This week we are getting oriented online and will have to make some adjustments.

If you don’t have your Wilentz reflection post, that’s ok.  Try to post it by next Monday.

Because of scheduling conflicts, I will hold the next live blog on next Monday at 10 to 11 am, approximately our class time.  At least you have no other classes during that period, as it was our period.

You aren’t required to be on the live blog.  It’s just a time to reach me live if you need to.

You can post anytime to the blog or email me.

I do expect two posts per week, Monday and Wednesday, around class time.  If you get it in later, that’s ok.

Please post or comment or email me at jwu@citytech.cuny.edu and I will respond.  Please be patient and write your comments efficiently for this type and genre of writing.  Also be respectful of other students.

1.  Was abolition of slavery inevitable according to Wilentz?  “Inevitable”–means it had to happen and could not have not happened.   What does he mean by “relentless unforeseen?”  Does this agree or disagree with Hannah-Jones?   When we look back at history, how do we see the events vs. how did the people at the time experience them?
2. One main difference between Wilentz and Hannah-Jones is that Wilentz does not tell the story of the role of the African-American in liberation from enlsavement.  On the other hand. Hannah-Jones’ thesis is that the African-American contribution to abolition of slavery and the continued struggle for equality for all is of the utmost importance in American history.
3. Wilentz’s main point is that is was not known at the time that slavery would be abolished.  There was a great struggle between proslavery and antislavery world views among the white population.
4. In paragraph 3, Wilentz references the 1740-1750s “explosive consciousness of man’s freedom to shape the world in accordance with his own will and reason.”  In general, this refers to the “enlightenment.”  Hannah-Jones will be quick to point out that this “universal freedom” was not extended to the enslaved, and slavery did exist at that time.  Wilentz is arguing that the moral rejection of slavery was advanced by “scrutinizing inequality, personal sovereignty, national sovereignty and servititue of every kind” (paragraph 4).
5. In paragraph 5, he says that though slavery had always existed, “the struggle to abolish it came abruptly.”  He sees the American Revolution as part of this process, that there was an anti-slavery movement in the Declaration of Independence, but it was violently opposed by the proslavery forces that existed based on feudal and ancient world view of conquest of peoples and social hierarchy.
6. Write your own reflection (400-600words) on the first 19 paragraphs of Wilentz.  Compare it to Hannah-Jones.  Post it by Monday 1pm.
7. Note: I will make comments on your previous Hannah-Jones posts by Monday 1pm.

The next reading is the Wilentz, “American Slavery and the Relentless Unforeseen.”

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/11/19/american-slavery-and-the-relentless-unforeseen/

This is a long piece and will take you some time to read it.  I would have a notebook at my side and as I read take a few notes to set up for my comment. Even if you don’t understand every word of the article, read through it and capture the main sequence of ideas, argument, narration etc.

I will have some comments on Wilentz by Friday 1pm.

Post your reflection on Wilentz by Monday, class time.

What is his concept of “Relentless Unforeseen?”  How is that a critique of Hannah Jones or modification of her thesis?

Research the latest New York Times statement on 1619 Project.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/magazine/an-update-to-the-1619-project.html

How would you state Hannah-Jones’s thesis?  Write a one or 2 paragraph comment.  Save it on a separate file so you can use it in your next paper, which we will discuss soon.  To put it briefly, you will be writing a full review of Hannah-Jones and Wilentz and one or two other articles that you select.

Remember you must create a 6000 word portfolio by the end of the semester, so begin to organize your writings into a file.  Reflect on how you are expanding your knowledge and understanding of the topics we have covered and the process of thinking about new ideas and how you have changed some of your old ideas.  You can always insert a short reflection into your portfolio, commenting on what you’ve done.

Destiny DeSilva

ENG 1121 – D420

Reflection 

 

      After All, Didn’t America Invent Slavery?

 

Throughout the years school has taught us that slavery existed hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Black people being mistreated, white people being slave owners, black people did not know how to read or write and a few would try to escape the darkness of being enslaved but failed to do so. Black women would get raped by their own, as they say “slave masters”. Stories after stories were told generations after generations about slavery and how colored people were mistreated. Books, movies, and media would create things for us to see and believe that slavery existed. However, would you thunk that slavery was only an American thing? People only recognized slavery that happened in America but never realized that it also happened in other countries as well. For example, in the article it states that in 1619 “is the date of the arrival of the first slaves to the land that would a century-and-a-half later be called the United States.” This shows that majority of the people know that in America slavery was the foundation. Not knowing that slavery did not only took place in American but also in ancient times also.

During the ancient times slavery was much worse than slavery in American. Their punishments would be actual death, decapitating peoples heads, cutting of their body parts, etc. Slavery wasn’t easy during ancients times. In the article it states that “in the 1700s B.C., the Egyptian pharaohs enslaved the Israelites, as is discussed in Exodus Chapter 12. Later, the pagan Greeks participated in slavery, for ancient Sparta as well as Athens relied fully on the slave labor of captives.” Slavery was all over the not just in one place. The Egyptians pharaohs did not play when it insisted on their slaves and they would do anything in their power to have work for hours and hours. Slavery spread throughout the ancient times before it arrived to America. The Romans, Egyptians, Greeks, etc. Slavery existed century after century and generations after generations even. “By the year 1000 A.D., slavery had become common in England’s rural, agricultural economy.” Even in the most uncommon countries slavery occurred as well. History does not only take place in one setting, it takes place in  multiple places and different destinations. Our resources only show that history took place in one setting which is America, however it doesn’t show that slavery also happened during the ancient. In some resources it does include it but not as often for our people to be educated. In my opinion I also believed that slavery only happened in America. However, after being educated and reading different resources I now know it did not only happen in America. 

After reading “The Idea of America.Intro to 1619 project” by Hannah Jones along with two articles called “Fact-Checking the 1619 Project and its Critics” by Magness and “After All, Didn’t America Invent Slavery” by Lindsay I finally understand the devotion black people had when it comes to freedom and the pursiut of happiness. The hardships that africain american had to go through was immense to say the least. With the cases of lynching and the creation of a group called the kkk which was the ones who were carrying out these horrific deeds, africain americain have went through alot to bare the right they do today. Hannah Jones went into detail on how black americans fought for their right to even be seen as an american in other’s eyes. Like non stop protesting and fighting in the american revolution. Some fought because it was their only way out of poverty and others fought for equal standing with other americains. The aspect hate, apathy and patriotic behavior are mostly what formulate this article and clearly exemplifies the long road africain american had to travel to be on equal footing with others.

 

   After reading this article, you can’t help but feel a type of empathy for these people. Enslaved people could own nothing, will nothing and inherit nothing. Their purpose as a slave was to simply serve the strong and oppressive. Africain american was first sold the americain by pirates who would steal them from Portuguese slave ship who kidnapped them from the home country. Americans didn’t see africain americans as people in fact  africain american were counted as ⅓ a person. This was one of the many ways americans would avocate there narcissistic bigotry and would use africain american to do anyform of labor possible without pay. At least 400,000 africain american were forcibly exported from other countries and imported to America which would shape the country to what you see today. For example, africain american taught americain how to grow and harvest cotton which led America to control 66 percent of the world trade. But even though slavery was bad and still is to this day, I do have to admit that after reading this. I have agree that without slavery America wouldnt be as succussful as the world only superpwer today. Africain american paved the way for this country to be a moral based society that sees people for who they are inside not what they look like. Some people still feel this type of disdain towards people but I do see change taking place because of the efforts of others in the past and or the present.

The African-Americans were in a search for their freedom, they were not on the side of leaving this country no matter what. The White Americans, like Lincoln, were thinking that African-Americans were the ones to blame because of the Civil War. Unlike them, African-Americans had the idea of no leaving this country, because they had longer and worked harder for it, so they have even more rights and reasons to stay here, in the United States. This can be compared to the actual situation with the immigrants. The U.S has been like this since the beginning of the country. Immigrants are the ones who built this country, and the ones who made what the whites think is their property. Most of them, if not all, think they are the real owners and the real “Americans”. However, when we see how much other races are pushing for this country, how much this country uses immigrants to be what it is, is this nation really a one who can say they are Whites and just Whites? Would this country be the same if just “AMERICANS” were here? No, it wouldn’t, I don’t think this country would even have succeed like it is now. The reason of this “we” or “us” it’s because we like it or not, “we” are “we”, and “they” are “they”. This means that in some way even if where are all persons, when you think of “we” talking about races, you think of you and many other people, not including other races, while if you say “they” you may think of other community discourse, such as White race. When we see that the true Americans are the conjunction of all the races on this country, can we see us as an evil country? No, we accept everyone, we use everyone, and everyone agrees with this kind of barter because our country it’s not just those White Americans who think they’re this country, which is not true. This country is the combination of many races, places, cultures, this country is the desire of evolution and personal growth. Legally, yes I’m an American, but when I have to say where I’m from, nothing more than my loved country Dominican Republic comes to be the answer with no regret or doubt. Slavery comes to be us the ones who put them in their horrible situation, but when the homeless, the people on the streets, on the subways, etc, come to be people who made horrible decisions, who are there because they want to, and some of them have the disgrace of being in a situation either mental or physical that they can’t escape of. Are we being like the slavers? I don’t think so, the government does some help for them, which I think may be to minimum, but at the same time I don’t feel anything about those people who have that situation because most of the didn’t come to birth with this, they had the choice and they still have it, but they fail to take it by themselves. Because the country I was raised is not the U.S, I lacked a lot in terms of U.S history, so this articles helped my a lot to know more about this precious country which has very terrifying and surprising history that should be in the hands and knowledge of everyone who lives here. For example, I didn’t know much about the African-Americans who helped with the laws of equality in the south, that surprised me, and even if it was long ago, made me feel well for them. This make think about the actual situation of the U.S and the war against the racism, which should have been already eradicated by this time. Specially their quote of “we are the true Americans”, “America is built in racism”, etc. Thanks to the reading I see more clearly why this is NOT true on any sense and why this thinking is wrong. This is because America is built by plenty amount of races, but more than anything, the African-Americans, and not to mention the Natives Americans.

After reading the 1619 project I was really shocked because the cases and events that were presented in the article were in fact hard to read ranging from lynchings to beatings. The author states how she is merely confused about how her father is proud of such a country after all that hate that was presented to the afro-americans. That is when a key point pops up and it is that the afro-americans took part in building present day America and this should be why they should feel proud and honor their flag. After reading the 1619 article I went and read the fact checking article and the “After all, didn’t america invent slavery?” article and these articles brought up many points. I related to the “After all, didn’t america invent slavery?” article because when slavery would be brought up I would point the fingers to the United States and would mostly relate slavery to America but after reading this I can see that slavery has existed before it took place in America. Besides this, the fact checking article fact checks  the main idea that America wanted to gain independence in order to preserve slavery and the articles refutes the two events that took place which were the Somerset v. Stewart and the 1775 proclamation.

After reading the article, we can relate the topic of slavery to the present day relating it to the topic of immigration. Lately, in the U.S we have seen a huge number of immigrants entering the U.S illegally and legally and the deportation of these immigrants as well. We have seen two sides to this main topic and they are that most of these immigrants are criminals and are taking away many opportunities for americans and come here for no good while the other point is that immigrants come to this country to provide a better life for their family as well as for themselves and they are escaping their country due to many problems arising. I support the second argument because many people come to the U.S in order to stabilize themselves and to support themselves financially by getting a job or even to get an education. Besides this, I can take a point from the 1619 article and say that just like afro-americans, immigrants are fundamental in building present day America and we see this from all over starting with running the economy by either working in their careers and contributing to the U.S by paying their taxes and even fighting for their own country. There are many rebuttals in which talk about how they have had a bad influence on the country because of their criminal activity but they also forget that immigrants aren’t the only people that commit these sort of crimes, native born american also take part in this increasing criminal activity in the United States. We should be proud because immigrants are the engine to the United States as their hard work propels the United States to succeed even more.

 

    In the article “The 1619 project” the author Hannah Jones brings up many points in how African Americans have contributed and technically built this country in her writing. She makes me realize so many things about slavery that I never thought about. In the beginning she shows us a piece of her childhood and elaborates on how she used to think when she saw her father putting up an american flag in their front yard. She thought how could her father, a man that has seen full hand how society has treated them, still believe that this country was theirs. She was taught in school that her people had made little contributions to society. Soon she realized how much of an impact African Americans had on making America. African Americans made railroads, helped produce cotton and even helped our famous leaders such as George Washington, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. She continues to explain how the supposed “We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’’ This did not apply to the one-fifth of the country. Yet despite the hardships and being denied the freedom African Americans believed in the American creed. Many Americans tried to justify slavery, in Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence, he tried to argue that it wasn’t the colonists’ fault. Instead, he blamed the king of England for forcing the institution of slavery on the unwilling colonists and called the trafficking in human beings a crime. Yet neither Jefferson or most of the founders intended to abolish slavery they just let it continue. As I read this article I was surprised by the new information and inspired in how these African American males would go out and serve their country despite being treated harshly. I believe that the United States and people are evil but I do not think that society is evil. I say this because people are racists not society. Society as a whole is stable; it’s neither good nor bad. And the United States is evil because our laws have been written in a corrupt way. It would take many generations to completely change America. We would have to start from square one again. And because no one wants to do the work everybody just lets it be governed like it was 401 years ago. My role is a citizen. I should be doing more to help this country but the fact is like everybody I’m busy with my own that I don’t have time to be thinking on how I can help improve this country.