David Walker/Theodore Dwight Weld

David Walker

    Walker, an African American, was an abolitionist which meant he was against any type of slavery, he was opinionated and blunt towards what he believed was correct. The only reason that Walker was a free slave was because his mother had been a free insulating that he will be a free even if his father was a slave who died before his birth. When he was an adolescent he got involved with his church community and became an activist in which later he engendered the AME Church.  The most substantial event that he was involved in was when he wrote an Appeal in 1829 which is still referred to in this day of age as an influential political document. The Appeal he gave was to educate his readers about the inequalities of slavery and and he also advocated for individuals to join the cause despite the consequences. He felt that change needed to come from with in an individual it was not going to happen over night but over a time period due to the fact that an ample amount of individuals needed to accept the changes to come.

http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/abesdwa3t.html
Author: David Walker is the author of his Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World.
Place: In Boston and he wrote it in 1830.
Prior Knowledge: An ample amount of individuals were speaking out against slavery and view the unjust aspects of the concept.
Audience: He was writing this to other African Americans, to emphasize the abuse slavery brought upon there race.
Reason: He wrote this Appeal because he wanted to highlight the oppression that African Americans were receiving and also to gain black unity to go against the injustice.
The Main Idea:To amalgamate the African American race and purse the goal for equality.
Significance: It will open the eyes of individuals who are negligent about the oppression with blacks. It will make theses individuals want to join the fight for equality.

         The greatest issue that the world is facing today would be the inequality that his people (African Americans) had to face on a daily bases.It was the most significant issue due to the fact that he wanted slavery to end which was a grand issue in America. The whites would utilize slavery for their farming in order to make profits off the crops; thus, the whites in the South were against the abolitionists gaining their greatest desire. Social justice cannot be achieved under the present system of government because African Americans are not seen as equals in the eyes of the government. The political men in power view African Americans as less or not equivalent to an actual human being. Human nature is good; however, individuals get influenced by greed and self-interest. Legislation can change human behavior because it makes individuals view certain concept to be acceptable under the state of law. He should seek gradual changes in society because then the process will for sure stick around for a long period of time. Society can be improved by active involvement because one must get involved to change either a law or something they are not pleased with in order to achieve there goal. A good society would be a society that would attain equality among races that all individuals are not against each other or think that their race is superior to another.

Theodore Dwight Weld

         Theodore Dwight Weld was a Caucasian man that was an abolitionist, he was one of the essential architects of the abolitionist movement of America during 1830-1844. Weld influenced a copious amount of individuals when he would give a speech, write, or even organize an event due to the fact that individuals would feel the need to listen and then get hooked on his words. However, his most famous and well known event is when he wrote American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses which was published in 1839. This book is to give insight to others (usually Caucasians) about how African Americans were actually treated, i the book this is actually accounts real slaves that have suffered due to slavery. He was trying to educate individuals on all the horrors of the American Slavery which included testimonies from blacks and white to view the different perspective. The book mainly described the daily routine, treatment, life of a slave in the Americas it also includes the pro-slavery arguments but Weld discredits the arguments. Weld fought and lived for the cause he wanted to see justice come forth in the nation he called home.

http://phs.newcaneyisd.org/ourpages/auto/2012/10/29/48081005/American%20Slavery%20as%20it%20is.pdf (It's an exert of the his book)

Author: The authors of American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses was Theodore Dwight Weld and also his wife Angelina Grimke and sister in law Sarah Grimke.

Place: It was written in 1839.

Prior Knowledge: The information that i had known before this was that many Caucasian were fighting for the cause of slavery to find a way to abolish it. They felt as if slavery was inhumane to an individual.

Audience: It was written for individuals to understand the oppression on black and the inhumanity of slavery.

Reason: It was engendered because these three individuals  did not agree with slavery and were strongly against it.

The Main Idea: To give light and emphasis on the illicitness of slavery to which it is in dire need to be abolished.

Significance: It highlights the cases of which African Americans have suffered through due to the fault of slavery. In which brings out the injustice of slavery.

  

         The greatest issue that the world is facing during the time of Theodore Dwight Weld is to end slavery and attain freedom for all African Americans. It was the greatest issue because slavery had oppressed the nation of America for decades in which Weld and other Americans did not want to see slavery proceed anymore making the county further corrupt. Social justice cannot be achieved or accomplished under the present system of government because even if the white man and others like him feel strongly about the abolishment of slavery but they do not have the power to change the laws. Without political power there is no type of change that can be made in the government. Human nature is fundamentally good because an individual is born goods but gets corrupt later in life by the influences or schooling they receive. Legislation can change human behavior because the law makes the individuals accept the law even if they do not agree which makes them find a bright sight to the law. Weld should seek gradual change in society due to the fact that if it were to be rapid then it would not give a chance for those opposed to get used to the idea and will deny it easier. Society can only be enhanced by active involvement because nothing will get accomplished if one does not go out and take the chance to achieve their goal. What makes a good society is to have equality among the nation to have slavery be annihilated. 

Henry David Thoreau/ Wotoki, Miwok Indian

Henry David Thoreau

             I live in Concord, Massachusetts, where I work as a writer. In order to support this war with Mexico, Massachusetts passes a poll tax. I won't pay it. Simple as that. The government wants to force proper into this unjust war to go kill Mexicans or be killed. I wont support that. For my "crime," they put me in jail for a night. My friend, the famous writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, came to visit me in jail. He said, "What are you doing in there?" I replied, "What are you doing out there?" Against my wishes, friends of mine paid tax and i was released. But i have come to believe that the way to stop injustice is not merely to speak out against it, but also to refuse to obey unjust laws.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/WALDEN/Essays/civil.html

             The Primary Source is one of Thoreau's famous essays called "Civil Disobedience" which he published in 1849. It is about how he wanted to resist the government due to the fact that he did not agree with slavery and also the Mexican- American War. He argues that the government is only on the lookout to seek help for themselves and not help the nation in whole. He also thinks that an individual should not follow the laws that are implemented by the government and should first do what they believe is correct in their eyes. Thoreau wrote the essay based on his experience in jail when he had refused to pay taxes to stand up to the government. He believed that if one were to petition or to have a march that it would do little to nothing to achieve a change in the government.

Wotoki, Miwok Indian, California

               I live in north California, in Sonoma. No matter who wins this war between Mexico and the United States, nothing changes the fact that this is Miwok land-our land- that they are fighting over. First, the Spaniards took over, then the Mexicans. Now the Americans are taking over. But they all mistreated the Miwok people. Our land is now owned by one of the richest men in California, the Mexican General Mariano Vallejo. They say he and his wife, Dona Francesca, are kind to visitors. but he is not kind to is Indian workers. I work on his land. Vallejo treats us almost like slaves. And the Americans here are no better. An American named Captain Sutter orders "his" Indians to eat out of four-feet- long troughs, as if Indians are pigs. Sutter whips them when they disobey. I have no idea what this war between Mexico and the United States is about. To me, it looks like Americans and Mexicans killing each other so that they can steal our land.

http://ionemiwok.org/?page_id=43

              The Primary Source is a time line about the Indians that also carries on to the modern living of the 20th and a few years of the 21st century. It discusses the hard ships that these Natives had to face during the time of the gold rush and also when smallpox started to spread among their tribe. It talks about how John Sutter has enslaved them in the missions during 1839 and started to raid the city of Ione. However, there was treaties that tricked the Native Americans to give up their land to the American men to due what every they please with it. The white men would start to push the Indians farther and father away from their home land that there ancestors had attain but it was hidden to the public in 1905.  The document is just the events that happened to this tribe through out the progression of the United States. 

Chesapeake Leopard Incident Question's

               I think that the Chesapeake, an American warship, did the right choice in telling the HMS Leopard, a British warship, that he did not want to return back the four sailor that abandoned ships. I think that the Chesapeake captain knew that the sailors that had supposedly abandoned the Leopard were a false and that the four men had just left. If the captain of the Chesapeake would have given up the four sailors then he would be giving up to the British and it would also have been his four men. The British should have gotten proof to show that these four men had actually joined the Chesapeake warship. I think that the incident would have been different if they were further out at sea due to the fact that the Chesapeake would have never made it back to the shore, it barely made it when it was close to the shore. I think that it should have cause the America to declare war because the British had broken the Treaty of Paris.

                If the Americans had the military more prepared then surely we would have declared war and got the four American sailors back from the British. Also if America was more economically stable they could have gone to war; however, they had no money and could not fight without adding more debt to the nation. The British still thought they were in power or still had control over American in which they would kidnap American sailors from the eastern sea board since the end of the revolution. The Americans should be upset and fight against the British in which declaring war to get their men back form their grasp. It would make a difference that the British still had not left the fort that they occupied on the Mississippi River since the French and Indian war due to the fact that the British were still on the American soil and could attack them on land and sea. The British still had some type of control of the Americas even if the nation stated they were free.

                The British had the right in demanding the return of their sailors if they had abandon ship and joined the American navy because the men were from there crew and they had been fighting for their side but all of a sudden the men had sided with the enemy. If the sailors were to return I think that they do not have the right to be taken back even if it was by force and they needed it because they have been traders. The British do not know if they the men had told the Americans (the enemy) any vital information about the British army. I don’t think that the American captain and navy can be held responsible for harboring fugitives from the British navy because it was just an assumption that the four men had went to the American navy. I think that the situation was not handled correctly and it is not worth a war due to the fact that the British did not show any proof that the men had joined the American navy. I think that the justice in this situation is that the Americas would ask for paper work or something to show that four men had joined their army and if it would show that there were some British men then they should give back those men. However, the British should not just take four men at random because those men are Americans.