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?
They said that they were coming, I knew I shouldn’t have moved to Canterbury and taken that job I was completely fine in Plainfield. My name is Prudence Crandall and I don’t believe in Segregation. At first I wasn’t sure what I thought but then I decided she isn’t different because of her skin color! I even knew her. So why did they have a problem with me teaching her if her mom lived with me her whole life. Sarah’s mom wanted her to learn and who was I not to teach her? Marcia had been our house keeper my whole life I had to repay her somehow. I had my own belief and the government had theirs, also slavery was over so I don’t know what is so bad about teaching her. I wasn’t going to let other people who have different beliefs stand in the way of mine. I have been a teacher for a while and if I didn’t teach Sarah then no one would, at least no one eligible to. Also Almira helped me teach her, she was such a good sister and we thought the same things at times and teaching Sarah was something that we definitely agreed on. The parents of the other students I teach did not agree with me so they threatened to close my school. I gave them what they wanted and closed the school. Not because the parents wanted it to happen because I realized women and black people don’t have rights! We deserve them that is why I closed my school but then I reopened it ONLY for black students this way I can show my opinion. The towns people didn’t take this well. The first day the polluted our drinking water, and no one would do business with m we either! No, the government does not establish equality among Americans. Is abviously doesn’t because then I would not have had to had close my school for only black kids and then I wouldn’t have had to deal with the consequences! I would have been able to teach Sarah with out any trouble. Also if there was equality then I would be able to vote. Just because I am a women does not mean I have any less rights then anyone else in the world. Also Black people would be no trouble. I know that the law was passed that everyone is equal but the government should do something that helps the black people in this crisis. I bet if other white kids were doing this to a white child they government would act immediately! This definitely means that the government is not establish equality! The challenges of equality are that black students are treated so badly. Or even people that believe in integration! Sarah was treated very poorly by the other students and other white people. Also I was treated poorly just for teaching her! I had manure town in my school where everything is supposed to be fresh so the kids can learn. And before I started teaching my first class of black students no one said anything. When my first class arrived by stagecoach is when everything went bad. That first day they polluted the water. The way I resolved the students being mean to Sarah was I kicked them out and opened my school for only black children. I filed an appeal and then my appeal worked and the law that black students couldn’t be citizens was appealed.
Unknown. "Prudence Crandall." Prudence Crandall. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. . Kara Pd.6
I am Charlotte Forten and I started out in Pennsylvania living with my father. I moved away so I could live in Salem, Massachusetts to have an education, which is rare during the mid 1800s. I haven’t mentioned my mother because she died when I was only 3 years old. Although I didn’t know her very well, I know that she died a proud and strong woman because of how she spoke out against slavery. I grew up in the North and lived with my father, Robert Forten and he kept us together with our successful sail-making business. Everything was fine until 1854 where they banned all African Americans from schools and we had to make our own schools for education. I became an educator, author, and Abolitionist, living my life to the fullest. I have spent my life guiding the lives of fellow African Americans by educating them and teaching them the meaning of being an African American. I was born August 17, 1837, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; I have represented the fourth generation of Fortens born free in the United States ever since. Our family is even the most wealthy and prominent African American family in America. I am best known for my diaries and the way I supported equal rights for African Americans. I remember saying on Monday, October 23, 1854: “I will spare no effort to prepare myself well for the responsible duties of a teacher and to live for the good I can do my oppressed and suffering fellow creatures." Although it seems I have a great life, which I do for the most part, I have been under physical and emotional stress. The problem I have is that I expect more than I already have, so my whole life was based on getting to the top. Believe it or not, trying to help fellow African Americans is stressful and with great power comes great responsibility.
Works Cited Enotes.com. Charlotte Forten 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. http://www.enotes.com/salem-history/charlotte-forten. Hoffman, Nancy. “Only a Teacher.” Two Black Teachers During the Civil War (1981) Public Broadcasting System. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/charlotte.html. Steele, Christy and Kerry Graves. “A Free Black Girl Before the Civil War.” New York: Capstone Press, 2000.
Kelly Pd. 9/Ann Eliza Hammond My name is Ann Eliza Hammond. I am originally from Providence Rhode Island but I have travelled to Canterbury, Connecticut. I have come here to attend Miss Prudence Crandall’s ‘High School for the young colored Ladies and Misses’ in order to receive a higher education. I arrived at the school on April 12th 1833. 1833 was the same year that the American Anti-slavery society was organized. Although some people were overcoming racism there were still some people who were against blacks, even in the north. Some of those people are right here in Canterbury. They are trying to do everything they can to stop Miss Crandall’s school from running. They have tried to sabotage our school with cruel acts of destruction; one unknown person even lit the school on fire. Others try to prevent us from having necessities by refusing to sell food to us. Around the time I enrolled in Miss Crandall’s school, the state of Connecticut enforced a law not allowing blacks to travel to Connecticut to receive and education. The law was called, “The Pauper Law.” This takes away my constitutional rights to travel freely. The challenges to equality are that I can’t receive a proper education simply because of my race. I have to overcome them by trying to push past the things people try to do to get in the way of achieving my goals, such as getting and education. I am not going to give up because so many people worked hard for me to get here. “[I received] money from Mama's friend who had bought herself, then saved enough, by working without rest, to free four friends. This woman gave me her wealth of carefully folded dollars, so I could take Miss Crandall's course of study.” Miss Crandall helped me do this because when she was put down, and when people tried to destroy her school, she pushed past most of it, in the end the school had to be closed, but I will never forget my days as a student there. Works Cited "Article: Miss Ann Eliza Hammond.(Poem)." High Beam Research. N.p., 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. . Duncan, Greg. "Special Events for the Year 1833." Vaxxine. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. . Goodridge, Steven G. "The Right to Travel by Human Power." Bicycling Life. N.p., 2001. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. . Jurmain, Suzanne. The Forbidden Schoolhouse. New York City: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. Print. "Students at Prudence Crandall's School for African-American Women." Connecticut.gov. N.p., May 2005. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
Chapter One- The Exciting Beggining (OLivia PD9) The Many Struggles I Faced in A Changing Nation My father had told me that he had always wanted to write a book. He came up with a title, “The Gentleman in Black”, but that was as far as he got. He has now passed the job to me. I’m writing a memoir, using all of my family history that has been stored away. When I looked back on my life, and the lives of my family members I saw that racism and slavery had an impact on each life; from the early days of childhood to the time they became great grandparents. Some things were small, and some were big enough to change a life. My name is Marticha Lyons, and I was born on May 23, 1848; twenty years after slavery was abolished in New York, the place where I grew up. I have an older sister, Therese, who is only a year older than me; a younger sister, Pauline, who I am two years older than. Albro Jr. is my brother, and is five years younger than me. I had an older sister, but she died when she was three. I lived in an apartment on the lower side of Manhattan, 144 Centre Street. Mostly African Americans, like myself, and Irish people lived there; the area was loaded with crime. I had a very average life, I played with dolls and did chores like any other girl my age. Unlike many girls my age, though, I was always around the abolitionist movement. My father worked with William Powell, an abolitionist and ship-smith. My father attended the first African Free School in Manhattan, and was quite intelligent. He and my mother were very high class, and liked to go to parties. My mother had a great sense of humor and was a great story teller, and was always welcome to a party. Although no one else knew besides my family, my mother also worked with the underground rail road, and helped at least one thousand slaves to freedom. My grandfather let others use the back of his shop as a rallying center, where people would talk about the unjustness of slavery, getting rid of segregated schools, and the unfairness of the law that stated that you had to own property costing two hundred and fifty dollars per year if you were black and wanted to vote in local elections. I grew up with antislavery views all around me, and knew form a very early age that slavery was a terrible thing.
Chapter Two: The Climatic Sequel (Olivia PD9) Things that my parents talked about all through the night, like racism and segregation happened to me through out my life. When I went to school I didn’t know if a stage coach would stop for me to take me home, because I was black. Some days I would have to walk the three miles back to my house. Then, on the second day of the city draft riots, July, 12 1863, my house was attacked by a group of people who were against the war drafting, because they were against having the black slaves being freed, and threatening their jobs. They smashed in windows and broke down the front door, but something stopped them before they could become more destructive. My godfather’s orphanage was also targeted, where my godfather was head physician. It was burned down and looted, but all the children were safe. Again that night my house was under attack again, but my father scarred them away, buy shooting a gun in the rioter’s direction. That wasn’t the only thing that happened to us, though. There was another riot, the next day, and got inside the house, ruining everything they could find until the police showed up. My siblings and I had been moved to a safer location earlier the day before, and my mother fled to our neighbor’s, while my father ran to the police station. My father took and inventory of everything we lost, and it totaled up to about two thousand dollars. We hopped around for a while, eventually ending up in Salem to live with family friends. My father then fixed our house back in New York, and we moved back and tried to keep things normal. I returned to school, but it wasn’t long before my family moved away to live in Providence, Rhode Island. I had graduated from my old school in New York and was ready to go to high school. There were no high schools for blacks at the time, and my parents tried to enroll me into the Girls’ Department of Providence High, but I wasn’t taken. My parents didn’t back down and launched a campaign to stop segregation in schools. My case was taken up by the Rhode Island state legislature, and I had to make a speech in front of them, even though I was just a scarred sixteen year old. I won the case, and was let into the school, but I had to go back to grammar school for five weeks to prepare for a test to get into the school that no one else had to take. The test was extremely difficult, but I passed and was let into the school. Even though I made it into the school I wasn’t accepted by my peers, and sat by myself for an entire year, While I was in high school the Civil war was ended, in 1865, and slavery was abolished. By the last year of school I had made very slight friendships with some of the students, but I never forgot that I had to sue the school to attend when none of my peers had to. Right before I turned twenty one I became the first African American person to graduate from Providence High School. I was a teacher for fifty years after I graduated, and witnessed segregated schools gotten rid of, and New York merging with surrounding areas. I started writhing my memoir about a year ago, and now I am living with Therese’s son, and I am the last person of my immediate family living on this earth.
The Final Stand: Almost as Intense As Harry Potter (Olivia PD 9) I think that the United States’ government has come a long way in establishing equality among all Americans since I was a child. We have gotten rid of slavery in all states, and there are no more segregated schools, no one has to fight their way to get an education like I had to. There is still a long way to come though. Minorities aren’t having their general welfare being protected, and have harder times finding good jobs that pay, and are safe for the workers. Many issues that my grandfather and friends talked about in his rallying room; like the unfair voting laws and slavery are fixed, but there is still racism in the hearts of many Americans. Yet I still have to face injustices everyday, like I did when I had to walk home because no one would stop for me when I was a school girl. I do hear about Jim Crow laws in the south, and many blacks having to complete complicated tests just to vote, which is terrible and unjust. All around America there are groups of very racist people, who are causing harm to many African Americans, and the government isn’t doing a lot to stop them, and my domestic tranquility is not being covered. Now backs are finally part of something, and we are able to be free, and not have to work on plantations or be taken from our homeland, but things have to progress a lot before I can say that there is equality in all people in America. I will just have to keep trying to influence as many people as I can, and try to make this country that gave and took so many things from me better for everyone. Works Cited Bolden, Tonya. Maritcha a Ninteenth-Century American Girl. New York City: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2005. Print. Harris, Leslie M. The New York City Draft Riots of 1863. http://www.press.uchicago.edu. University of Chicago Press, 2003. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. . Works Cited Collins, Gail. 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. New York City: Harper Collins, 1942. Print. Jackson, Kenneth T. “Draft Riots.” The Encyclopedia of New York. Print. Smith, John David. Black Voices from Reconstruction. Brookfield, Connecticut: Millbrook Press, 1996. Print.
Only twenty-three years old when three young black businessmen where lynched. Being half owner of Free Speech, I wrote an editorial addressing that several white businessmen where apparently rivals of the three victims that where recently lynched. Soon after an angry mob of white men rebelled against my lectures and burned down my office and the print shop. Accruing shortly after, the members of the same mob threatened to kill me unless I decided to move out of town. Receiving the threats I moved to New York and then Chicago. I therefore did not stop giving lectures against lynching. I then started a campaign and giving speeches nationwide and publishing many pamphlets. Before I moved I was forcibly removed from my seat for refusing to move to a "colored car" on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, my suit against the railroad for violating my civil rights was rejected by the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1877. Throughout my life I have fought for racial equality. For people to judge at the color of our skin is unbearable. My life time goal was to abolish lynching and establish racial equality. Therefore doing so, I hoped that giving lectures and publishing pamphlets to the public would help start the movement. I held strong political opinions and I had upset many people with my views on women's rights. This was one of my strongest opinions. I wanted to end the violation of woman’s suffrage. Our amendments where clearly violated and I for once did not tolerate it. We woman have our opinions on the politics and we want a say. I then wrote a pamphlet on civil rights, encouraging women to say what’s on their mind. Though my crusade for Congress to pass anti-lynching laws did not succeed during my lifetime, my efforts as a writer and activist dedicated to social change and justice bore fruit in many areas and established me as one of the most forceful and remarkable women of my time. I take that as a high praise and I believe if someone has a belief they should stay with it. I wanted my whole life to establish justice, in the process many people didn’t favor in my lectures. That made me work even harder to grasp more people in the fight for freedom….for justice!
- Brittany B Period 9
Work Cited :
• A, Duster, Sterling D, and Jennifer McBride. Ida B. Wells: Crusade for Justice. Jennifer McBride, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .
• Baker, Lee D. Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Her Passion for Justice. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. . • Duster, Alfreda M. Ida B. Wells-Barnett. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .
• Lavender, Catherine. Ida B. Wells, a Passion for Justice. Catherine Lavender, 20 Feb. 2001. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .
• Lewis,, Jone Johnson. Ida B. Wells-Barnett. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .
Hello, reader. My name is Booker T. Washington and I am writing this to tell you all about my life as an educator and all the racial injustice I saw. I was born a slave in 1856 in Franklin County Virginia. I am biracial witch means that my mom was black and my dad was white. I was a slave for nine years when in 1865 the 13th amendment to the bill of rights freed all slaves. After that I became a miner and attended a school opened for colored children. The happiest day of my life was the first day I attended that school. I soon however had to drop to mine full time. My mom knew I did not like that job so she found me a new one as a houseboy for General Lewis Ruffner. His wife was very strict on me but turned out to be one of the best friends I ever had. Four years later I went to the Hampton Institute in Virginia. As a test to see if I could attend the school the lady principal asked me to sweep a room for her. I passed and was accepted in but I had to work as an assistant janitor to pay for my room and board. That same year I went home for summer vacation. During that time my mom died while I was at home. That was the saddest period of my life. When I went back to school one of my teachers gave me a lesson on public speaking this lesson would prove vital for my later success. After I graduated I went back to my hometown and taught at the first school I ever attended. My classes had about 80-90 students. I persuaded a lot of my students to attend Hampton Institute because it was one of a few good schools that black people could attend. All good schools were segregated and the white people still hated us because we were different. Most all black schools were not given proper funds so the school would rot around the children as they were in it. After a few years of teaching at my hometown one of my old professors asked me to come back and teach at Hampton Institute. There I taught night classes for those who had to work in the daytime including a class of 75 Indian boys. Later that year one Mr. George Campbell wanted to start a school in Tuskegee, Alabama for the black children in the town because of all segregation in the town. My professor General Armstrong recommended me for the job. The state gave us $2000 a year for the school. The first classes I held were in an old run down building. When it rained I had to have a student hold an umbrella over my head. Eventually I got enough money to buy over 2,000 acres of farmland on witch I built the Tuskegee Institute. All my students had to work on top of their academic studies so we started to teach trades and professions. My school would continue to grow and prosper. In 1895 I was invited to give a speech at the Atlanta Exposition. This is where my public speaking skills I learned earlier in my life came in handy. In my speech I urged blacks and whites to work together and for the white people to stop treating us different. My speech was so convincing that after the Exposition Harvard gave me an honorary degree. After a few more years of teaching I retired and here I am writing to you about my life experiences. Hope you enjoyed them.
Citations: Booker T. Washington National Monument. “Up From Slavet.” nps. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. . Gale. “Booker Taliaferro Washington.” Gale Cenage Learning. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. . Harlan, Louis R. “Booker T. Washington 1856-1915.” Documenting the American South. N.p., 1989. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. . Leary, Timothy. “Booker T. Washington Quotes.” Brainy Quote. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. . Stevens, Patsy. “Booker T. Washington.” garden of praise. N.p., 11 May 2006. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
This is Prudence Crandall and I feel that it is time for me to write down my experiences of the slavery abolitionist movement so that those to come can hopefully learn from the events of my life. I went to school in Massachusetts at one of the finest boarding schools in the north. Then I moved back to Canterbury, Connecticut and started a boarding school of my own for girls in 1831. However it did not stay that way for very long. In 1832 I was approached by an African American girl, Sarah Harris, and she asked to join my school. The only sensible decision was to say no, but how could I say no to her. She only asked for enough schooling to be able to teach other African Americans in her small community so after meeting with Mr. Garrison, the editor of “The Liberator”(an anti-slavery news paper), and decided that it was a great idea to start integrating blacks into our society. One thing led to another and after traveling to Boston, Massachusetts, New York, and Providence I had recruited about 20 students for my new black boarding school. When I got back and reported the news to the town there was an outrage. The school was vandalized and the community of Canterbury passed a law that said any black girl who received schooling could be given ten lashes of the whip. Canterbury passed another law, this time it was against providing a free education for black but I didn’t stop teaching them so I was thrown in jail. I obviously lost the local court case but when I appealed to a higher court I won and was released from jail. The town of Canterbury wasn’t happy about the ruling and my school was attacked by a mob who threatened the life of me and my students. I had no choice but to close the school for fear of more violence. I moved to Illinois because I could no longer live safely in Canterbury. There I met my husband, Reverend Calvin Philleo and we lived happily until he died last year. I’m now considering moving to Elk Falls, Kansas to be closer to my family.
The Government did not enforce equality in my case because they did not step in and protect my students and me. We have the freedom to assemble, as it is stated in the first amendment, and we choose to assemble at a school house where I was able to teach the twenty girls assembling with me. It was unconstitutional for the government to let the community pass such a law that stated that it was illegal to provide a free education for blacks because they are usually the ones who don’t have as much money as white people. That indirectly violates the eighth amendment of the constitution by issuing excessive money, like bail, to go to school, instead of jail. It says “secure the blessings of liberty” in the preamble to the constitution
They said that they were coming, I knew I shouldn’t have moved to Canterbury and taken that job I was completely fine in Plainfield. My name is Prudence Crandall and I don’t believe in Segregation. At first I wasn’t sure what I thought but then I decided she isn’t different because of her skin color! I even knew her. So why did they have a problem with me teaching her if her mom lived with me her whole life. Sarah’s mom wanted her to learn and who was I not to teach her? Marcia had been our house keeper my whole life I had to repay her somehow. I had my own belief and the government had theirs, also slavery was over so I don’t know what is so bad about teaching her. I wasn’t going to let other people who have different beliefs stand in the way of mine. I have been a teacher for a while and if I didn’t teach Sarah then no one would, at least no one eligible to. Also Almira helped me teach her, she was such a good sister and we thought the same things at times and teaching Sarah was something that we definitely agreed on. The parents of the other students I teach did not agree with me so they threatened to close my school. I gave them what they wanted and closed the school. Not because the parents wanted it to happen because I realized women and black people don’t have rights! We deserve them that is why I closed my school but then I reopened it ONLY for black students this way I can show my opinion. The towns people didn’t take this well. The first day the polluted our drinking water, and no one would do business with m we either!
ReplyDeleteNo, the government does not establish equality among Americans. Is abviously doesn’t because then I would not have had to had close my school for only black kids and then I wouldn’t have had to deal with the consequences! I would have been able to teach Sarah with out any trouble. Also if there was equality then I would be able to vote. Just because I am a women does not mean I have any less rights then anyone else in the world. Also Black people would be no trouble. I know that the law was passed that everyone is equal but the government should do something that helps the black people in this crisis. I bet if other white kids were doing this to a white child they government would act immediately! This definitely means that the government is not establish equality!
The challenges of equality are that black students are treated so badly. Or even people that believe in integration! Sarah was treated very poorly by the other students and other white people. Also I was treated poorly just for teaching her! I had manure town in my school where everything is supposed to be fresh so the kids can learn. And before I started teaching my first class of black students no one said anything. When my first class arrived by stagecoach is when everything went bad. That first day they polluted the water. The way I resolved the students being mean to Sarah was I kicked them out and opened my school for only black children. I filed an appeal and then my appeal worked and the law that black students couldn’t be citizens was appealed.
Unknown. "Prudence Crandall." Prudence Crandall. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2010.
.
Kara Pd.6
Harry Period 6
ReplyDeleteI am Charlotte Forten and I started out in Pennsylvania living with my father. I moved away so I could live in Salem, Massachusetts to have an education, which is rare during the mid 1800s. I haven’t mentioned my mother because she died when I was only 3 years old. Although I didn’t know her very well, I know that she died a proud and strong woman because of how she spoke out against slavery. I grew up in the North and lived with my father, Robert Forten and he kept us together with our successful sail-making business. Everything was fine until 1854 where they banned all African Americans from schools and we had to make our own schools for education.
I became an educator, author, and Abolitionist, living my life to the fullest. I have spent my life guiding the lives of fellow African Americans by educating them and teaching them the meaning of being an African American. I was born August 17, 1837, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; I have represented the fourth generation of Fortens born free in the United States ever since. Our family is even the most wealthy and prominent African American family in America.
I am best known for my diaries and the way I supported equal rights for African Americans. I remember saying on Monday, October 23, 1854: “I will spare no effort to prepare myself well for the responsible duties of a teacher and to live for the good I can do my oppressed and suffering fellow creatures." Although it seems I have a great life, which I do for the most part, I have been under physical and emotional stress. The problem I have is that I expect more than I already have, so my whole life was based on getting to the top. Believe it or not, trying to help fellow African Americans is stressful and with great power comes great responsibility.
Works Cited
Enotes.com. Charlotte Forten 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. http://www.enotes.com/salem-history/charlotte-forten.
Hoffman, Nancy. “Only a Teacher.” Two Black Teachers During the Civil War (1981) Public Broadcasting System. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/charlotte.html.
Steele, Christy and Kerry Graves. “A Free Black Girl Before the Civil War.” New York: Capstone Press, 2000.
Kelly Pd. 9/Ann Eliza Hammond
ReplyDeleteMy name is Ann Eliza Hammond. I am originally from Providence Rhode Island but I have travelled to Canterbury, Connecticut. I have come here to attend Miss Prudence Crandall’s ‘High School for the young colored Ladies and Misses’ in order to receive a higher education. I arrived at the school on April 12th 1833.
1833 was the same year that the American Anti-slavery society was organized. Although some people were overcoming racism there were still some people who were against blacks, even in the north. Some of those people are right here in Canterbury. They are trying to do everything they can to stop Miss Crandall’s school from running. They have tried to sabotage our school with cruel acts of destruction; one unknown person even lit the school on fire. Others try to prevent us from having necessities by refusing to sell food to us.
Around the time I enrolled in Miss Crandall’s school, the state of Connecticut enforced a law not allowing blacks to travel to Connecticut to receive and education. The law was called, “The Pauper Law.” This takes away my constitutional rights to travel freely. The challenges to equality are that I can’t receive a proper education simply because of my race. I have to overcome them by trying to push past the things people try to do to get in the way of achieving my goals, such as getting and education. I am not going to give up because so many people worked hard for me to get here. “[I received] money from Mama's friend who had bought herself, then saved enough, by working without rest, to free four friends. This woman gave me her wealth of carefully folded dollars, so I could take Miss Crandall's course of study.”
Miss Crandall helped me do this because when she was put down, and when people tried to destroy her school, she pushed past most of it, in the end the school had to be closed, but I will never forget my days as a student there.
Works Cited
"Article: Miss Ann Eliza Hammond.(Poem)." High Beam Research. N.p., 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2010.
.
Duncan, Greg. "Special Events for the Year 1833." Vaxxine. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2010.
.
Goodridge, Steven G. "The Right to Travel by Human Power." Bicycling Life. N.p., 2001. Web. 23 Mar.
2010. .
Jurmain, Suzanne. The Forbidden Schoolhouse. New York City: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. Print.
"Students at Prudence Crandall's School for African-American Women." Connecticut.gov. N.p., May
2005. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
Chapter One- The Exciting Beggining (OLivia PD9)
ReplyDeleteThe Many Struggles I Faced in A Changing Nation
My father had told me that he had always wanted to write a book. He came up with a title, “The Gentleman in Black”, but that was as far as he got. He has now passed the job to me. I’m writing a memoir, using all of my family history that has been stored away. When I looked back on my life, and the lives of my family members I saw that racism and slavery had an impact on each life; from the early days of childhood to the time they became great grandparents. Some things were small, and some were big enough to change a life.
My name is Marticha Lyons, and I was born on May 23, 1848; twenty years after slavery was abolished in New York, the place where I grew up. I have an older sister, Therese, who is only a year older than me; a younger sister, Pauline, who I am two years older than. Albro Jr. is my brother, and is five years younger than me. I had an older sister, but she died when she was three. I lived in an apartment on the lower side of Manhattan, 144 Centre Street. Mostly African Americans, like myself, and Irish people lived there; the area was loaded with crime. I had a very average life, I played with dolls and did chores like any other girl my age. Unlike many girls my age, though, I was always around the abolitionist movement.
My father worked with William Powell, an abolitionist and ship-smith. My father attended the first African Free School in Manhattan, and was quite intelligent. He and my mother were very high class, and liked to go to parties. My mother had a great sense of humor and was a great story teller, and was always welcome to a party. Although no one else knew besides my family, my mother also worked with the underground rail road, and helped at least one thousand slaves to freedom. My grandfather let others use the back of his shop as a rallying center, where people would talk about the unjustness of slavery, getting rid of segregated schools, and the unfairness of the law that stated that you had to own property costing two hundred and fifty dollars per year if you were black and wanted to vote in local elections. I grew up with antislavery views all around me, and knew form a very early age that slavery was a terrible thing.
Chapter Two: The Climatic Sequel (Olivia PD9)
ReplyDeleteThings that my parents talked about all through the night, like racism and segregation happened to me through out my life. When I went to school I didn’t know if a stage coach would stop for me to take me home, because I was black. Some days I would have to walk the three miles back to my house. Then, on the second day of the city draft riots, July, 12 1863, my house was attacked by a group of people who were against the war drafting, because they were against having the black slaves being freed, and threatening their jobs. They smashed in windows and broke down the front door, but something stopped them before they could become more destructive. My godfather’s orphanage was also targeted, where my godfather was head physician. It was burned down and looted, but all the children were safe. Again that night my house was under attack again, but my father scarred them away, buy shooting a gun in the rioter’s direction. That wasn’t the only thing that happened to us, though.
There was another riot, the next day, and got inside the house, ruining everything they could find until the police showed up. My siblings and I had been moved to a safer location earlier the day before, and my mother fled to our neighbor’s, while my father ran to the police station. My father took and inventory of everything we lost, and it totaled up to about two thousand dollars. We hopped around for a while, eventually ending up in Salem to live with family friends. My father then fixed our house back in New York, and we moved back and tried to keep things normal. I returned to school, but it wasn’t long before my family moved away to live in Providence, Rhode Island.
I had graduated from my old school in New York and was ready to go to high school. There were no high schools for blacks at the time, and my parents tried to enroll me into the Girls’ Department of Providence High, but I wasn’t taken. My parents didn’t back down and launched a campaign to stop segregation in schools. My case was taken up by the Rhode Island state legislature, and I had to make a speech in front of them, even though I was just a scarred sixteen year old. I won the case, and was let into the school, but I had to go back to grammar school for five weeks to prepare for a test to get into the school that no one else had to take. The test was extremely difficult, but I passed and was let into the school. Even though I made it into the school I wasn’t accepted by my peers, and sat by myself for an entire year, While I was in high school the Civil war was ended, in 1865, and slavery was abolished. By the last year of school I had made very slight friendships with some of the students, but I never forgot that I had to sue the school to attend when none of my peers had to. Right before I turned twenty one I became the first African American person to graduate from Providence High School. I was a teacher for fifty years after I graduated, and witnessed segregated schools gotten rid of, and New York merging with surrounding areas. I started writhing my memoir about a year ago, and now I am living with Therese’s son, and I am the last person of my immediate family living on this earth.
The Final Stand: Almost as Intense As Harry Potter (Olivia PD 9)
ReplyDeleteI think that the United States’ government has come a long way in establishing equality among all Americans since I was a child. We have gotten rid of slavery in all states, and there are no more segregated schools, no one has to fight their way to get an education like I had to. There is still a long way to come though. Minorities aren’t having their general welfare being protected, and have harder times finding good jobs that pay, and are safe for the workers. Many issues that my grandfather and friends talked about in his rallying room; like the unfair voting laws and slavery are fixed, but there is still racism in the hearts of many Americans. Yet I still have to face injustices everyday, like I did when I had to walk home because no one would stop for me when I was a school girl. I do hear about Jim Crow laws in the south, and many blacks having to complete complicated tests just to vote, which is terrible and unjust. All around America there are groups of very racist people, who are causing harm to many African Americans, and the government isn’t doing a lot to stop them, and my domestic tranquility is not being covered. Now backs are finally part of something, and we are able to be free, and not have to work on plantations or be taken from our homeland, but things have to progress a lot before I can say that there is equality in all people in America. I will just have to keep trying to influence as many people as I can, and try to make this country that gave and took so many things from me better for everyone.
Works Cited
Bolden, Tonya. Maritcha a Ninteenth-Century American Girl. New York City: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2005. Print.
Harris, Leslie M. The New York City Draft Riots of 1863. http://www.press.uchicago.edu. University of Chicago Press, 2003. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
Works Cited
Collins, Gail. 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. New York City: Harper Collins, 1942. Print.
Jackson, Kenneth T. “Draft Riots.” The Encyclopedia of New York. Print.
Smith, John David. Black Voices from Reconstruction. Brookfield, Connecticut: Millbrook Press, 1996. Print.
Ida B. Well
ReplyDelete-1892, Memphis, Tennessee.
Only twenty-three years old when three young black businessmen where lynched. Being half owner of Free Speech, I wrote an editorial addressing that several white businessmen where apparently rivals of the three victims that where recently lynched. Soon after an angry mob of white men rebelled against my lectures and burned down my office and the print shop. Accruing shortly after, the members of the same mob threatened to kill me unless I decided to move out of town. Receiving the threats I moved to New York and then Chicago. I therefore did not stop giving lectures against lynching. I then started a campaign and giving speeches nationwide and publishing many pamphlets. Before I moved I was forcibly removed from my seat for refusing to move to a "colored car" on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, my suit against the railroad for violating my civil rights was rejected by the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1877.
Throughout my life I have fought for racial equality. For people to judge at the color of our skin is unbearable. My life time goal was to abolish lynching and establish racial equality. Therefore doing so, I hoped that giving lectures and publishing pamphlets to the public would help start the movement. I held strong political opinions and I had upset many people with my views on women's rights. This was one of my strongest opinions. I wanted to end the violation of woman’s suffrage. Our amendments where clearly violated and I for once did not tolerate it. We woman have our opinions on the politics and we want a say. I then wrote a pamphlet on civil rights, encouraging women to say what’s on their mind.
Though my crusade for Congress to pass anti-lynching laws did not succeed during my lifetime, my efforts as a writer and activist dedicated to social change and justice bore fruit in many areas and established me as one of the most forceful and remarkable women of my time. I take that as a high praise and I believe if someone has a belief they should stay with it. I wanted my whole life to establish justice, in the process many people didn’t favor in my lectures. That made me work even harder to grasp more people in the fight for freedom….for justice!
- Brittany B Period 9
Work Cited :
• A, Duster, Sterling D, and Jennifer McBride. Ida B. Wells: Crusade for Justice.
Jennifer McBride, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .
• Baker, Lee D. Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Her Passion for Justice. N.p., n.d. Web.
25 Mar. 2010. .
• Duster, Alfreda M. Ida B. Wells-Barnett. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010.
.
• Lavender, Catherine. Ida B. Wells, a Passion for Justice. Catherine Lavender, 20
Feb. 2001. Web. 25 Mar. 2010. .
• Lewis,, Jone Johnson. Ida B. Wells-Barnett. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2010.
.
Hello, reader. My name is Booker T. Washington and I am writing this to tell you all about my life as an educator and all the racial injustice I saw. I was born a slave in 1856 in Franklin County Virginia. I am biracial witch means that my mom was black and my dad was white. I was a slave for nine years when in 1865 the 13th amendment to the bill of rights freed all slaves. After that I became a miner and attended a school opened for colored children. The happiest day of my life was the first day I attended that school. I soon however had to drop to mine full time. My mom knew I did not like that job so she found me a new one as a houseboy for General Lewis Ruffner. His wife was very strict on me but turned out to be one of the best friends I ever had.
ReplyDeleteFour years later I went to the Hampton Institute in Virginia. As a test to see if I could attend the school the lady principal asked me to sweep a room for her. I passed and was accepted in but I had to work as an assistant janitor to pay for my room and board. That same year I went home for summer vacation. During that time my mom died while I was at home. That was the saddest period of my life. When I went back to school one of my teachers gave me a lesson on public speaking this lesson would prove vital for my later success. After I graduated I went back to my hometown and taught at the first school I ever attended. My classes had about 80-90 students. I persuaded a lot of my students to attend Hampton Institute because it was one of a few good schools that black people could attend. All good schools were segregated and the white people still hated us because we were different. Most all black schools were not given proper funds so the school would rot around the children as they were in it.
After a few years of teaching at my hometown one of my old professors asked me to come back and teach at Hampton Institute. There I taught night classes for those who had to work in the daytime including a class of 75 Indian boys. Later that year one Mr. George Campbell wanted to start a school in Tuskegee, Alabama for the black children in the town because of all segregation in the town. My professor General Armstrong recommended me for the job. The state gave us $2000 a year for the school. The first classes I held were in an old run down building. When it rained I had to have a student hold an umbrella over my head. Eventually I got enough money to buy over 2,000 acres of farmland on witch I built the Tuskegee Institute. All my students had to work on top of their academic studies so we started to teach trades and professions. My school would continue to grow and prosper.
In 1895 I was invited to give a speech at the Atlanta Exposition. This is where my public speaking skills I learned earlier in my life came in handy. In my speech I urged blacks and whites to work together and for the white people to stop treating us different. My speech was so convincing that after the Exposition Harvard gave me an honorary degree. After a few more years of teaching I retired and here I am writing to you about my life experiences. Hope you enjoyed them.
Citations:
Booker T. Washington National Monument. “Up From Slavet.” nps. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
Gale. “Booker Taliaferro Washington.” Gale Cenage Learning. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
Harlan, Louis R. “Booker T. Washington 1856-1915.” Documenting the American South. N.p., 1989. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
Leary, Timothy. “Booker T. Washington Quotes.” Brainy Quote. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
Stevens, Patsy. “Booker T. Washington.” garden of praise. N.p., 11 May 2006. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
Matt Lat.
PD.9
Kyle
ReplyDeleteMarch 24, 2010
Prudence Crandall project
This is Prudence Crandall and I feel that it is time for me to write down my experiences of the slavery abolitionist movement so that those to come can hopefully learn from the events of my life. I went to school in Massachusetts at one of the finest boarding schools in the north. Then I moved back to Canterbury, Connecticut and started a boarding school of my own for girls in 1831. However it did not stay that way for very long. In 1832 I was approached by an African American girl, Sarah Harris, and she asked to join my school. The only sensible decision was to say no, but how could I say no to her. She only asked for enough schooling to be able to teach other African Americans in her small community so after meeting with Mr. Garrison, the editor of “The Liberator”(an anti-slavery news paper), and decided that it was a great idea to start integrating blacks into our society. One thing led to another and after traveling to Boston, Massachusetts, New York, and Providence I had recruited about 20 students for my new black boarding school. When I got back and reported the news to the town there was an outrage. The school was vandalized and the community of Canterbury passed a law that said any black girl who received schooling could be given ten lashes of the whip. Canterbury passed another law, this time it was against providing a free education for black but I didn’t stop teaching them so I was thrown in jail. I obviously lost the local court case but when I appealed to a higher court I won and was released from jail. The town of Canterbury wasn’t happy about the ruling and my school was attacked by a mob who threatened the life of me and my students. I had no choice but to close the school for fear of more violence. I moved to Illinois because I could no longer live safely in Canterbury. There I met my husband, Reverend Calvin Philleo and we lived happily until he died last year. I’m now considering moving to Elk Falls, Kansas to be closer to my family.
The Government did not enforce equality in my case because they did not step in and protect my students and me. We have the freedom to assemble, as it is stated in the first amendment, and we choose to assemble at a school house where I was able to teach the twenty girls assembling with me. It was unconstitutional for the government to let the community pass such a law that stated that it was illegal to provide a free education for blacks because they are usually the ones who don’t have as much money as white people. That indirectly violates the eighth amendment of the constitution by issuing excessive money, like bail, to go to school, instead of jail. It says “secure the blessings of liberty” in the preamble to the constitution