Three Questions

What does it take to realize life? How do you realize life? Do you think anyone, ever really can realize life?

To realize life it takes living life to the fullest and it takes a person that is willing to take that risk that no one else would. To realize life you need to exsperiance life to the fullest, to gain all the knowledge of exspericance in all of the aspects of life. You can only realize life when you have exsperianced all of the parts of life.



There's something way down deep about every person... How would you define that thing that makes us uniquely human, that connects us as humans, that makes us a part of the circle of life?

What makes us uniquely human, connects us as humans or makes us a part of the circle of life; our ability to care and love, to think things over and make choices based on past experiences makes us uniquely human. The humans ability to care for others connects us as humans, when one human is in danger or harm has come to them we as humans have the natural instinct to help. When hurricane Katrina hit Americans from all over donated clothes, food, water and time to help the people rebuild their city and their homes. Our interactions with the environment and animals makes us a part of the circle of life. What makes us uniquely human, our ability to understand what is happening around us. Humans can understand and interpret what we see, hear, feel, taste our understanding makes us the unique creature that we are.


This is the way we were What things (referring specifically to the list we made for the bulletin board items) do you think were handled the same or differently in the past as compared to now?

Things today are handled very different then in the past. Take daily life for example, twenty years ago people did not have the fancy computers, ipods and wireless internet that we have today. Twenty years ago daily life consisted of going outside to do entertain yourself rather then just sit in front of the tv play the play station. When people wanted to talk to each other they would go and meet in person rather then text on their cell phones. These are just little aspects of daily life that have changed. Although how we handle things has changed some have stayed the same. Holidays have mostly stayed constant throughout the years. In the past and today people have always celebrated Christmas to be with their family, Thanks giving to give thanks to all that they are thankful for and Halloween just to have fun and dress like a completely different you. We handle things differently then in the past yet on the other hand we handle other aspects in the same way as we have in the past.

Identifies week two

John Cabot: Italian explorer and the first European to discover North America in 1497.

Giovanni Verrazano: Italian explorer who explored the American in the service of the king of France.

Jacques Cartier: Explorer who claimed Canada for France.

Jamestown, 1607: 1st permanent English settlement.

Walter Raleigh: Helped in the colonization of Jamestown.

Croatoan: Indian tribe from Croatoan Island.

Indentured Servitude: Immigrants coming to America to work as laborers.

Wahunsonacock: Indian tribe.

Powhatan: Indian tribe.

Ferdinand Magellan: Portuguese explorer who tried to find a westward route to the Spice Islands of Indonesia.

John Rolfe: 1st successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop. Husband of Pocahontas.

Puritans: Religious group wanting more purity.

Mayflower Compact: 1st governing document of Plymouth Colony.

William Bradford: Military commander of the Plymouth forces.

John Winthrop: Led a group of English puritans to the New World.

The Great Migration: 7 million African Americans out of Southern United States to the North, Midwest, and the West.

Anne Hutchinson: Unauthorized puritan minister of a dissident church. Pioneer settler in Massachusetts Bay.

Week one identifies

Identifies: Week One

Marco Polo: An italian who was an adventurer and merchant from Venice. He spent twenty years traveling through China and central Asia.

The Columbian Exchange: The exchange of goods across the Atlantic Ocean. Different foods got introduced to new parts of the world. European nations gained wealth and power off of the Americans metal and other resources. Agriculture products from the Americans improved nutrition around the world. The Columbian Exchange was very important and transformed the world.

Hernando Cortez: Also known as Hernan Cortes was a professional soldier in Spain. He gathered troops and fought Indians on the Mexican coast in 1519. He was a conquistador whcih means a spanish conqueror. He conquered the Aztecs and controlled all of central Mexico.

Pueblo Revolt in 1680: When the Pueblo Indians got fed up with Spanish demands and taxes they drove the Spanish out of Sante Fe and then had a series of attacks on them.

Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494: Spain and Portugal drew a "line" that separated the world. Territory that was explored west of the line would belong to Spain and east of the line would belong to Portugal.

African Diaspora during the 1500's through 1800's: Portugals result in major economic activity from slave trade and they were resettled to the Americans. It is estimated that 10 million or more Africans were shipped to the Americas.

Magna Carta: A charter the English nobles made Kings John limiting the power of the monarch.

Anasizi; between 800 and 1100 A.D: A Native American group who began to make multistory rock and adobe dwellings. They are the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians.

Mestizos: They are below the Spaniards in the Spanish America social class. They could work at the highest positions in the Spanish society but were msotly artisans, estate supervisors, traders or shopkeepers.

Ibu Battuta: Moroccan traveller. He covered 75,000 miles of the Muslim world in the 1300's.

Zhena He: Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, and fleet admiral. Early 1400's.

Spanish Inquisition in 1478: Was established to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in the Kingdom under control of the Spanish Monarchy.

Tomas de Torquemada 1400's: Spanish Dominican, first inquisitor general of Spain. He was a confessor to Isabella of Spain.

Mound-Builders: American Indians who constructed various styles of earthen mounds for Burial in 3000 BC to the 16th Century.

Tenochtitlan: Located on an island in Lake Texcoco. Founded 1325 and was defeated in 1521.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Authors Intent
Heidi Wyman

Dee Brown was born on February 28, 1908 in Alberta, Louisiana. He grew up in Arkansas where he aspired to be a librarian. He used his time in the library to find the truth about the Indian tribes he was meeting. Brown then attended George Washington University where he studied and earned his bachelor's degree in library science in 1937. Brown published his first book, Wave Hight the Banner, in 1942 and followed it up with many more novels and nonfiction books about the American west. Brown acquired his Masters at the University of Illinois where he worked in the library and eventually becoming the professor of library science from 1962 to 1975. While Brown was at the University he wrote his best known book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, this was his greatest achievement that revealed the story of the Indians in America.

Dee Brown thought it was important to inform people of the injustices and betrayals by the U.S. government. Many people have heard stories of the Indians but never from the Indian point of view. Dee Brown met with the Indians of the west and was shocked by their oral narratives because he had never heard their side of the story, the mutilations, betrayals and bad treatment. Dee Brown felt it was important for the rest of the world to know of the true treatment the Indians received from the Americans and published his book Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.

Dee Brown showed the mistreatment of the Indians in many different places. He addressed the bad quality of the reservations the Indians were forced to live on. In one reservation "there was not enough to eat in the empty land- no wild game, no clear water to drink, and the agent did not have enough rations to feed them all."(1) This was not all that troubled the Indians on the reservation. "To make matters worse, the summer heat was unbearable, and the air was filled with mosquitoes and flying dust."(1) Brown showed many times that the quality of living for the Indians was very poor because the Americans wanted their land. Part of the intent of his book was to point this out to the public.

A second Intent of Dee Brown was to show the amount of treaties that the Americans made with the Indians and then broke. Almost all of the treaties that were made with the Indians were at some point broken and usually ending in a battle where many Indians were killed. The best example of this is the Battle of Wounded Knee. The American soldiers took the Indians weapons away from them and promised them peace. They then turned their back on them and attacked the Indians who had no way of defending themselves. This is known as the last Indian vs. American battle the end of the killing off of the Indians in America.

When Dee Brown published his book in 1970, many people had no idea of how the Indians were treated and forced out of their land by betrayal. The intent of his book was to inform the people of what the Americans, our government and military had done to the Indians, how badly they treated them and deceived them. Brown told the story no one wanted to hear, how the Americans murdered a whole culture just so we could have their land. He was successful at his intent to inform the public of the treatment of the Indians and revealed a disturbing history. He also fulfilled his intent to tell that disturbing history from the point of view of the Indians.





Bibliographies


(1) Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee : An Indian History of the American West. New York, NY: Owl Books, 2003.

"Dee Brown." Enotes. 2008. 28 Aug. 2008 <http://www.enotes.com/bury-heart/author-biography>.

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Part Two
Heidi Wyman

The battle of Wounded Knee was the last mass extinction of Indians in America. This Battle eliminated the last major tribe of Indians, the Sioux. The Americans attacked the Sioux tribe, first taking all of their weapons so they could not fight back and then used their own weapons to kill all of the Sioux Indians. The tragedy at Wounded Knee was severe, but this was not the only time in history that we have seen a mass extinction of this extent. Hitler exterminated a great amount of Jewish people with the Holocaust, making it an event in history very similar to the extinction of the Indians.

The Holocaust and the Indian elimination have many things in common. The first similarity is the goal of the Americans and the Nazi's. Both groups wanted to wiping out/eliminating a race from the earth. The Americans wanted to eliminate the Indian race, so they could acquire their land and its riches. The American soldiers believed that "unless (the Indians were) removed by the government, they must necessarily be exterminated."(1) The Americans followed through with this plan coming very close to eliminating the Indian race. The Nazi's on the other hand wanted to eliminate the Jewish race because of strong hatred toward the Jewish from their leader. Hitler states in his speech before he was elected to power in Germany that if he was "ever really in power, the destruction of Jews will be (his) first and important job." He said "I will have gallows erected.... The Jews will be hanged one after another."(2) Again the Nazi's tried and killed much of the Jewish population in Germany. The Nazi's and the Americans had a very similar goal, elimination of a group of people.

When the Americans and Nazi's did not immediately kill their hostages, they would send them to live in horrible places. The American troops that captured hostages or tribes, would send and contain them in a small piece of land called a reservation. Most of the time these reservations were not fit for anyone or anything to live on. On one of the reservations the Indians were sent to live on, "there was not enough to eat in the empty land- no wild game, no clear water to drink, and the agent did not have enough rations to feed them all."(1) This was not all that troubled the Indians on the reservation. "To make matters worse, the summer heat was unbearable, and the air was filled with mosquitoes and flying dust."(1) There were many other reservations with conditions as bad as this one and worse. When the Nazi's did not sent the Jews to the gas chambers, they sent them to places like the reservations only they were called concentration camps. These concentration camps forced the Jewish people to do jobs for them without any payment. Jews who were sent to Auschwitz faced harsh working conditions, starvation and mistreatment. These people were also branded with a tattoo of a number, an ID number used to tell them apart. These tattoos were placed on the Jews in many different ways, one way was for the Nazi's to burn the number into the Jews chest and then dump ink into the open wound. This was only the start to the bad quality of the concentration camps, the Nazi's did not provide enough food or clothing, heart or other living essentials . The Indians and Jewish people were forced to live in horrible conditions, conditions no one should ever have to live in.

The Americans and Nazi's not only made life horrible for the Indians and Jews, they killed thousands of people. The Americans attacked the Indian race killing and mutilating including the women and children. This is best seen at the battle of Wounded Knee, the Americans went into the Indian camp and removed all of their weapons from them and then later they attacked this unarmed group killing almost all of the Indians, the men, the women and the children. The survivors were taken to a reservation where they were to live until death. The Jews were sometimes shot but usually were eliminated in a more efficient/consistent way. The Nazi's did not want to chance anyone living and they decided to build gas chambers where they would enclose the Jews and gas them to death. The Nazi's again showed no sympathy for the women and children, they saw the women as weak people who would not work with children and sent the women with children to the gas chambers first. The Nazi's then sent anyone they though were going to be to weak to work into the gas chambers next. The remaining people, mostly men, were sentenced to work for the Nazi's until death, which came within a year for most. The Americans savagely killed the Indians while the Nazi's savagely killed the Jews.

Although these two events had similarities they also had some differences. The Americans and the Nazi's both wanted to eliminate a race from the earth but they had different reasons. The Americans wanted to eliminate the Indians because they owned very valuable land, land that was excellent for growing crops, land that contained gold and silver and land the Americans could live one. The Americans attacked the Indians to strip them of their land, so the Americans could gain wealth. The Nazi's on the other hand had a very different reason for wanting to eliminate the Jews. The Nazi leader, Hitler, had a great hate for the Jews and was blaming them for the economical issues of Germany. He led his population to their problems stemmed from the Jews and that they should work to eliminate them. The Nazi's and the Americans had very different reasons for trying to eliminate the different races.

The Amount of people that survived the attacks of the Americans and Jews were different. The Indians were almost exterminated by the Americans. The Indian survival rate was very low, when the Americans were done attacking the Indians there were only a few hundred Indians left in each tribe, a number significantly lower then the amount the tribes started with. The Jews on the other hand had many more survivors. The Nazi's killed around six million Jews, some Jewish people surviving in Germany and around the world. The Jewish race had more survivors because their were Jews in other parts of the world and some of them ran away to other countries to survive. Unfortunately, the Indians, who were native to America ran out of places to run to. Today the Native American population is still much smaller.

The last difference between the events was that the Indians fought back while the Jewish people had very little means of fighting back. The Americans started their relationship with the Indians peacefully, this allowed the Indians to acquire guns and other weapons made by the Americans. These weapons allowed the Indians to fight back every step of the way while the Americans were attacking them and trying to steal their lands. The Jews on the other hand were striped of everything on them when they were taken to the concentration camps and they had no way of fighting back. Some of the Jewish population amazingly survived in the concentration camps, by hiding or running away however they were never able to attack/fight against their tormentors as the Native Americans did.

The removal/elimination of Native Americans and the extermination of the Jews by the Nazi's are similar historical events. In both events, a stronger more powerful group of people tried to eliminate another. Although there were some differences, the overall goal and outcome of the two events were very similar the attempted extermination of a race. These events had long term effects on the world.

Citations

(1) Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee : An Indian History of the American West. New York, NY: Owl Books, 2003.

(2) Dr S D Stein. "Statements by Hitler and Senior Nazi's Concerning Jews and Judaism." Learning, Teaching and Researching on the Internet. Nov. 1998. 24 Aug. 2008 <http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/statements.htm>.

A Midwifes Tale
Quintessential American
Heidi Wyman

When looking for a quintessential American you look for someone who supports the American dream. Martha Ballard is a perfect example of a quintessential American. Martha's life, involvement with the community and job all support the American dream of being successful in society. Martha shows tremendous work ethic in all aspects of her life making her a well respected and great example of an American.

Martha Moore was born in Massachusetts and lived the beginning of her life there. Martha married Ephriam Ballard in 1754 and became Martha Ballard. She gave birth to her first child in 1756 and had four more children in the next ten years. Martha had four girls, three of which died in 1769 from the diphtheria epidemic. Martha gives birth to a child in 1769 and another in 1771 and finally she gave birth to her youngest son on January 1 of 1785. The Ballard family moves to Hallowell, Maine where Ephriam takes over a mill and Martha begins her midwife career. Martha records all of her deliveries and house calls as well as her housework in her diary now known as, A Midwifes Tale. Martha delivered her first child as a midwife in July of 1778 and continued to deliver children for the next thirty four years. She performed eight hundred and fourteen deliveries in Hallowell during her midwife career as well as tending to wounds, illnesses and sores of her neighbors. Martha also had a business in textiles, weaving, knitting and dress making. Martha taught all of her girls how to knit, weave and make dresses so they would be able to support themselves. Martha spent the rest of her time being a mother and taking care of the house. In the end of her life, Martha focuses on her garden while she finishes off her midwife career making her last deliveries in the beginning of 1812 and her last diary entry on May 7th. Martha died a few weeks after making her last diary entry.

Martha Ballard had many jobs including being a midwife, healer, mother, weaver, book keeper and keeper. During her career as midwife, she performed eighth hundred and fourteen deliveries in Hallowell, Maine. Being a midwife was not just a simple job of performing deliveries but also as a healer she tended to all of the neighbors wounds, illnesses and sores, even through the hardest times of the year when the snow was up to your knees in a blizzard. Martha worked hard to make the most deliveries with the least amount of losses, she reported every delivery she attend or performed. An example from her diary shows her diary style, "At Whites. His wife was delivered at 12 O Clok of a daughter and I was Called back to Mr. Parkers. His Lady was delivered at 0 hour 30 minutes of a daughter. I am some fatagud." (1) In this one example Martha delivered two separate children for two different families the Whites and the Parkers. Midwifes not only attended and performed deliveries they also tended to all of their neighbors and family members in times of illness, " At Mr. Hinkleys. Shee remaind poorly till afternoon then by remedys & other means shee got Easyer. I tarried all night" (1) Another part of Martha's job was being a textile maker. Martha and all of her daughter weaved for themselves and others. "Dolly wove her 7 yds of Diaper.", "Dolly warpt a piece for Mrs Pollard of 39 yards.", "Hannah began to weave Cyrus' web", " I have been at home knitting". (1) Hannah, Dolly and Martha spend their time knitting and weaving for others only when they marry do they make themselves blankets. "The girls quilted a two quilts.... They began to quilt at 3 hour pm. Finished and took it out at 7 evening." " The next day they put the quilt into the fraim." (1) Martha's jobs supported her family and gave her a consistent income to rely on. Martha's jobs support the American dream, she had both a successful textile business as well as a successful midwife business.

Another part of Martha's life that supports the American dream and her being a quintessential American is her family life. When Martha was not out with her midwife business, she was at home with her family taking care of her children, her house and growing food and cotton. Martha had four children to take care of and teach the skills they would need to live on their own. Martha spent most of the time with her girls teaching them how to make textiles-quilts, blankets and dresses- a skill they could use to provide money for their own family when they got older. Martha's home life also included taking care of which ever house she was living in. Martha had to cook and clean the house, she had some help from her daughters when they were living with her but when they were not she had all the work to do by herself. Martha also kept a garden where she could grow food that her family would need. Martha tended to her garden and relied on her garden when she got older and could not deliver babies as well as she once used to. Martha's house life was successful, raising children who were successful in society, keeping her house and creating a garden that could supply her family.

Martha's was very successful within her community. Martha had her midwife business that connected her with all of the people in her community and a weaving/textile skill that connected her to many women in the community. Martha cared for many of her community members whether it was through delivering their baby or taking care of them when they were sick. Martha was also just a good neighbor when her community members needed a place to sleep for a few nights or even a long period of time. Martha also contributed to the growth of the community delivering the most babies with the least amount of deaths. Martha took much pride in her community and continuously tried to improve it.

Martha is a quintessential American in many ways. The American dream is to be successful in society, Martha has accomplished this in all aspects of her life. Martha had two jobs, a midwife and textile maker, that were very successful for her. Her family life was successful having four children whom all grew up to be successful in the community. Martha was also very successful in the community, aiding her community members through hard times of sickness and childbirth. Martha's character also lends to the American work ethic, she was a hard worker continuing to deliver babies into her seventies. Martha is truly a quintessential American.


Citations
(1) Ulrich, Laurel T. A Midwife's Tale. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.

Frederick Douglass Thematic Question
Heidi Wyman

In the time Frederick Douglass wrote his autobiography about his life as a slave, slavery was still going on in the south. Frederick's story informed the people of the treatment the slaves were receiving and created a lot of controversy. The majority of people in the north did not have slaves or witness the treatment of slaves in the south, so reading about the slavery in the south and how the slaves were treated was a huge shock to the northern citizens. This was also shocking because Frederick was a former slave of a southern state.

Frederick was born and grew up in Maryland, with a maternal grandmother Betty Bailey. Frederick was owned by Anthony until Anthony's death, when Frederick was given to Lucretia Auld and Thomas Auld. Lucretia sent him to Hugh Auld in Baltimore where his wife taught Frederick how to read and write. Sophia taught Frederick the skills to read and write until her husband found out and forbade her from teaching him anything because he was a slave. Frederick was determined to learn how to read and write and continued to teach himself with help from neighborhood children whom were being taught. Thomas Auld soon hired Frederick out to Mr. Freeman to work on his plantation. While owned by Mr. Freeman, Frederick started a sabbath school where he would teach slaves how to read the new testament and how to write. Frederick taught about forty people in every Sunday session and was successful for about six months. Other slave owners realized that their slaves were learning how to read and write they busted into the school with clubs and stones and ended the school for good. Frederick was sent back to Thomas Auld where he was sent to live with Edward Covey, the "slave breaker". Frederick was whipped often even when there was no reason at all. He was fed up with the beatings and decided to fight back, Frederick was never beaten again by Mr. Covey. Frederick escaped from his owner and made it to the free states.

When Frederick's book was published it created more controversy between the Northern states and the Southern states over slavery. The Northern states did not support slave owning, while the Southern states depended on slaves to farm and produce cotton. The people of the north noticed the injustice of slavery and it shocked them because it was still going on. In other examples of bad treatment of a massive group of people such as the holocaust, the events have already happened when the survivors wrote books about their treatment. Frederick was writing about something that was still going on in another part of America. This created controversy between the slave states and the non-slave states.

Fredericks novel also created controversy because the details of treatment were shocking to those who read about it. Fredericks story revealed how the slaves in the south were treated. He told one story about a slave who was being whipped and ran into the lake to avoid further whipping. The slave refused to get out of the water and the overseer shot and killed him in the water. There were more stories like this in Fredericks autobiography that shocked the people of the north. This created controversy between the slave states and the non-slave states because the most people in the North were not aware of the treatment the southern slaves were receiving. When they learned the details they were outraged. This again adding to the split between the Northern and southern states.

The details of Fredrick's book were not only a shock because it was still happening, it was also a shock because Maryland, where Frederick lived, was supposed to be a kind slavery state. To have Frederick write so horrible things about the treatment he received in Maryland shocked the people of the north. It also shocked them because if this was the treatment of a nice slave state how were the other slave states treating their slaves. Wm. Lloyd Garrison states that "the treatment of slaves in Maryland, in which State it is conceded that they are better fed and less cruelly treated than in Georgia, Alabama, or Louisiana. Many have suffered incomparably more, while very few on the plantations have suffered less, then himself."

This book also created controversy because it was written by a former slave. Some people could not believe that a former slave would know how to read and write well enough to write his own book with no help. People started to question whether Frederick was really a slave because he had the skills to read and write. This was very controversial because the current expectations of slaves were that they were not intelligent and did not know how to read or write because they were unintelligent. Slave owners did not want there slaves to have these skills so they could keep the system of slavery going. That a slave worked on his own to educate himself and succeeded was a shock to many.

Frederick's book not only attacked slave owners it attacked all who were not doing something to stop slavery. Frederick attacked the Southern slave owners who used Christianity to justify their actions against the slaves. Frederick states that he loves "the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hat the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land." Frederick also commented on his disapproval of northern Christianity groups/ churches who did not join the fight against slavery. Frederick's views on Christianity were very thought provoking and brought about much disagreement.

Frederick created a lot of controversy between the non-slave states and the slave states of America. His book supported the Abolitionist's cause and increased the split between the States that would lead to the Civil War and eventually the end slavery in the states. Frederick's book addressed aspects slavery that were not well known to many American citizens. He challenged those who were not fighting against slavery and attacked the one thing that the people of American cared about most, their religion. Frederick did more for the slaves then he would ever see in his own life time. Without the controversy created from Frederick's novel, Slavery might have lasted longer, Frederick was an essential contributor to the fight against slavery.