Research Group Proposal

Leigh, Nathan, Jen, and I are going to be staying up for 48 hours for our research group project. Every 5 hours we are going to tape ourselves and talk about each others status and how we are doing. We have simple tasks that we are going to do throughout the time and see if something simple becomes harder through the time.

War on Northern Aggression Questions

1. Were Southern politicians more or less likely to own slaves than other white Southerners?

Yes, they were. Only 38% of White Southerners owned a slave and only 6% of that had twenty or more slaves. Southern politicians on the other hand had a bigger percentage. 68% of State legislators and 83% of delegates to secession conventions owned slaves.

2. Were higher level politicians more likely to own slaves than other politicians?

Yes, country government officials only had 53% of owning slaves while while 83% of delegates to secession conventions owned slaves. Also only 18% of the government officals owned 20 or more slaves while 41% of the delefates to secession owned 20 or more.

3. What do these facts suggest to you about the nature of the Southern political system?

That the richer you are, the more slaves you were able to own. It showed in the table that the higher up you are, the more slaves you owned.

4. How uniform were the proportion of slaves in the population and the proportion of whites owning slave across the South?

There were always more slaves in the state then there were whites owning slaves.It was mostly a 10% in the first four states. In the other states there is no uniformity because the numbers are all over the place.

5. Was there a relationship between the number of slaves in a state's population and whether and when it seceded from the Union?

When I looked at the charts I saw that there were usually more slaves in a population then there were American citizens.

6. What material advantages did the North possess on the eve of the Civil War?

They had advantages in every category. All of the resources that they had, gave them huge advantages in the long run. The railroad advantages helped quite a bit probably, as far as ammunition, and troops. They were able to get troops a lot farther into the battle zone.

7. Do you think material advantages are decisive in the outcome of wars? Why or why not?

Well yeah. Having the power of the materials that the other side doesn't have is a huge advantage. One side being stronger and having the materials to take down the enemy faster and easier is a very good thing. Having the power to take the enemy down easier, I think would let the side with the power be able to make the decisions and determine which way the war should go. They would be able to decide how long the war went on.

8. Why did troop strength peak in 1863?

There is an insufficent amount of data to answer this question.

9. Do you think that the differences in troop strength were responsible for the war's outcome?

I believe that the number of troops for the Union definitely helped in a big way. If the numbers were more even, the outcome of the war may have been way different then and today.

10. How does the cost of the Civil War--in casualties and expense--compare to the cost of other American wars?

The costs are significantly higher. The point that sticks out to me the most is the casualties that took place in the war. The totals of death for the Union was 23 percent, and 24 percent for the Confederacy. That is half the population.

11. Why do you think that the Civil War was so lethal?

I think that it was so lethal because both sides pretty much had pure hatred for each other. All they wanted to do was kill each other. I'm surprised that they didn't wipe out the entire population.

12. What was the radical Republican program for reconstructing the Union?

They wanted the rebels properties should pay the national debt for America. Also that the states should be divided up into military states. Each district will have their own officer to make sure to enforce peace.

13. What were the goals of the radical Republican program?

The goals of the Radical Republican Program included:
They tended to view the Civil War as a crusade against the institution of slavery and supported immediate emancipation.
They advocated enlistment of black soldiers.
They led the fight for ratification of the 13th Amendment.

14. Why was the program unacceptable to President Andrew Johnson?

He didn't like it because the person that gets to be the commanding officer will have complete control over everyone. He becomes the law, and Johnson compared that to having the power of an Absolute Monarch. He said it would put every person down to the lowest low possible.

15. Why do you think the North failed to follow through with policies that would have secured the rights and economic status of the freedmen?

They probably didn't like it because the black men that not to long ago used to be slaves, were now included in higher power. They had to give a large portion of their land to them also. The North went from being the superior ones, to being equal, which I don't believe they liked.

16. What were the major political and social achievements of Reconstruction?

The first is that they made slavery illegal. They denied any former members of the Confederacy the right to be in public office. They made sure that no one could be denied votes based on race, color, or previous servitude.

Local History Proposal

For my local history this quarter, I am going to finish taking my old letters that I found and make summaries and connections to history with them. I may also attatch them to a calander and do a map much like last quarter since I think the project turned out well.

Civil War Questions

1. Use evidence to describe the economic impact of casino ownership and gambling on Native American tribes.

The Casino ownership only benefits certain tribes. The tribe Mashantucket Pequots who owns Foxwoods largest casino has got rich off from it. But, only less then a quarter of Americans 557 Indian Tribes own casinos. Around 400,000 Indians have the highest rates of poverty and unemployment.

2. What is the most significant problem of trying to understand the condition of the modern Native American population?

Because there are over more then 2 million people who belong to over 500 different tribes. Each tribe has their own history and living circumstances which makes things hard to understand.

3. In what ways are Native Americans a unique minority group in the United States? Do these reasons seem justified today, or should Native Americans be considered as a "regular" minority group (like African Americans, Asian Americans, women, etc.)?

America has signed peace treaties which is the only ethnic group with a government agency. I think they should have their special minority group because they went through things we should make up for. If they have their own, African Americans should too because they have a story as well.

4. Please find 4 specific examples of the sorts of events generalized in this paragraph. For each specific example, include a hyperlink to a website explaining the specific event, and a summary of that event.

Dispatching children to boarding Schools:
Children as young as the age of five were forced to leave their parents and attend Christian schools away from home.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/soulwound.html

Making War on Native Americans:
Also known as "Indian Wars". We wanted to take the Native Americans land to have for ourselves for settlement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Wars

Increasing funding for the BIA:
We increased the funding to the Bureau of Indian Affairs
http://www.bia.gov/idc/groups/xocfo/documents/text/idc007883.doc

Sending Native Americans to Oklahoma:
We sent many of the Native Americans to Oklahoma to live which is now known as the Oklahoma tribes. (some of them)
http://www.talewins.com/oklahoma/native.htm

5. What is meant by the phrase 'diseases of the poor'? What is the relationship between economics and health implied by that phrase?

If you are poor, you are more likely to get disease because you can't buy the things you need to keep healthy. One third of the Native American population live in poverty and are four times as likely to die of alcoholism. Also they are three times as likely to die of tuberculosis and twice as likely to die of diabetes.

6. Is John McCain correct in his assessment of the treatment of Native Americans? Why?

Not exactly. Although it is obvious what we did was wrong, not everyone would see it this way. Still many people don't see what we did to African Americans was wrong either.

7. Please define each of the following terms in the context of Native American policy:

removal: They have been removed from us for awhile because they were so different.
allotment: They were given allotments and couldn't own their own land.
termination: We got rid of many Native Americans while invading their land.
relocation: Once we willed Native Americans, we made them relocate to different land.
assimilation: We culturally combined Native Americans with us and gave them their own minority.
self determination: They never gave up and many Native Americans still live in this area today and respect our rules.

8. Finally, give a paragraph summary on what self determination means, and why it either is, or is not, the appropriate policy for Native American people with respect to the Federal government.

I believe that the Native Americas really did have self determination. Self determination is the free choice of ones own acts without external compulsion. The Native Americans continue living in the United States and respect our rules after everything we did to them. I think this could make their policy self determination.

Essay

The United States intentions are to push American values such as freedom of speech, religion, and assembly in a Humanitarian way, but that may not be what other countries want. Each country has its own values and strong feeling of importance for their own unique independence. By doing this, it starts revolts against our Country and sparks the question, is what the United States does to other countries really right?
President McKinley thought taking the Philippines from Spain would benefit America. McKinley made it seem like America was helping the Philippines to help educate the Filipino's. In February 1899, The Filipino’s raised a revolt against the American rule. Although the Filipino’s raised the revolt, soldiers testified and said that the United States fired the first shot which started the revolution in the Philippines. William Hearst, an American newspaper magnate and leading newspaper publisher helped plan the war against Spain. Hearst stated, "You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war."
During the revolt with the Philippine's the United States was very racist. In the United States at this time, on an average of every two weeks, two colored people were grabbed by mobs, tortured and killed because of the color of their skin. The United States could not tolerate difference in it's own country. A general in the war stated, " The more I burn and kill, the more pleased I will be." America had no remorse about the killings that had happened. Another American from Washington said, "This shooting human beings beats rabbit hunting all to pieces." Not only could the United States not tolerate the color of the Philippine's skin, but American's didn't like the Filipino's education system either. American tried bringing the Philippine's to the United States to have Filipino's education more like America's. The Philippine's had their own system that was working for their country that didn't need to be touched.
During McKinley's presidency, the United States also tried invading Cuba. America had a huge economic interest in Cuba's railroads, sugar, and shipping. This had huge potential of being helpful to the United States economic needs. Albert Beveridge has pushed the idea upon the United States that the Philippines had the same potential. He stated that Cuba and the Philippines had "limitless markets" that could some day be America's. Beveridge reminded all American's that "there are 5,000,000 people to be governed." The United State's economic problems were not Cuba's, or the Philippine's issue, it was America's.
The Philippine's and Cuba each have their own values and strong feeling of importance for their independence. When the United States push American values onto countries like Cuba and the Philippine's it makes America look violent, greedy, and intolerant of difference. Each country is unique and deserves to have independence to their values.

Venn Diagram