Assignment 8, People who Changed Antebellum America
Assignment 8, People who Changed Antebellum America
Embedded Files
Deadline, May 6, 120 Points
Essential Questions
What people and events played a prominent role in the years leading up to the Civil War?
How did those people's actions or the events of the time affect their time.
Description
The Compromise of 1820, Manifest Destiny, Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Bleeding Kansas - the list of events and policies that swept through America prior to the Civil War includes all of these and more. They seem to top the lists of the years prior to the Civil War.
But for this piece we are going to look at specific people and two of the lesser-known events of the years before America went to war with herself.
Objectives
Students will create an in-depth discussion for the class about their selected person or event with an especial focus on how that person or event shaped American's attitudes and actions in the years before the Civil War.
Instructions
You are going to become part of a group, randomly chosen from fellow class members, and your group is going to create a piece of instruction to teach your fellow classmates some good detail about the person or event your group - also at random.
You need to answer this basic question - How did your person, or event, shape the attitudes of Americans in the years leading up to the Civil War? You need to focus on specific actions, not just lots of wide open history terms. Be specific.
Just how you teach us is up to you, but you need to meet the following criteria.
You need to create a handout for the class. This should be about four or five paragraphs. You will share it with me, and it will go on the website. Depending on time, I may also print them for class members.
You need to create a simple, contextual, lesson that helps your class members understand the answer to the basic question.
You need to include at least two primary sources in your lesson AND explain how your primary sources help us understand the basic question. Most of these people wrote a great deal. If you get an event, you need to include two primary sources from the news of the time about the event.
Your lesson will be about 10-15 minutes long.
Here is the list of people and topics
Harriet Beecher Stowe
John Brown
Stephen Douglas
John O' Sullivan
Sojourner Truth
Videos for us
Fourth Hour
Table 1 The Caning of Charles Sumner
Table 2 Harriet Tubman
Table 3 William Lloyd Garrison
Table 4 John C. Fremont
Table 5 Dorothea Dix
Fifth Hour
Table 1 Stephen Foster
Table 2 Dorothea Dix
Table 3 Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Table 4 Caning of Charles Sumner
Table 5 Harriet Tubman
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If your group is a little sharp on this they might break up the lesson into smaller tasks for each member, and truly combine their work.
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&
Are you ready for this . . . ?
Your fellow students and I will evaluate each group's lesson. I will give you a copy of the evaluation criteria, and tell you how they work.
Here is a summary of the Kansas-Nebraska Act from senate.gov
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
May 30, 1854
In 1854 Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois presented a bill destined to be one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in our national history. Ostensibly a bill “to organize the Territory of Nebraska,” an area covering the present-day states of Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, and the Dakotas, contemporaries called it “the Nebraska bill.” Today, we know it as the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
By the 1850s there were urgent demands to organize the western territories. Land acquired from Mexico in 1848, the California gold rush of 1849, and the relentless trend toward westward expansion pushed farmers, ranchers, and prospectors toward the Pacific. The Mississippi River had long served as a highway to north-south traffic, but western lands needed a river of steel, not of water—a transcontinental railroad to link the eastern states to the Pacific. But what route would that railroad take?
Stephen Douglas, one of the railway’s chief promoters, wanted a northern route via Chicago, but that would take the rail lines through the unorganized Nebraska territory, which lay north of the 1820 Missouri Compromise line where slavery was prohibited. Others, particularly slaveholders and their allies, preferred a southern route, perhaps through the new state of Texas. To pass his “Nebraska bill,” Douglas needed a compromise.
On January 4, 1854, Douglas introduced a bill designed to tread middle ground. He proposed organizing the vast territory “with or without slavery, as their constitutions may prescribe.” Known as “popular sovereignty,” this policy contradicted the Missouri Compromise and left open the question of slavery, but that was not enough to satisfy a group of powerful southern senators led by Missouri’s David Atchison. They wanted to explicitly repeal the 1820 line. Douglas viewed the railroad as the “onward march of civilization,” and so he agreed to their demands. “I will incorporate it into my bill,” he told Atchison, “though I know it will raise a hell of a storm.” From that moment on, the debate over the Nebraska bill was no longer a discussion of railway lines. It was all about slavery.
Douglas introduced his revised bill—and the storm began. Ohio senator Salmon Chase denounced the bill as “a gross violation of a sacred pledge.” In a published broadside, Charles Sumner’s antislavery coalition attacked Douglas, arguing that his bill would make the new territories “a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves.” The fierce drama climaxed in the early morning hours of March 4. “You must provide for continuous lines of settlement from the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific Ocean,” Douglas pleaded in a final address. Do not “fetter the limbs of [this] young giant.” At 5:00 in the morning, the Senate voted 37-14 to pass the Nebraska bill. It became law on May 30, 1854.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. It also produced a violent uprising known as “Bleeding Kansas,” as proslavery and antislavery activists flooded into the territories to sway the vote. Political turmoil followed, destroying the remnants of the old Whig coalition and leading to the creation of the new Republican Party. Stephen Douglas had touted his bill as a peaceful settlement of national issues, but what it produced was a prelude to civil war.
Class Member Essays
Kaitlyn, Adam, Michaela
Dorothea Dix
Dorothea Dix was an activist for women, the mentally troubled, and was an American educator and nurse. She was a leader of a worldwide movement to help people with mental illnesses, establish hospitals, and advocate for women’s rights.
Dorothea Lynde Dix was born April 4, 1802 in Hampden, Maine and died July 17, 1887 in Trenton, New Jersey. She was a brave and smart individual who was actively engaged in helping in the medical field during the Civil War, although it came with many challenges such as; being put in prison, being executed, or being fined. At a young age, she had a rough home life. Her parents both suffered from alcoholism and her father was abusive, which led to her moving to Boston and staying with her grandmother. While in Boston, she attended school and helped tutor children. While teaching, she became sick multiple times and was no longer able to teach. During one of her times of sickness, her physicians suggested she spend time in England. While in England, she met with reformers who were curious about the way mental illnesses were dealt with. She was inspired by them and this led to her start.
Dix did something amazing in 1841, she visited a jail in Massachusetts to teach Sunday school. She saw the horrible conditions endured by the mentally ill, who were often confined with criminals in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, it made her determined to try and make a change. She went on a journey to expose these injustices, traveling excessively across the United States to document the conditions in asylums and penning created pleas to legislators and policymakers. Her efforts in the landmark report she presented to the Massachusetts legislature in 1843, which showed the horrors faced by the mentally ill and created a nationwide movement for improvement. Dix’s commitment led to significant legislative changes in many states, resulting in the establishment of humane institutions dedicated to the care and treatment of the mentally ill. Her tireless work transformed the landscape of mental health care in the United States, setting a rule for compassionate and respectful treatment for those with mental illness. Her work has affected the way we think about mental illness, meaning that people treat them more like actual people instead of just a waste of space and sticking them into unsanitary asylums that double as prisons.
Charles
Dorothea Dix
Dorothea Dix was significant in American history because she helped change how we treat people in need. She was born in 1802 in Maine and became famous for her efforts in improving mental health care and prisons. Hello
One big thing Dorothea did was fight for better conditions for people with mental illness. Back then, mentally ill people were often treated horribly. Dorothea visited them and saw the terrible conditions. She talked to lawmakers and convinced them to create new hospitals just for mentally ill people, where they could get special care and treatment.
Dorothea also cared a lot about improving prisons. She saw that prisoners (especially those who were mentally ill or poor) were mistreated and ignored. And so she tried to fix it.
Her efforts helped with the creation of special facilities for the mentally ill in prisons and better ways of treating prisoners with respect.
Because she was designated as the Superintendent of Army Nurses for the Union Army, she was able to help organize the hospitals during the Civil War.
What’s cool about Dorothea is that she didn’t just talk about change, she made it happen. She traveled nationwide, speaking out and convincing lawmakers to pass new laws. Thanks to her work, many states passed laws that improved conditions for people with mental illness and those in prisons.
Overall, Dorothea Dix made a huge impact on America. She helped encourage people to help people who need help instead of treating them poorly. She also became the superintendent of army nurses for the Union Army and was very important for organizing hospitals during the Civil War.
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman was born in March 1822 (slave’s exact birth dates were not kept) in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her birth name was Araminta Ross. She grew up to become one of the most famous conductors on the Underground Railroad and also served in the Civil War. She grew up enslaved on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. 3 of her sisters were sold into slavery during her childhood, but her parents fiercely resisted to keep the rest of the family together (“Harriet Tubman (c. March 1822 - March 10, 1913)”). She was hit in the head when a man threw a lead weight at an escaping slave and suffered seizures for the rest of her life. She had a condition called narcolepsy, which causes someone to suddenly fall asleep. She also had visions while she slept, which she believed were signs from God. She escaped to Philadelphia in 1849, and because she knew that slave catchers would know her name, she changed it to Harriet Tubman.
Harriet Tubman started as a housekeeper and worked in a laundry. She decided to sneak back to Maryland to rescue her niece, who was about to be sold along with her kids. She successfully helped them escape to Philadelphia, one of her many successes as an Underground Railroad conductor and abductor. Being an Underground Railroad abductor was a dangerous job, as they were the people who made first contact with the slaves that would be rescued. One Christmas Eve, she came back to help her 3 brothers escape. Her father put on a blindfold so he could be honest that he couldn’t have seen his son escape to freedom. On one of her trips, her tooth was killing her, so she had someone knock it out with a rock (Hale #21-97)! She ended up freeing 70 people from slavery on 13 trips. She adopted a daughter and has several descendants today.
Harriet Tubman had a big impact on America. She was a prominent figure in the abolitionist movement, and her taking risks to rescue enslaved people raised awareness about the cruelty of slavery. She also inspired others to get into the abolitionist movement. She also became famous for leading the Combahee River Raid in 1863, a raid in South Carolina that destroyed plantations and railroads, and freed 750 enslaved people. It helped damage the South’s war effort, and her other contributions, like spying, helped the war effort and end slavery in the US. She also was an activist of women’s suffrage and civil rights movements that were beginning to grow, and she helped empower generations of women and civil rights activists (Richardson). She will be on the 20-dollar bill shortly, replacing Andrew Jackson in what will become a great honor. She inspires people today and has become a symbol of courage and determination through adversity.
Works Cited
Hale, Nathan. The Underground Abductor (Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales #5): An Abolitionist Tale about Harriet Tubman. Harry N. Abrams, 2015.
“Harriet Tubman (c. March 1822 - March 10, 1913).” National Archives, 5 August 2022, https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/individuals/harriet-tubman. Accessed 3 May 2024.
Richardson, Christine. “Harriet Tubman’s Impact on American History: From the Underground Railroad to Women’s Suffrage.” Black History Month, 16 March 2023, https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/article/section/history-of-slavery/harriet-tubmans-impact-on-american-history-from-the-underground-railroad-to-womens-suffrage/. Accessed 3 May 2024.
Sebastion, Alexa, Brevin, Jillian, Kaylee, Kreed
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman was born in March of 1822, in Dorchester County, Maryland. She died on March 10, 1913 at the age of 91. She was buried in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York. She grew up in a large family of eight siblings Mariah Ritty, Ben Ross, Moses Ross, Rachel Ross , Henry Ross, Linah Ross, Soph Ross. She grew up very poor so at the young age of five or six she had to start working in the fields to earn money for her family. She suffered a brain injury at the age of thirteen. Her mother was able to nurse her back to health, but she was still suffering from epilepsy. This affected her life greatly. She suffered from debilitating seizures and other painful conditions for the rest of her life.
Harriet Tubman was born a slave, and worked as a kitchen staff for seven years, then went out into the fields. She also became the conductor of an underground railroad before the Civil War. Harriet Tubman helped a lot of people escape slavery before the Civil war. She always wanted to help free people from slavery because she knew that it was not right, being born into it. She thought it was unfair and she wanted to do something about it. She ended up saving about seventy slaves. She had a 40,000 dollar bounty because she rescued so many slaves.
Harriet Tubman’s birthday is not recorded into history, because she lived in a country that thought of her as less than human. What we do know is that she was born sometime in March, 1822. And she died March 10th 1913. Harriet Tubman married a free black man. She asked if he wanted to help free slaves, he refused. Harriet Tubman had Epilepsy and narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that makes people tired during the day.
Harriet Tubman and her husband John Tubman, adopted Gertie Davis. Gertie died in Florida June 9th in 1888 from tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a disease that gets in your lungs.
During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. Harriet Tubman was married to John Tubman till he died, and then she married Nelson davis. Nelson Davis was Gertie Davis’ dad.
Kortlen, Brett, Gabby ,Gabrielle, Britnee, Eva
The Caning of Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was a republican senator from Massachusetts who opposed slavery. In 1856 he gave a speech called the “Crime Against Kansas’’ about whether Kansas should be a slave state, the speech was criticizing Stephen Douglass, and Andrew Butler, he called them not fit to be senators and mockedthem while also denouncing slavery.
Preston Brooks was from South Carolina, the same as Andrew Butler. Brooks was severely offended by the speech, and instead of challenging Sumner to a duel he decided to get the sneak attack on him. After the senate had left, Sumner was in the chamber signing copies of the speech. Brooks got a cane that had a metal head on the top of it, walked in the room and smashed the cane down onto Sumner’s head.
Brooks hit Sumner so hard that he momentarily lost his sight. Sumner got up and could do nothing but run around the room trying to protect himself from the merciless beatings. After a moment of the beatings Brooks casually walked out of the room and left, while Sumner was hurt, bleeding badly and had to be carried out of the room.
Sumner was popular in the North, while in the South, Brooks was a hero, reflecting the deep divide in attitudes towards slavery and abolition. Although he would be back later, Sumner’s empty desk in the Senate chamber served as a physical symbol of the lingering tension between the two regions, foreshadowing the bloody conflict that would soon engulf the nation.
The Caning of Charles Sumner showed early tension between the north and the south in the years leading up to the Civil War. After the beating, Sumner was gone from the senate and Massachutses re-elected him in 1857. The whole incident would soon lead to more violent clashes over the issue of slavery. Sumner’s empty desk reminded everyone of the incident, and polarized the North and south as the Civil war approached.
John C. Fremont
By Halle, Ryker, Rockwell, and Brenner
John C. Fremont did a lot for America. He encouraged westward expansion, and had a big effect on civil rights movements. He was an abolitionist, and was very committed to what he believed in. He was so strongly opposed to slavery that he was fired from his job when he tried to outlaw slavery, even when he wasn’t in the position to do that (“John C. Frémont”). He also led many westward expeditions throughout his life, and was a general in the Civil War. Throughout his life, he changed the U.S.
John Fremont was born in 1813 to a family with two kids. He grew up in South Carolina and married Jessie Benton, the daughter of the senator of Missouri (Inskeep). He became a politician and eventually ran for president, though he didn’t get the position.
His wife did a lot of writing about going west, convincing people to go on the trek. He led many westward expeditions also, guiding people who decided to go west. Before the time of the Civil War, John C. Fremont was a well known person who went on a lot of adventures. He went through really tough terrain places like the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada mountains. He was making maps along the way to help other people find the way they needed to go. They even called him, “the Pathfinder.” They called him this because he was really good at finding new trails or routes. But he wasn’t just an explorer, he was also a well known soldier.
During the Mexican American war, he helped the United States take over California. With him being brave and having good ideas with planning, was a pretty big deal and helped America become a bigger and better place. People thought he was really cool because he became a well known hero. And after that, he even got into politics. All of his adventures before the Civil War helped him become famous and helped him for even more cool things after that.
Works Cited
Inskeep, Steve. “The Remarkable Life of Jessie Benton Frémont.” The Atlantic, 12 January 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/first-celebrity-first-lady/604003/. Accessed 3 May 2024.
“John C. Frémont | Explorer, Military Officer, Politician.” Britannica, 4 March 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-C-Fremont. Accessed 2 May 2024.
“John C. Frémont’s 1843–44 Western Expedition and Its Influence on Mormon Settlement in Utah | Religious Studies Center.” Religious Studies Center, https://rsc.byu.edu/far-away-west/john-c-fremonts-1843-44-western-expedition-its-influence-mormon-settlement-utah. Accessed 2 May 2024.
Josh
Dorothea Dix
Mentally ill people were thought to be how they are because they deliberately abandoned themselves to sin or they are possessed by demons. Because of that some doctors began to argue that the mentally ill need treatment not punishment.There were a lot of cases were people became insane and either they were forced to stay at home or they were sent to hospitals and neither of those options were good for the occupants of the jail around them and the occupants of the home.So as a solution Dorothea campaigns the states to make mental hospitals so the mentally insane or disturbed don’t have to be around others and can maybe get better and become sane again.Not only was it bad for the other prisoners in the jails with the mentally insane people but also for the officers that are there with the constant clinking and bangs from chains and screams from those insane people doing such along with the other prisoners racket and such.Not only was it bad for others but it was terrible for those who were considered insane or were insane because they were restrained by straight-waistcoats and collars around their necks the collars being attached to their bed frame with either a chain or straps. Their feet were also fastened together with iron leg-locks. “Also a man has in that County, very recently become so violently mad as to be quite unmanageable, and having no Hospital in the State, they have confined him, with, chains and manacles, hand and feet, and do as best they can.”(NCpedia)There was also a man who went insane and was insane for who knows how long because this is a written case from a while back and it was never updated nor will it ever probably but as the case states for 13 years a man goes insane and his family choose to not send him to jail because they thought that that was too cruel so they put in his childhood house/farm house in the forest.
Work Cited
“NCpedia.” NCpedia | NCpedia, https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/primary-source-dorothea-dix. Accessed 2 May 2024.
Dexton, Charlie, Angel, Ramon
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Jhonstown NewYork on november 12 1815 she died october 26th 1902.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an abolitionist that was a human rights activist. She was apart of one of the first women’s right movement. Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were like co-workers and Elizabeth was the brains of the operation. She was apart of the long road to the 19th amendment.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was apart of a slave owning family her father owned many slaves. Elizabeth moved to Peterboro New York in 1839, while she was there she met, Henry Brewster Stanton who she then married in 1840. Henry became an attorney after studying law with Elizabeth’s father.
When she had her wedding she had “obey” taken out of the vows. When they went on there trip also called a honey moon she was not recognized as a person at the anti-slavery convention.
Maryanna
William Loyd Garrison
The Liberator was first published on January 1, 1831. This was an abolitionist (anti slavery) newspaper that focused on equal rights. In one of the first articles published it stated: I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. . . . I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD.”
Reading The Liberator can help us understand more about Garrison and how he influenced people before the Civil War. He was very anti-slavery and truly the voice of Abolitionism, he stood up for what he believed in and told others his beliefs.
“LET ME DEFINE MY POSITIONS”.
He wanted to complete the freedom for slaves and wanted all Americans to also support this as well. He said he is a believer in that portion of the Declaration of American Independence.
William also believed “That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” William wanted to make his opinion public to possibly help others’ opinions be shaped to what will help our country the best.
Hudson Samantha, Connor
Stephen Foster
Stephen C. Foster “the father of American music” or “America’s First Composer”. He wrote over 200 songs, songs you may know. Songs like Oh! Susanna, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, Beautiful Dreamer, My Old Kentucky Home, Old Folks at Home, Way down upon the Swanee River, Camptown Races, and Old Black Joe. Foster’s songs were the first songs that were “American themed”, meaning that his songs weren’t fancy like Mozart or Beethoven. His songs were more country and homely, unlike other composers.
Stephen C. Foster was born on July 4th 1826, in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania to a family of 13. His father, mother, and other 10 siblings. Foster was the youngest of 11 children from his father and mother, William Barclay Foster and Eliza Clayland Tomlinson Foster. Foster’s father was a State Legislature and the mayor of Allegheny City. While his mother was a stay at home mom doing regular chores, inside and outside, and taking care of the children. Women did not have jobs back then, and only worked at home.
Example 1 : he was very influential with his music and developing what music is and will be in the future. He shaped the music of the late 1800s and his music stayed relevant long after his death. His music sung about American life,slavery,and plantation life. Well he believed slavery to be bad he still owned slaves and believed aAfricans to be an inferior race.
Example 2: Stephen’s southern music, was the first music that showed true American spirit. His songs were very original. He became famous by writing blackface minstrel songs, doing what white boys from Irving Berlin to Elvis Presley to Michael Bolton have been doing ever since. He was mimicking black music. But most of his songs had great sympathy for African Americans. Stephen was not respected for his work, and eventually started writing love songs.
Works cited
https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200035701/
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