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Slavery had existed for over 100 years and throughout these years, many thought the existence of slavery was okay. In other words, there was no immediate fight to abolish slavery for years but when it did, it became an inevitable fight. It came rather fast along with the opinions on who or whats to thank for abolishing slavery. Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of “The 1619 Project”, believes that African-Americans are the real reason why slavery was abolished and that they played a pivotal role in shaping the prosperous America. In this point of view, the slaves were the real reason that slavery ended due to their confidence in protesting as well as rioting and exhaustion caused by the cruel and unjust slave life. One important idea in Hannah-Jones point of view is that she believes that African Americans are solely to thank for slavery being abolished. Wilentz, author of “Relentless Slavery and the Relentless Unforeseen, believes that abolishing slavery was inevitable due to the western revolution that was taking place. Essentially, the fight for education and social status as well as human rights became Americas top priority. Although different viewpoints, there are common points that they share. For example, Hannah-Jones argues for the sake of African-Americans in that slavery is unfair, they needed rights, and they were the reason they got rights. Wilentz on the other hand believes that the desire for human rights, laws and principles being brought up by the revolution was the real cause of slavery being abolished. Similar between the two beliefs, Wilentz and Hannah-Jones, people began to be held accountable for their role in slavery whether they were slaves, slave owners, or a bystander. In other words, there was always going to be an inevitable fight to abolish slavery regardless of the events that happened. There was bound to be some sort of revolution or stance taken by people in order to abolish slavery. Wilentz may point was that no one expected it to come as abruptly as it did when the idea was first brought up. However, during the times of slavery this was hard to imagine. Free labor is one of the many reasons why the thought of abolishing slavery was such a huge no. In contrast, the enslaved has heard the stories of older generations being slaves their entire life and so a day where they wasn’t working for basically nothing was impossible to imagine.

Bleron Suma

Word count: 430

 

After analyzing Hannah-Jone’s views on slavery in “The 1619 Project” and expanding my ideas of other writers’ views by reading Wilentz’,” American Slavery and the Relentless Unforeseen” I was able to see understand sides main points. Wilentz makes a point that it was not inevitable that slavery would be abolished. He made it clear that it was a great fight between abolitionists and antievolutionists due to their differing views to reach an end of slavery. He doesn’t go into the struggles of slaves in America, but he expresses the trials and tribulation that people went through to make adjustment in America. It was not only slaves or freed slaves that fought for the rights of African Americans, but it was also a human effort that sought for dramatic change. In Hannah Jones’s writing, she makes it seem as though the origins of America were completely bad when it came to the treatment of African Americans. She doesn’t visualize the shade of gray within it all. Wilentz makes a good point that America had a turning point within the 1740s and the 1750s. This was known as the anti-slavery movement. Within this timeline America got to “look at themselves in the mirror”, they got to see the monster that they had become from the dehumanization of people based on race. It was an awakening for some of humanity to see the evil that was within the ideals of slavery. 

The battle for the abolishment of slavery was not planned, it came quite abruptly. The power that slavery had, began to weaken and seventeen years down the line of this movement, the ideals of slavery began to lose it’s significant and change for African Americans began to slowly take come into effect. Wilentz quoted, “the neglect of historical understanding of the anti-slavery impulse, especially in its early decades, alters how we view not just our nation’s history but the nation itself”. This is significant because it made me think of the views that Hannah Jones presented within her essay. Although Hannah Jones and Sean Wilentz have never experienced the acts of slavery firsthand, they both have great knowledge on the topic. I believe that Wilentz gives a more neutral statement on the topic in comparison to Hannah Jones. In a way, Hannah Jones paints America as the “evil supervillain” in the story of African Americans. The people that wrote the constitution may have failed to include African Americans, but people have worked remarkably hard to make up for the wrongs that have been emplaced.

Hannah Jones believes the leading role of an African American in the U.S is to achieve a goal of freedom and equality. I conclude this is true and it’s still a goal now, not just for African Americans. You will think in 2020 we are more structured and modernized, but some people are still ignorant. Previous it was worse than it is now but now African Americans have so many stereotypes that they all label as a thug, nothing has changed. They are still being killed, for example, there have been a lot of cases where police officers have killed unarmed African American because they thought they were a thug and were scared. No matter what we do it will always be the same because this country needs to blame someone or look down on people. This country might not have started slavery as it quoted in “After All, Didn’t America Invent Slavery” illustrated by Tom Lindsay but they continued it. Immigration is a big topic; immigrants are starting to become a bigger target to the U.S since Trump became president. These past years awakened me. I couldn’t grasp how close-minded people are. They were waiting for someone to give them the free pass to be able to attack people by telling them to go back to their country. People always need someone to blame for their behavior. In some way, it wasn’t Trump’s fault for people being racist because they were always there. Trump showed us, people, true colors. I find this topic so important to me because my whole family is affected by this. Seeing a family being torn apart, it doesn’t matter if it is not my own family, but I feel like it is. For families being torn apart will not benefit anyone in anyway only in a negative way. There will be tons of families being torn apart because of their color and what they believe in. This concept has a big effect on families all over the world. Nobody should be affected just because on their skin color and religion. There should a be a valid reason for taking families in.

For those of you interested in the ongoing health crisis, it’s absolutely necessary to understand the biology of the virus.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/03/biography-new-coronavirus/608338/

Feel free to comment and reflect, perhaps on language that clarifies and states precisely the nature of a virus.  What you knew and didn’t know and how clear language helps us understand scientific information.

Note this article was not written by a scientist, but by a journalist who writes about science.  You could reflect on the genre of science writing/journalism as a reader and as a writer.  Notice that this information would be very difficult to communicate in slang.

Also read Cheyenne’s comment on the ongoing health crisis, below.

 

Total word count 2200-2800 words.  Due April 7, before your spring break.  This project will be a part of your final  6000 word portfolio.   Note however due to emergency circumstances of this semester, I will grade accordingly and give you as much credit as possible for all work you do.  So don’t worry about the exact word count.

Write a review of Hannah-Jones, Intro to 1619 Project, “The Idea of America.”

https://pulitzercenter.org/builder/lesson/reading-guide-quotes-key-terms-and-questions-26504

Also available here:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html

and Wilentz’s

American Slavery and ‘the Relentless Unforeseen’ _ by Sean Wilentz _ NYR Daily _ The New York Review of Books

Review two additional sources.  As a student researcher and inquirer, you find your own articles.  You can share sources on the blog.  The blog is also for bringing up discussion points and questions.  Here are the articles, I’ve found as a result of my “research as inquiry,” two of which we’ve discussed already.  You can use these articles or research and ask questions and look for the sources that will inform you on what you want to know.

Magness.

https://www.aier.org/article/fact-checking-the-1619-project-and-its-critics/

Lindsay.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlindsay/2019/08/30/after-all-didnt-america-invent-slavery/#20161df37ef6

Here’s an excerpt from Frederick Douglas writing about advising President Abraham Lincoln that shows us what the situation was during the Civil War for free African Americans.  Question to ask is: how does this relate to Hannah-Jones’ view.  This whole website is worth looking at for the role of African Americans in the Civil War.  You can also read the wikipedia entry on Frederick Douglass.

Douglass, Frederick. “Secession and War.”  (The date on the website must be a mistake, as the text discusses events during the war. Douglass’ “Autobiography” was published in several editions, each time the author adding discussion of recent events.)

http://www.learningabe.info/Douglass_article_3.html

And here is a super interesting entry to Wikipedia on the famous 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the Color Brigades in the Civil War.  The wikipedia entry can be discussed itself, but also can serve as a source for your own further research/inquiry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/54th_Massachusetts_Infantry_Regiment

The movie, Glory depicts this regiment.  If you want to see it on Youtube or Netflix or Amazon, you can use it in your research as inquiry project.  Perhaps write a review of the movie, and discuss the historical accuracy, or simply a reflection on it and what you did or did not know about this topic.  And of course, relate it back to Hannah-Jones and Wilentz.  You’ll note that Frederick Douglas in the article above is discussing recruiting African Americans into these special brigades.

Here’s a video, it’s long, of 3 professors, discussing the Reconstruction Period after the Civil War.  Very interesting and probably necessary to understand racism in the U.S. today.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?404528-1/150th-anniversary-reconstruction

And here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry on the Civil Rights Act of 1968, arguably the 3rd founding of the U.S.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1968

Lastly, I want to link an outline of the U.S. Constitution.  We should especially look at the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments.  Researchers and inquirers should do a wiki search on each and also compare to the wartime “Emancipation Proclamation.” We will discuss this in the blog and on Zoom.

https://www.fortheteachers.org/File%20Cabinet/United%20States%20Constitution%20Outline.pdf

 

 

 

 

We can discuss and write about the ongoing health epidemic, so please feel free to write about your experience and concerns.  This is obviously part of the social context of this writing, and you may include reflection writings on this ongoing situation in your portfolios.

What are you doing and what are you observing?  Please use effective writing style for online display!

You will get credit for your participation and you can use your reflection posts, revised and slightly repurposed in your 6000 word final portfolio.  So please remember to keep a file of all your writings and graphics and images and video and audio files that you can use in portfolio!

Please follow this blog, as we will do the rest of the semester online.  You will of course be able to pass the class if you turn in your portfolio.  I will take into account the unusual and unanticipated interruption of the semester and grade accordingly.  So don’t worry.

Probably the main thing we can do is practice our effective writing in this genre, a very important one, the online blog and response.

 

In  “American Slavery and ‘the Relentless Unforeseen’” Sean Wilentz, the author of this piece write about how the abolishment of slavery was meant to happen one way or another. Wilentz states that the Abolishment of slavery was “Inevitable” because of a  “moral revolution” that  began to take place in western culture in the late 1740s and early 1750s. There was this surging growth in the highly educated about learning  and about discovering laws and principles that would enable human society to be something more than this hungry self desire for power. This new view point making slavery be seen as an offense against the enslaved human rights. For the first time putting those that were involved in any part of the slavery process,  were being made accountable for their actions. With these new opinions forming on the topic of enslavement,  there was no surprise that the push to abolish slavery came soon after as well. The ‘relentless unforeseen’ as talked about by Wilentz, in my opinion is the un predictable need that came when slavery was created. There was always going to be this unforeseen fight for the human right of the wrongfully enslaved, whether it was the enslaved or those who were just in small way doubted the ethics of slavery it self. I personally agree with Wilentz that slavey would have been abolished at some point in history if it had not of already happened. I say this because part of there reason that enslavement was need it was the free labor need for the plantation and the pursuit of money, but with the industrial revolution and the new modern era that they were going into, plantation work was becoming obsolete almost. Every thing was becoming modernize including education and technology so at some point having all these enslaved people on a farm would become a “waste” of money because you would not be making as much money as someone who has began working a job or creating a company in the industrial revolution.

The larger historical picture.

We can see 3 periods of American history in the context of racism.

1.  The 1776 period, the  1st founding.  Here, the founders of the USA, breaking away from the English monarchy, asserted their rights to be free of unjust rule.  The idea of “human rights” was coming to the fore for the first time in modern history.  This is the 1740-1750 period Wilentz mentions.  We can understand this as the move away from feudal peasant / lord power relations to the “idea” of rational, responsible human beings with rights.  The problem of course is the US founders, in declaring independence, did not extend “all men are created equal” to the enslaved population. We rightly call them out on their hypocrisy, as did people at the time.
2. The 1865 period, after the civil war.  This was the end of the bloodiest conflict in US history, with 600,000 dead.  Only as a result of this war, did the US achieve its “2nd founding,” or 2nd beginning. Here we have the abolition of slavery in the 13th amendment (1865) and the “Rights of Citizenship” in the 14th amendment (1868), which were hotly contested and barely passed.  https://www.fortheteachers.org/File%20Cabinet/United%20States%20Constitution%20Outline.pdf    This 2nd beginning can also include the Reconstruction period, in which the Union enforced a biracial government on the southern states.  https://www.c-span.org/video/?404528-1/150th-anniversary-reconstruction   Unfortunately, this was not able to be maintained, as the southern states refused to allow equality to African Americans.  This is the period which saw the beginnings of groups like the KKK.  At first, the newly created US Justice Department enforced legal rights for African Americans.  By 1877, however, end of Reconstruction period, Jim Crow, legal discrimination, lynching, and outright white supremacy was the law of the land.
3. The modern civil rights period.  Civil rights act of 1968.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1968  This is the third attempt to create the US as a democracy with equal rights.  It’s possible that this era ends with the Presidency of Barack Obama and now with the presidency of D. Trump, we are seeing another attempt to justify racism.  Once again, the question is, do we make history, or are we the victims of some kind of dread fate and can do nothing about it?