1. Who are you? (Name, Age)
2. Where are you? (Location in USA)
3. What is the date?(a specific date as well as one contemporary event from the periods to give your narrative historical context)
4. In your experience, does our democratic government establish equality among Americans? (Explain your answer)
5.What are the challenges to equality that you or those around you experience? How are those challenges overcome?
Dear Journal, Today is February 21st 1848, I have been on the road to New Orleans from my hometown in New York for about two weeks. It has been a great experience seeing the whole country and seeing it as I’ve never imagined. I’ve been journaling ever since the journey’s start. I hope that some day I will put all these experiences into one story and become Walt Whitman; The Voice of America. Although my journey has been a great one it will soon be journey’s end and I can’t help but noticing the amount of slavery in the lower states. Lately there’s been much controversy over slavery in the United States, and I know I have to do something to help everyone. I look at America and see a place of opportunity, but I have seen throughout my journey that not everyone has the equal opportunity to strive in the freedom. I think that as a country we should all be equal and free. Seeing all of this slavery being forced upon African American people and families has really started to show me that America isn’t striving as much in my eyes. In my opinion we can’t really be a great union until Africans get treated right and get the rights that we have. Our democracy seems great, but is it really? I seem to have written this a hundred times, but does our democratic government really treat all of America equally? Aren’t the Africans here still African Americans? Just a bunch of questions I’ve been dying to ask and answer. Just because a man’s skin color is different from the next, he should not be treated unequally in a government where everyone is supposed to be. Sadly this is the case. I have seen why people have made such a big deal of slavery. Ever since I saw my first plantation of slaves a week or so back, I’ve been realizing that African Americans are facing many challenges dealing with equality. I’ve seen families only having scraps to eat and limited water. Not only this, but I’ve seen Africans only allowed in towns if their master is with them and worst I’ve seen them abused with no say because our democracy does not grant them equal rights and say in our government. I’m nearing the end of this entry, but I’ve had a new idea for a poem of a perfect American Life. The seven millions of distinct families and the same number of dwellings--Always these, and more, branch forth into numberless branches always the free range and diversity! Always the continent of Democracy! I will call it an American Feuillage. -Walt Whitman Works Cited Folsom, Ed, Kenneth M. Price, and Martin Klammer. “Slavery and Abolitionism.” Walt Whitman Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. . Heuss, Michael R. “About Walt Whittman.” Great Literature Online. Cyber Studios Inc., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. . Kerley, Barbara. Walt Whitman Words for America. New York: Scholastic Press, n.d. N. pag. Print. Oakes, Elizabeth. “Whitman, Walt.” American Writers American Biographies. Facts on File Inc., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. . Whitman, Walt. “American Feuillage.” international.org poets. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. . -Austin Period 1
As a thirty two year old I am writing this entry during the Theodore Roosevelt campaign, while I am looking back on my life. Being born on June 27, 1872, I know that I have created change in this society. In 1890 I began to publish a newspaper named the Tattler. As I walked from one house to another trying to have other African Americans buy this weekly newspaper. Having it only being a $1.50, while I was trying to make a life as a newspaperman, unfortunately I failed at this job. On the positive side I still kept people interested with my poems. Looking onto my parent’s life and seeing how it affects my very own background. Dad was a slave in Canada, but he ended up escaping. He wound up fighting in the Union Army. Mom was a former slave, now a laundry worker, and widow when she met father. Now knowing how I am such a famous poet, even though there were slaves in my family. Living the hard dirty life and now look how easy my life is! I feel as if I got my passion from my mother. She loved poetry and so do I. I am the first African American poet who received the national critical acclaim. Now I thank you mom for encouraging me with my passion of poetry. Being the only African American in my high school class, I now realize how dominant the white population is. The only African American, one out of who knows how many others. Then while trying to find a job. That was a hard thing to do. Still because of my race and that I was the one who was the only black in school what would be my chance of actually getting a job. Why would anyone make a society of whites no blacks? Wouldn’t that not even be close to promoting our general welfare, by the fact that there isn’t an equal education to all blacks and whites in our society? As I sit here today writing a poem for the Theodore Roosevelt campaign a poem that can change my life by either making me famous or nothing at all. All it takes is one or two poems to change my whole entire life. Showing what poetry has done for me so far.
-Paul Laurence Dunbar
"Biography the Life of Paul Laurence Dunbar." University of Paul Laurence Dunbar Web Site. U of Dayton, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
"Dunbar, Paul Laurence." African American Biographies. 2006. Print.
Hudson, Gossie H., and Jay Martin. "Paul Laurence Dunbar Museum Timeline." Ohio History Teachers. The Paul Laurence Dunbar Reader, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
Kranz, Rachel C. "Dunbar, Paul Laurence." Facts on File: African American History Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. .
Reef, Catherine. Paul Laurence Dunbar Portrait Poet. Berekeley Heights, New Jersey: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2000. Print.
Peter Pd.2 Lexington, Kentucky John Young’s (MD) Farm January 24, 1834
This is the first diary entry by me, William Wells Brown. I have finally escaped my ranch right before my 20th birthday and I plan to get to Lake Erie and work a steamboat running fugitive slaves into Canada. So far I have made it about 26 miles from my imprisonment and I’m near Lexington, Kentucky if this map is correct. I have been avoiding towns incase another white devil tries to take hold of me. But I have met one of the most inspiring woman in all of my life. I hope to impress her and gain her favor.
Summer of 1834,
I have just gotten married to the most beautiful and amazing woman ever, Elizabeth Spooner. Right now we have three little girls but the youngest isn’t doing so well and I fear the worst. I plan to move us to Buffalo and join in with the abolitionist movements, but as of now we are not able to move around with the littlest so sick. But while we wait I have decided to write a book. I am not completely sure what it will be about but I hope it can inspire people to join us to stop slavery.
August 1836 My littlest have passed and we are now on our way to Buffalo. I want to work steamboat and hopefully smuggle fugitive slaves into Canada. But for now I need to focus on getting us to Buffalo.
March 1840 I have been slowly move slaves across to Canada and so far I have smuggled over 60 of them. There has been talk of making a movement from town to town talking to people. They are looking fro speaker and I am thinking of going but my wife is against it because of all the time away from home. But I feel this is what I must do for the good of our people. Also I am near completing my book, but for now I am starting my speeches.
Encyclopædia Britannica. "William Wells Brown." Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
Ripley, C. Peter. "William Wells Brown, 1814?-1884 ." Documenting the American South. UNC univercity Library, 23 Mar. 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. .
Rummel, Jack. "William Wells Brown." Facts on File History Online. Facts on File History Online, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .
Willam Wells Brown." Kowledgerush. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. . William Wells Brown." William Wells Brown. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .\
Matt Lazz Pd: 9 January, 14 1896 Petersburg, Virginia
Part 1
Hello reader, my name is Mathew B. Brady. I’m 73 years old in the year 1896, and I’ve experienced a lot in my life. When I decided to become a photographer, I became very passionate about it. I suppose I was living a good life; I had a photo gallery in New York, took a lot of photographs of famous people, and had a considerable fortune at my disposal. That is not all I wanted to do with my life. In the midst of the year 1861, tensions rose between the south and the north of the United States. Everybody knew that a war was inevitable. And at that moment it came to me, I have already taken photographs of famous people, presidents, senators, but one thing was undocumented, the war. I knew war was forthcoming, and then it dawned upon me; I was going to photograph this war. My friends said that I couldn’t do it because it was dangerous, but I was so passionate about it and I had to do it. Photography was becoming more widespread at the time. Soldiers would take pictures to give their families and friends for when they left for war, which none new that they would probably not return from. I then received permission in secrecy form Alan Pinkerton to photograph this war. And that’s when it all started out. I hired 18 photographers and gave each one of them a wagon which contained a dark room, chemicals and glass plates. We were well on our way to photograph the Civil War. The camera could not move, therefore my team and I was not able to take action shots, we could only take pictures before and after the battles. In mid July of 1861, Union troops were approaching Confederate troops in Manassas, Virginia; and I decided that I was going to photograph this battle. The battle was taken on a sunny Sunday, and many people were sure that the north was going to win. The battle did not turn out as planned. The southern army was defeating them; seeing this, the north decided to retreat. The battle became total chaos, and there were about 4,700 soldiers who died and countless civilians died. My wagon was toppled over by the masses. The Union soldiers gave me a gun to defend myself. Somehow, I was able to get back home safely. Unfortunately, none of my photographs made it with me. I was quite distraught about that because I really wanted to show the people what was actually happening and how the blacks were fighting for their freedom.
About one year later, my luck then turned around, one of the deadliest battles in the Civil War was fought in Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland. There were about 23,100 casualties in total. At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War. In 1862, I shocked America by displaying photographs of battlefield corpses from Antietam, posting a sign on the door of my New York gallery that read, "The Dead of Antietam." This exhibition marked the first time most people witnessed the carnage of war. Many people said that I had brought the terrible reality and earnestness of war to them. I thought that it needed to be understood. After the Civil War, I found out that the Americans were no longer interested in purchasing photographs of the recent bloody conflict. Having risked my fortune on my Civil War adventure, I lost the gamble and fell into bankruptcy. My work was neglected until 1875, when Congress purchased the entire archive for $25,000. However, it was not enough to pay off my debts. Debts swallowed the entire sum. I am now penniless and unappreciated and I am about to die soon. No one will ever know what I went through to secure those negatives. The world can never appreciate it. It changed the whole course of my life. Despite my financial failure, I had a great and lasting effect on the art of photography. My war scenes demonstrated that photographs could be more than posed portraits, and my efforts represent the first instance of the comprehensive photo-documentation of a war. Sources: “Antietam, Sharpsburg, Civil War Maryland.” 23, March 2010. http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/md/md003.html
Armstrong, Jennifer. Photo By Brady Photo By Brady. New York, New York 10020: "Simon and Schuster", 2005. Print. “First Manassas, First Bull Run, Civil War Virginia.” 23, March 2010 http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/va/va005.html “Selected Civil War Photographs.” The Library of Congress. 15, January 2000. 23, March 2010 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwbrady.html “The Price in Blood! Casualties in the Civil War.” 11/1/04, 23 March 2010 http://www.civilwarhome.com/casualties.htm
Mark Twain, here, yes, I’ve taken to using my pen name. It is so much more interesting and comes with so much more energy to it rather than “Samuel Clements”. It’s been awhile since I’ve written, so I’d better fill you in. I started writing a new book, and it has taken so much time, I have had barely any left for you! The new book is about a young boy, Huckleberry Finn. He is a slave in the south. Although the rest of the story is captivating, breathtaking, and suspenseful yet satisfying, it doesn’t make any difference. When I took it to the publisher, it was shot down because apparently “no one wants to read about some slave!” So now I am taking a visit to my old home, Florida, Missouri. Here, I can relive some of my old childhood adventures for some new story ideas. Instead of giving up the brilliant plot, I have decided to simply switch the main character from Huckleberry, to Tom Sawyer. Although this obstacle has a simple, straight forward solution, I am still enraged! Denying an unbelievable story because of the race and social status of the main character! For God’s sake he isn’t even real yet he is being discriminated against. It’s downright despicable! People these days are blind to the important things and are hyper-focusing on the materialistic things. When I was just a boy I knew better. One of my dear friends was looked down upon in society. And it wasn’t even his fault! His father was an old town drunkard. I am shocked by the fact that even as a young child I knew better than to discriminate, yet These full grown, fully matured (or supposed to be) men fail to see the error of their ways! I am the wise one yet I have to make the change so that I can please the oblivious, unjust, audience. This book wasn’t easy to write, and now I find myself changing half the story because people are prejudice. “When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop-that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can.”
Works Cited Cox, Clinton. Mark Twain. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1995. Print.
Lasky, Kathryn. A Brilliant Streak. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1998. Print.
Merriman, C D. “Mark Twain.” Literature Network. Jalic Inc., 2006. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .
Thompson, Dave. “Mark Twain Quotations, Newspaper Collections, & Related Resources.” Twain Quotes . N.p., 2005. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980. Print.
Katie Pd.4 Interview with Harriet Beecher Stowe 1862 I am Harriet Beecher Stowe; I live in Hartford Connecticut and I am a 51 year old mother of six, and the Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Although Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped many people realize they had to stop this cruelty in our nation it also caused a lot of controversy. The south states claimed that the book exaggerated the cruelties of the slave trade when the north states argued that there shouldn’t be slaver no matter what. I actually had the pleasure of meeting President Abraham Lincoln and he said to me "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!" I do not believe that our democratic government establishes equality among Americans. My book was only the second bestselling book next to the bible. This leads me to believe that that our country is very religious. I had always asked “How could a just and loving God permit the cruelties of slavery? How could a Christian nation permit them within its boundaries?” So I felt the need to show our nation exactly what they need to see. Besides my religious experiences I also had some personal experiences to help me write this book. One of my children died when they were an infant. I used this grief to relate to black slave women who lost or were separated from their families. I also think that I could relate to my readers who have gone through such hardships. My book inspired many people to really take a good, hard look at their lives and see that the way they treated these slaves was really wrong. I believe that by writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin I did accomplish my goal of letting people know what was happening in the United States because in one year it sold 300,000 copies. Works Cited African-American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. "Stowe, Harriet Beecher." Facts On File. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. http://www.fofweb.com/NuHistory/ default.asp?ItemID=WE01&NewItemID=True. Encyclopedia of American Education, 3rd Edition. "Stowe, Harriet Beecher." Facts On File. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. http://fofweb.com/NuHistory/default.asp?ItemID=WE01&NewItemID=True. Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Harriet Beecher Stowe." About.com. About.com, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. http://womenshistory.about.com/od/stoweharriet/p/stowe_profile.htm. Schneider, Dorothy, and Carl J. Schneider. "Harriet Beecher Stowe." Facts on File. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. http://www.fofweb.com/NuHistory/default.asp?ItemID=WE01&NewItemID=True. Watts, Linda S. "Stowe, Harriet Beecher." Facts on File. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. http://fofweb.com/NuHistory/default.asp?ItemID=WE01&NewItemID=True.
My name is Walt Whitman, when I was about 12 years old I was a printers apprentice. I became in a way, professional at my new job. I enjoyed attending plays and visiting my library. I especially loved the feeling of hot sands and fierce genies of Arabian Nights, the brave ways of Ivanhoe. Living in Long Island, I created my own newspaper called The Long Islander along with my trusty assistant, my eight year old brother George. They were traveling with their trusty mare, Nina. I had a passion for language and it was seen through rambling. It was one December day in 1855 I stood as a crew member that piloted the ferry. My face was very tan from being outdoors working. I had then created my first poem entitled Leaves of Grass which showed my feeling towards being one man but one of every human combined. On another day the ferry ride which I worked on, inspired my imagination that in over 100 years these other crew members would be sharing the exact same experience that I had. This all happened along Manhattans waterfront with ships navigating up the east river. I separately contributed to the defense of trading slaves in the south and wrote poems expressing my anger. This happened around 1850 when the war of mexico had been won by America. I once again was very angry against slaves in the south and fought for their freedom His poetry was always about something dealing with his hardships in life. In the 1840s Whitman’s ways of poetry changed from an unoriginal poet to one who abruptly abandoned conventional rhyme.
Works Cited: Watts, Linda S. "Walt Whitman, contributions to folklore of." Encylopedia of American Folklore. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. American History Online, Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp? ItemID=WE52&iPin=EAFolk732&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 25, 2010).
I was born in Long Island, New York, son of a carpenter. My first job was at age 12 as a printer’s apprentice. After two years I was publishing the articles I had written. By 19, I was printing my own newspaper fro the general public, known as the Long Islander. But I became passionate about poetry the first time I read poetry, I became addicted. I began to write my own poems and for inspiration as I became older, I began to travel all of America. But when I traveled to the south, I saw slavery. I became worried that slavery would rip our sweet nation in half. I tried to do what I could to stop that from happening. I wrote poems rejoicing over America and her people. One of the lines from one poem read “I resist anything better than my own diversity, Breath the air but leave plenty after me…” When I wrote my poems, though, I broke free from normal. I cared nothing about the standard rhyming pattern most poems ran by. Some thought my poems were fresh, new, and vigorous. But alas, many critics thought the poems clumsy and crude, that I had no idea about poetry at all. The poems didn’t do what I had hoped though. While I sat at the breakfast table with my mother and brothers, I read the news. Tensions between the North and South rose. Seven Southern states had already separated from the union. Abraham Lincoln, the newly elected president, supposedly wanted to end all slavery in the United States. I felt the same as Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln looked and saw the inequality surrounded by him. We both saw that the salves and African-Americans in the southern states had no freedom. He wanted to help them and free them. I wanted slavery abolished also, yet like many others in the crowd watching Lincoln’s inaugural, we were worried it would drive us straight into war. And it did. I was too old to fight in the civil war, yet I tried to contribute all I could. I wrote poems for the Union. But, one day, my brother was injured. Hs name appeared in the newspaper under the list of wounded. I took an army train heading south, and caught up with my brother. I cared for him along with other wounded union and confederate soldiers.
Dear Journal,
ReplyDeleteToday is February 21st 1848, I have been on the road to New Orleans from my hometown in New York for about two weeks. It has been a great experience seeing the whole country and seeing it as I’ve never imagined. I’ve been journaling ever since the journey’s start. I hope that some day I will put all these experiences into one story and become Walt Whitman; The Voice of America. Although my journey has been a great one it will soon be journey’s end and I can’t help but noticing the amount of slavery in the lower states. Lately there’s been much controversy over slavery in the United States, and I know I have to do something to help everyone. I look at America and see a place of opportunity, but I have seen throughout my journey that not everyone has the equal opportunity to strive in the freedom.
I think that as a country we should all be equal and free. Seeing all of this slavery being forced upon African American people and families has really started to show me that America isn’t striving as much in my eyes. In my opinion we can’t really be a great union until Africans get treated right and get the rights that we have. Our democracy seems great, but is it really? I seem to have written this a hundred times, but does our democratic government really treat all of America equally? Aren’t the Africans here still African Americans? Just a bunch of questions I’ve been dying to ask and answer. Just because a man’s skin color is different from the next, he should not be treated unequally in a government where everyone is supposed to be. Sadly this is the case.
I have seen why people have made such a big deal of slavery. Ever since I saw my first plantation of slaves a week or so back, I’ve been realizing that African Americans are facing many challenges dealing with equality. I’ve seen families only having scraps to eat and limited water. Not only this, but I’ve seen Africans only allowed in towns if their master is with them and worst I’ve seen them abused with no say because our democracy does not grant them equal rights and say in our government. I’m nearing the end of this entry, but I’ve had a new idea for a poem of a perfect American Life. The seven millions of distinct families and the same number of dwellings--Always these, and more, branch forth into numberless branches always the free range and diversity! Always the continent of Democracy! I will call it an American Feuillage.
-Walt Whitman
Works Cited
Folsom, Ed, Kenneth M. Price, and Martin Klammer. “Slavery and Abolitionism.” Walt Whitman Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
Heuss, Michael R. “About Walt Whittman.” Great Literature Online. Cyber Studios Inc., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
Kerley, Barbara. Walt Whitman Words for America. New York: Scholastic Press, n.d. N. pag. Print.
Oakes, Elizabeth. “Whitman, Walt.” American Writers American Biographies. Facts on File Inc., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
Whitman, Walt. “American Feuillage.” international.org poets. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
-Austin Period 1
Ethan pd.1
ReplyDeleteOctober 1st 1904
Washington D.C.
As a thirty two year old I am writing this entry during the Theodore Roosevelt campaign, while I am looking back on my life. Being born on June 27, 1872, I know that I have created change in this society. In 1890 I began to publish a newspaper named the Tattler. As I walked from one house to another trying to have other African Americans buy this weekly newspaper. Having it only being a $1.50, while I was trying to make a life as a newspaperman, unfortunately I failed at this job. On the positive side I still kept people interested with my poems.
Looking onto my parent’s life and seeing how it affects my very own background. Dad was a slave in Canada, but he ended up escaping. He wound up fighting in the Union Army. Mom was a former slave, now a laundry worker, and widow when she met father. Now knowing how I am such a famous poet, even though there were slaves in my family. Living the hard dirty life and now look how easy my life is! I feel as if I got my passion from my mother. She loved poetry and so do I. I am the first African American poet who received the national critical acclaim. Now I thank you mom for encouraging me with my passion of poetry.
Being the only African American in my high school class, I now realize how dominant the white population is. The only African American, one out of who knows how many others. Then while trying to find a job. That was a hard thing to do. Still because of my race and that I was the one who was the only black in school what would be my chance of actually getting a job. Why would anyone make a society of whites no blacks? Wouldn’t that not even be close to promoting our general welfare, by the fact that there isn’t an equal education to all blacks and whites in our society? As I sit here today writing a poem for the Theodore Roosevelt campaign a poem that can change my life by either making me famous or nothing at all. All it takes is one or two poems to change my whole entire life. Showing what poetry has done for me so far.
-Paul Laurence Dunbar
"Biography the Life of Paul Laurence Dunbar." University of Paul Laurence Dunbar
Web Site. U of Dayton, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010.
.
"Dunbar, Paul Laurence." African American Biographies. 2006. Print.
Hudson, Gossie H., and Jay Martin. "Paul Laurence Dunbar Museum Timeline."
Ohio History Teachers. The Paul Laurence Dunbar Reader, n.d. Web. 24
Mar. 2010. .
Kranz, Rachel C. "Dunbar, Paul Laurence." Facts on File: African American
History Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. .
Reef, Catherine. Paul Laurence Dunbar Portrait Poet. Berekeley Heights, New
Jersey: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2000. Print.
Peter Pd.2
ReplyDeleteLexington, Kentucky
John Young’s (MD) Farm
January 24, 1834
This is the first diary entry by me, William Wells Brown. I have finally escaped my ranch right before my 20th birthday and I plan to get to Lake Erie and work a steamboat running fugitive slaves into Canada. So far I have made it about 26 miles from my imprisonment and I’m near Lexington, Kentucky if this map is correct. I have been avoiding towns incase another white devil tries to take hold of me. But I have met one of the most inspiring woman in all of my life. I hope to impress her and gain her favor.
Summer of 1834,
I have just gotten married to the most beautiful and amazing woman ever, Elizabeth Spooner. Right now we have three little girls but the youngest isn’t doing so well and I fear the worst. I plan to move us to Buffalo and join in with the abolitionist movements, but as of now we are not able to move around with the littlest so sick. But while we wait I have decided to write a book. I am not completely sure what it will be about but I hope it can inspire people to join us to stop slavery.
August 1836
My littlest have passed and we are now on our way to Buffalo. I want to work steamboat and hopefully smuggle fugitive slaves into Canada. But for now I need to focus on getting us to Buffalo.
March 1840
I have been slowly move slaves across to Canada and so far I have smuggled over 60 of them. There has been talk of making a movement from town to town talking to people. They are looking fro speaker and I am thinking of going but my wife is against it because of all the time away from home. But I feel this is what I must do for the good of our people. Also I am near completing my book, but for now I am starting my speeches.
Encyclopædia Britannica. "William Wells Brown." Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Online, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010.
.
Ripley, C. Peter. "William Wells Brown, 1814?-1884 ." Documenting the American
South. UNC univercity Library, 23 Mar. 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2010.
.
Rummel, Jack. "William Wells Brown." Facts on File History Online. Facts on File
History Online, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .
Willam Wells Brown." Kowledgerush. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010.
.
William Wells Brown." William Wells Brown. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010.
.\
Matt Lazz Pd: 9
ReplyDeleteJanuary, 14 1896
Petersburg, Virginia
Part 1
Hello reader, my name is Mathew B. Brady. I’m 73 years old in the year 1896, and I’ve experienced a lot in my life. When I decided to become a photographer, I became very passionate about it. I suppose I was living a good life; I had a photo gallery in New York, took a lot of photographs of famous people, and had a considerable fortune at my disposal. That is not all I wanted to do with my life. In the midst of the year 1861, tensions rose between the south and the north of the United States. Everybody knew that a war was inevitable. And at that moment it came to me, I have already taken photographs of famous people, presidents, senators, but one thing was undocumented, the war. I knew war was forthcoming, and then it dawned upon me; I was going to photograph this war. My friends said that I couldn’t do it because it was dangerous, but I was so passionate about it and I had to do it. Photography was becoming more widespread at the time. Soldiers would take pictures to give their families and friends for when they left for war, which none new that they would probably not return from. I then received permission in secrecy form Alan Pinkerton to photograph this war. And that’s when it all started out.
I hired 18 photographers and gave each one of them a wagon which contained a dark room, chemicals and glass plates. We were well on our way to photograph the Civil War. The camera could not move, therefore my team and I was not able to take action shots, we could only take pictures before and after the battles. In mid July of 1861, Union troops were approaching Confederate troops in Manassas, Virginia; and I decided that I was going to photograph this battle. The battle was taken on a sunny Sunday, and many people were sure that the north was going to win. The battle did not turn out as planned. The southern army was defeating them; seeing this, the north decided to retreat. The battle became total chaos, and there were about 4,700 soldiers who died and countless civilians died. My wagon was toppled over by the masses. The Union soldiers gave me a gun to defend myself. Somehow, I was able to get back home safely. Unfortunately, none of my photographs made it with me. I was quite distraught about that because I really wanted to show the people what was actually happening and how the blacks were fighting for their freedom.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteAbout one year later, my luck then turned around, one of the deadliest battles in the Civil War was fought in Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland. There were about 23,100 casualties in total. At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War. In 1862, I shocked America by displaying photographs of battlefield corpses from Antietam, posting a sign on the door of my New York gallery that read, "The Dead of Antietam." This exhibition marked the first time most people witnessed the carnage of war. Many people said that I had brought the terrible reality and earnestness of war to them. I thought that it needed to be understood. After the Civil War, I found out that the Americans were no longer interested in purchasing photographs of the recent bloody conflict. Having risked my fortune on my Civil War adventure, I lost the gamble and fell into bankruptcy. My work was neglected until 1875, when Congress purchased the entire archive for $25,000. However, it was not enough to pay off my debts. Debts swallowed the entire sum. I am now penniless and unappreciated and I am about to die soon. No one will ever know what I went through to secure those negatives. The world can never appreciate it. It changed the whole course of my life. Despite my financial failure, I had a great and lasting effect on the art of photography. My war scenes demonstrated that photographs could be more than posed portraits, and my efforts represent the first instance of the comprehensive photo-documentation of a war.
Sources:
“Antietam, Sharpsburg, Civil War Maryland.” 23, March 2010. http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/md/md003.html
Armstrong, Jennifer. Photo By Brady Photo By Brady. New York, New York 10020: "Simon and Schuster", 2005. Print.
“First Manassas, First Bull Run, Civil War Virginia.” 23, March 2010
http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/va/va005.html
“Selected Civil War Photographs.” The Library of Congress. 15, January 2000. 23, March 2010 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwbrady.html
“The Price in Blood! Casualties in the Civil War.” 11/1/04, 23 March 2010 http://www.civilwarhome.com/casualties.htm
Dear Diary,
ReplyDeleteMark Twain, here, yes, I’ve taken to using my pen name. It is so much more interesting and comes with so much more energy to it rather than “Samuel Clements”. It’s been awhile since I’ve written, so I’d better fill you in. I started writing a new book, and it has taken so much time, I have had barely any left for you! The new book is about a young boy, Huckleberry Finn. He is a slave in the south. Although the rest of the story is captivating, breathtaking, and suspenseful yet satisfying, it doesn’t make any difference. When I took it to the publisher, it was shot down because apparently “no one wants to read about some slave!”
So now I am taking a visit to my old home, Florida, Missouri. Here, I can relive some of my old childhood adventures for some new story ideas. Instead of giving up the brilliant plot, I have decided to simply switch the main character from Huckleberry, to Tom Sawyer. Although this obstacle has a simple, straight forward solution, I am still enraged! Denying an unbelievable story because of the race and social status of the main character! For God’s sake he isn’t even real yet he is being discriminated against.
It’s downright despicable! People these days are blind to the important things and are hyper-focusing on the materialistic things. When I was just a boy I knew better. One of my dear friends was looked down upon in society. And it wasn’t even his fault! His father was an old town drunkard. I am shocked by the fact that even as a young child I knew better than to discriminate, yet These full grown, fully matured (or supposed to be) men fail to see the error of their ways! I am the wise one yet I have to make the change so that I can please the oblivious, unjust, audience. This book wasn’t easy to write, and now I find myself changing half the story because people are prejudice. “When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop-that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can.”
Works Cited
Cox, Clinton. Mark Twain. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1995. Print.
Lasky, Kathryn. A Brilliant Streak. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1998. Print.
Merriman, C D. “Mark Twain.” Literature Network. Jalic Inc., 2006. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .
Thompson, Dave. “Mark Twain Quotations, Newspaper Collections, & Related Resources.” Twain Quotes . N.p., 2005. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980. Print.
Anna T. period 9
Katie Pd.4
ReplyDeleteInterview with Harriet Beecher Stowe 1862
I am Harriet Beecher Stowe; I live in Hartford Connecticut and I am a 51 year old mother of six, and the Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Although Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped many people realize they had to stop this cruelty in our nation it also caused a lot of controversy. The south states claimed that the book exaggerated the cruelties of the slave trade when the north states argued that there shouldn’t be slaver no matter what. I actually had the pleasure of meeting President Abraham Lincoln and he said to me "So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!"
I do not believe that our democratic government establishes equality among Americans. My book was only the second bestselling book next to the bible. This leads me to believe that that our country is very religious. I had always asked “How could a just and loving God permit the cruelties of slavery? How could a Christian nation permit them within its boundaries?” So I felt the need to show our nation exactly what they need to see.
Besides my religious experiences I also had some personal experiences to help me write this book. One of my children died when they were an infant. I used this grief to relate to black slave women who lost or were separated from their families. I also think that I could relate to my readers who have gone through such hardships. My book inspired many people to really take a good, hard look at their lives and see that the way they treated these slaves was really wrong. I believe that by writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin I did accomplish my goal of letting people know what was happening in the United States because in one year it sold 300,000 copies.
Works Cited
African-American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. "Stowe, Harriet Beecher." Facts On File. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. http://www.fofweb.com/NuHistory/
default.asp?ItemID=WE01&NewItemID=True.
Encyclopedia of American Education, 3rd Edition. "Stowe, Harriet Beecher." Facts On File. N.p., n.d.
Web. 25 Mar. 2010. http://fofweb.com/NuHistory/default.asp?ItemID=WE01&NewItemID=True.
Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Harriet Beecher Stowe." About.com. About.com, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010.
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/stoweharriet/p/stowe_profile.htm.
Schneider, Dorothy, and Carl J. Schneider. "Harriet Beecher Stowe." Facts on File. N.p., n.d. Web.
24 Mar. 2010. http://www.fofweb.com/NuHistory/default.asp?ItemID=WE01&NewItemID=True.
Watts, Linda S. "Stowe, Harriet Beecher." Facts on File. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010.
http://fofweb.com/NuHistory/default.asp?ItemID=WE01&NewItemID=True.
Matt Pd. 4
ReplyDelete1850
Walt Whitman
My name is Walt Whitman, when I was about 12 years old I was a printers apprentice. I became in a way, professional at my new job. I enjoyed attending plays and visiting my library. I especially loved the feeling of hot sands and fierce genies of Arabian Nights, the brave ways of Ivanhoe. Living in Long Island, I created my own newspaper called The Long Islander along with my trusty assistant, my eight year old brother George. They were traveling with their trusty mare, Nina. I had a passion for language and it was seen through rambling. It was one December day in 1855 I stood as a crew member that piloted the ferry. My face was very tan from being outdoors working. I had then created my first poem entitled Leaves of Grass which showed my feeling towards being one man but one of every human combined.
On another day the ferry ride which I worked on, inspired my imagination that in over 100 years these other crew members would be sharing the exact same experience that I had. This all happened along Manhattans waterfront with ships navigating up the east river. I separately contributed to the defense of trading slaves in the south and wrote poems expressing my anger. This happened around 1850 when the war of mexico had been won by America. I once again was very angry against slaves in the south and fought for their freedom
His poetry was always about something dealing with his hardships in life. In the 1840s Whitman’s ways of poetry changed from an unoriginal poet to one who abruptly abandoned conventional rhyme.
Works Cited:
Watts, Linda S. "Walt Whitman, contributions to folklore of." Encylopedia of American Folklore. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. American History Online, Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE52&iPin=EAFolk732&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 25, 2010).
Walt Whitman By: Catherine Reef
Walt Whitman words for America By: Barbara Kerley
The Walt Whitman Archive
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/126
I was born in Long Island, New York, son of a carpenter. My first job was at age 12 as a printer’s apprentice. After two years I was publishing the articles I had written. By 19, I was printing my own newspaper fro the general public, known as the Long Islander. But I became passionate about poetry the first time I read poetry, I became addicted. I began to write my own poems and for inspiration as I became older, I began to travel all of America. But when I traveled to the south, I saw slavery. I became worried that slavery would rip our sweet nation in half. I tried to do what I could to stop that from happening. I wrote poems rejoicing over America and her people. One of the lines from one poem read “I resist anything better than my own diversity, Breath the air but leave plenty after me…” When I wrote my poems, though, I broke free from normal. I cared nothing about the standard rhyming pattern most poems ran by. Some thought my poems were fresh, new, and vigorous. But alas, many critics thought the poems clumsy and crude, that I had no idea about poetry at all.
ReplyDeleteThe poems didn’t do what I had hoped though. While I sat at the breakfast table with my mother and brothers, I read the news. Tensions between the North and South rose. Seven Southern states had already separated from the union. Abraham Lincoln, the newly elected president, supposedly wanted to end all slavery in the United States. I felt the same as Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln looked and saw the inequality surrounded by him. We both saw that the salves and African-Americans in the southern states had no freedom. He wanted to help them and free them. I wanted slavery abolished also, yet like many others in the crowd watching Lincoln’s inaugural, we were worried it would drive us straight into war. And it did.
I was too old to fight in the civil war, yet I tried to contribute all I could. I wrote poems for the Union. But, one day, my brother was injured. Hs name appeared in the newspaper under the list of wounded. I took an army train heading south, and caught up with my brother. I cared for him along with other wounded union and confederate soldiers.
Mac R. Period 6