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

The Great Depression

WWII Assignment 3

The Descision to Use Atomic Weapons
from

A People's War?
Howard Zinn

Still, the vast bulk of the American population was mobilized, in the army, and in civilian life, to fight the war, and the atmosphere of war enveloped more and more Americans. Public opinion polls show large majorities of soldiers favoring the draft for the postwar period. Hatred against the enemy, against the Japanese particularly, became widespread. Racism was clearly at work. Time magazine, reporting the battle of Iwo Jima, said: "The ordinary unreasoning Jap is ignorant. Perhaps he is human. Nothing .. . indicates it." .... Not everyone would feel this way so it is an opinion but I do agree with this. -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 7:23 PM
The bombing of Japanese cities continued the strategy of saturation bombing to destroy civilian morale; one nighttime fire-bombing of Tokyo took 80,000 lives. And then, on August 6, 1945, came the lone American plane in the sky over Hiroshima, dropping the first atomic bomb, leaving perhaps 100,000 Japanese dead, and tens of thousands more slowly dying from radiation poisoning. Twelve U.S. navy fliers in the Hiroshima city jail were killed in the bombing, a fact that the U.S. government has never officially acknowledged, according to historian Martin Sherwin (A World Destroyed). Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, with perhaps 50,000 killed.
The justification for these atrocities was that this would end the war quickly, making unnecessary an invasion of Japan. Such an invasion would cost a huge number of lives, the government said-a million, according to Secretary of State Byrnes; half a million, Truman claimed was the figure given him by General George Marshall. (When the papers of the Manhattan Project-the project to build the atom bomb- were released years later, they showed that Marshall urged a warning to the Japanese about the bomb, so people could be removed and only military targets hit.) These estimates of invasion losses were not realistic, and seem to have been pulled out of the air to justify bombings which, as their effects became known, horrified more and more people.This whole paragraph is again pretty much opinions. They talked about how they felt, after the use of facts which makes it more believable. I agree with what they are saying. -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 7:26 PM Japan, by August 1945, was in desperate shape and ready to surrender. New York Times military analyst Hanson Baldwin wrote, shortly after the war:

The enemy, in a military sense, was in a hopeless strategic position by the time the Potsdam demand for unconditional surrender was made on July 26.
Such then, was the situation when we wiped out Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Need we have done it? No one can, of course, be positive, but the answer is almost certainly negative. How one person interviewed feels. They ask questions to make you think about what they are saying. I agree. -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 7:28 PM

The United States Strategic Bombing Survey, set up by the War Department in 1944 to study the results of aerial attacks in the war, interviewed hundreds of Japanese civilian and military leaders after Japan surrendered, and reported just after the war:

Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated. Although they added in dates to help make it seem like facts, we still do not know because it never happened. It was a guess on their part. -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 7:29 PM

But could American leaders have known this in August 1945? The answer is, clearly, yes. We don't really know this. -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 7:30 PM The Japanese code had been broken, and Japan's messages were being intercepted. It was known the Japanese had instructed their ambassador in Moscow to work on peace negotiations with the Allies. Japanese leaders had begun talking of surrender a year before this, and the Emperor himself had begun to suggest, in June 1945, that alternatives to fighting to the end be considered. On July 13, Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo wired his ambassador in Moscow: "Unconditional surrender is the only obstacle to peace.. .." Martin Sherwin, after an exhaustive study of the relevant historical documents, concludes: "Having broken the Japanese code before the war, American Intelligence was able to-and did-relay this message to the President, but it had no effect whatever on efforts to bring the war to a conclusion."
If only the Americans had not insisted on unconditional surrender- that is, if they were willing to accept one condition to the surrender, that the Emperor, a holy figure to the Japanese, remain in place-the Japanese would have agreed to stop the war. Not facts!! -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 7:31 PM
Why did the United States not take that small step to save both American and Japanese lives? Was it because too much money and effort had been invested in the atomic bomb not to drop it? General Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, described Truman as a man on a toboggan, the momentum too great to stop it. Or was it, as British scientist P. M. S. Blackett suggested (Fear, War, and the Bomb), that the United States was anxious to drop the bomb before the Russians entered the war against Japan? Although interviewing people does help, it still does not make their opinions facts. -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 7:31 PM
The Russians had secretly agreed (they were officially not at war with Japan) they would come into the war ninety days after the end of the European war. That turned out to be May 8, and so, on August 8, the Russians were due to declare war on Japan, But by then the big bomb had been dropped, and the next day a second one would be dropped on Nagasaki; the Japanese would surrender to the United States, not the Russians, and the United States would be the occupier of postwar Japan. In other words, Blackett says, the dropping of the bomb was "the first major operation of the cold diplomatic war with Russia.. .." Blackett is supported by American historian Gar Alperovitz (Atomic Diplomacy), who notes a diary entry for July 28, 1945, by Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, describing Secretary of State James F. Byrnes as "most anxious to get the Japanese affair over with before the Russians got in."
Truman had said, "The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians." It was a preposterous statement. Those 100,000 killed in Hiroshima were almost all civilians. The U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey said in its official report: "Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen as targets because of their concentration of activities and population."
The dropping of the second bomb on Nagasaki seems to have been scheduled in advance, and no one has ever been able to explain why it was dropped.No one is even sure if this is a fact either. -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 7:35 PM Was it because this was a plutonium bomb whereas the Hiroshima bomb was a uranium bomb? Were the dead and irradiated of Nagasaki victims of a scientific experiment? Martin Shenvin says that among the Nagasaki dead were probably American prisoners of war. He notes a message of July 31 from Headquarters, U.S. Army Strategic Air Forces, Guam, to the War Department:

Reports prisoner of war sources, not verified by photos, give location of Allied prisoner of war camp one mile north of center of city of Nagasaki. Does this influence the choice of this target for initial Centerboard operation? Request immediate reply.

The reply: "Targets previously assigned for Centerboard remain unchanged."
True, the war then ended quickly. Italy had been defeated a year earlier. Germany had recently surrendered, crushed primarily by the armies of the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, aided by the Allied armies on the West. Now Japan surrendered.Although this had a lot of opinions/propoganda, sometimes in a paper it is necassary. A good paper doesn't always revolve around all facts. Sometimes it requires both. -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 7:36 PM

WW2 Second Assignment

Ira Gilliand recalls his night on the ridge.

It's tough to talk about this stuff. It's been fifty-eight years. It gives me the chills thinking about it. It must be big if it is still that clearly in his memory. -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 9:30 AM

The Japanese were trying to outflank us and looked like they were going to overrun our position. I remember their screams.I would personally have nightmares about these screams! -Leigh Welch 2/24/10 10:35 AM They screamed a lot, especially when they were charging. It made you alert in a hurry even after being up for two days and you're ready to fall asleep.Being awake for two days and needing to keep fighting is something I honestly could never do -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 9:29 AM

They kept charging, but that's where the grenades came in. We threw grenades all night long.That would just plain out scare me! No way around that. -Leigh Welch 2/24/10 10:37 AM I remember rolling the grenades down. We were up on the hill and they were below us. They kept feeding us boxes of grenades. I remember the sound of Plante's BAR. He kept it going all night long. A lot of guys spent a terrible night out there.

The 1st Parachute Battalion was with us. I remember one of the paratroopers got shot. The corpsman came over because of his cry for help, and he [the corpsman] got shot right through the heart. Watching anything like this happen to anyone would scar me for life. -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 9:28 AM His name was Smith,Is this James Smith. I read my article about a James Smith! -Leigh Welch 2/24/10 10:38 AM so when I saw Smith go down, I grabbed him and carried him down the hill. I didn't think he was going to die. When I got him down to the first aid station, I saw one of our doctors cry. [chokes up] Old Smitty was my friend, a real nice guy, and I broke down also.

*** The comments are in red (:

On September 27, the 1st Raider Battalion would help launch an attack near the mouth of the Matanikau River. Poor intelligence greatly underestimated the strength of the Japanese defenses facing them, turning the operation into a disaster. The Japanese halted the Raiders and 5th Marines' advance at the mouth of the river and nearly wiped out the amphibious landings by another Marine battalion at Point Cruz. Jim "Horse Collar" Smith recalls the battle.

We were on this narrow trail along the east side of the Matanikau River, a steep cliff on the other side. As we snaked up the side of the trail, a guy named Ed Mertz had a kidney stone.With a kidney stone it would be hard to climb a mountain -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 10:35 AM And here we are plastered alongside the trail with Japs on the other side of the river and this guy Mertz goes down screaming, clutching his gut. I remember thinking, "Oh, God, we are going to get it." I would feel so bad for the guy with the Kidney stone but I would also be pissed that he gave away our position. -Leigh Welch 2/24/10 10:23 AM It was just a little farther along there that C Company was just a little ahead of us. Ken Bailey [the battalion executive officer and Medal of Honor recipient for his actions on Bloody Ridge], with his runner right behind him, was dashing across a log footbridge, caught a Nambu [machine gun] between the eyes and went down.

A little later in the day -- I guess we were still heading south -- Sam Griffith got shot in the shoulder at about 300 meters. I was going to say that this was a long way but I'm not really sure it is that far. -Leigh Welch 2/24/10 10:26 AM That left us with a bunch of young 1st lieutenants (who had just made 1st lieutenant), and there was actually a discussion at the CPWhat is a CP? -Leigh Welch 2/24/10 10:28 AM as to who was the senior officer. Edson was in a state of shock after Bailey was killed. It affected [Bailey's runner] more than anything else. He had been Major Bob Brown's runner until the ridge, and Brown was killed coming off the ridge. Someone said to him, "You must be a jinx, because this was the second major you lost." The poor kid became unglued. It was a terrible thing to say. Being in this position and have somebody put you down like that would just bring your performance level down. -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 10:37 AM

I remember when we pulled Bailey into the aid station in a poncho. Aid station [sigh] -- a couple of guys sitting on logs and doctors treating them. This is ridiculous! They should have sufficient aid stations! -Leigh Welch 2/24/10 10:30 AM Yeah, because this would help them much?? -Karissa Porter 2/24/10 10:38 AM There was a kid by the name of Dobson who had been shot right in the groin. His face was absolutely dead white, you couldn't believe it. He just sat there and held his stomach. Everybody knew he was going to die, and he knew he was going to die. Not a murmur out of him; talk about stoicism. He died shortly after that. He just slid off the log and was dead. A man next to him had a flesh wound and was crying like a baby. Talk about a contrast.

Eventually they pulled us out of there because the Japs were well entrenched on the other side of the footbridge.

Email Response JFK

Dear Karissa

In response to your inquiry about the assassination of JFK.

I remember it clearly. I was at Aunt Sheila's house in New Jersey. We were watching the parade of TV, and watched it all unfold. We cried. We were stunned, and just could not grasp what we had just seen. It left us all afraid, because, if it could happen to him, then what was in store for us? There was an atmosphere of panic and speculation. The fact that no one could absolutely tell the truth made it worse.

In my heart I believe the killer was alone that day. I am not convinced that there wasn't a greater force working in the background. Our government in too complex, and are enemies are, to this day, looking for ways to dissolute our presence and power. The "Cold War" was pull of intrigue, politics, and bad policy on all sides.

Its hard to measure the impact of his departure. The civil rights movement was well under way. he was putting many social policies into place that were carried out by other members of his family. His bothers Bobby, and Peddy and his sister had a deep obligation to the poor and disenfranchised. These philosophies worried many on the other side of democracy. The power of Democracy is very threatening to oppressive governments, and JFK was a powerful democrat. He was rich, charismatic, and brilliant. It was inevitable that his light would be dimmed by a darker force.

I feel lucky to have shared some moments in history that he sculpted.

Nan

JFK Assignment 1

The fear for the people at the beginning of the Cold War was high. Everything was up in the air and nobody really knew what was going to happen. It was also included in other places like Korea and Vietnam. It also was questioning the US' self-image and if we were as good as we were supposed to be. This worried some people because we as a country was supposed to be very stable. People were saying JFK was too young and inexperienced. This was a scary thing because he was the leader of our country and everything was in his hands. Lastly, bombs were getting made to go agauinst us like the TSAR BOMBA. So there were many things to fear about the Cold War.

Proposal for 3rd Research Group Project

For our research group project for Nathan, Jen, Leigh, and I, we are going make a fake Facebook page. Then we are going to add people and see what information we can get off their profile so show that Facebook isn't even completely private, especially if you add people that you don't know.

Proposal for 3rd Local History

For this local history project I am going to take old newspaper clippings that I found in a house that my dad is renovating. Then I am going to upload pictures of them and make a sideshow out of them.

Malcolm X / King Essay

Hello my fellow students. You know what I think? If we are looking the most attractive way to achieve equality, then we obviously have to agree with what King has to say. Malcolm X is obviously going to be more effective right off the bat. He thinks lets do to them like they have done to us. This would probably be the quiestest result. But then you need to think about it the way King does. If we sink that low, it will just show that we can be just as violent! There are other ways to get our point acrss. As King says, people just need to help! Get up and vote, don't worry so much about your jobs but more about your rights! I know this is out of the comfort zone for many people but nobody said it was going to be easy but King knows how to do it. Once they see that we won't stand for this anymore, eventually I think change will stop to come. And King knows all the right ways to get us there, we just need to help because he can't do it alone. Thanks for listening!

Emmitt Till

Emmitt Till was killed by a group of men because of something he said. This would be individual violence that he lived through and eventually died from. Being black back during those times, it would just take saying the wrong thing to cost you your life. What is institutional violence in this is that the government.state never did anything about it to punish the people that had done this to him. They allowed violence like this to happen to so many black people. If people of high power like that won't put an end to it, then it will keep happening and it did for awhile. This was saying that Emmitt Till's murder was allowed in their eyes.
The reason that Emmitt Till's mother insisted it be open coffin was so everyone could see what had happened. If something happens like that and nobody can see the real damage and what it had done to him personally, then nobody would know. Sometimes you have to have something brutal like that to happen to get people to open their eyes and realize really how horrible it is. The reason I think she said she didn't have a minute to hate was because she knew she had to do something about it. She wasn't just going to sit there hating everyone, she was going to take what had happened and use it to make people more aware. This is what I think most colored people should have done. Take something bad and use it to do something about it.

Proposals

For my local history project I am planning to video tape my dad and ask him questions about flight and how things were when he was younger.

For my research group project with Jen, Nathan, and Leigh we are planning to pt out a survey for kids to take saying their favorite teacher and why. Then we are going to take the top 2 favorite teachers for each grade and then video tape them ten minutes each so we can see their teaching technique and how they are affective.