Category: admin only: Featured

02/19/11

Immigration To The New World

These two images portray the lives of Italian immigrants in the early 1900s. Both images depict their living conditions in the 1900s. The image on the left shows the bedroom of an Italian family. Judging from the image, the family may be from a lower class because their living condition seems poor, cramped and unsanitary. However comparing this image to the one on the right, they are complete opposites from one another. The image on the right shows a much well off family probably in the middle class. The breadwinner in this family may have been a scholar, allowing him to have a higher paying job compared to other immigrant families with low education back then.

02/19/11

Inhumane Inspections

After the Mexican revolution of 1910, many Mexican’s began immigrating to America. With this influx, a new prejudice against Mexicans developed regarding their use marijuana.

In the 1900s, immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island were inspected by doctors, and those that were infected, were treated. However if the disease was untreatable, the immigrants would be sent back.

By comparing these two pictures, one of an inspection of Mexican immigrants, and the other of European immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, the two peoples were treated very differently based on prejudices. Although taken around the same time, you could see that the first picture is much more personal and invoking. Furthermore the setting of the pictures, although similar, is vastly different. The second picture seems staged, and is formal, whereas the first picture is more exploratory and gives us much more insight into the stereotypes and attitudes of those times.

02/18/11

Immigrants and Ellis Island

Medical examination Ellis Island, 1910, from Library of Congress
was
Ellis Island, 1911, from Library of Congress

The pictures are from the Library of Congress. Although both pictures depict the immigrants in Ellis Island around the same time, the pictures are taken under different circumstances. The first one was taken while the officers were giving medical examinations to the immigrants, so the photographer can record a natural depiction of the scene. On the other hand, the second picture was taken while everyone was aware of the photographer, so most of the people in the second picture was looking straight to the camera. Despite of the different atmosphere in the photographs, both pictures convey a sense of weariness. This is reasonable because the long and tedious immigration processes could only wear out the liveliness of the immigrants and officers.

02/17/11

Detained immigrants on Ellis Island, New York harbor. Drawn by M. Colin. 1893 Aug. 26.
Immigrants at Battery Park, New York, N.Y. Byron (Firm : New York, N.Y.), photographer. 1900.

These two primary documents were taken from The Libabry of Congress.  The first one was drawn by a painter M.Colin for “Harper’s weekly” newspaper. The second one was taken by an employee of The Byron Company, which is a New York City photography studio in Manhattan that was founded in 1892. The quality of the photo is much better compared to others taken at that time. I also think that people from that photo are from the middle or even upper class, whereas people from the first image appear to be from the lower class. There is also a time difference: the images were created 7  years apart.

02/14/11

You Go Girls!

The Seneca Falls Convention was held on July 19-20, 1848 consisting of both men and women whom came together to discuss about women’s rights. This convention was because it started the uprise of woman fighting for their rights. Some politcal gains immediately took effect such as the Married Woman’s Property Act which allowed the rights of ownership to property woman brought into or gained during the marriage.

The Convention had a heated debate over the right for woman to vote. Ultimately it was included and exactly 100 people signed off on this document, mostly women. As a result of the success the held a second convention in Massachusetts.

02/14/11

The First Vote

Congress passed  the Fifteenth Amendment on February 26, 1869  to the United States Constitution.  It prohibits each government in the nation denying citizens to vote, despite of their race, color, or the previous experience of being a slave  except for women. The drawing from above was by Waud, Alfred R.  to portray the first vote of the African Americans. The intention of the artist was to show the eagerness of the former slaves to vote. This amendment did not only granted the African Americans’ right to vote, but also marked the victory of the Civil War.

02/14/11

It Aint Over ‘Til The Fat Lady Sings!

Fat Lady Singing

Reconstruction virtually ended when the fat lady sang in Ford’s Theater.  A single bullet to the back of the head killed the hopes and dreams freed slaves. President Abraham Lincoln was assasignated on the night of April 14, 1865.  Lincoln’s death left Andrew Johnson to be president.

In January 1865 General Sherman issued Special Field Orders, No. 15, which is known to most as 40 Acres and a Mule.  It was an order that gave freed black slaves land. Approximately 10000 freed slaves had settled on 400,000 Acres of land when new President Johnson reversed the order and forced freed blacks to return the land.

Also Established in 1865 was the Freedman’s Bureau. The Freedman’s Bureau created schools & hospitals, negotiated labor contracts, leased or sold confiscated lands to the freed men, and tried to protect former slaves from their masters in the South.  President Johnson vetoed the bill for its extension in 1866. 

The final straw for a reconstruction period that barely got  anything done was in 1877 with the corrupt bargain.  The corrupt bargain was basically a deal that exchanged the presidency for an unsupervised south.  This is likely what lead to Jim Crow laws and other laws of that nature. 

Reconstruction ended at the very beginning, with Lincoln’s Death.

02/13/11

Fight for freedom after freedom

This picture was a democratic election campaign. In just under a year for the first time in history a president, Johnson, was placed on trial. Democrats openly appealed to racism during the election while Republicans concentrated on Reconstruction.

After the emancipation proclamation granted freedom to most slaves, the Freedman’s Bureau was organized by the government in an attempt to aid blacks whether it be in their attempt to attain an education, labor, etc. However, as was inevitable there was considerable resistance to granting freedmen and “freedoms.”

02/13/11

Progress and Poverty

Progress and Poverty by Henry George was published in 1879. It brought to light the economic conditions that existed in the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was supposed to be a time of economic growth and reform for everyone in the nation once the Civil War was over. However, this was not the case and many were unsatisfied and unhappy with the economic situation; Henry George was one of these people.

In this book, Henry George not only brought attention to the unequal distribution of wealth during the time, but also proposed his own ideas and methods for a solution to this inequality. He was not the only one to create such a publication. During the time, there were many who were unsatisfied with the unequal distribution of wealth and had their own unique ideas on ways to fix the problem. However, Progress and Poverty received much public attention because of the fact that his explanations of the current economic situation were clearer than others and also because many agreed with his ideology that the current economic situation was one that should have been left in the times before the war ended.

02/13/11

The National Woman Suffrage Association

During the Reconstruction, the primary focus was on the rights of former slaves. Women felt neglected because they believed they deserved attention as well. Women protested for reforming labor and divorce laws. However, women received little or no support for their cause. In addition, they found faults in the 15th Amendment because it only protected African Americans from discrimination but not women. As a result, a group of feminists led a movement to raise awareness for women’s rights.

In 1869, the National Woman Suffrage Association, founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was one of the women’s rights organizaton that was established. Their chief concern was advocating voting rights for women through a new amendment to the Constitution. In addition, they supported simpler divorce laws and equal pay for women. However,  a year later, the organization joined American Woman Suffrage Association to become the National American Woman Suffrage Association. This collaboration would further assist them in promoting for women’s rights.

02/13/11

On the Origin of Species (1859)

In 1859, Charles Darwin published a book titled On the Origin of Species. Darwin’s work was one of the most influential books in history, and we still use many terms coined by him today. The main idea of the book is that plants and animals that are more suited to survive in their environments will survive, and that they will replace those that cannot adapt. This view was very similar to the pre-Civil War view, which justified slavery. During the Gilded Age many people were fighting for social equality, and Darwin’s book posed a serious threat to their efforts.

Darwin believed that evolution is a natural process that occurs in nature, and that no forces should try and limit this. When the government or other organizations try and limit people, and try and make everything equal, they are bringing us back to a more primitive state. According to nature, some things are superior to others, and we shouldn’t have to take certain freedoms away to make sure that everybody is equal. Darwin truly believed that people are responsible for their own fate. He said that people should work on educating their children and doing other things that would help prevent seeking government aid.

The theory of Social Darwinism was pretty popular during the Gilded Age. Many professors wrote works on the theory, most notably William Graham Sumner. Sumner, a Yale professor, said that nobody was entitled to help others. He believed that there were social arrangement made by nature and that we shouldn’t interfere with them. The definition of freedom would be debated throughout this period, and Social Darwinists would constantly battle with people who believed in equality for all.

Sources:

http://spencer.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/darwin/originb.jpg

Foner, Eric. “America’s Gilded Age.” Give Me Liberty!: an American History. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2009. 586-87. Print.

02/12/11

Free Land For Everyone!


Back in May 1862, President Abraham Lincoln passed the first law that granted land to most people, the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act entitled immigrants, freed slaves and Americans to 160 acres of undeveloped land to increase the expansion to the west. In order to gain access to 160 acres of federal land, Settlers had to follow three steps. Those interested in the new law needed to file an application in order to obtain a homestead title. Next, applicants needed to improve and cultivate the land. Although the first two steps seemed fairly easy to fulfill, there was one other requirement. All applicants needed to remain on the granted land for a minimum of five years in order to file for a deed of title which completed step 3.

Despite the promise of the Homestead Act, many applicants were unable to seize the opportunity the new law offered. Only about 40% of applicants who started the process were able to obtain titles to their homestead land. That 40% amounted to 270,000,000 acres of land which equaled 10% of all the land in the United States.

The Homestead Act was also greatly abused as many individuals committed fraud. Instead of building farms and using the land for agriculture, owners used the land to gain access to water and other minerals. A few owners used the land to gather timber and oil. Eventually the Homestead Act was discontinued in 1976 when the government decided to take control of public land and passed the Federal Land Policy and Management Act.

02/11/11

A Letter from a Member of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment

The letter below was written by a soldier, who refers to himself as E.D.W., of 54th Massachusetts Regiment to a newspaper editor. The letter informs the editor about the regiment’s last battle, which took place in Olustee. The 54th Massachusetts were the first regiment to support the 8th U.S., which is the first colored regiment and the first Union force in the Olustee battle field. The 8th U.S. regiment already suffered many damages, and the battle field was still very intense. Another regiment entered the battlefield afterward, but they soon left. “Things were too warm for them,” as E.D.W. had commented.

While E.D.W. has given us some details about the battle, he also complained about how his colored regiment has not receive salary for nearly a year. The white troops would receive their pay every 2 months. There is no reason to discriminate, commented E.D.W.. The black soldiers fought as bravely, if not more bravely, than the white soldiers. Yet the 54th Massachusetts did not receive the same wage or ration at the same interval. Although this letter was meant to be a report of a battle, it is also a request to make the media report the inequalities that black soldiers suffered. This letter is a critical, primary evidence that displays the racial injustice that black people suffered during the Civil War.

———————————————————————–

April 2, 1864
THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

For the Christian Recorder.

MR. EDITOR: – Sir: – It is with pleasure that I now seat myself to inform you concerning our last battle: thus we were in Co. B, on the 20th of Feb. Mr. Editor, I am not sitting down to inform about this battle without knowing something about it.

The battle took place in a grove called Olustee, with the different regiments as follows: First was the 8th U.S.; they were cut up badly, and they were the first colored regiment in the battle. The next were the 54th Mass., which I belong to; the next were the 1st N.C. In they went and fired a few rounds, but they soon danced out, things were too warm for them. The firing was very warm, and it continued for about three hours and a half. The 54th was the last off the field. When the 1st N.C. found out it was so warm they soon left, and then there was none left to cover the retreat. But captain J. Walton, of the 54th, of our company, with shouts and cheers, cried, “Give it to them my brave boys! Give it to them!” As I turned around, I observed Col. E.N. Holowell standing with a smile upon his countenance, as though the boys were playing a small game of ball.

There was none left but the above named, and Lieut. Col. Hooper, and also Col. Montgomery; those were the only field officers that were left with us. If we had been like those regiments that were ahead, I think not only in my own mind, but in the minds of the field officers, such as Col. Hooper and Col. Montgomery, that we would have suffered much loss, is plain to be seen, for the enemy had taken some three of four of their pieces.

When we got there we rushed in double-quick, with a command from the General, “Right into line.” We commenced with a severe firing, and the enemy soon gave way for some two hundred yards. Our forces were light, and we were compelled to fall back with much dissatisfaction.

Now it seems strange to me that we do not receive the same pay and rations as the white soldiers. Do we not fill the same ranks? Do we not cover the same space of ground? Do we not take up the same length of ground in the grave-yard that others do? The ball does not miss the black man and strike the white, nor the white and strike the black. But, sir, at that time there is no distinction made, they strike one as much as another. The black men have to go through the same hurling of musketry, and the same belching of cannonading as white soldiers do.

It has been nearly a year since we have received any pay; but the white soldiers get their pay every two months; ($13.00 per month,) but when it comes to the poor negro he gets none. The 54th left Boston on the 28th of May, 1863. In time of enlisting members for the regiment, they were promised the same pay, and the same rations as other soldiers. Since that time the government must have charged them more for clothing than any other regiment; for those who died in a month or two after their enlistment, it was actually said that they were in debt to the government. Those who bled and died on James’ Island and Wagner, are the same. Why is it not so with other soldiers? Because our faces are black. We are put beneath the very lowest rioters of New York. We have never brought any disgrace by cowardice, on the State we left.

E.D.W.
Co. B, 54th Mass., Vol.
Jacksonville, Fla., March 13th, 1864.

This is ITEM #60542 from the Accessible Archives, Inc. Database and Web site at http://www.accessible.com/. You or your organization must be a licensed subscriber to access the databases on its site. This letter is posted here with the kind permission of Mr. John Nagy, Accessible Archives, Inc.

02/11/11

The Fourteenth Amendment – 1868

According to “Give Me Liberty!”, the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified on July 9th, 1868. It is the principle of citizenship for all persons born in the United States, and which empowered the federal government to protect the rights of all Americans. This includes the former slaves that were recently freed. It also forbids states from denying any person “life, liberty or property, without due process of law” or to “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 1 states that all persons born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States. No state can make or enforce any law that will abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.

Section 2 states that representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed.

Section 3 states that no person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elctor of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state.

Sources:
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/fourteenth-amendment.html
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=43#

02/9/11

Black Sister Sit Down and Rest Your Weary Legs and Heart!

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a turning point in history. Rosa Parks was a Black Woman and she was standing up for her rights (or rather sititng down). I feel like that she  empowered other black women to continue fighting for their rights during the Civil Rights Movement.

02/8/11

Interest…

Every so often, a piece of information comes along that, for whatever reason, triggers my interest in a manner just slightly different than the rest of the nonsense that floats by my mind day in and day out. From the looks of it, Eric Foner’s review of David Blight’s “Race and Reunion” very well just may be one of those sparks (whether or not Foner is just that good of a writer… well, that we’ll just have to wait and find out).

I’d never given much thought to the idea that history is so dependent on the memory of whoever writes it, or the extent to which it can be ‘manipulated’ by any particular bais – that, even what we’ve always regarded as fact can also have 2 (or more) sides to the story. What I found to be the clearest example of this was when Foner writes of the “Ironies”, that, “Abounded in the triumph of the reconciliationist outlook.” Particularly that, “Even Memorial Day, which had begun in 1865 when thousands of black South Carolinians laid flowers on the graves of Union soldiers, soon became an occasion for expressions of white nationalism and reconciliation.”

As far as I can see from this review, Blight seems to portray quite strongly the idea that History really is only as true as the memory of those who win the battle of having their side of the story brought to, believed, and accepted by the masses; and that may just be what it was about this review that seemed to spark my interest.

-C. Salama

02/7/11

An Untold tale

Minorities have never had a voice. Or at least one loud enough to be heard over the mainstream opinion. For David Blight to write a book and dig deep enough to uncover the other side of the civil War story is something I’d personally be interested in. Everyone would benefit from reading this book because it would crumble the biases encountered from only reading and learning a one sided history textbook.

Historical Memory is important because it is what gives us the shape of the story. Of course there is a straightforward encounter of important events that happened in history, but when you collect the memories it is a more personal and in depth account.

Everything is politcally motived. Politics are apart of every aspect of history because there is always an agenda behind something. Two sides fight to get their way, or work towards a comprimise. A republican might see the history of gay rights as negative propoganda mean while democratics would see it more so as positive.

02/7/11

Perception lies in the Eye of the Beholder

History is taught through the factual texts of written documents. In most cases, we often only learn about why it started and the outcome of each event, but the stories that each person carries are often left unspoken.  In the book Race and Reunion by David Blight it exemplifies the many different views that people instilled from the Civil War. In this particular case, the segregation of races construct each race’s own perception of the Civil War. This book review plays an importance on the role of historical memory because only through the pain or gratification of those people lives who have been greatly affected can manifest the truth from these events.

An example where history is remember in different ways is the Rape of Nanking.  There were perceptions of western indifference and Japanese denial of the massacre ranging from  claims that the massacre was overly exaggerated or wholly fabricated for propaganda purposes. In Japan, the japanese youth are taught about the courageous martyrs who fought a just war, while in China the mourns for this tragedy still prevails today. The controversies still exists but the Nanking massacre had undoubtedly emerged as a fundamental foundation for the construction of modern Chinese national identity.