Day 7 Blog Post 2/4/13

     On Thursday, day 5, we dropped history class. We then went on to discuss the role of Lincoln's vice president, Andrew Johnson on Friday. We learned about him by reading his life story and obituary. After reading about him and his rise to power, despite his lack of a formal education, I made a decision about him and his political career. I believe that he was a good president, who had a good idea for the future of the United States, but he was corrupted in his goal of fighting the Radical Republicans. He spent too much of his time and energy on the Radical Republicans and lost sight of the task at hand (Reconstruction). Due to this, he was impeached and nearly kicked out of office. 

    Today we took notes on the events following the Reconstruction of the South and the beginnings of discrimination and the civil rights movement. We first discussed how African Americans took advantage of the rights guaranteed by the 15th amendment and what white Southerners thought of the amendment. The slideshow then went on to tell about how, in response to the sudden freedoms given to African Americans, the KKK, a group dedicated to the discrimination of African Americans, was born. I am both surprised and appalled that a group with such dark ethics would be allowed and able to rise to power. Towards the end of the class, we discussed how Congress began to battle the KKK, by enacting the Enforcement Act of 1870 and later the Civil Rights Act of 1875. This act was a final attempt for Congress to secure African American rights, but unfortunately, a rather large loophole was left, allowing business owners to kick out blacks based on the nervousness invoked on their other clients by the African American presence. I am curious as to whether Congress left that loophole unnoticed, or if they saw it and simply realized that nothing could be done. The class was concluded with a sheet about different arguments as to whether the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was Constitutional, based on the 14th amendment. 

Day 4 Blog Post 1/30/13

     Yesterday, Tuesday the 29th, we received a sheet containing information on the 14th amendment. The  sheet also had questions on it that we were supposed to answer (mostly summarizing), before we were assigned to take 15 minutes to create a poster. The poster was meant to advertise the 14th amendment, by taking the perspective of a newspaper in that time period and advertising the page numbers for articles relating to the passage of the amendment. We were then given a short amount of time to present our poster and answer questions about it.
     Today in history, we used our textbook to study some of the plans for the reconstruction and re-entry in the the Union, of the South. The plans that we looked at were the Lincoln Plan (10 Percent Plan) and the Johnson Plan. We were then asked to create our own plan, using ideas from both plans (my plan focused more heavily on social equality than Lincoln's Plan). After that, on the back of the sheet, there was a blank map containing only the outlines of the Southern states that went to war. We were supposed to label each state, give its date of re-entry into the Union, and color code the map based on which states were led by which military leaders.

Day 2 Blog Post 1/28/13

     In E period history class on Friday, we took notes on the events leading up to, during, and after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. We mainly took notes on the planning of the assassination, but also learned how it unfolded and what happened afterwards. We did not discuss in detail why the assassination took place, but using context clues, it is pretty self-explanatory. We then discussed the political implications of such an act, like who took over after Lincoln and how this effected the course of reconstruction. After this, to end the class, we listened to an orchestral piece written by Aaron Copland, called "Lincoln Portrait".

     In class today, we went down to the library in order to use the computers to complete a series of worksheets. In the first worksheet, we looked into what it was like to be a white Southerner after the Civil War. We did so by looking at pictures of Sherman's destruction and reading statistics about certain states in the South. After we finished that worksheet, we were told to answer questions about a cartoon. We then had to fill out a sheet on the Black Codes in the South. These codes angered me due to the fact that emancipation in some way called for political equality, but they were still able to pass in order to harass the newly freed slaves. 

Day 7 Blog Post 1/24/13

     After having midterms all week last week, we finally returned to our normal routines on Tuesday. On Tuesday, however, we dropped history class. 

     Yesterday, Wednesday the 23rd, we learned about the Radical Republicans, the political career (after his beating) of Charles Sumner, and the military career of Ulysses S. Grant. We learned about how the Radical Republicans had a monopoly of sorts over the South, due to the fact that Congress controlled their re-admission into the states, while the Radical Republicans controlled Congress. We also learned about Charles Sumner's role as a Radical Republican and his goal of metaphorically beating the South with a cane. We learned about these through taking notes off of the board. Prior to that, we were assigned to a certain document and formed groups of two to analyze the documents. The document that I received was Letter to John Bright, which described how Charles Sumner thought that the slaves should be integrated into society. After that, We switched partners and matched up with someone with a different document, titled, Grant Takes Command, and had to analyze this document, which talked about Grant's role in the Civil War and the status of the North and South.

     Today, Thursday the 24th, we discussed the homework last night, covering the second inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis's African Church Speech. We then moved on and began to discuss the role of slavery in starting the Civil War, a topic that was sparked by Lincoln's inauguration. To get the different perspectives of modern day people on the issue, we listened to a podcast, in which an African American former governor spoke, as well as a member of The Sons of The Confederacy. They differed greatly on the topic, as one believed that slavery was the sole cause of the war, and the other believed that it was one of many factors contributing to the start of the war. We then discussed these factors and how the all came back to the topic of slavery, showing that slavery was, in fact, the cause of the Civil War.

Winnie the Pooh Guess and Result

Winnie the Pooh Quiz guess and result

1. I believe that I most resemble Owl. Piglet would have been my second choice, but I am less timid than I am quiet, unlike Piglet.

2. You are Rabbit. You are clever, intelligent, and level-headed. You have close, loyal friendships, but you have a bit of a short temper when the people around you act foolishly.

3. I think that the quiz decided that I was Rabbit because I am not as pompous as Owl, but rather, as the results state, have a bit of a short temper when the people around me act foolish. I believe, after taking the quiz, that this definition best suits my personality and would have chosen Rabbit, had the definition from the first website matched that of the quiz. I believe that there were certain key questions in the quiz that may have had more weight than the others. For example, changing the last question changes my results. In conclusion, I believe that, by the quiz's definition, I most closely resemble the likes of Rabbit.

1850s timeline

List of comments as of 10:00 12/3/12

List of comments as of 10:00 12/3/12 Nick Rachel Obama? I think Sarah G. Cara Camille Jimmy Kevin Matt Sam (dont know which one) Cam Jess Sarah Andrew Laurel Jared Collin