Blog 12 - Amazing Grace

The main reason I feel that it is so hard to stop the international trade of slaves is simple; the reason is money. The English empire became powerful because of the Slave trade. The logic is fairly simple; slaves work on crop plantations, then plantations grow crops, crops sell for money and are traded for other crops, which then supply the English empire and earn it capital. Another reason that I can think of that was an obstacle to William Wilberforce was that many of the noblemen that were in the House of Congress had at least some money in the slave trade. Because of this William Wilberforce has such a hard time trying to convince the House of Commons to ban slavery. The English empire rose to prominence after they found a cash crop in the Americas. This cash crop was tobacco and was discovered by John Rolfe in Virginia. After Bacon’s rebellion indentured servants went into decline and the need for slaves increased. These events made the English think that slavery was the cheapest and most effective way to gain capital. I think the English believed in the phrase if it isn’t broken don’t fix it. Production wise slavery worked for the English, it made them lots of money, however, ethically slavery is horribly wrong. This year I have taken a personal finance class, in this class one of the points that was stressed was that money brings the worse out of anyone and everyone. I believe that this happened to the English. The English were only thinking economically and let money control them. They didn’t really think of slaves as people. I do not know if this was because of propaganda or because people just didn’t ever think beyond economics. At the time this movie is set in which I believe the movie said it was about 1782, the English empire held a lot of territory. Even though the English empire had lost the colonies in America they still had a great amount of land. European countries held the Caribbean and other places. These islands had slaves and plantations. They grew sugar cane and many other cash crops that made the English a great deal of money. The only thing they need for the plantations are more slaves. Because of this the international slave trade thrived. When the English can get the Africans to turn on themselves and fight each other it is easy to get slaves. England and the other European countries had England set up perfectly for them. They can get as many slaves as they want for cheap. The English and the Europeans had Africa in the perfect situation for them and because of this international slave trade thrived and there was no real end in sight until the abolition movement started and eventually they got followers. My second point of why it took so long to change the international slave trade was because many of the politicians had money in the salve trade. This point is mainly based off of this movie, but it makes a great deal of sense to me. I thought about this point logically and I mirrored the situation to America. Many of the politicians in the South had plantations. This was why America had as many problems as it did getting rid of slavery in the United States. In England I imagine it is mainly the same. Even though there were definitely less plantations in England then in America, their was still merchants and slave traders in England. Merchants relied on the plantations to make money and sense slaves worked on the plantations it is simple logic why they wouldn’t want to get rid of international slave trade. Economically it makes sense, but like I have mentioned earlier ethically it is not. This is one thing I can’t understand is how most of the English did not think about the issue of slavery ethically. The beginning of the movie stated that there were few abolitionists at this time, and historically there weren’t that many abolitionists till later. So eventually the ethical part of it caught on but it wasn’t for a while. Because the majority people did not think of the issue slavery ethically, of course they couldn’t stop international slave trade. In conclusion, the international trade thrived in this environment. The abolitionists had to work extremely hard to change the reasoning of the English majority. The abolitionist movement had to soften the hearts of the English people to start getting an antislavery fervor in England. I feel that the international slave trade would have probably gone on forever if it wasn’t for the abolitionists and I am glad that the abolitionist eventually won the battle over slavery. I am glad that there is slavery in America, however, as one of our TA’s reminded us with the picture from New York, slavery is still going on and we need to work hard to stop it.

Blog 12 - Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

Lincoln’s second inaugural address was probably one of the only readings I was excited about reading. I have of course read and heard this address before, however, I have not read or heard the second inaugural address for a long time. Because of this I was happy to refresh my mind on this very important speech. When I read this speech I realized how religious this speech is. I really have never thought of Abraham Lincoln as a religious president, but after reading the speech and going to the lecture I have learned that he was very religious. One of the most interesting things that Dr. H told us was that Abraham Lincoln owned a Book of Mormon. Dr. H said that they don’t know how much of it he actually read, but they know that he owned one. This was very interesting to me, mainly because the Mormons were not very liked at this time period for being polygamists. One of my favorite parts of the speech was how Abraham Lincoln unified the north and the south when he talked about the Bible. He states, “Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God.” This statement in the text really stood out to me. Mainly because it is very true, the North and the South are both reading the same text they are just interpreting it differently. This is not uncommon. In class Dr. H told us that there are over 1,500 denominations of Christian religions. From this I believe that most people interpret the Bible (and most religious books) differently. It is not clearly defined so because of this I am not surprised that there are so many Christian denominations. Another interesting thing that we talked about in the lecture was the length of the inaugural address. From the inaugural addresses that I have read from the past and the ones I have heard in my lifetime, I do think that Lincoln’s inaugural address was rather short. However, I think that it is to the point and is more effective due to the fact that it is not too over winded. It doesn’t have words just for length; it is just to the point. Definitely my favorite part was that Abraham Lincoln wrote the speech himself. In today’s world all political leaders have speechwriters and do not really write anything themselves. This speech is fantastic and I think that it definitely had to be influenced at least a little bit by God. This speech is considered to be one of the best speeches of all time and the fact that Abraham Lincoln wrote it himself and did not make that many changes to the draft shows that he was inspired and that he truly was trying to bring the United States back together. I stand by the people that believe this is one of the best inaugural addresses of all time.

Blog 11 - The Second Great Awakening and Joseph Smith and the 1st vision

The Second Great Awakening a lecture was quite intriguing. The lecture did really make me think about Joseph Smith and his first vision. I found the most interesting part was when we talked about Joseph Smiths family and what religious denominations they all belonged too. As I recall, Joseph Smiths mother was Presbyterian, his father was a Universalist, and Joseph himself was leaning Methodist. I personally believe that if it wasn’t for all of the sermons and religion in the public sphere that Joseph Smith would have never prayed in the sacred grove and thus would have never had the first vision. I also believe that all of this religion in the public sphere helped spread the words of Joseph Smith. The other thing that I find so amazing is that Mormonism attracted so many members. During the Second Great Awakening there were many new religions getting spread around all over America especially in the burned over district. The burned over district is part of New York where there were lots of the Second Great Awakening was occurring. Joseph Smith jr. and his family lived in the burned over district and took part in many of the sermons that were part of the Second Great Awakening. One thing that I wonder about was how the crowd reactions were during the Mormon sermons. During usual sermons the crowds would do many different reactions. They would fall down, roll on the ground, bark, and dance. However, many historians believe that many of these reactions are exaggerated. These historians believe that for the most part people just fell down and shouting. In class we didn’t really learn about any of the reactions to the Mormon sermons and sense as far as my knowledge goes I think that Mormonism was towards the end of the Second Great Awakening that it wasn’t too extreme. However, I really don’t know and am not sure if anyone knows. With all of these crazy religious happenings in New York I am glad that so many people listened to the words of Joseph Smith and converted to Mormonism. I am also very glad that my ancestors listened to the words of Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders and converted to Mormonism so that I could eventually hear the words of the Mormon religion.

Blog 10 - The Crandall Printing Museum

I thought the Crandall Printing museum was pretty interesting. Even though the tour was rather long I learned a lot about the printing press and got a lot of new insights that I had never really taken into consideration before. Probably the most interesting part for me was the early history of the printing press. Its creator Johannes Gutenberg was very strange to me. Mainly because he hired six crews when he knew he didn’t have the money. This was very peculiar to me and made me agree with the tour guides that he must have been inspired to do that so he could spread the printing press around the globe. The other thing that interested me about the early history of the printing press was that it was such a long process. I couldn’t even imagine myself working on a printing press because it just seems so frustrating because there are so many little things that can go wrong. However, I think that I feel that way because I am from a different generation and am use to such technological gadgets as the Internet. I am use to printing a piece of paper in a minute and not spending an hour putting in every piece of type and such. The process was just very interesting to me and made me think a lot about the printing press. The other part of the tour that was interesting was when we all learned about the printing of the Book of Mormon. I liked this part of the tour because it seems somewhat unrealistic that they pumped out the Book of Mormon as fast as they did. They printed five thousand Book of Mormons faster than anyone thought was possible. Crandall one of the tour guides and the creator of the museum told us that he believed that there wasn’t any divine intervention in the creating of the Book of Mormon. He just believed that God gave them strength that they didn’t know they had. That is how they finished the Book of Mormon as fast as they did. I don’t know if I agree with his theory. I know that God had to give some kind of divine help but I don’t know how he did it. I think personally I will give all logical possibilities open on how I think he helped the printers print the five thousand copies of the Book of Mormon. I thought that the Crandall Printing museum was very interesting and I though it was a very good educational experience. I learned a great deal about the printing press from the museum and I feel that I would have never learned that much about the printing press if I didn’t go to the museum for class. Overall, I was very grateful for the experience of going to the Crandall Printing museum.

Blog 9 - Women's rights - why not sooner?

I believe that there are many reasons that women did not organize themselves earlier. These reasons include: the cult of domesticity, men running politics. The main reason I believe women started working together is because of the abolition movement. The abolition movement was the first time that women had the chance to be active in a form of politics. The abolition movement gave women the chance to get out of the cult of domesticity and fight for something. Women had the chance to be somewhat active in politics during the American Revolution but after that they lost their political power. During the American Revolution women would organize boycotts, help soldiers and there were a few women that actually fought. However, after the American Revolution the idea known as the cult of domesticity rose into power. The cult of domesticity told women that they had to stay at home and provide for their families. They were suppose to support their husband in any way possible and politics was seen as man work that wasn’t fit for women. The second great awakening helped end the cult of domesticity. The second great awakening helped get women out of the house and into the public sphere. Women would leave the house and attend the church meetings. This led to women later getting active I the abolition movement. Sense many felt that it was a Christian duty to be an abolitionist; women were not excluded from helping. The abolitionist movement gave women black and white a chance to work in politics and fight to end slavery. When many think of the women in the abolitionist movement they think of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, however, there were more white women than black women that were prominent in the abolition movement. This was for many reasons; white women had more freedom, had better income, had a better education, etc. The abolition movement gave women the chance they needed to work in politics and eventually this leaded them to work on getting equal rights for themselves. I do not know if what I am going to sat is true, this is just a hypothesis of why I think women did not get rights sooner. I think that women maybe did not get rights sooner because they just were trying to support there men in the revolution and felt that the would eventually get rights. I believe that women thought that if they helped in the revolution that they would soon enough get equal rights when a government was set up. I think this was there plan before the cult of domesticity took control of women. I believe the most interesting part of the cult of domesticity is that it formed in Great Britain then moved to the United States of America. I thought that women in the United States wouldn’t let Great Britain hold them back, however, they did especially among the upper class. The upper class would also be the most educated women which is why this is a shame that they bought into the cult of domesticity. The upper class women have then best chance to make a change and when they are following popular trends and not trying to learn, women aren’t going to have equal rights. The cult of domesticity was a lot about being a good Christian. When abolitionists started stemming from churches women had their chance to enter the political sphere and be seen as good Christians. This eventually stemmed into women realizing that they needed to get there right to vote and acting upon it. If it wasn’t for the abolitionist movement I believe that it would have been a while until women got equal rights.

Blog 8 Amistad

I really liked the movie Amistad and found it really informatice. As of right now I think I’m going to do a film minor here at BYU and so I am quite interested in film. I also believe that Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins are both very talented actors. Even though I believe this I think that the best actor in Amistad was Djimon Hounsou who played Cinque. His portrayal of what it was like to be sold into slavery was quite moving. The scene where Cinque explains how he became a slave was very shocking and I imagine it is not even close to the other horrors that happened to slaves. The reason that I believe slaves were so easy to buy was because the slave traders had Africans hunting there own kind. The white slave traders did not know the lay of the land in Africa but the Africans that worked for them did. The white slave traders did not have to do the dirty work of capturing the slaves they just had to bring firearms and other goods that they could trade for slaves. The movie really illustrated this point when it showed Cinque getting hit in the head and taken away from his tribe and family. However, even though this scene illustrated slavery, I believe that the images of being on the slave ship were the most shocking and they helped me visualize the horrors of slavery the best. The slave ship was of course horrible conditions. All of the African slaves were chained up with no room to really even lie down. There are two scenes of this movie that I believe will stay in my head for a long time. These two being when the African slaves were being fed in the bottom of the ship and the scene where they throw the slaves off of the boat, because they do not have enough food for them. The scene where they are being passed out food is just pure cruelty. All of the African slaves are all underfed, and because of this they are all desperately reaching out for food. The food that they the slave ship crew is feeding them looks pretty gross but sense the slaves are so underfed they are gobbling it up. The slave crew is also very selective of who they actually feed. The African slaves to not have bowls or plates, they are being fed directly into there hands. The slaves who are not being fed are just trying to get any scrapes they can get. Watching this process brought a chill that went up and down my spine. I tried to think of what it would be like, but for the most part I could not even fathom what being in those conditions would be like. I can’t imagine how someone can treat another human being like that. These images reminded me of the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. I have a very hard time understanding how the Nazis can use propaganda so effectively to de-humanize a whole race and treat them as horrible as they did. I believe that the concentration camps and the slave trade were very similar as they both dehumanized large groups of people. The second scene that really affected me was when the crewmembers of the slave ship threw about fifty slaves off the ship. I feel that it was so disturbing to me because many of the slaves were women and children and so they were screaming. From a business stand point it also amazes me how profitable the slave trade was. The slave ship could just kill off many of their slaves and still have a profitable journey. This fact astounds me. In the trial scene they bring up this question again and the British general (I do not know exactly what rank he was) talks about how lucrative a business the slave trade was. This movie really helped me see the terrors of slave trade better then I could before. Some members of our class talked about how they did not like watching movies in class. I remember one girl even went as far as saying something like “I’m not in high school anymore so I don’t want to watch dumb movies.” I have to completely disagree with her. Even though I did not really enjoy the movie A More Perfect Union, I found both Amistad and the John Adams mini series very informative. I was very happy that I had the opportunity to watch this movie, I know that I probably would not have watched it if it wasn’t in this class. Amistad really helped me visualize better then I ever could before.

Blog 7 - Federalist Paper #10

The federalist papers are actually quite interesting. My favorite federalist paper (out of the ones we read) was the tenth federalist paper. The question of how to dissolve factions has always intrigued me, as well as it has interested elementary school teachers. Factions have always caused problems in governments over history. What I find is the best about these papers is that the Alexander Hamilton realizes that a government cannot do away with factions without doing away with the liberties that the people of the United States of America are promised. The governments that have gotten away with most factions are dictatorships and even then they still face opposition. It is impossible to make everyone have the same beliefs. Even in our own Mormon religion we know that everyone will not share the same beliefs in the end. Even though many people will be converted to Mormonism in the end there is still Satan and the sons of perdition that will be of a different fraction. Because of this and some historical examples of factions not succeeding (such as factions fighting internally against the Nazis, Mussolini, Communists, etc) I think that it is impossible to not factions in a society. All of the governments I wrote above tried to make a utopian society and all of them failed. Alexander Hamilton and all of the founding fathers knew that utopian societies wouldn’t work. They didn’t even try to make a utopian society because they knew it was impossible. That is what I find is so magnificent about the founding fathers is that they did were realistic and did not try to reach the unimaginable, however, they knew they were going to do something that had never been done before. Besides removing liberty and making everyone the same Alexander Hamilton though of another extremist measures to remove factions; these being making an enlightened statesmen aka a dictator. I mentioned some dictators in the governments before. Dictators cant be trusted to make decisions when they are given so much power and when they wield so much influence over the people. Alexander Hamilton also knows that it is hard to find an enlightened statesman that is smart enough to lead a new nation like the United States of America. It is hard to find someone with all of the necessary skills that will not eventually corrupt and cease to be a democratic republic. Another big part of the tenth federalist paper is the when Alexander Hamilton challenges the idea that smaller republics are better then larger republic. This belief came to pass because older republics thought that to have a successful government that there needed to a majority that supported all of the same ideals and the citizens all needed to somewhat know each other. The founding fathers knew that a bigger government is better if it is not a true democracy. The founding fathers knew that tyranny of the majority was a big issue and that in a true democracy it would rule over the government. That is why the founding fathers did not do a true democracy and did a republic like they did and that which stands today, an enlarged democratic republic. In an enlarged democratic republic there can be tyranny of the majority, however, there can also be tyranny of the minority. That is what is so great about the United States of America. Alexander Hamilton and the other writers of the federalist papers (John Jay and James Madison) knew that factions were going to stay in the government and that America was a big republic and was just going to get bigger and bigger. That is why they decided to make a democratic republic and let the factions remain in the United States of America.