05/22/11

African Burial Ground

For my extra credit I visited the African Burial Ground.

This is a picture of one of the graves.

This picture is a sample of the boxes that the bones found were buried in. This box was a mini original made in Ghana (I think! I didn’t take notes on the box :/)

It is a pretty cool place although it is not very big it also included a mini musuem. My friend and I had a lot of fun with all of the interactive activities that they had inside of the museum. My favorite activity was “Record Your Own Experience”. “Record Your Own Experience” allows you to share your museum experience through different questions that you could record your response to. Here’s a picture of My friend Daniel and I recording what we will say to a slave if one of them were to come back alive.

It is free ! There is a suggestion box but you don’t have to put anything in there. Spend an hour with a group of friends and learn about our African ancestors. It’s an experience you won’t regret. 🙂

Website: http://www.africanburialground.gov/ABG_Main.htm

The Address is 290 Broadway New York, NY 10007

Phone: 212-637-2019

02/14/11

The Amendment that Freed U.S.All

The thirteenth amendment was adopted on December 6, 1865 and became the first amendment of the Reconstruction. This amendment abolished all slavery and involuntary servitude except for punishment for a crime. The importance of this amendment is that it was passed shortly after the Emancipation of Proclamation to show that the proclamation was not just a temporary war measure for the Civil War. President Lincoln wanted to guarantee the slaves their freedom.

In addition, it is also important to know that it took many years for this Amendment to pass. The amendment was rejected the first time by the House of Representative. It was President Lincoln whom worked closely with the House that got the amendment passed the second time around.

02/13/11

Making it right for everyone!

Letter written by Susan B Anthony

Susan B. Anthony was a great civil rights activist. She was one of the founders of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association. An organization fighting for the rights of women to vote and hold office. When looking through some of the primary documents, I was pleased to find the letter attached to this post. Susan was well educated, as many of the men in that time period, but believed that blacks were humans and were just like whites.

Susan B. Anthony with the help of Elizabeth Cady Stanton stood up for women and lead a campaign that she did not live to see, but 14 years after her death, the 19th Amendment was passed giving women the rights to vote!

02/13/11

ABOLISHMENT of Slavery.

The 13th amendment to the United States constitution formally abolished slavery, in 1865. This amendment reads “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” This amendment finished the unfulfilled role of the Emancipation Proclamation issued in 1863. This document informally declared all slaves free, but not guarantee that they were indeed free.

It is very important to understand the 13th amendment to be a guarantor of future Americans civil rights. The 13th amendment was later followed by the 14th and 15th amendments, which are also recognized as Civil War amendments. It is important to understand the process this and how long it took for this to formal freedom of slaves to become an amendment. In 1864, the Senate passed the amendment, but the House declined. It was then reintroduced into the House and passed with a vote of 119 to 56.

02/5/11

not a choice, slavery must be abolished!

Civil War should be remmebered not only by its devastating affect to the country, but also be remembered with heroic soldiers who sacrificed their life to win the war and save the union despite of their race. From the David Blight’s passage, I understand many causes of descrimination in post civil war era. There were 50,000 African American soldiers who fought in the war while only white soldiers were being monumented and remembered which showed aspects of white supremacy. Segregation will eventually take place which was the affect of white supremacy. I think the book is interesting because civil war was a war where the succesion of southern states from the union resulted in a battle that really fought over issues of slavery. I also think it will be interesting to understand how African Americans were treated after the war, if they were honored as much as the whites. Historical memory should be rememebered in the right way.

What I find ironic about later passage is that President Wilson, being a peace maker by mentioning to form a League of Nation during his fourteen points speech, he actually supported slavery by supporting the existence of Ku Klux Klan. I think it is important that history should be rememebered and told to the future generation in an unbiased form. The Vietnam war was a historical event that was being rememebered in a different way or somehow biased. It was viewed as a successful war at somepoint because the US had contained the spread of communism from South Vietnam to North Vietnam. It was also considered a failed mission because US had lost massive amount of soldiers in Veitnam, and the war lasted many years that did not unify Vietnam into a democratic country. I think with political left and right wing manipulating the American government system, there is always two sides with one side always trying to attack the oppostion in the hope of gaining more control over the other in this most democratic country.

Modern American History

spring 2011

Tag: slavery

African Burial Ground

The Amendment that Freed U.S.All

Making it right for everyone!

ABOLISHMENT of Slavery.

not a choice, slavery must be abolished!