Slavery in America

Slavery in America began when the first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, to aid in the production of such lucrative crops as tobacco. Slavery was practiced throughout the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries, and African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 solidified the central importance of slavery to the South's economy. By the mid-19th century, America's westward expansion, along with a growing abolition movement in the North, would provoke a great debate over slavery that would tear the nation apart in the bloody American Civil War.

We will begin our study of slavery through the interactive site below:
The Underground Railroad
When finished exploring the site, go to the following link to write a story.  Print it and hand in.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad/tell_story.asp

Slave States vs. Free States

Today you will be given 3 maps and instructions for completing each one.

In the years leading up to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, tensions began to rise between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions within the U.S. Congress and across the country. They reached a boiling point after Missouri’s 1819 request for admission to the Union as a slave state, which threatened to upset the delicate balance between slave states and free states. To keep the peace, Congress orchestrated a two-part compromise, granting Missouri’s request but also admitting Maine as a free state. It also passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a boundary between free and slave regions that remained the law of the land until it was made void by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

Divisions over slavery in territory gained in the Mexican-American (1846-48). War were resolved in the Compromise of 1850. It consisted of laws admitting California as a free state, creating Utah and New Mexico territories with the question of slavery in each to be determined by popular sovereignty, settling a Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute in the former's favor, ending the slave trade in Washington, D.C., and making it easier for southerners to recover fugitive slaves.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act was an 1854 bill that mandated "popular sovereignty"--allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state's borders. Proposed by Stephen A. Douglas--Abraham Lincoln's opponent in the influential Lincoln-Douglas debates--the bill overturned the Missouri Compromise's use of latitude as the boundary between slave and free territory. The conflicts that arose between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in the aftermath of the act's passage led to the period of violence known as Bleeding Kansas, and helped paved the way for the American Civil War (1861-65).

Enjoy Spring Break!!!!!!

The Miracle Worker

To go along with the idea of reform movements, we will begin watching "The Miracle Worker".  The story is about a blind and deaf girl named Helen Keller and her extraordinary teacher, Anne Sullivan.  At a time when people who were blind or deaf were either kept at home their entire lives with little contact with the people they lived with, or were sent to an institution where they were fed and given a bed to sleep in but really no education, Anne Sullivan taught Helen Keller to read, write, and speak.  Helen would eventually attend college and become a world famous phenomenon. 

Reform is about giving opportunity to those who have been left out of our democratic society.  Reform, in the 19th century and now, strives to reach the promises of the Declaration of Independence: 
                         "All men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain        
                               unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
                                                                                                              -Thomas Jefferson  

If you were absent from class today, go to the following link to watch the first 15 minutes:

The Miracle Worker



Reform Poster

After completing the research for 19th century reformers, choose a reform and make a poster.  Your poster should convince others to join the movement.
To get a top grade, you will need each of the following:

-Reasons for movement
-Leaders of the movement
-Plans for making the movement successful
-A catchy slogan
-Pictures (drawn or printed)
-Lots of colors

You will be given a poster scoring rubric in class.
If you were gone, or lost yours, click on the following link:
Poster Rubric

The Ambiguous Democracy

The decades before the Civil War saw the birth of the American reform tradition. Reformers--female and male, black and white--launched unprecedented campaigns to educate the deaf and the blind, rehabilitate criminals, extend equal rights to women, and abolish slavery. Our modern systems of free public schools, prisons, and hospitals for the infirm and the mentally ill are all legacies of this first generation of American reform.. 

Below you will find a link to the chart that contains many of these reform movements.  If you were not in class or have misplaced the chart, you may copy it off and fill it out using Chapter 15 in your textbook. 
19th Century Reform Movements

Did you pass the test??

Yesterday you took the test citizenship from the Department of Immigration and Naturalization.  Some of you did really well, others not so much.  Today, you will get the opportunity to search for answers on the laptops.  Fill it in, I will look at it to make sure it is correct, then you can play
Immigration Nation