Author: REEM ALETRIS

In “Reflation and Relief” by Rauchway, talks about the New Deal enacted by Franklin Roosevelt and how it caused the growth of the American economy, decreased the percentage of unemployment, and saved Capitalism, it aided industries in increasing their output and profits. FDR announced to stop gold transitions in nation’s banks to create inflation to help the economy regain its power and he closed all banks for 4 days to inspect the accounts. 

During the Great depression, people were facing unemployment problems, so the congress established many administrations to help the government and community. As an example, the CCC,which FDR believed in to help unemployed men aged from 18 to 25 who matched some terms like being single, in a good health condition, and an American citizen to join programs to improve forests, build parks and bridges. Also, the FERA played a significant role by providing grants to the states to support established projects and works there. 

On the other hand the PWA and CWA weren’t that effective and had a weak effect on unemployment, despite spending large amounts of money (the PWA’s purse contained $3.3 billion) which made Roosevelt worried and nervous that the government spends money more than it gets and he also didn’t want Americans to depend directly on the federal government for relief programs, “Roosevelt conceded the necessity of a national work relief program, but he did not want it to “ become a habit with the country.” (Page 7). It was easier for him and for the government to just distribute money to those in need, but he believed that people shouldn’t get money that easily, they should work and receive money in the form of the result of their diligence. So, the relief programs as CCC, WPA, and FDR were aiming to fight the Depression and help unemployed Americans who were suffering, thus, to think of themselves as respectable and useful citizens 

In “the revolution of 1860_from battle cry of freedom” by McPherson, the author is talking about John Brown, an American abolitionist. Brown, unlike most abolitionists, didn’t believe in nonviolence and his favourite religious passage that he believed in the most was “Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin”. He also believed that the only solution for the change they needed was a revolution. Enduring what was happening in the 1850s, some abolitionists shared the same viewpoint of Brown. The text explains how Brown held a secret anti-slavery convention in Canada

There was a group called “the secret six”; a group of white men who secretly funded the 1859 raid and backed John Brown’s scheme to invade the South. The six of them supported the free-state activists in Kansas. The plan was that Brown rented a farm in Maryland under a false name. He intended to seize the US armory and arsenal in the area and distribute the weapons to the slaves who joined him. Five black males and seventeen whites, including three of Brown’s sons, made up Brown’s shock troops for this reason. Brown wanted Douglass to be a part of his plan but  he refused, he didn’t believe in what Brown wanted to do. Also some other black recruits didn’t show up which disappointed Brown but he decided to continue with what he had. During clashes, eight of Brown’s men got shot and two of them were Brown’s sons. Three of the townsmen were killed too. Seven people could escape at this time but two of them got captured later. The next day Brown was captured and here he knew that his campaign to free the slaves had come to an end. He got accused of treason, murder, and fomenting insurrection so the judge dentenced him to a death by hanging and later it was discovered that he’d left a carpet bag full of documents and letters at the Maryland farmhouse, some of which revealed his relationship with the Secret Six. Sanborn refused a summons from the Mason committee but Howe and Stearns went to Washington and faced the Mason committee . the author then said that The South’s reaction to Brown’s raid brought to light a contradiction at the heart of slavery. On the one hand, many whites were terrified of slave revolts. Southern whites, on the other hand, believed that slaves were well-treated and happy in their servitude.

The author talked about how emotional and important the day of hanging Brown was. On the day of Brown’s execution, several northern communities witnessed extraordinary events and the editor of republican wrote “the death of no man in America has ever produced so profound a sensation. A feeling of deep and sorrowful indignation seems to

possess the masses” which shows how the death of Brown affected the population. And young William Dean Howells said that “Brown has become an idea, a thousand times purer and better and loftier than the Republican idea”

In conclusion, John Brown’s raid was a very important step for abolishing slavery, and during his raid, he was able to kill one slave owner and freed 11 slaves and then he was hanged. After he was killed, northern conservatives staged big anti-Brown rallies to assure the South that Brown sympathizers were a vocal minority.

John Brown is a very brave man who sacrificed his life and his sons lives to feed others who’re not even related to him and his campaign was a big mark in history.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”Racism has been a big obstacle that faces people since old times until today and despite all the attempts to nullify it, but it’s a lasting problem that will never end until the end of humanity I believe. The reading is talking about the US before becoming democratic through black people. In August 1619, only 12 years after the English colonized Jamestown, Virginia, The inhabitants of Jamestown purchased 20 to 30 enslaved Africans who were stolen by the pirate from a Portuguese slave ship. They were the beginning of the american slavery. The reading states an important event which is the middle passage, which is the largest forced migration in human history until the Second World War. it contained 12.5 million africans and about 2 million of them didn’t make it through the tortuous voyage. Furthermore, before the worldwide slave trade was abolished, 400,000 enslaved Africans were sold into America. When they were slaves, they showed the colonists how to cultivate rice. They produced and harvested cotton, which was the most valuable product in the country at the time(50% of all American exports and 66% of the world’s supply). The reading alo talked about how they amassed great fortunes for white individuals everywhere and the slave trader from Rhode island who profits from the stolen labor of black people helped the nascent nation pay off its war debts and found some of the country’s most prominent universities. The text also states the declaration of independence and that some of white mens didn’t believe in its approval that says that all men are created equally. Enslaved persons were treated as property, which might be mortgaged, exchanged, bought, sold, used as collateral, given as a gift, and ruthlessly disposed of, and although Jefferson and his fellow white colonists recognized that black people were human beings, they devised a network of rules and practices that insured that enslaved people would never be viewed as such. But black men didn’t give up on their rights and they helped the country live up to its founding ideals to save everyone else’s rights, not only black people’s . For example, Crispus Attucks, a slave fugitive who died in the American Revolution.  Jefferson never tried to abolish the slavery but then he’s blaming England’s king for forcing the slavery. But then With independence, the founding fathers were no longer able to blame Britain for slavery, it became the nation’s sin.                                                                                                                         Gordon wood agrees with NIkole Hannah Jones on demonstrating the importance of lavery in the history of the country but he criticized Hannah-Joness’ essay by stating  that he spent his career studying the american revolution and cannot accept the view that “one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery.”

In this text, the author talks about slavery and what it used to be like. He explains how it used to be and how it was cruel and unusual. For example, slaves used to speak the language of their enslaver, they worked harder than normal people and they died earlier. Their opportunity to participate independently in exchange economies was so small, they rarely accumulated property. He mentioned that they were called by nicknames as an animal name or any other bad word. They were also treated like beasts or animals; people were using “work like a slave” with a harsh meaning. Few of them could escape slavery and some of them commited suicide.                                           Planters used to hate slaves, from their perspectives slaves were labor and nothing more they worked hard at play, for they needed to distinguish themselves from those who simply worked hard. The enslavers were so hypocrite, ruthless and tough with the slaves, as the author mentioned in page 98 in the first paragraph “ while the slaves masters took to their sitting rooms, book-lined libraries, and private clubs to affirm their gentility, the drove their slaves relentlessly, often to the limits of exertion.”  

The author also stated that the violence wasn’t only common in slave society,but  it was also systematic and relentless; the planters’ hegemony required that slaves stand in awe of their owners. Slaves in plantation societies were the extension of their owners’ state in ways they never were in societies with slaves. They treated them in an inhuman way, they used to only give orders and slaves had to obey as the kids obey their parents. Slavery in North America was color-coded, what causes plantation regime imposed racial notions. The competition between the slave and their enslavers was a competition with no ending. 

They were trading slaves as they’re not humans, they were competing to enslave more, the more slaves they owned, the more prestige they got. Slavery was everywhere even slaves can be found in distant places from where they came from.

Then slaves’ identity started to change over time,Africans started to join together and began to form a new culture out of the old world and the new one but the cultures they were creating weren’t unified because the mainland wasn’t unified.

That shows how the world is always so harsh starting from the old world till our day today. The author showed many details on how slaves used to suffer and how they were taken away from their homes,family and their whole life just to carry out orders from their enslavers.