Buffalo Soldiers

This week in honors history 10 class we learned about buffalo soldiers. The essential question was did the government have good intentions when enacting policies for westward expansion? In what ways did these policies impact the natives and buffalo soldiers? In order to answer the essential question we watched videos in class. After we watched the videos we read and analyzed documents. As a class we came up with the essential question.

Buffalo soldiers are defined as African American soldiers who were in union army cavalry, and stayed in the military as career soldiers; interacted with native Americans. The government took part when enacting policies for westward expansion.Although the government provided food, clothing, shelter, uniform, steady job not as a sharecropper I did not think that their intentions were good.I did not think that the government’s intentions were good because they didn’t care about the soldiers. In the Helen Hunt Jackson document on edline states "receiving nothing from the Government except interest on their own moneys, or annuities granted them in consideration of the cession of their lands to the United States." This quote shows that the government did not have good intentions when enacting policies for westward expansion because the government doesn’t care about anything but money. Out of the many tribes and the buffalo soldiers all of them have suffered cruelly from these policies. The Helen Hunt Jackson document also states “The poorer, the more insignificant, the more helpless the band, the more certain the cruelty and outrage to which they have been subjected.” This quote shows that not only did the government have bad intentions but how the policies affected the natives and the buffalo soldiers.

(This is a video we watched in class 

about buffalo soldiers)

The natives and buffalo soldiers were affected greatly to the new policies that took part. I think that the government’s intentions were wrong when enacting these policies. I thought this because the government did not care about the soldiers and what they were doing they only cared about the money. Although the soldiers got food,shelter, uniform, and a steady job other than a sharecropper they got treated very cruelly.  

Two Great Men

In honors History 10 class this week we learned about Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. To learn about these two men we watched videos as a class and in groups we read and analyzed documents. Each group had one topic to focus on, the topics were main ideas,key people, important events, and essential terms. With all of this information about Carnegie and Rockefeller as a class we came up with an essential question. The essential question is, Should Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller be classified as a robber barons or captains of industry?

(Andrew Carnegie)

A robber baron is defined as someone who exploited workers and forced horrible working conditions and unfair labor practices upon the laborer. Captain's of industry were defined as leaders that were praised for all the great things they did and were skilled workers. I think the Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller should be classified as captains of industry. Carnegie should be classified as a captain of industry because he cared about the people. He showed he wanted to do something good for the people by spending an excess amount of money on public needs and education. He also believed in rewarding workers for what they do and recognized them for their hard work and talent. I'm the document it states "He believed in rewarding talent and frequently promoted exceptional workers into the ranks of management." John D. Rockefeller is also considered a captain of industry. He is defined as a captain of industry because he gave all of his earnings back to the community. In the document we analyized about him in class it states "He gave money to Spelman College in Georgia to educate African-American women and founded the University of Chicago (ultimately giving it $80 million)." This shows that Rockefeller was not greedy and wanted to really help the community when needed. 

(John D Rockefeller) 

These two men have their flaws, but for the most part they were captains of industry. Someone in our world today that would be considered a captain of industry would be whoever came up with the company "Toms". The guy who came up with the idea of "Toms" would be considered a captain of industry because he produces shoes but every pair of shoes purchased proceeds go towards less fortunate kids in Africa. Rockefeller and Carnegie are two amazing men that should be considered captains of industry because they helped the community the best they could. 

 

 "John D. Rockefeller | Biography - American Industrialist." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 1884. Accessed June 5, 2015. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/506239/John-D-Rockefeller.

  "Carnegie Library of Davidson College." Carnegie Library of Davidson College. Accessed June 5, 2015.

Let's Be Free

Recently in Honors History 10 class we learned about freedom of the slaves and how Abraham Lincoln played a big role in the actions being made about slaves. The essential question was who gave freedom to enslaved Americans? Did freedom come from above or below? To what extent were Abraham Lincoln's actions influenced by the actions of enslaved Americans? To help answer this question in class we analyzed a picture of Abraham helping a slave. We also analyzed many documents on the topic. After we analyzed these documents we used the whiteboards at our stations and put each document in either above or below slavery category.

The first part of the essential question was who gave freedom to enslaved Americans and was it from above or below? To answer this we used documents X and Y. The slaves fought for their freedom and wanted the government and people of higher power to react. Documents X and Y tell us that freedom was from below. Although slavery was from above in some situations it was mainly from below. The last part of the essential question was to what extent were Abraham Lincoln's actions influenced by the actions of enslaved Americans? Abraham Lincoln took risks during the time he was alive. Abraham Lincoln was not scared of what others thought of him he helped slaves just like he would help anyone else. To answer this part of the essential question we used all of the documents provided for us in class but also the small reading in the class notes on edline. The notes on edline tell us that Lincoln's actions were influenced by the actions of enslaved Americans because Lincoln abolished slavery forever.

Freedom is defined as "the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or resistant." In our world today people have freedom but some do not. One event that has recently shown having freedom is Bruce Jenner wanting to become a women. Bruce Jenner was given the title "world's best athlete" in the summer of 1976.   Bruce was married two times before marrying Kris Kardashian. While married to Kris the family got there own tv show called "Keeping up with the Kardashians." The whole family became very famous and everything they did was public. Ever since Bruce was a little kid he liked dressing up in girls clothes and soon after Kris's and his divorce he decided to do what makes him happy and he doesn't care what the public thinks of him. This situation shows freedom because Bruce is free to do what he wants and yes people might judge him but he doesn't up are because it is what he wants.

                           

(This is my groups whiteboard of what documents we put in freedom above and below) 

Fight to The Finish

This week in honors history 10 class we learned about the battles during the civil war. To learn about these battles everyone in the class got to pick one of the 20 battles to choose from. Once we picked our battle we researched it and made a Google doc that had the battle name, date,location, theater and victor. With this Google doc we made QR codes and then hung our battles up around the school. We ran around the school gathering all the information for the 19 other battles. With all this information the next day in class we used padlet to display which theater dominated and who the victor mostly was. The essential questions this week were who was the ultimate victor in each of the theaters of war:East, West and Naval. The other question was what are some commonalities you can identify in the reasons for the results of battles.

 

The battles of the civil war were between the union and the confederates. The three theaters were the East, West and Naval. The Confederacy dominated in the East theater. The confederacy dominated in the East theater because The confederates has more soldiers and had stronger attacks. In the West theater the Union won. The Union won because they had better defense skills because they had better weapons than the Confederacy. In the Naval theater the union won again. The reason why the Union won was because they had better resources and they owned better weapons like engines to boats.

 

The East,West and Naval theaters share many commonalities. These commonalities are the reason why the results of the battles were what they were. Some of the commonalities were all three theaters, confederates and the union used weapons. Some may have been better than others but both the confederates and the union used them. Another commonality they share are both the Union and Confederacy won Around 10 out of the 20 battles that happened. Although overall the union won for the West and Naval the total amount of battles they each won was about even. 

 

My Battle Google Doc

 

Created with Padlet

Pick Your Side

This week in Honors History 10 class we learned about the election of 1860. The essential question was "Were the results of the election of 1860 representative of the deep divisions of the civil war?" I agree with this question because the Northern states did not want slavery, the middle states wanted to keep everything the way it was and the Southern states wanted to keep slavery. The election was between four candidates. The candidates were Lincoln a republican who was against slavery, Douglas who was a Northern democrat who believed in the popular sovereignty. Breckinridge a Southern democrat believed that slavery had no limits. Lastly Bell a constitutional Union wanted to preserve the constitution but at the same time include slavery. With all of this information in class we went on a website that told us more information about this and also had pictures. With the information and pictures we made an educreation video talking about the election while showing pictures that match what we are saying.

Just The North and South

tHE nORTH HAD A LESSER AMOUNT OF SLAVES BUT tHE South HAD FEW RAILROADS  | Create infographics

This week in Honors History 10 class we learned about how slavery affected the success of the civil war. The essential question was "How did the differences between the North and the South affect each region's strategy and success for the civil war?" To answer this question we made infograms that provided statistics about the North and the South.The North had a big population of 23,000,000 and railroad mileage of 22,000. The South had a smaller population of only 8,700,000 but they had all different kinds of labor and they had slaves to do this labor. This process helped me better understand the the situations faced by the Union and the Confederacy at the start of the war because the Union wanted slavery but the confederates did not. The confederates made a constitution stating that owning slaves in The United States is prohibited.

Not Making Progress

This week in honors history 10 class we learned about "the Elephant in the Room". The elephant in the room is Defined as an issue that is present but is avoided.The essential question for this topic was "how do we know the debate over slavery was the "elephant in the room" for American politics in early 19th century?" To help answer this question we got into groups of three and took notes on 14 topics. With these notes we had to decide if they were anti-slavery or proslavery. Once we knew that we had this information each group made a timeline summarizing these 14 events. 

During the 1850's slavery was the elephant in the room to society but not everyone agreed. Some people were considered "proslavery" which meant that they liked slavery and were for it. The people that were against slavery were anti-slavery. The 1533 Gadsden purchase was proslavery. This was proslavery because the United States purchased $10 million dollars of land to make railroads. These railroads helped transport slaves to the south and so people could vote for slave territories. Also the Kansas Nebraska act was proslavery also. The Kansas Nebraska act is pro slavery because it allows slaves to go to the north of the line. This completely violates the Missouri compromise. The Missouri compromise allowed slavery in only the western territories of the United States. Not all of the Kansas Nebraska act was proslavery though. The Other part of the Kansas Nebraska act created railroads in Chicago so that anti-slavery people could travel to vote against slavery. Senator Charles Summers was a person that believed in anti-slavery. He made a speech called "The Crime Against Kansas". During this speech he talked about how slavery was cruel and all the bad things about it. Summer got badly injured by senator Andrew Butler because he discussed him and his thoughts on how he thought slavery was good. 

Slavery was a big issue and caused "the elephant in the room". These four acts answer the essential question because slavery was such a big issue and yes people wanted to fix it but it was mostly just avoided. If you were anti-slavery people who were proslavery never listened to you and made the situation better.

(This is my groups timeline)