Author: c.li12

Introduction:

• Thesis: The film, West Side Story, Romanizes the struggles immigrants faced in New York during the 1960s. Historians can use to West Side Story to show how immigrants, or Puerto Ricans specifically, were treated in a discriminated matter and use this film to show how US imperialism effected both immigrants and Americans.
• Briefly describe what the film is about and describe the overall treatment of immigrants in New York during 1950s-1960s (or general explanation of what’s happening during the time period).
  • Sources
    • West side Story films
    • Analysis of all the primary sources (New York Time articles) and secondary source(Briggs)

Body Paragraph #1- Summary/ Set

• Summarize the problem and plot in West side Story
  • How does it relate to historical context (real life)
• Introduce at least one New York Time article to add to historical context
  • Sources(subject to change)
    • “BIG’ ISSUES CITED ON PUERTO RICANS.” New York Times (1923-Current file) Jan 17 1960: 84. ProQuest. 30 Nov. 2016 .
    • Special to The New,York Times. “PUERTO RICAN UNIT FACES ‘PREJUDICE’.” New York Times (1923-Current file) May 23 1954: 69. ProQuest. 30 Nov. 201
    • Briggs

Body Paragraph #2- Immigrants

• Explain that the Sharks and the Jets don’t like each other, mainly because the Sharks are immigrants.
  • By EDITH, EVANS A. “CHANGE FORESEEN IN CITY’S MAKE-UP.” New York Times (1923-Current file) May 09 1957: 33. ProQuest. 30 Nov. 2016 .
    • Use this to link it to the film. Explain how Americans viewed Puerto Ricans
  • Explain the specific reasons why Americans viewed immigrants in a bad thing
    • Special to The New,York Times. “PUERTO RICAN UNIT FACES ‘PREJUDICE’.” New York Times (1923-Current file) May 23 1954: 69. ProQuest. 30 Nov. 2016 .
    • Briggs reading
    • Linking it to the film

Body Paragraph #3- Racism

• Since Americans didn’t like immigrants it eventually leads to disagreements/fights/racism.
  • West Side Story: how the mocked Putero Ricans and how much they hate each other
  • Special to The New,York Times. “PUERTO RICAN UNIT FACES ‘PREJUDICE’.” New York Times (1923-Current file) May 23 1954: 69. ProQuest. 30 Nov. 2016 .
    • How Puerto Ricans were treated
  • Briggs reading
    • What Americans thought of immigrants

Body Paragraph #4- US Imperialism

• Why were there so many immigrants in the first place
  • By, PAUL B. “Puerto Rico’s Tomorrow.” New York Times (1923-Current file) Jan 01 1950: 108. ProQuest. 30 Nov. 2016 .
  • One more article found in New York time (but can’t find link right now but will be using)
• Immigrants lives (liked living in America)
  • West Side Story: the song on the roof, the ladies singing about liking America and the men not)
  • By, DAN W. “The Other Puerto Ricans.” New York Times (1923-Current file) Oct 11 1959: 6. ProQuest. 30 Nov. 2016 .

Conclusion

• Restate thesis
• Include important facts/ evidence

 

 

All can be found on Newman Library Database under ” New York Times”

• By, PAUL B. “Puerto Rico’s Tomorrow.” New York Times (1923-Current file) Jan 01 1950: 108. ProQuest. 30 Nov. 2016 .
• “BIG’ ISSUES CITED ON PUERTO RICANS.” New York Times (1923-Current file) Jan 17 1960: 84. ProQuest. 30 Nov. 2016 .
• “NEW VIEW ASKED ON PUERTO RICANS.” New York Times (1923-Current file) Dec 04 1955: 76. ProQuest. 30 Nov. 2016 .
• By EDITH, EVANS A. “CHANGE FORESEEN IN CITY’S MAKE-UP.” New York Times (1923-Current file) May 09 1957: 33. ProQuest. 30 Nov. 2016 .
• By, GERTRUDE S. “Two Case Histories Out of Puerto Rico.” New York Times (1923-Current file) Jan 22 1956: 196. ProQuest. 30 Nov. 2016 .
• Special to The New,York Times. “PUERTO RICAN UNIT FACES ‘PREJUDICE’.” New York Times (1923-Current file) May 23 1954: 69. ProQuest. 30 Nov. 2016 .
• By, DAN W. “The Other Puerto Ricans.” New York Times (1923-Current file) Oct 11 1959: 6. ProQuest. 30 Nov. 2016 .

Option One: West side Story

West Side Story takes place in New York, Manhattan. In the beginning of the musical, we see an American gang called the Jets having tension with a Hispanic group called the Sharks. During this time New York was experiencing something called globalization and colonization. In L. Briggs excerpt, Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and US Imperialism in Puerto Rico, he explains that with globalization, interaction with other nations, leads to development and colonization (Briggs, page 1).Colonization meaning that people from other nations moving into the United States; these people were called immigrants. The mixing of races caused different problems in the United States. Americans believed that Puerto Ricans immigrants were poor, had extremely large families, and were sexually active. People in American didn’t like the new immigrants company. In fact Americans questioned why Puerto Ricans were in America. A conservative newspaper writer, Don Feder, compares needing non english speakers in New York to needing higher crime rates in the country (Briggs, page 7).This shows how much they dislike immigrants. This strong dislike explains why the gang Jets hated the gang Sharks. The tension between them sparked from racial differences. Both gang competed with each other and fought each together to prove which gang was better. According to Briggs excerpt, he explains that immigrants were usually grouped together at the bottom of the social ladder or in the “rung of the social ladder” (page 163). The Jets probably viewed the Sharks as the lower class. As a result of the different social classes, both gangs competed with each together. This competition is sort of like a pride thing for both groups. The Jets are from New York so they should be the superior class, while the Sharks are foreigners. But the Sharks aren’t willing to accept that they are the lower class.

The movie White Zombie took place in 1932 Haiti. Within a few minutes of the movie, we see a funeral and zombies. The zombies are surprisingly both white and black. These zombies work for a white man, Murder Legendre, who is just as scary as the zombies.  Zombies are one of the mythical creatures Haiti culture believes in. In the book, The Magical Land, by W.B Seabrook, it talks about Haiti’s superstitious believes. It explains that zombies were made to be a “servant or a slave, occasionally for the commission of some crime… (page 93).”  Murder Legendre uses his zombies for these exact purposes. He commands them to work in his mills and to help him turn a young lady into a zombie.

Zombies were made was for the sole purpose of serving a master, which links to the memory of slavery. Slaves were forced to do harsh labor and meaningless tasks for their masters. Lengendre disturbs the dead  for his own selfish needs. Back then, slaveowners would take dead slaves and display them in front of other slaves in order to show dominance and authority. Slaveowners believed that by using the dead, current slaves would fear them, therefore making slaveowners have more power and making current slaves more afraid to rebel. The concept of zombies working for a master reflects on the mistreatment of dead slaves. In The Magic Land, it uses the phrase “poor unhappy zombies” (Seabrook, 96) , more than once to describe the living dead.  This phrase humanizes the zombies to show that even after death, they are still being mistreated and forced to work against their wills. This is similar to how slaves were treated in general.

Zombies were creatures used as a  metaphor to show the mistreatment of slaves. It shows how slavery was unavoidable in the past. Slaves were forced to work under a master whether they were alive or dead.

Over six acres of land was found filled with skeletons. These skeletons belonged to slaves and free blacks who were buried there during the colonial times. None of them had any tombstones, therefore scientists and historians were not able to discover any real information on these bodies. But one thing they knew for sure was many of them were slaves.

There were analysis on some of the bones found. One was a man who was maybe in his 30s when he died. They stated that the man lack nutrients and suffered from arthritis. The man joints were swollen and damage from constant lifting and carrying heavy loads. He even had small fractures on his head and neck from carrying the loads on his head. In additions to the bone damages, he also had a vitamin deficiency and a lack in iron. Both of these deficiency  were a result from a poor diet. It was obvious that the man was a slave. In Vincent Brown’s novel, The Reaper’s Garden, in chapter four he writes about the ill treatment of slaves. He writes “… observed that unbearable workloads, physical punishment, and incessant hunger led many Africans to cut their own throats or hang themselves”(page 132).  This quote provides more information on the man found in the burial ground .Based on the quote, many slaves were being over worked and punished when the work wasn’t done. This shows why the man had damage bones .The “incessant hunger” meant that they weren’t getting a proper meal to eat after doing all the work. This contributes to why the man in the burial ground lacked vitamins and iron. They were treated so terribly that they would rather die then work.

The remains of a woman as also analyzed and it revealed a more distributing death. She had extreme damage to the head, her hand was twisted to the point of breakage and there was a bullet found in her ribs. This was obvious evidence of murder which wasn’t uncommon with slaves. Slaveowners would punish their slaves in front of other slaves in order to show dominance and authority. As stated in Brown’s novel, “…slave masters projected their authority symbolically through punishment wreaked upon the bodies of the dead”(page 131) This means that slaveowners would not only kill slaves in front of slaves, but also treated the dead slaves terribly in front of slaves just to show authority.

The African Burial Ground will always be a reminder of how slaves were treated in the past and Vincent Brown’s novel can provide some information on how the slaves were treated.

Discussion Questions:

1. Was it right for the slave owners to assert dominance by using dead bodies?
2.  Do you think the bodies found in the African burial grounds died from naturally causes or suicide?

“The bird locked in his cage profits from the slightest negligence to escape. I dare to say that our negroes lack only sufficient courage or resolution to buy their freedom with the blood of their masters” (page 137)

This quote is important as it shows the masters’ fear of the possibility of slaves rebelling and escaping. The “bird locked” in a cage is a metaphor that represents the relation between slaves and their masters.

The bird represents the slave that is unable to escape from the cage,which represents the master. The narrator states that the bird “profits from the slightest negligence to escape” meaning that the slave fails to escape but even the attempt of escaping give slaves more confidence and motivation in trying again, which is why it is a “profit” for the slaves.  The narrator fears that the only thing stopping slaves from rebelling and killing their masters is the lack of “sufficient courage or resolution”. This means that slaves will slowly start to rebel once they have the motivation to do so. As stated in the quote the slaves are willing to buy their freedom with he blood of their masters, meaning they were willing to kill their masters to gain their freedom. This obviously caused a problem to slave owners. Slave owners will have to watch their backs making sure no slaves were going to attack them.

Later on in the text Thistlewood, a slave owner, needed to carry a stick or gun with him for protection from his own slaves. In fact he was attacked by a slave and when he ordered one of his slaves to help him, the slave didn’t obey. This shows how slaves are slowly becoming more active in their plan to freedom. They are no longer afraid of the consequences of their actions. With this movement of rebellious slaves, white slave owners will have to watch their backs.

Discussion questions:

1. Do you think the reason slaves didn’t rebel was because of the lack of weapons or the fear of authority ?
2. What triggered the slave rebellion as there was plenty of other times of rebellion?

“But now that an indigenous race of men has grown up, speaking our own language and instructed in our religion, all the more harsh right of the owner, and the blind submission of the slave, will inevitable at some period ,more or less remote, come to an end” (page 19)

The speaker of this quote tries to reason with the government that slaves will soon become equals with their masters. Since the slaves are brought to the master’s country, the slaves will learn how to speak their language and will follow the master’s religion. The fact that the slaves share similar values and practices as the masters, this will make the slaves seem less inferior to the whites.

In the past the whites have thought of the blacks as the lower class and therefore the whites can take advantage of the blacks, which is why they made them  into slaves in the first place. The whites need free labor and the only way they can do that is to dominate a lower class.

But now that slaves are improving their knowledge and values, they are no longer seen as a lower class. The slaves are on the same level as the whites, which makes it inhumane for the whites to continue enslaving Africans. Even if they do, the slaves will soon revolt because the slaves are aware of what they are capable of doing. The slaves are no longer afraid of their masters and are demanding their freedom.

So what the speaker is reasoning is that slaves are becoming similar or equals to whites. Since they are equals, no one race can have control over another. It is natural as humans to have their independence.

Discussion Questions

1. Was the Amelioration Act an actual solution in keeping the rebellion from rising up?
2. ” …the issue was no longer whether the salves were fit for freedom but the dangerous fact that they were now unfit for slavery” (p21) Based on this quote what do you think made the narrator think this way?

 

Alexander Hamilton accomplished many things in life, before he was shot by Aaron Burr. Alexander Hamilton had many roles. He was a great lawyer, he was chief for George Washington during the American Revolution, he was United States’ first secretary of Treasure and lastly he was a founding father.

He strived to build a stronger federal government by arguing the Articles of Confederation was too weak and didn’t protect the people or the country itself. (Alexander Hamilton “Plan of a Constitution for America”)So he suggested a new Constitution. He focused mainly on strengthening the central government. Along with ratifying the Constitution, he also took part in strengthening the economy in the United States (After Alonzo Chappel Portrait of Alexander Hamilton). Even though Alexander Hamilton wanted to relieve the debt America owe during the American Revolution, the Southern States were afraid of the sudden shift in power. The Southern states were fearful of the central government having too much power. The fear of one side having more power is similar to when the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was created. The French had a National Assembly to discuss the corruption of the government. Those who were in the higher estates obviously didn’t want the lower estates to have a say on the new laws because they believed they had the most power and that the lower estates opinions didn’t matter. They were scared that they were going to lose power to the lower classes.

Similarly, when Hamilton proposed the idea of a stronger central government, the Southern states didn’t agree to it because that means the states would lose power. So Hamilton had to come up with a compromise to make sure the Southern States will be loyal to the government but Hamilton will still have a strong central government. The National Assembly however didn’t have much of a compromise. They stated that all man has natural rights at birth regardless of class. So the National Assembly formed seventeen articles that protected basically everyone in the estates. Obviously different people from different estates had issue when specific articles. But the goal of the articles was to make sure the lower estates will have a say in the government as well. In Hamilton’s fight for a new constitution and stronger economy, he had to use persuasion and compromise to get what he wanted.

The forming of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and the forming of the new Constitution and stronger economy both started out with difficulties as one side feared of losing their power. However both of these documents were formed to protect their citizens and to protect their countries. Therefore there were sacrifices that had to make for both sides. Luckily for Hamilton, there was a compromise where both sides were happy with the discussions. But for the National Assembly a set rule was made and it affected everyone in a good way or a bad way. Even though there was no compromise, overall the results benefited many.

Colin Dayan’s argument is that being a master comes with its sacrifices. A master with all the power and dominance makes a master powerful, but also makes the master a something not of human, but a monster. In Frederick Douglass’s autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, shows what a master who is absolute can become. Douglass described his master as “a cruel man” and mentions that his master was a long time slave owner. In other words Douglass believed that owning slaves had made his master cruel. Douglass further describes how inhumane his master is by explaining the emotions his master shows when whipping a slave. He states that his master took “great pleasure in whipping a slave”. His master actually enjoys hurting his slaves to the point where his slaves are on the edge of dying. Douglass supports that fact by stating that the louder the salve screamed the harder his master would whip and that the more the slave bleed the more his master whipped the slave. In addition he stated that the only reason his master stopped whipping was because he became tired. In other words, the master would have kept whipping the slave no matter how much they bleed and screamed. The master would have gone as far as killing his slave. This whole scene Douglass describes shows the consequences of becoming a slave holder. It makes a person become a cruel, power hungry monster. In addition to Douglass’s passage, in the Dred Scott Decision, it shows a different way absoluteness changes a person to something other than human. In this case, the Judges show a god complex. They believe they get to decide who has rights and who don’t have rights.  In the article they stated that Africans were an enslaved race and that they were the inferior class to the whites. They decided that Africans had no rights or privileges as whites do regard less if they are free or not because the Africans will always be subjected to serve the whites. This belief of stripping ones race’s freedom and rights makes them a tyrant with a god complex.