The Horrible Andrew Jackson

The question that we had to answer in class was "Was Andrew Jackson a people's president?" In class, my group was assigned Indian removal and our topic was mostly about Andrew Jackson and how he kicked them out of the land that he wanted to take over for the Americans to colonize. He did this by creating a deal with them. The deal was that they could either stay and pay taxes and fight for the American army, or they could leave. So most of the Indians chose to leave. They had to walk on the trail of tears. This was the road out west that they had to walk on. 80,000 Indians walked on it. 10,000 died and the road was 500 miles long. I personally believe that Andrew Jackson was not a people's person. He could of made a better deal with the Indians or he could of at least tried living with them instead of kicking them out. Jackson also created some prisons for the Indians and kept them in the jails for a long time with absolutely horrible living conditions. Andrew Jackson should of created a better system with the Indians instead of doing what he did. He was not very liked by the people.

The Growth of Democracy

Essential Question: How should we define democracy? How democratic was the United States in the early 1800's?

In history class, we researched a lot of documents to understand the essential question that we had to answer. First we came up with a definition for democracy. Our definition is: a form of government that gives a say to people and allows them to cote. a system of power where he system is vested in the people. We were told to look at some documents and make a poster. One of the documents showed the amount of taxes that the people of the United States had to pay. The chart clearly shows that the taxes went way up during the early 1800's. They also went down after about 1830. Another document was a painting that we had to analyse. Our group came to the conclusion that the more wealthier people where up near the judge voting while the poor people where down near the bottom. They also seem very happy though. The project our group had to do was create a poster with all of the documents on it. Our poster helped answer the essential question. Our poster looked pretty presentable.

Our Poster (sorry for upside down photo) 

The Presence of Racism

The essential question that we talked about in class was "Why is it essential to acknowledge human human value regardless of race? How are the events in the Latin American revolutions evidence of this social imperative?" We learned a lot about this topic when talking about the different class status in Latin America. In class we learned about Mexico, Columbia, and Brazil and the revolutions that they have had.


For the timeline activity, my group had Mexico. This is our timeline:

Mexico timeline:

January 1811: Mexican rebellion lead by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was defeated at Calferon. He was captured and executed

1820: liberals took power in Spain and a new government the promised reforms to stop Mexican revolutions. Mexican conservations wanted independence so they could maintain the positions and beliefs. 

1821: Agustin de Iturbide negotiated the plan if iguala with Vicente Guerrerode. it made mexico an independent constitutional monarchy. 

August 24, 1822: Spanish Viceroy Juan de O'Donoju signed the treaty of Córdoba making mexico officially an independent constitutional  monarchy

1823: republican leaders santa anna and Guadalupe victoriono turned Mexico into a republic with Guadalupe Victoriono as its first president.

Artillery During the Mexican Revolution

The similarities between the revolutions that we found was that all of the countries were successful in their rebellions and gained the independence they wanted. Another similarity was that they each had a ruling country and they broke free from there government. The differences that we found was that after they each had a different style of government after they gained their independence and that they all didn't create a constitution when creating their government.

Judgements are still being made today based on race. During the 2008 election, some people who are racist towards African Americans would of not voted for Barack Obama. This is an example of a possible judgment based on race. A big news story that has to do with racism is the shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. The African American community erupted when they found out that the white man who shot the African American teen wasn't indicted. This shooting has created many protests around the U.S. This goes to show that today, racism is still a problem. So yes, we should still consider the problem of race in our lives today.

The Successful Toussaint

Toussaint L’ouverture was the best all around leader. He never gave up on what he believed in even if it meant he would have to die for it. He was a tough and honest leader with fantastic political and military skills. Oh, he also abolished slavery in Saint Domingue. Since he was a very important man in history, the question that is being tossed around is “How should we remember Toussaint L’ouverture”. The best thing people should do is break down his amazing actions into 3 parts: liberator of slaves, ruler of Saint Domingue, and military commander. First though, it is important to know about the place where he did all of these feats, in Saint Domingue. Saint Domingue was the western half of the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola. Hispaniola was conquered by Columbus in 1492. Two centuries later in 1697, the French took over the western half of the island and named it Saint Domingue. Saint Domingue was absolutely rich of sugar and coffee. 8,000 plantations produced about 40 percent of the world’s sugar and more than half of the world’s coffee supply. The people doing the work were 500,000 slaves whose owners were rich white people called planters. Louverture was born in the 1740’s as a slave. He was then granted freedom by his owner and rented a coffee plantation and got slaves of his own. In the summer of 1789, after white refusal to end slavery, thousands of plantations were burned and hundreds of people were killed. While all of this happened, Toussaint became a leader. That is when he started to become the great man he became.

Being the liberator of slaves of Saint Domingue is a big honor to have. That means you relieved thousands of innocent people of brutal jobs in the extremely hot sun of a Caribbean Island. That is what Toussaint L’ouverture did. In the beginning, he joined the slave revolution as a doctor to the injured troops as well as commanding a small squad of slave soldiers.(Doc A) In 1792 he gained the reputation for running a camp and training his men in guerilla tactics and and the European shoulder to shoulder style of fighting. Since Robespierre abolished slavery in France, Toussaint and his army stopped their revolt and supported France.(Doc A) He then defeats the British who landed on the island and teamed up with the Spanish to take down the French. After he defeated the British, he became the the ruler of Saint Domingue. Toussaint sent a letter to the French Directory in  1797. The letter said that the slaves that he freed would sacrifice their lives rather than being enslaved again. (Doc B) He also told the French Directory that it would be absolutely impossible to enslave his men again. Then when he thought everything was well, Napoleon Bonaparte sends 21,000 soldiers over to Saint Domingue to bring slavery back.(Doc A) Toussaint got tricked into a negotiation meeting and got captured and sent back to France. Even though he got captured by France, he still did amazing things for the slaves of Saint Domingue.

    We should remember Toussaint L'ouverture also as the great military leader of Saint Domingue. During the 1791 slave revolt, Toussaint trained slave soldiers to fight in guerilla warfare and in the classic European style of fighting. (Doc A). Toussaint showed no mercy by having his adopted nephew, Moyse, captured and executed because he lead a revolt in which he commanded rebels to massacre all whites. A war chant of “General Moyse is with us-death to all whites” was created. (Doc E).He astonished everyone with the speed that he traveled post to post to check in on everything. (Doc F). This showed that he really cared about how well his troops were being treated and being trained. When Napoleon came to Saint Domingue with his troops, Toussaint burned down their cities and ran to the mountains where they had the advantage because they knew that territory while the French were running around in this odd and new terrain. He used his guerilla tactics to take down the French troops. (Doc F).  This proves that Toussaint L’ouverture knew what he was doing and acted as a great military leader for the slave troops of Saint Domingue.

Not only was Toussaint L'ouverture a great military leader, he was also a great political leader of the nation of Saint Domingue. He created a constitution for the people of Saint Domingue. In the constitution it says that each worker is a member of the family and is entitled to the revenues. This means that the workers get some money that the plantation gets. He also stated that each plantation should have a constant family and the owner of the land would be the father. At the beginning of the  constitution, he clearly states that there cannot be slaves in the territory and that “All men are born, live and die free and French.” (Doc. C ). Toussaint was forcing agricultural work because he thought that without it, Saint Domingue wouldn’t function. Most people would believe that because they owned had most of the worlds coffee and sugar plantations. L'ouverture was very strict when it came to the plantations. In his proclamation, he stated “As soon as a child can walk, he should be employed on the plantation according to his strenght in some useful work” He also created laws in Saint Domingue that must be followed. A security card must be owned by all males and females. (Doc D). On the card it must state: family name, address, age and sex of the person who owns it. Toussaint also made a rule where if a manager of driver of a plantation lets a field worker from another plantation take refuge in their plantation, then their status would go down and they would have to serve one week in prison. (Doc D). As the leader of Saint Domingue, Toussaint L’ouverture showed authority by creating a constitution for the people of his nation to follow and by creating strict laws.

Toussaint L'ouverture led the only successful slave revolt, commanded a successful army, and led a successful nation. People think that it is pretty safe to say that Toussaint was quite a successful man. The revolution that he led changed the world in terms of how people thought of slavery and the island of Hispaniola. Saint Domingue also became free and turned into Haiti thanks to Toussaint. He will be remembered for a very long for being a great military commander, ruler of saint domingue and for being a liberator of slaves.

Bibliography:

Document A

Source: Created from various sources “TimeLine of Abolition In Saint Domingue”

Document B

Source: Toussaint Louverture “Letter to the French Directory, NOvember 1797.”

Document C

Source: “The Saint Domingue Constitution of 1801. Signed by Toussaint Louverture in July 1801.”

Document D

Source: “Toussaint Louverture, Proclamation, 25 November 1801.”

Document E

Source: “Madison Smartt Bell, Toussaint Louverture: A Biography, 2007.”

Document F

Source: William Wells Brown, “A Description of Toussaint Louverture,” from The Black Man, his Antecedents, his Genius, and His Achievements, 2nd edition. Engraving of Toussaint Louverture, 1802.

Not So Revolutionary

Essential Question: Were the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 really failures as many historian have concluded?

In class, we split into groups and were assigned a certain revolution to research. We were given sources to take notes on. Then after we did that, we make a survey for our classmates to take. Then were all displayed the results to the class. Taking the surveys helped everyone understand the revolutions better. 

Our revolution, France 1848, was about the lower class people who wanted more jobs. In the section "February Days", the government stopped the protesters. They finally went head to head and my of the civilians were killed. As the turmoil spread, their leader, Louis Phillipe abdicated.the civilians finally took control over the government and many workshops went up for business.  In "June Days", the upper and middle class people wanted the workshops to shut down, so then the government shut them all down because they thought it was a waste of money. By the end of 1848, the National Assembly allowed 9 million men to vote instead of the normal 200,000. Those are some of the basic things to know about the revolution: France 1848. 

The Frankfurt assembly was a great example of a failed revolution. The delegates debated on whether or not Germany should be a republic or a monarchy and if they should include Austria in the united German state. After this debate, they finally offered Prussia's Frederick William IV the crown of a united Germany. The conservative king rejected the offer because it cam directly from the people no the princes. In 1830 France, the people didn't get what they really wanted. The results of the revolution was he upper bourgeoisie prospered. Louis extended suffrage, but only to the wealthier citizens. The vast majority of the people still couldn't vote and the King's policies favored the middle class. The outcomes of these revolutions are mostly failures in my opinion. The people did not get what they were revolting for. So I do think that the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 were failures as many historians concluded.

Our Survey Monkey