Spoils System

We've been learning about Andrew Jackson in class recently, and we learned that he has a reputation as "the people's president".  The essential question questioned his reputation, asking if it was deserved by him.  Our class broke up into six groups, two for each of the three topics to try to decide if Andrew Jackson deserved this reputation.  The three topics were the Bank War, Indian Removal, and Spoils System.  My group did research on the Spoils System, here is our presentation:

Latin Revolutions

The essential question of this activity is "Why is it essential to acknowledge human value regardless of race?  How are the events in the Latin American Revolutions evidence of this social imperative?"  In class we looked at a pie chart that showed the population of all the different races.  For example, the different races and populations in Latin America were 50% Indians, 7% Mestizos, 23% Creoles, 1% Peninsulares, 11% African slaves, and 8% Mullattoes and Free Blacks.

We split into three groups to create a timeline of our revolution.  My group had the Brazil revolution, and the other two were the Gran Colombia Revolution, and the Mexican Revolution.  Some of the differences of the three revolutions were: Brazil was the only peaceful revolution, and all of the revolutions took place in different countries.  There were also some similarities: All of the revolutions happened in the same time period, and they all declared their independence in 1822.  Race was an issue in all of these because in each revolution, race prohibited people from achieving certain things, for example, freedom.  Race has a lot to do with freedom and it is determined mostly on your race.  If you were a certain race you could only get so high on the social pyramid.

Today, race is still a big issue.  For example a lot of people are still prejudice against different races and some people might not get a job because of their race.  Today, the conflict in Ferguson, Missouri has a lot to do with race.  The Ferguson Police force is 90% white and the population of Ferguson has a high percentage of minorities, which is leading to a lot of conflict between the two.  

Toussaint Louverture DBQ

How Should We Remember Toussaint Louverture?

People tend to remember people that have done great things and have changed the world for better, and especially great leaders or head figures.  Toussaint Louverture is one of those people that everyone should remember and look up to because he did great things when he was alive.  The island we know today as Haiti, was originally called Saint Domingue in 1697 when the French took it over.  This island became one of the richest colonies in the world.  It produced more than 50% of the world’s coffee, and about 40% of the worlds sugar, all on this little island.  Toussaint Louverture was born on this island in the early 1740’s and he was a young slave and served as a herder, then a coachman, and finally an overseer of fellow slaves in the field.  He was then freed by his owner and around 1789 words of revolution spread through and there was an uprising in Saint Domingue when the whites refused to grant slaves freedom.  It was then that Toussaint Louverture emerged as a leader.  We should remember Toussaint Louverture for being a liberator of slaves, a military commander, and the ruler of Saint Domingue.

The most important thing we should remember Louverture by is liberating slaves.  Throughout his entire life, he was dedicated to freeing slaves and fighting for their freedom.  For example, in the Timeline of Abolition in Saint Domingue it says that in 1791 “A slave revolt begins in the north of Saint Domingue, Toussaint joins the revolution and serves as doctor to the troops; he also commands a small detachment of slave soldiers.” (Doc A)  Here Louverture is fighting against the French for the freedom of slaves.  But this changes when France goes to war against the British and the Spanish.  France promises all slaves freedom if they help the French fight against the British and Spanish so in 1794 it says “Toussaint and his troops stop their revolt and now support the French.”(Doc A)  Toussaint realizes the best way now to fight for freedom is to fight for the French, and in 1798 Toussaint defeats the British and becomes the ruler of Saint Domingue, and then three years later he conquers the Spanish part of the island.  However his loyalty to the French doesn’t last very long.  Toussaint is already cautious of the French Directory which was the government that ruled France from 1795 to 1799.  He fears that they might try to reinstate slavery and he sends a letter and in this letter he states “if they had a thousand lives, they would sacrifice them all rather than be subjected again to slavery...”(Doc B) and also says “this would be to attempt the impossible: We have known how to confront danger to our liberty, and we will know how to confront death to preserve it.”(Doc B)  In this letter Toussaint strongly declares his position to the French government by saying that it will be impossible to attempt to reinstate slavery.  This does not affect the new leader, Napoleon, however because in 1802 “Napoleon sends 21,000 soldiers to Saint Domingue to reinstate slavery.”(Doc A)  Napoleon’s decision to do this causes Louverture to rally troops again and fight off the soldiers coming in to Saint Domingue for the freedom of slaves again, and they live up to Toussaint’s promise and they hold the French off.  However, Toussaint is captured by the French before they are defeated and he later dies in jail of pneumonia and never sees Saint Domingue change their name to Haiti and declare their independence on January 1st, 1804.

Another way we should remember him for is being a military commander.  Most people would care about their family before anything else, but not Toussaint.  He was faced by his Nephew and an army of rebels started massacring whites all over the Northern Plain.  “Toussaint himself was so enraged that when he passed through the rebel zone he ordered the mutineer regiments on parade and summoned certain men to step out of the ranks and blow their brains out.”(Doc E)  Here Toussaint also shows his authority as a military commander and will not have anyone rebel.  This is a good quality for a leader.  He also didn’t have any problem with arresting his nephew because it states “Toussaint ordered Moyse’s arrest... Brought before a firing squad, Moyse himself gave the order to fire”(Doc E)  This is also another good quality because he will not let family get in his way of commanding.  In the next document it gives some of Toussaint’s character traits, “his humanity, generosity, and courage”(Doc F) All of these traits helped him gain his soldiers confidence and respect.  Toussaint was also a great public speaker and knew how to inspire his troops, he said “Here come the enslavers of our race.  All France is coming to St. Domingo, to try again to put the fetters upon our limbs; but not France, with all her troops... can extinguish the soul of Africa.”(Doc F)  This rallied all of this troops and then after this he used his great military tactics and burned down the city where the French were landing so there would be no shelter or resources left for them, and then the army went into the mountains where they could fight using guerilla warfare which the french were not used to.  The French army was only used to fighting in cities and towns, so Toussaint’s men would be able to crush them as they fought in the mountains.  It is also noted that “Two years and 25,999 French deaths later, Napoleon withdrew his troops from Haiti.”(Doc F)

Lastly, but not least we should remember Toussaint Louverture for being the ruler of Saint Domingue.  Toussaint was the ruler of Saint Domingue and as the ruler he made a constitution that declared many things.  For example it declared that slavery cannot exist in this territory so he is still staying true to his beliefs and what he dedicated his life to even though he has a lot of power.  He also changes it so that “Each plantation...shall represent the quiet haven of an active and constant family, of which the owner of the land...shall be the father.”(Doc C)  He is trying to keep the production of coffee and sugar the same while changing the working conditions and making them nicer and of course, not using any slaves.  He also states in the constitution that “Each cultivator and each worker is a member of the family and is entitled to a share in the revenues.”(Doc C) This is a lot better than before because now everyone has to get paid and have a right to a share of the revenue of the plantation.  This constitution only sets the base however, so Toussaint makes a Proclamation stating some laws.  In this proclamation he states “Any individual...tending to incite sedition [actions against the authority of the nation] shall be brought be before a court martial and be punished in conformity with the law.”(Doc D)  He is a good ruler because he sets good laws in action and enforces the safety of the nation.

These are just three of the big reasons people should remember Toussaint Louverture.  The most important of the three would have to be the liberator of slaves because this stays with him throughout his entire life.  In the other two you can see how he still believes strongly in the freedom of slaves and how he dedicated his whole life to fighting for their freedom.  Overall, Toussaint Louverture is one of the people in this world that should be remembered by everyone for all that he has done for not only Haiti but for other places where his revolutions inspired others.  

Revolution!

The essential question of this unit was "Were the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848 really failures as many historians have concluded?"  We did a project in groups where we each were responsible for one of the major revolutions and we had to research it using primary sources and determine whether it was a complete failure or not.

The revolution that my group had the Frankfurt Assembly of 1848.  In this revolution, the Prussian liberals forced King Frederick William IV to agree to a constitution, but a year later he dissolved it.  The reason he dissolved it is stated in "Between Myself and my People..."(1848) it says "the king made it clear that he had no intention of allowing his God-given rule to be diminished by a piece of paper, namely a piece of paper."  He refused to have a constitution because it limited his power as a monarch.  At the Frankfurt assembly, they offered King Frederick William IV the throne to a united Germany, however he declined it because the offer came from the German people and not the German kings, the nobility.  In his proclamation of 1849 he states, "I am not able to return a favorable reply to the offer of a crown on the part of the German National Assembly, because the Assembly has not the right, without the consent of the German governments, to bestow the crown which they tendered me." Eventually the assembly had to dissolve due to the threat of the Prussian Army which was one of the greatest at the time.  We made a survey monkey to show the class what the outcome of this revolution was.  http://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-NH3QX7KV

Here are some screenshots to show how well our classmates did:

The Frankfurt Assembly was a complete failure because not only did some people get killed in a fight, but also, many German citizens moved to America because of the young countries new promise.  The Decembrist Revolt was also a partial failure because the new king that came to power did not give the people what they wanted, so they revolted and finally got a new king that granted them a lot of the things they wanted.  However, a lot of social classes still did not get stuff they wanted so it was still a partial failure.  In the Hungarian revolution, people started protesting and Metternich tried to silence these protests, but more people joined so Metternich resigned, and fled.  The revolution spread throughout the empire and eventually the government had to give in to reforms, but this did not last because soon after, most of the rebels were then killed, imprisoned, or exiled and the empire was taken back.  So this was a complete failure as well.  In my opinion, the answer to the essential question is both yes and no, most of them were some type of failure, but seeing how some of the revolutions gained stuff from them, I wouldn't call all of them a failure.

Congress of Vienna

The essential question from class was, What should people in power do when their power is threatened?  In class we broke into groups and discussed and predicted what we thought Metternich's decisions were, and they we posted it on Padlet.  We then discussed what really happened, and what the impact of the Congress of Vienna was.

One of the concepts was the Holy Alliance.  Metternich and the other leaders used this to eliminate a lot of the threats of revolution.  The Holy Alliance was initiated by Czar Alexander of Russia and it stated, Monarchs had the divine right to rule from god.  If anyone opposed this then they were considered to be committing treason to not only their country, but also defying the word of God.  All of the major powers in Europe who took part in the Holy Alliance, were allowed to send in troops into other countries in order to thwart any and all revolutions.  Except England did not take part in any of this.  They refused to use this concept to keep their power.

I think that maybe instead of using Holy Alliance to try and keep all of their power and not give many rights to the citizens, I think that they could have sacrificed some of their power.  They could have given more rights to the people so then they were more loyal and wouldn't revolt anyway.  Other than that I think that they did an adequate job at the Congress of Vienna.

Interactive Map 

Ideology Throw Down

The three main ideologies of the 19th century were Liberalism, Conservatism and Nationalism.  These three ideologies effected most of Europe after Napoleons conquering of most of it.  In class we were assigned into six groups and there were two groups that had the same ideology and we each had to come up with a one minute presentation to describe their ideology.  We then voted on the best one of the pair of presentations.

Conservatism Video

Our presentation describes how Conservatives didn't want change and they wanted to keep the same, old, ways of living. Also it shows how the kings and monarchs supported Conservatism and didn't want to lose their jobs.  

Liberalism is the support of meritocracy and Liberals wanted change to the current government, they promoted individual liberty and they wanted rights that weren't based of social class or social status.  Conservatism was the opposite of Liberalism.  The Conservatives believed in keeping everything the same way, not changing anything.  This was very important back then because the monarchs would lose all of their power if things changed so they supported Conservatism.  Finally, the Nationalists were connected to the Liberals.  They believed in the bringing together of a nation with language, customs, and history.  They thought that the nation would be a lot stronger if everyone was united.  This was important in the 19th centuries because Italy and Germany realized that since they weren't united nations, and all separate states, Napoleon was able to easily conquer them.

Napoleon's Influence

Napoleon Bonaparte was an amazing military leader and general, and won many victories.  Some found him to be a hero while others thought he was horrible.  Napoleon had a lot of influence on, not only France, but most of Europe also.  Napoleon had a large impact on the social, economic, and political systems of Europe.  Napoleon managed to establish the social policy, meritocracy.  This was really good, especially to the citizens, because they were now awarded based off of skill and not just your social class.  He also allowed citizens to have more rights to education and property.  There were mixed feelings about this because the old nobility were losing their benefits and becoming more equal to the lower class and they didn't like this at all.  However, all of the citizens were very happy at all of the social policy changes.  Napoleon also made changes to the economic systems of Europe.  For example, he encouraged new industry, built more roads and canals, and he also improved the sharing of ideas and new economic systems.  His changes to the political were both positive and negative however.  He overthrew the directory, which was positive for the citizens of France because they were a bad and corrupt government.  But this was also negative because he became an emperor and limited the leader's power.  There is a lot of debate over weather Napoleon was as a great of a leader as he's made out to be, but according to Madame de Stael's and Marshal Michel Ney's accounts of Napoleon, it is mostly biased depending on what your social class, or background is.

The Lost Voices of Napoleonic Historians

Capitalism, Socialism, Communism

In class the other day we played a game where the teacher distributed 3 pieces of candy to most students but to a couple she gave 10 pieces to.  This represented the majority of the people living in poverty and the small percentage of the wealthy.  Then we had to play rock, paper, scissors with people in the class, and if you won, you got to take a piece of their candy.  We did this for a while and a lot of people complained about always losing but a couple people got a lot more candy than when they started off with.  Next, the teacher collected all of the candy and redistributed it all equally.  This was unfair to the people who had a lot of candy, but the people who had little or none at all were happy about this.  This represented socialism and how the government, the teacher, controlled the economy and brought economic equality to everyone.  Then we had a choice to play rock, paper, scissors again and this represented communism because people agreed to have an equal amount of candy.  I thought that this activity was really fun, especially because we got to eat the candy afterwards.

Marx's theory of Capitalism, Socialism and Communism was meant to help the poor because if everyone agreed to have the same amount of money and not stand for people having a lot more, communism, then everyone would have the same amount of money and hopefully not be in poverty.  Also with his idea of Socialism, the government would control the economy and try to make it so that everyone had the same amount of money.  Smith's theory of the "invisible hand" states that the government would allow people to buy and sell goods as they please and then the consumers would look for the highest quality and lowest priced thing and buy that.  This way the economy would eventually equal itself out because people would increase the quality of their goods but lower the price, further helping the poor who could now afford to buy the goods.

I think the Smith's theory of the "invisible hand" is the best idea because that way, the market prices would go down because the manufacturers would have to compete with the lowest prices.  This way more people could afford the goods and this would help out the economy with more cash flow going around.  More money in peoples hands due to the drop in prices would then allow for people to buy more items and then the economy would eventually stabilize itself.  True, it might take a while, but this could be fixed with the government helping it along a little.

The Invisible Hand

US & GB Option 1

The working conditions were not very good in either country, however America seemed to have it a bit better.  For example, American mills let their workers have breakfast and longer breaks.  Also American workers had break for supper while in Great Britain they had to eat while they worked.  This is coming from the schedules of William Cooper in Great Britain, and Emily Nutter in Lowell, MA.  The workers in America got more breaks and more free time than the ones in Great Britain and this led to difficult working conditions in Britain.  Also, Charles Dickens write from Document A, "I solemnly declare I cannot recall... one young face that gave me a painful impression; not one young girl... I would have removed from those works if I had had the power."  He is saying that all of the workers look happy unlike the workers back in England.  A lot of the bad working conditions in the mills had to do with safety, especially in Great Britain.  There was a lot more peasants in Britain who needed work so workers were considered expendable, and because of this they didn't really try to increase the safety of the machines.  A lot of accidents would happen, for example peoples hair would get caught in the belts and they would get scalped, or their limbs would get stuck and crushed in a machine.  In the "Factory Accidents" reading it said that a lot of times the muscle and skin would be stripped down to the bone or fingers or limbs were lost.  There were safety issues in America too, but the fact that Britain saw the workers as expendable made it worse there.

MOSI Hangout

The other day we had a Google Hangout with some of the museum workers and to prepare for this we did some activities in class.  First we watched a video that Jamie, the museum worker, put up explaining the cloth production and all of the machines.  In class we took notes on all of the important words in this video to learn what they meant so we would be prepared to ask questions.  We had to come up with these questions before the hangout and we had to use the words in the questions.

I learned a lot during this chat, especially about the machines.  For example, I learned what hand cards were, they were two brushes that would brush the wool into straight lines and this was later taken over by the carding engine.  I also learned a interesting fact about the word 'Heirloom'.  It's called an heirloom because back in the day, the loom was considered the most valuable item a family had so it would be passed down generation to generation from father to son and eventually the word heirloom was used for anything that was passed down.  Another machine I learned about is the Arkwright's water frame.  We learned that Arkwright most likely just stole the idea from a poor worker and patented it as his own.  This kind of thing happened a lot, rich people would come and listen to a worker's idea and take it as their own because the workers were not rich enough to patent it themselves.  During the chat Jamie explained all of the dangers of working on the machines and all of the terrible things that happened.  We learned that children would have to clean under the machines and this was dangerous because it took 9 seconds for the machine to go out and it would only stay out for 1 second and then took 3 seconds to come crashing back in.  So the children had very little time to get out and clean before the machine crushed them.  Many kids would get severely injured or killed and one time a young boy couldn't get in and panicked and got up and got chopped in half.  Since this was such a dangerous job the children would try to run away so the mill owners would tie some kids to the machine so they wouldn't flee.  I learned a lot of cool, interesting and some disturbing facts about the mills and machines during the 1700's - 1900's.

Overall I liked this chat and I learned a lot in a fun and interesting way.  I liked how we could ask questions and have conversations with the expert instead of just reading something they published or watching a video because we can have clarifying questions and learn more.  I found it annoying how the call dropped or froze but that happens and I hope we do this again with more experts, I think it is a very helpful and fun thing to do.

MOSI Google Hangout - The Luddites

Museum Curator

For our exhibit, it shows a map of all the coal fields and coal mines in Great Britain.  It also gives a chart of the annual income for citizens in Great Britain along with a picture of a dirty, polluted river and also gives a journal entry about the filth of the River Thames.  Our poster is about how people were making little to know money, and living in filthy conditions due to all of the pollution of the coal mining and factories.  This is how we came up with our title, we decided to call it "Living in Filth" because not only is it polluted, but also because most people have no money and they might not have a house so they are literally living in the filth.  I hope that visitors will learn about all of the poor living conditions during the Industrial Revolution and how much pollution was being created.

I learned that they forces children, even some that were only nine years old to work in factories in poor conditions.  Even though they did make a Factory Act limiting the amount of time children could work, it was still very bad for the children to work like they were forced to.

I learned about the two great innovations for cotton production, the Arkwright's Water Frame, and the Boott Cotton Mill.  I also learned that they had to force a bunch of slaves into laboring at these factories and mills and it also shows a chart of the amount of slaves increasing over time in America which is really sad.

In this poster I learned about all the new textile innovations such as the Spinning Jenny, the Almond Loom, and the Spinning Wheel.  I also learned that these machines were so big and efficient that they had to make factories for them and invent new things just to keep up with the other machines.

I learned that the new invention, the steam engine, and the improved technologies increased the efficiency of trade and travel in Great Britain.  The steam engine was more efficient especially with the water it used and it was used for almost everything.

Cooking with History

The other day in History Class we learned about all of the "ingredients" in the Industrial Revolution, and how each was revolutionary.  The essential question for the activity was, "What was 'revolutionary' about Industrialization?"  There were a lot of good reasons why, and I will go over a couple of the ones we learned.


First, the new technology that was developed was very revolutionary.  All of the inventions played a big role in helping, but one of the most important one was the Steam Engine.  The steam engine was run off of coal and it improved the quality of mines.  It used water and heat (steam) to pump all of the water out of the mines and it increased efficiency of mining materials.  Another couple of big inventions were the Spinning Jenny, and John Kay's Flying Shuttle.  These two machines revolutionized the British Textile industry because they both were able to spin a lot faster than the 'putting-out' system.  These machines basically snowballed into factories and machines that could go even faster and faster and more efficiently.


Another 'ingredient' to the Industrial Revolution was all of the new resources.  These resources, such as coal and iron, were very important to the Revolution.  For example, Abraham Darby came up with a way to improve iron and make it better quality and less expensive.  He would use coal to smelt the iron from its ore and by doing this, he would remove all of the impurities from the iron, therefore making it stronger and last longer.  The other resource, coal, was probably the most important because it was the main energy source for everything.  From powering steam engines, to smelting iron and iron ore, coal was used for everything.  And since steam engines created an even more efficient way of mining coal, there was a lot of it in Britain.  These resources were very revolutionary because they had so many helpful uses.  

A Google a Day and the Tree Octopus

In our History class the other day we did the "Google a Day" activity to help us understand how to search and use online resources responsibly.  We had to find the answer to a question without using the regular Google search engine.  Next, we took a look at the "Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus" website to see if it was a reliable source.


"A Google a Day" is an activity where you are given a question and have to search it without using the regular Google search, so we had to figure out how to search better.  It was really frustrating trying to search using a device or tablet because it would always exit you out of typing. Then if you finally did type something, you couldn't scroll down.  I learned more about searching and the importance of key words.  It was a fun activity because we were racing so there was a competitive feel to it and then we got candy after wards.


Accuracy is when a website gives relevant and correct information.  Authenticity is when a website does what it's supposed to, and isn't misleading.  Reliability is when the author of a website is a specialist in what he/she is writing about and not someone's hobby that they don't have a career in.  The website for the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus can not be used in school because it may be Authentic, but it is not accurate because other websites contradict what it says.  Also, it isn't reliable either because the author is not a specialist in endangered animals or the Tree Octopus.  Here is a link to the website:  http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

Honors History 10: First Blog

Hi, I'm Kelvin Hoyt and I am a sophomore at Reading Memorial High School.  This blog is for my Honors History 10 class and also my first time blogging.  In history this year our teacher is going paper-free and everything is electronic.  I like this better because I don't have to worry about keeping track of another binder and all the handouts because it's online.  I am looking forward to this year.  Here is my first blog.


I think that there are many different qualities of being a great teacher, however I think that there are a couple of qualities that are most important.  The most important qualities of being a great teacher is that they are fun, helpful, open to new ideas and willing to try new things.  A great teacher's class would be fun, not necessarily laid back or easy, but fun and enjoyable.  Also, teachers need to be helpful and listen to the student's needs and what works best for them.  The last quality relates to what we are doing in History now, by going paperless and doing everything electronically.  It's good to try new things and not do everything the same old way, it's good to have a change.  My fourth grade teacher was one of my favorite teachers.  She knew how to have fun in class while getting work done.  She was also very helpful to all of the students and she knew the best way for everyone to learn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x78PnPd-V-A&feature=youtu.be

I agree with what John Green said about students duties in his Returning to School letter.  It is our duty to use the education we get to do great things.  I think that it is every student's duty to invent and innovate new and better things to make every day life easier and also make the world a better place.  We all definitely have the potential to do great things but we need to put the time and effort in to make it happen.
My academic goals for this year is to get straight A's and B's.  Last year it was a big change from middle school to high school and I didn't feel like I was prepared, but hopefully this year I am more prepared and will do better than I did Freshman year.  My athletic goals are to get a varsity letter in track, both winter and spring.  Last year I got to run in varsity meets however I missed getting a varsity letter by 3 points, so this year I am going to try and get the varsity letter.  I am going to reach my academic goal by studying more than I did last year, also becoming more organized and I can't procrastinate.  For my athletic goal, I need to go to every practice I can during the season and in the off-season I need to work out and become stronger and get into better shape.  All of this probably won't be easy but I have the potential to do it, I just need to put the time and effort in.