Mock Town Hall Meeting

The other day in class, we had a mock town hall meeting where we all shared figures from the 1800’s that were greatly important not only during their time but even today in history. As I’ve written about in another blog post I had, Frederick Douglass. To briefly sum him up, he was an American born slave with a white father and black mother, who worked hard labor and as a servant. During his time as a servant, the owner’s wife taught Douglass how to read and write, and little did she know Douglass would go on to become a historic figure because of her teaching him how to read and write. Douglass did some incredible things in his lifetime such as travelling to Europe for 2 years to learn, teach and preach, write biographies such as “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”, “My Bondage and My Freedom”, and “Life and Times of Frederick Douglass”. He was a very impactful man and fought not only for black rights but for women’s as well. 

A colored woman I found to be impactful during the mock town hall meeting was Sojourner Truth. She was a black slave that was bought and sold four times, living in critical conditions with abusive slave owners. But found a family named the Van Wagenens that bought her her freedom for $20. Religion was a big part of her life and often her base argument when discussing matters of women's rights and slavery. And went on to be one of the greatest women figures that argued for women's rights and black rights.

Frederick Douglass Report

    Today in class, the class was divided up into pro-slavery historic figures, and anti-slavery historic figures. Luckily for me, I was given the anti-slavery historic figure and chose an important man in time that many know, Frederick Douglass. 

Frederick Douglass was born in February, 1818, and the exact date is not given because many slaves didn’t get a birthday, but later on in life he chose to celebrate it on February 14th. Douglass made a resolution that he would be free by the end of the year and planned an escape, but unfortunately early in April he was jailed after his plan was discovered. Eventually, Douglass escaped slavery in Maryland, and became a national leader of the abolishment movement in Massachussetts and New York. Not only did Douglass care about black lives he also stood and spoke in favor of women’s suffrage. He said that he could not accept the right to vote as a black man if women could not also claim that right. Douglass looked up to William Lloyd Garrison, who was a white abolitionist leader and became Douglass’ mentor. But Douglass did not always see eye to eye with Garrison, Garrison believed the Declaration of Independence was written against black lives and needed to be rewritten, and Douglass believed that there were only a few things needed to be tweaked and that it wasn’t anti-black. In 1845, in Lynn, Massachusetts, Douglass published his first book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. He then published several more narratives, a few being, My Bondage and My Freedom, and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. He then took a two year trip to England and Ireland and gave many lectures in churches and chapels.

 After many world impacts Fredrick Douglass was a man that changed the world, he passed away on February, 20, 1895, and the world lost a good man. 

The Pro-Slavery Expressive Acts

As one of the people that argued the Mann v. North Carolina case, there were two other groups that fought on pro-slavery and anti-salvery about acts enacted during the early 1800’s. Each group presented three different acts, and I chose to focus on the Pro-Slavery side to share what was going on in racist white American men and woman’s minds. 

The first act that was talked about was the fugitive slave act which was two laws enacted in 1793 and 1850 pertaining the recapture of fleeing slaves. We even saw this act in the movie “Glory”, when Colonel Robert Gould Shaw threatened Trip that he would send him back to his owner if he did not listen to orders. I can imagine how scary it is knowing that one is free for a moment and to just have a white man or woman take that away from a person is unimaginable. 

The second act enacted was the Missouri Compromise of 1820, that expanded new western territory. It was a large debate on whether Missouri would become a slave state and sparked a huge debate throughout the state and surrounding. But because Missouri had people that were pro slavery legislatures, Missouri ended up becoming a pro-slavery state.

The last slide in their presentation was not an act but actually a battle. It was the battle of Fort Sumter, South Carolina. It was the attack of the South Carolina Militia, Confederates, that fired on Fort Sumter. The SCM fired repeatedly on the Union and Fort Sumter was going up in flames from all the cannonballs, and the town burned to the ground. This was a very historic day in time because it was what started the Civil War. 

The pro-slavery side of everything is not fun to talk about and horrific when you need to argue for them in class. But it’s these events and mindsets that educate us on what went wrong in our past and to fix them and have a brighter future, where we can all live free and equal. 

Gone with the Wind Reflection

Gone with the wind was a movie we recently watched in class, and when we completed watching the first part of the movie, the class was asked if we thought the movie was offensive. My stance on if I think the movie is offensive is a mix of emotions, I do but I don’t at the same time. 

Why I think it can be portrayed as offensive is because it tells the love story of Scarlett O’hara and her love for Ashley Wilkes, who is already married to Melanie Hamiltion, but is filmed back in a historic time for slavery. This was during the time that blacks were fighting for the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment along with the Civil War going into effect. During the movie, it doesn’t focus on this important moment of history but instead uses it as a background story. I see how this could come across as offensive, but overall I genuinely enjoyed the movie. My favorite character in the movie was actually Prissy. Prissy was an expressive woman that spoke what she wanted even though she was a black maid back when blacks didn’t have freedom of speech. 

In class there was another debate that was brought up which was the acting of the characters. I actually didn’t realize there was a problem with the acting until someone brought up the topic. The only person I really had a problem with was Vivien Leigh, also known as Scarlett O’Hara, she was just too expressive in her emotion which got a little excessive at some points and distracted me from the main point in the movie.

Overall, I thought it was a good movie. I just got a little distracted at some points and couldn’t figure out the overall theme of whether it was supposed to portray the Civil War or the love story of Scarlett O’hara, Ashley Wilkes, and Rhett Butler. 

Plessy V. Ferguson

Today in class, there were two teams that fought for and against the Plessy v. Ferguson case. The Plessy v. Ferguson's case originated in 1892, and was the first case that pleaded the 14th amendment and the equal protection clause. The clause prohibits states from rejecting “equal protection of the laws” to any person. The separate car act was enacted in 1890 by the Louisiana state legislature which required “equal but separate” train accommodations for blacks and whites. 

Plessy sat in the "whites only" car in the Louisiana train, and was told to exit the car by whites and Plessy refused to do so. He was then arrested and convicted by a New Orleans court and later filed a petition against the judge; John H. Ferguson. In the trial Plessy’s lawyer argued that the separate car act violated the 13th and 14th amendment. Unfortunately, the majority of the court ruled in favor of Ferguson, and didn’t feel that it went against the amendments, but instead a stamp approval was created on the doctrine of “separate but equal”. 

In my opinion, the team that argued Ferguson had more legal terms which are more superior when arguing a case in court. They argued with law and the Plessy team had only argued with opinions. The Ferguson team had argued that he was an octoroon meaning he was only ⅛ a person, which I do not agree with, but it was a thing back in history. They also argued that there was a law that said during the 1830’s state legislature passed the first laws requiring railroad cars for blacks and whites. Although I don’t agree with the case, the Ferguson team just had more facts that supported their side in the court. 

Glory Review

    Today in class, we watched the movie "Glory" which takes place in Massachusetts and tells the story of the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts. It's the story of black slaves that were freed or escaped slavery and joined the army to fight for America. The white American, colonel Robert Gould Shaw, led the black soldiers. The troops went on a suicide mission in Charleston, South Carolina, a battle they went into knowing they wouldn't come out. It was "an uphill attack across muddy terrain against a Confederate fort".  One of my favorite scenes in this movie is the scene when colonel Robert Gould Shaw is told that the only reason Trip left the base was to go out and get more supplies to make new shoes. Earlier on in the movie we see that Trip has terrible rashes over all his legs because of his shoes. We see colonel Robert Gould Shaw grow as a leader from the beginning of the movie to the end. He ends up getting his African American troops, new uniforms, new shoes, and fights for them like family. On July 18, 1863, they marched into battle, and encouraged the North to recruit other black members, because of the soldiers loyalty to the commanding officers. What these heroic figures did inspired others and made a statement on the bravery of one of the first all black army groups. 

Supreme Court Post

    Today in class we watched a two part video on the Supreme Court, it showed how the court operates, and what it would look like if a trial was held. Thousands of cases each year are appealed from the Appeal Court and sent to the Supreme Court to be appealed and only around a hundred cases are taken each year. The difference between having a case in a District and Appeal court compared to the Supreme Court is that in the District and Appeal court citizens of the jury are the ones that find the defendant guilty or not guilty and decide the ultimate outcome. In a Supreme Court they are tried in front of the nine justice members of the Supreme Court which are well knowledged in the government and in law and are appointed by the president to be a member. 

    In the court room the two parties each have 30 minutes to present their case before the justice members. After each case is presented, the nine members deliberate in a conference room. In casting votes "the Chief Justice casts the first vote, and then each justice in descending order of seniority does likewise until the most junior justice casts the last vote." After this the Chief Justice tallies up the votes and see's which majority rules in deciding the outcome. 

    The role of the Supreme Court is to give every case they accept an equal and fair trial, and to give them the opportunity to be judged in front of people that understand the court of law instead of a group of citizens, the jury, to decide whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty.