cristian Flores

The American civil war had just ended and the North was to establish an end to slavery. Then, in 1865 the government creates the 13th Amendment which is suppose to abolish slavery once and for all. Unfortunately however, the blacks still didn't have much rights. That's where the the Rise of Black Codes comes into play where blacks are officially limited to their rights compared to the whites. Because they were still people that disagreed about slavery being abolished, there was people like that in the government too, like President Johnson. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was at the moment a bill that was passed by Congress, but since Johnson didn't want blacks to has same rights as whites, he vetoed the bill. The result of this incident brings a rough relationship between Congress and the President. Then later that same year came the Freedmen's Bureau where blacks were receiving help and support after not being a being a slave for a while. Yet again since there were still whites that wanted slavery to continue, race riots broke out. But before the acts and everything that took place in 1866, the sad incident of Lincoln came along. In 1865, Lincoln was assassinated. Lincoln before his death though didn't want to punish the South harshly, but after his death people didn't get the idea and wanted the opposite. People soon wanted to punish the South very harshly for what they did, as revenge for the North. Then things went a little crazy with the idea of what to do with blacks. The Ku Klux Klan was formed and southerners started began sharecropping to brings blacks into unofficial slavery. Southerners would trick blacks into "good business deals", but make them end up in slavery again because some blacks didn't have education to know they were being tricked.

"Worse than Slavery"

Today in class we went over the aftermath of the War, which included the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Also included was share cropping, Jim Crow laws, and the infamous KKK.

We started off recapping about the end of the Civil War, how there was two ideas of attempting to fix the separation in the United States. One way was Restoration; restoring the United States to the way it was before the War. This type of fixing heavily favored the South because it let them mostly keep their way of life. The other way that was considered was Reconstruction. The example used to establish a difference was the example of an old and broken chair. Restoration would be polishing, re-coating the chair. Reconstructing would be destroying the chair and rebuilding it how you wanted it.

The 13th Amendment was passed, but with the Amendment holding back many specific details that would be added in the 14th and 15th, but it allowed Southerns to take control of "free" black people is such ways like Share-Cropping.
Share-Cropping: Give blacks land, have they pay in crops, oh wait they don't have crops to start off with, LOAN them crops, ???, Free labor. Basically.

The 14th amendment gave naturally born people (including former slaves) citizenship...which helped a bit? It didn't have a very large impact on anything.

The 15th says that you can't not let someone vote based on race, color, or previous status of servitude. What happened instead was that the White American Southern Protestants (W.A.S.P. for short), gave people 'literacy tests'. Since the majority of black people didn't have education, it was easy to prevent them from voting.

It wasn't until 60 years later Martin Luther King Jr. started his movement.

Trying to Stabilize the South

After the government realized that black Americans were being brutally treated in the South, they set up a system called the Freedmen's Bureau. This group was responsible for protecting the rights of black Americans. The bureau was set up in the South, where they dealt with civil rights violations and established schools for black children. The assistance that was being given to blacks was met with backlash. Race riots broke out across the South. Hundreds of people were killed, property was looted, and Freedmen's Bureau's were burned down. The violent situation in the South was just horrible, but as always, money and politics get in the way of everything. The Panic of 1873 and the Compromise of 1877 shifted the nation's focus to the failing economy and disputed election results. In the Compromise of 1877, a couple Southern states submitted two different sets of results for the national election. They tell the federal government that if Reconstruction is ended, we'll fix the voting problem. The president at the time withdrew the federal troops and other aid for the black Americans. These resources had been there for over a decade after the Civil War, and now the government was taking them away because a few states were being petulant. Now, the black Americans were basically left to fend for themselves in a society where whites were literally out to trap them into sharecropping and take advantage of their lack of education. And this all happened because some states refused to just be honest. The persuasive power of money and politics is disgusting at times.

America, Post-Civil War

America after the war and after Lincoln's death could be described as a mess. Though the Union had won and the slaves were free, there were still problems to be resolved. For example, though the Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Amendment made slavery illegal, it did not give black Americans any rights or protection under the law. Southerners plantation owners suddenly lost their labor force, but they were not going to let an amendment with loopholes stop them from continuing to make profit. The former slaves were free, but some Southerners found ways to keep them "slaves." They passed laws that practically put black Americans back in the cotton fields. For example, one law said that if a black person broke a law, they could be punished with a work period of "undetermined" length. That basically just created a new system of slavery. Black Americans weren't equally protected under the law, and the federal government realized that just declaring, "All slaves are free!" really had not changed much. In fact, one political cartoon labelled the situation that the black Americans were in as "worse than slavery."

The 15th Amendment

The 15th Amendment stated that “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." However, while the former slaves were given the right to vote, there were still other ways for Southerners to get around the law. In the South, they passed voting taxes and made literacy tests that one must take in order to be able to vote. This still inhibited the African American’s right to vote. The new laws that combated the 15th Amendment also took away rights from poor white people or people from poor financial backgrounds. This made it so that one rich white men were in charge of the government in the South, continuing to make change very difficult.

Response and Issues After the Civil War

After the Civil War, Black Codes were passed in the South limiting the former slave’s rights severely. The Northerners reacted to this by passing The Civil Rights Act of 1866. The Civil Rights Act gave former slaves the right to citizenship, so that the laws that applied to them were the same ones that applied to others. Andrew Johnson, the president of the time, did not share a lot of Lincoln’s views and believes in the states rights. He vetoed The Civil Rights Act but Congress overrides it, creating tension between the Congress and President. The congress, knowing that the Civil Rights Act would not be enough to help support the former slaves, set up the Freedmen’s Bureau. The Freedmen’s Bureau gave support to the former slaves, offered them education, and gave land to the freed men that was taken from the Southerners. This caused race riots in the South and threatened race supremacy.

9/22/15 The End of the Civil War

Today we finished the video about the Civil War.

We first talked about how the Gettysburg Address was a written version of what the North's Goals were throughout the war. This two minute speech was ironically remembered over the 2 hour speech given by the keynote speaker.

Secondly, we talked about the effects the war had in 1864, which also happened to be an election year. Instead of just blowing off the election, Lincoln held the election, which would be the first to happen during a Civil War, and with help from his armies and some defeats in the South, Lincoln was re-elected as leader.
Through these events and with the Northern armies picking up speed and pressure on the South, the Civil War was finally ended when Lee surrendered. It was considered to be "generous" as the terms that Grant offered-- the release of Confederate soldiers back to their homes with belongings and horses, and sending rations to their soldiers who needed it -- and was very close to mending the peace.

The End of the War ensured that the United States would be a Democratic Capitalist Nation, no longer relying on free slave labor.

the Dred SCott decision

The Dred Scott decision was a big descision made by the US court about Dred Scott. Dred Scott was enslaved in a free state and sued for freedom but had no rights to do so. This was because even though he sued. His regards were ignored do to the law that he was not a human and a piece of property

Boston Massacre

This started out as a dispute beetween a soldier and an American civilian. The soldier got into a fight with a young boy. After Striking the boy, The civilians start to throw snowballs at the troops and in return, get shot back. Some civilians died in this incident.

Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party was the event when civilians started to raid the ships and dump goods from Britain into the water. This was the response to the Tea and Stamp Acts. The Puritans were clearly tired of being taxed n everything.

stamp act

The stamp act required a lot of things traded with the Americas and Europe to be taxed. This included all of the common goods such as sugar and spices. This was good for England because it helped their economy. However this Stamp Act annoyed americans and caused them to hold the boston tea party which was throwing away tea shipped from europe.

Jefferson vs Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton created a proposed Federalist system. The federalist system was a system that focused entirely on government control. Basically no one in the Federalist program had a say in what the government should be like. Only the "rich and well educated" people had a say in what to do in the government. On the other hand people in the Republican party had a voice in how the government should run. Jefferson's republican party listened to the citizens and considered their ideas throughly

Battle of SHiloh

The Battle of Shiloh was a union victory. This battle was the bloodiest battle in american history and had over 23,000 casualties. This started when over 40,000 confederate soldiers struck the union forces. The union forces were unprepared for this attack. However the Confederate commander was injured and pulled out. The fighting continued after dark. Eventually this led to a union led victory.

Why Shiloh was extremely crucial to the war?

It's said to be the bloodiest battle in the civil war. Essentially as a result of Shiloh the confederates were defeated in the very next battle, ultimately allowing the Northerners to seize the Mississippi River and therefore breaking the South into two. This battle opened the eyes of Northern generals, in that they quickly realized that, regardless of the multitude of troops lost in a single battle, the war would be grueling and strenuous and it would take a while to determine which side ultimately triumphed over the other. Because of this battle, the North's progress of the western front became monumental and they eventually took over Tennessee. 

And the War Came

We learned a bit about the beginning of the Civil War. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln did not want to make the first move against the South. He refused to be seen as the "aggressor". He purposely forced the South to make the first move so that they would be seen as the "aggressors". Fort Sumter, a place where a couple of battles were fought, was surrounded by Confederate forces and occupied with Northern troops. As soon as South Carolina found out that Abraham Lincoln was going to be President, they immediately backed out. They wanted nothing to do with Lincoln. Lincoln thought of many strategic ways to avoid firing the first shot. Both the Confederate President Davis and Abraham Lincoln agreed to not fire at each others ships when they arrived. Obviously, something had to go wrong and that lead to Davis firing the first shot. Abraham Lincoln sent in a ship that was ONLY carrying water and food for the troops. The ship did not carry any ammunition or any weapons. General Lee was a very tactical general. He focused more on winning the battles and he handled the troops in front of his opponents. On the other hand, General Grant wanted to quickly win the battles that he fought. One thing that both General Lee and General Grant had in common was that they were both willing to take risks and both of them weren't afraid of failure. General McClellan was AFRAID of failure. But just because he was afraid of failure, that didn't mean he was a "horrible" general. General McClellan was an intelligent and very strategic general. Although, Lincoln did in fact get mad because McClellan would not attack and that meant Lincoln couldn't win the war. In order to accept success, one has to accept failure first.

The Panic of 1857

The Panic of 1857 was a international economic crash and financial panic. For the United States, the panic was due to over-expansion of the national economy while the world-wide economy was declining. This was the first world-wide economic crisis. It was caused by the interconnectedness of the economies between countries. The economies where so connected in the 1850s that when one started to fall the others would follow. The Panic caused the values of stocks and bonds held in American Banks to be lowered. However, while the majority of the world was in an economic crisis, the Southern United States had an increase in cotton sales. This made many people in the South believe that they were superior to others and that that they did not need help from the government. 

9/11/15

Today we watched another part of the "God In America" series, which focused on religion during the era of the Civil War.

It explained how even before the Civil War, religion was splitting the North and South, strictly on the basis of slavery. Both sides believed that God was on their side, and that caused the anti-Slave North and the pro-Slave South to grow apart.

The Methodists, which was the biggest Religion at the time (thanks to Revivals being so popular during the Manifest Destiny) was one of the first to be conflicted during this time. The Abolitionist wanted the current Bishop of the time to step down because he had owned a slave. On the other end of the spectrum the pro-slave church members threatened to leave the Church. After holding a vote, the anti-Slave members prevailed and had the Bishop step down. Because of this, the Southern pro-slave supporters left and many Religious groups followed down the same path soon after.

Andrew Jackson

9/9/2015
Andrew Jackson was a very controversial president, with several appealing aspects to the people at the time, but also with several problems.
On the plus Andrew Jackson was:

• Very appealing to the common man. He spoke and talked about things that common people could relate to. This is the biggest one. He related to the people that matters the most in the election, a strategy in democracy that is still used today.
• A strong and stand out leader. He did not back down to another man and made sure he was heard.
• Had a strong military background.
• Was a very firm leader, which caused some problems when he had bad ideas, but also allowed for a lot less arguing and internal fraction.

However, most people would consider he had a lot more worse aspects than positive ones. These included but were not limited to:

• Violence. Andrew Jackson was just in general a violent man, suspected of several killings in duels and other all around brutish incidents.
• Possibly most famously, made several choices surrounding the Native Americans that would be considered very wrong and not accepted in modern times.
• Because he was so firm in his choices, and because he was a very self centered man, it led to a lot of bad choices being made by the government only because he insisted them to be made.
• Let personal feud get in the way of governing the country properly.

In the end most people would look back at Jackson's presidency and could reasonably claim he wasn't the best president by any means, but you can't argue against the fact that he did his share in shaping America.

Federalists Vs. Republicans notes 8/28/15

Notes from August 28th 2015

American Strengths/Weakness

• Moral advantage
• Leadership (to some degree)
• Defensive Posture
• Fighting on own ground
• Opportunities for strategic partnerships
• Definition of victory
• Organization
• Resources/Supplies
• Manpower
• Political Weakness

British Strengths/weakness

• Manpower
• Imperial Economy
• Military “superpower” of its time: Navy and Army
• Motivation
• Logistics
• Imperial commitments
• Foreign rivals
• Organization
• Definition of victory

(AFTER THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR)

Federalists vs. Antifederalists

• Federalists (for the Constitution)
• Antifederalists (against the Constitution)
• The Federalists Papers (Hamilton, Madison, and few by Jay)
• Antifederalists were not able to stop ratification by 1788, but they did eventually get the Bill of Rights

Federalists vs. Republicans

• Federalist vision = strong central government, urban, commercial, strongly involved in foreign affairs
• Republican vision - weaker central government, rural and agrarian in nature

Reflections on Federalists vs. Republicans

The Federalists program was led by Alexander Hamilton. He felt that there should be a ruling class of elites, because everyone who was under them was unworthy of ruling. He was also a loose Constructionist regarding the Constitution. I don't agree with the ideals of Loose constructionists. The Constitution was drafted and written in a certain way for a reason. You can't just take the words of the Constitution and impress your own beliefs and opinions upon then, and then say that's what the Constitution really means. Your interpretation cannot be what the Constitution actually means. The Federalists also believed that in order for America to succeed, it needed to be centralized in urban centers. Manufacturing and industry were also going to help the country go far. The Federalists wanted to make a national banking system that makes a national currency. I think this is a really great idea because it seems like the colonies were a bit disjointed while the Constitution was being drafted. A national currency would do a lot to encourage trade and bring the colonies together.

Federalists vs Republicans

With the newly written Constitution, there were two main ways to go forth interpreting the document.  This was the very beginning of the United States having political parties with differing ideas and beliefs.

Federalist Party

Alexander Hamilton believed in a loose interpretation of the Constitution.  This meant that the Constitution could be interpreted to have rights not strictly written in writing.  Hamilton and the Federalists believed in a strong central government.  Trading and business within the states and also with foreign countries were strongly favored.  The Federalists were not huge fans of the French Revolution.  With the idea of loose construction of the Constitution, a centralized banking system would be permitted.  

Republican Party

James Madison and Thomas Jefferson believed differently.  This meant that the Constitution said what was written and only what was written were rights given to the government and individuals.  Jefferson and the Republicans liked the idea of focus on agriculture and individual power.  This meant a weaker central government than the Federalists had in mind.  These followers believed in the ideas of the French Revolution and the democratic ideals associated with it.  

My Thoughts

I think that the original beliefs and thoughts of the federalist papers would be way too ambitious for today because they were writing these ideas for people that were used to being completely controlled by their government. Also the amount of people that are in America today has increased tenfold compared to the amount that was found in that day. Another issue that they would have is a lot of people, the majority, today will always be questioning their government, whether it be by demonstrating or even political protests, which would cause issues.

Religious Influences on Democracy by Bryan Guerrero

During early colonial life, many aspect of religion were controlled by the colonies respective leaders, carrying over the tyrannically ways of ruling that the Catholic church in England followed. One of these aspects included having everyone in a colony "conform" to the religion in play and abide by whatever rules the leaders. This eventually gave way for individuals to rise against these aspects in the attempt to create a set of irrevocable rights that would apply to everyone in the colonies, later to become the United States of Merica. One of these seekers was Thomas Jefferson. He was the one of the first that strove to create these irrevocable rights, mainly one that would grant religious freedom, free of law restrictions.
Another person who challenged these influences was Mary Wollstonecraft. She supposedly received a message from God. After this, she began to teach others that one shouldn't conform or abide to the restrictions set by others. This began to raise questions about what the true way is to get to heaven, thus challenging the power of those who managed and led the religion, such as from the Protestants.

The First Ammendment

The First Amendment outlines that there should be a separation of church and state.  One of the reasons that this amendment came about was due to the Baptists and the Anglican church.  During the 1770's, the Baptists came to Virginia to spread their beliefs by preaching.  The Baptists started to draw people away from the Anglican church, which threatened their power and influence.  To prevent this from happening, they required preachers to get a license to preach in the colony.  The problem with this was that the government, which was all Anglican, would only give these licenses to Anglican preachers.  Many Baptists preachers still preached without licenses, which got them thrown in jail.  One Baptist man that got put in jail was John Moore, and he decided to do something about the unfair law.  In October 1776, he brought a petition to the Virginia assembly demanding for the right to preach without persecution, but they needed an advocate to go to court to make their case.  Their advocate was Thomas Jefferson.  Jefferson proposed that church and state should be separate.  He dafter a bill stating this, and the bill eventually got passed in January 1786.  This is essentially where the first amendment came from.

Federalists vs. Republicans

Today in class (8/28/15), we learned about the Federalists and the Republicans. 

• Federalist vision = Strong central government, urban, commercial, strongly involved in foreign affairs (IN FAVOR OF THE GOVERNMENT) -Alexander Hamilton
• Republican vision = Weaker central government, rural and agrarian in nature (GOVERNMENT GET OUT OF THE WAY) -Thomas Jefferson 
• Federalist and the Republicans → Groups formed after the Declaration of Independence