Forty Acres and A Mule

I suspect that I will not be able to cover all of the content that I would like to cover tomorrow - I'm very much looking forward to your presentations, though!  I thought that instead of trying to fit it in tomorrow I would use the blog to answer the other question that was raised at the end of class last week.  This had to do with the passage in section III,

"Many freedmen erroneously thought each family would be given 'forty acres and a mule' to begin new lives as independent farmers.  Instead teh Freedmen's Bureau tried with varying success to persuade black agricultural workers to return to the fields in return for reasonable wages.  In trying to help the freedmen, the bureau often found itself also trying to aid cash-strapped white Southern farmers.

This might have been the formula for a Southern renaissance.  A federal government plan to help both white and black Southerners might have been an earlier Marshall Plan.  But it was tragically not to be."

I'm going to do my best to make this clearer.  Bennett, as he often does, assumes that the reader has more background information than most of us really do!  The term 'Fortry Acres and a Mule' (according to Wikipedia) originated during the last stages of the war as a part of Sherman's March to the Sea campaign.  Sherman's Special Field Orders No. 15 provided arable land and the army also sometimes provided a mule to former slaves as the Union front advanced south.  According to Wikipedia this was never supposed to be an official US political policy that would extend to all emancipated slaves, but was a strategic policy used to during Sherman's campaign.  After Lincoln's assasination, Johnson revoked the land grants and returned the land to the original owners.

It seems that many people assumed that the Freedman's Bureau was set up to establish the Fortry Acres and a Mule Policy, but this was never the case.  The Freedmen's Bureau was started by Lincoln and was supposed to be in effect for one year after the war.  It was supposed to help emancipated slaves find food, healthcare, housing and jobs.  It also helped reunite families.  Even though Johnson vetoed the Bureau, Congress overrode his veto and the Bureau was in place for six years.  It was disbanded during Grant's administration.

My source for the remaining piece of the puzzle (other than Bennett and his references) is a website called Teaching US History.  I think their lesson on Reconstruction is a bit easier to understand than Bennett.  The Southern economy depended on agriculture and particularly on large scale plantations for which the most needed resource was labor.  Without labor the entire Southern economy was broken.  Slaves were emancipated and given their freedom and were no longer required to work on the plantations but they were not provided with another way to earn any income.  So you have large farms idle and a large labor population idle - a sure recipe for disaster.  The Freedmen's Bureau was used as a labor contractor so that former slaves could find work on plantations.  I am assuming here for the moment, but it seems likely that they helped establish wages and work hours and such.  Operating in this fashion - in aiding the emancipated slaves - the Freedmen's Bureau was also helping the southern plantation owner.

This is why Bennett compares it to the Marshall plan, but since we haven't reached that point in history most of you probably have no idea what the Marshall plan is.  Very simply the Marshall plan was an economic policy/plan that the US put in place after WWII which worked to rebuild European economies to make it less likely for communism to spread into Europe.

I hope I have answered questions rather than raising more, but if you still have questions let me know!

Role of Racism

Some of you have started on the Role of Racism lesson already.  I'm going to try and help you through the first two stereotypes to see if you can get the hang of how this works. 

First of all a stereotype is when we define or label an entire group based on simplified, generalized, and or exaggerated characteristics.  Often times exaggeration is at play.  Remember our lesson with the political cartoons?  Ask yourself what is being exaggerated in the description.  What is implied by that exaggeration? 

For Sambo take a look at the words used to describe him.  What is being exaggerated in this description and post your ideas in the comment box.

For Uncle Ned you may want to look up and read through all of the lyrics of 'Uncle Ned' HERE.  What is the action, what's happening in this song?  What might it mean?

Please don't stress about this assignment, there isn't one right answer.  We will use it to guide class discussion and it will be 'graded' for completion and effort!

Homework for February 21st

TIMELINE
We will begin class with a short review of the timeline of Civil War up to the Emancipation Proclomation.  To that end please review the timeline from two weeks ago.  To this timeline we will be adding a few events taking us to the Gettysburg Address and the beginning of Chapter 10.  Below is  a list of additional battles (I have assigned one to each  of you).  Prepare a short description of your battle (include the date of battle, who was in command, what happened there,  why it was important to the war) so that it can be printed and placed on an index card.  Email these to the class (including me) by Friday evening.

Vicksburg --  Nick
Fredericksburg --  Kaela
Antietam --  Hope
7 Days Battle -- Caleb
McLellan at Yorktown and Richmond advance -- Jonathan
Shiloh -- Julia
2nd Bull Run --Trey

HOW BAD WAS IT?
I will emailing you a follow up to this assignment.  Please read the handout and answer the three questions that accompany it.  Have them ready to turn in at the beginning of class.

VOICE OF SLAVERY & ROLE OF RACISIM
This week we will begin a deeper discussion about Racism in the United States.  This theme is something that we will follow all the way through the end of next year's class.  It's difficult to talk about - the words themselves are offensive to us.  In your reading you will see the 'n' word and other offensive, derogatory terms.  This assignment isn't given to shock you, but to help us all face some hard truths about our history.  I think if we use it wisely it can equip us to talk about and even to minister to the residue of these events and attitudes in our own time and culture.  If it makes you feel uncomfortable please talk about it with your parents - share with them what you are reading.  Unfortunately much of history is ugly.

There are two venues that we will use to begin this conversation.  One is the 'My Folks' book, the other is a handout I emailed to you about the role of racism during the Civil War.  If you follow the checklist below it will guide you to completing the racism handout with much less stress.  If you wait to Monday to start this you won't be able to do a very thorough job.  Below are the chapters I would like you to choose from in the My Folks book.  Email me which interview you would like to read.  If you do not have the book let me know so that I can email you a chapter.

Ann Parker (a103?)
Henry James Trentham (age 92)
Elias Thomas (age 9)
Mary Barbour (age 81)
Hannah Crasson (age 84)
Isaac Johnson (age 82)
Mary Anderson (age 86)

Answer the following questions about your reading and be prepared to share in class:

What can you learn about the Civil War from your interview?
About Slavery?
What evidence to you find about whether the slaves were treated with dignity or not - was their humanity recognized?  (In other words what things were they allowed to do/not to do and did that recognize that they were a person created in the image of God?)
Do you see prejudice or racism in your interview?  (Look up definitions of these words.)

___Prepare Battle Card
___Email Class Battle Card
___Make cards and bring all to class
___How Bad Was It?
___Read My Folks Interview & Answer Accompanying Questions. 
___Racisim Part I Completed by Thursday
___Racisim Part II Reading of Sources A-H and complete #7 the Causes of the Racism by Friday evening
___Racisim #'s 8-11 by Monday evening
___Email me your Oral Family History idea by the 21st
___Spend 20-30 minutes reviewing for Final  (suggested)
___Spend 20-30 minutes working on Oral History Project (suggested)

Across Five Aprils

I know that many of you have younger siblings who are reading this book in literature. If this is being read aloud I urge you to make every effort to sit close by and listen!  This book which is set in the Civil War is based on real events.  Irene Hunt, the author, wrote the book based on stories told to her by her grandfather.  I have not read it before myself, but am reading it aloud in our home and it covers many issues we have been talking about in class!

Despot

This word keeps coming up in all of my reading in and around the Civil War.  Have you noticed it, too?  Do you know what it means?  I felt I understood it, but when I tried to explain it I had a harder time than I thought I would - a sure sign that I didn't have a really good grasp on the meaning.  So...

Despot:  Despotism is a form of government in which someone (it can be on person or a group of people) whole rule with absolute power.  So to go back to your studies last year and two examples would be Robespierre and Cromwell.  The word has a Greek origin which means 'master' or 'the one with the power'. 

This word has a negative meaning, or at least we use it in a negative way.  I don't think it would be a compliment to say, "Your such a great despot!"  Two words which mean the same thing that you are probably more familiar with are tyrant and dictator.

In this time period this word was being batted back and forth accusingly by both sides.  As you continue to read over the next few weeks look out for it.  Would you say that there was anyone acting as a despot in the United States during this time?  Why would this be such a common word in the writing from and about this time period?

As the semester has gone on I have not kept up with vocabulary very well.  Be on the look out for interesting words - especially those that seem to turn up often in different places!  Email them or bring them up in class, especially words you don't understand.

Understanding American Indian Nations

One of the themes that we will be exploring over the next two years is American Diversity.  We are going to be exploring the culture, history, and struggles of many people groups, but it only makes sense that in the beginning we begin at the beginning - with the American Indian.



You have already been learning and exploring the various peoples that populated the Americas before European exploration.  You know a bit about how their ways of life varied from region to region, you know a bit (I hope) about their beliefs, their governments, their arts.  As our year begins you will meet tribe after tribe, nation after nation, people after people - but almost always through conflict.  That was why I felt it so important that you begin the summer by studying who these people were before Europeans arrived.  I didn't want you to only meet them through conflict.

But now as you are nearing completion of your first chapter the conflicts have already begun.  As we study history, I think it is important that we don't take our eyes off of current events.  History has not stopped being made, and the conflicts between American Indian nations, tribes and peoples and the government of the United States of America has not come to an end.  One of the things we need to try and grasp is exactly what a reservation is.  What does that mean - a reservation?  How can we have a soverign nation inside the United States of America?  How does that work?



(Photgraph from the Buffalo Post Blog by photographer Heather Ainsworth)



In the news today I heard of an ongoing struggle between the State of New York and the Seneca Nation.  Do you know anything about the Senecas?  I know that they were one of the Iroquois tribes, but I'm going to try and learn a bit more.  On All Things  Considered I heard a news story about the Seneca Nation trying to gain control of a hydroelectric power plant operated from the Kinzua dam built in the 1960's.  The building of that dam flooded Seneca land and the U.S. Government seized land and burned their homes in order to make that project happen.  The Seneca Nation did receive a monetary compensation, but they fought against this in court for 20 years.  Now the contract for the management of the dam is up for bid and the Seneca Nation is trying to compete in the bid for the management of the dam.  And it's not just the dam - there are disputes about a highway that crosses Seneca land (they want to charge rent for it), and also they are contesting being taxed on the sales of tobacco made in their nation.  There are many more questions than answers, but I think we should begin by trying to understand reservations, soverign American Indian nations who have their own governments and constitutions, and the interraction between their governments and ours.  How does it all work?

To listen to the All Things Considered episode go here.

To read an article in the NY Times about the dispute over the highway go here.

 And it's not just electricity, tobacco, and highways.  There are also oil deposits that were found on Seneca lands which have been drilled.  In fact, the first oil wells in the world were drilled there just north of Pittsburg, PA.  You can read a bit about that in a Washington Post article here.

You can see maps of Seneca territories here.

And if you would like to look at a list of Seneca treaties you can visit this page on their website here.

I'm going to try and learn a bit more about reservations and also about the Seneca people.  In particular I'm going to read some about Ely Parker who was a Seneca Chief during the Civil War.  I read that he was a Civil War hero who fought in the front lines with General Grant, but his story seems to be a complicated one.  PBS filmed a documentary about him called Warrior in Two Worlds.

If you hear of any American Indian issues in the news - make note of them in your 'Current Events' tab so that you can share during some of our class discussions.