Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee 2nd Thematic Question

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West was written by Dee Brown and publish in 1970. It was the first book that really began to change the way that Americans viewed how the American west came to be. It is about how the Native Americans were massacred so that the white men and women could have the land to themselves and in peace.
The Native Americans tried to retaliate and put up a fight but they were little match for the white men with their guns and large numbers of men. They were given plague ridden blankets and were tricked out of their food and their homes. Try as they might to protect the land that they and their forefathers had raised their families on and lived off of they soon met their end. Very few Native Americans remain today do to the masses that were killed by the white men.
Those that were not directly murdered were starved or sold into slavery. Many died within the first year of settlers landing on the terrain because their systems were not used to the foreign diseases that were being brought over by ship with the many new settlers. It was truly a horrendous occurrence. The time a whole culture and race of people were almost entirely destroyed by another.
After a conflict both parties should apologize and make amends. It does no good to hold hatred in ones heart. To hold hatred in the heart of an entire civilization against another is even worse. After a conflict though one party may have appeared to be victorious it is really not so. Nothing is really ever gained from conflict but many things can be lost.
Those that could dwell upon an event such as this in history and be proud that the white men won are merely savages themselves. There is no trace of decency in such a thought process. No race or culture ever deserves to be entirely demolished because they do not follow the trends of the others around them. The battles that occurred where so many Native American lives were taken were unjustly weighted. The white men acted barbaric in claiming the western territory of the United States.
No one party won the "conflict" between the Native Americans and the white men. An entire race was nearly massacred and ceased to ever exist as it was before. All people lost. They lost a race of humans, of people. No amount of apologies to those remaining could ever make what happened right. This cannot be fixed or changed. The actions of those in years past will forever leave a scar on the present and future.
War does not solve anything. Peaces treaties and compromises that come after wars when both parties are too exhausted to carry on solve problems. War causes more issues than what began them in the first place. Nothing is solved when one race of people tries to ruthlessly kill another. All that results are large body counts and human beings lying dead, scattered across open fields. What occurred between the Native Americans and the white men was not even a war. It was one race taking complete advantage of another and inflicting suffering equal to that of another holocaust. It is taught that the Holocaust was such a terrible occurrence because Hitler tried to persecute an entire race. What the white men did to the Native Americans really was not that different.
The United States can not do anything at this point to reconcile what occurred. It is a wound that runs deep and will be omnipresent as long as the nation is in existence. No one came out of the conflict victorious. The government may believe that cutting checks will help erase the past but this is not so. After the Holocaust checks were issued to many of the Jewish people that underwent some of the torture but managed to survive. Many of those people did not even cash the checks and those that did, did so with bitterness in their hearts. Money can not erase hatred. It took hatred to fuel the annihilation of an innocent culture. Everyone lost and only despair can remain.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Authors Intent

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West was written by Dee Brown. It is the very true and blunt story of how the American West came to be. It tells the tale of how the United States of America won its western portion by annihilating an entire culture.
Through this book Dee Brown was able to show what life was really like during this time for the average Native American. They were forced to comply with the white mans every wish. They had no choice in the matter because they were by far out numbered and out done in weapons as well.
He wrote this book to accurately depict what life was really like for the Native Americans. Up until this book was published many modern Americans had no idea as to what really occurred and how the west was really won. To say "won" is not even entirely correct, stolen would be a better choice.
It was the first novel to really show Native Americans as a race that was reasonably harmless and defenseless but was almost entirely destroyed regardless. He was able to use firsthand accounts to describe the injustice that was inflicted. Brown detailed why the Native Americans were so attached to the land, how so many died, and why the white men so desperately wanted possession of the land for themselves.
Dee Brown wrote Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee to set the record straight. He corrected all of the common misconceptions that had settled in over time. Very few people remained that could give an accurate account of the happenings and Brown believed that everyone should know what really occurred between the Native Americans and the white men and how the terrain was really gained.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee 1st Thematic Question

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West is a novel written by Dee Brown. This book tells just how the western portion of America came to be. For many years before the white men stepped foot on their soil the land had been inhabited by Native Americans. There are many stories taught to young children today about how the Native Americans and the white men coexisted and shared land and food peaceably but these tales are completely falsified.
Native Americans had claimed title of the land long before Christopher Columbus went sailing. It was where they and their ancestors and lived and were to be buried. It was where they raised their families before American settlers began to sail over.
The United States of America has come full circle in its failure in the treatment of Native Americans. They killed them in great masses by overpowering them or by bringing over diseases that their immune systems had no tolerance for. The Native Americans would fight in battles with spears and hand made weapons and the white men would storm in with firearms and entirely demolish them. They were no match for such technology.
During some instances with trading the white men could be known to give the Native Americans plague ridden blankets. Blankets that normally would have been burned, were handed casually to them with murderous intentions. They wanted full possession of the land that they were pursuing and would stop at nothing to achieve it, even if it meant wiping out an entire race.
They treated the entire American Indian race as though it was composed entirely of brutish beasts and savages. It was true that they may have been slightly undomesticated and religiously misguided nothing can excuse the way that they were treated. The white men completely dehumanized them and treated them in an almost animal like fashion.
Even today the art of how to handle another culture has not been properly learned by the United States of America. The government continues even today to handle them poorly. The failed treatment of the Native American culture on the behalf of the United States of America has simply come full circle. Many years ago we starved and beat them out of their land. We killed them in huge masses until their population dwindled down to all that remains today.
Today the United States fails in the way that it handles the Native American culture still. As compensation for all of the negative occurrences in the past there are now reservations where they can live within the United States. The majority of these reservations resemble trailer parks and the people within live off of government money. There is a huge rate of alcoholism within these reservations. The United States is only hurting them by enabling them to casually toss aside daily life. If the government were to handle it properly then perhaps the Native Americans would be served with a choice, they can either be incorporated entirely into daily life as an American or perhaps they could set aside a piece of territory for the Native Americans and their other option can be to go live freely on that land as their ancestors once did.
The United States of America failed in its treatment of Native Americans years ago and still continues to today. By first trying to annihilate an entire race and by now enabling them to become productive the nation has brought only harm upon this foreign culture. The United States succeeded in nothing short of destroying the entire Native American culture as it was once known.

Frederick Douglass Thematic Question

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in the year 1818 in Maryland. He was a slave for many years. His mother had been African American and a slave her entire life and his father was her master and a white man. He worked as a slave until in his later life he escaped and was freed.
Douglass wrote an autobiography called The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. His book was published in 1845. Even in the 19th century it was still facing controversy. For every white man the reveled in slavery there were at least two African American men that suffered on account of it. Slavery was a terrible thing.
The very idea that something so terrible could occur for so long in the land of the "free" is really sickening. But the slaves had no voice in the matter and the white men and women were fine with the matter at hand and the few that were not knew better than to tackle such a subject. To so much as teach a slave to read was a punishable offense.
Slavery was a long time in the making and it took a large effort to end it. Frederick Douglass was just one of the many men and women that contributed to the movement. Even in the 21st century racism is still present. You will not find it in the great masses that it could be found in during the 19th century but certainly it still exists.
The very idea that someone should be punished because they have a different colored skin pigment is barbaric. It is difficult to even fathom such a heinous crime today in a world where everything is turning liberal. Frederick Douglass was a brave man to stand up against such an evil as he did.
It takes a really awful person to punish a person for skin color so for a nation to punish and entire race for it is just demented. Those that are not feeling the bite of the whip were more than eager for such terrible things to continue occurring because they received a feeling of superiority. A mans wealth could be determined just by looking at the number of slaves that he owned so no wealthy man was going to be willing to fall easily. The thought of paying field hands enough to equal out to the cost of living was simply unbearable.
America was a sick and heavy burdened nation with the weight of slavery within its midst. It was not until it was cleansed of slavery that America could begin to heal. The marks of slavery will always be present within the nation because such hatred leaves scars that even time cannot properly heal.
It really must have been a world filled with hatred for something so terrible to have survived for so long. Douglass' story does go to show that just a few decent hearts in a world full of hatred can make all of the difference. It was due to those who refused to back down that we owe this age of equal opportunity to.

Contemporary Novel

As my contemporary American novel I chose The Voice at 3:00 A.M. which is a compilation of selected poems written by Charles Simic. He is an American poet and has even had his own type of poetry named after him called the "Simic Poem" because he follows now specific patterns as he writes. He writes about nearly everything and anything that would affect the average American in their daily lives.
His book The Voice at 3:00 A.M. helps to answer the essential question "what/ who is the Quintessential American?" because he writes from the viewpoint of the quintessential American. His poems are generally about how the average American feels about everyday events and experiences. He does not appear to approach many of these topics from a sardonic perspective but from more of a serious viewpoint as though he is really trying to capture the mind of the quintessential American on paper using only a pen as a tool.
His poem subject matters within the book vary between the different occurrences in an Americans life. He has poems about school, childhood, love, lust, religion, factories, toys, friends, lovers, food, libraries, animals, hotels, transportation, mirrors, children that are wiser than their years, etc. There are 177 poems compiled within this book describing the ordinary daily lives of Americans and all of their average encounters. To read a poem within this book could be compared to doing a puzzle. His words are like riddles but he provides you with all of the necessary tools to decode them. He is rather brilliant and his book falls right in sync with our essential questions.

Frederick Douglass Authors Intent

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave was published in 1845. It is a powerful novel about the harmful effects of slavery. It explores the daily ins and outs of slaves in America and that of their slaveholders, while telling the story of Fredrick Douglass' life.
Perhaps the most powerful feature about this book is that it was written by Fredrick Douglass himself. It is an autobiography. He, himself had this book published in 1845 and had told his story several times before in front of an audience of white men. He was a slave that was forced to struggle through the better part of his life and he wanted to have his story known.
By publishing this book he was able to convey to America just how terrible slavery was and is. He spoke of it as if it were a disease and was justified in doing so. He did something that many non-fiction books could not he made you feel second hand what it was like to be a black man in America during that time. He even spoke about the way slavery affected the white men and women and how it changed them and could take an innocent woman and make a beast out of her.
His intent was to show how harmful slavery truly is to any culture and how it not only effects the people that are enslaved but the nation as a whole. Everyone knows that slavery was not a good thing but not everyone could portray it or take us to the heart of it like Fredrick Douglass did. He truly accomplished many things in the publishing of such a book. He even withheld certain names so that the few people that had tried to help him would not be shunned.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was a book written with great heart and soul. Its intent to show just what America had become due to slavery was accomplished in full. If someone else had recorded his story for him it would not have been as powerful. This book truly shows that slavery was a terrible ghastly being and that writing comes from the heart and not from the mind.

Ben Franklin Virtues Proj.

Monday- I actually didn't do such a terrible job with this today as I thought I initially would. All in all humility wise I'd give myself a B. There's room for improvement but I didn't make any significant blunders.

Tuesday- I bombed in the land of humility today... Between an online class and an email to a close friend... Well I flunked.

Wednesday- I actually believe I may have done well with this today. I didn't have to work and so I was home all day attempting to catch up on honors history stuff that I fell behind on when I was camping. I was fine with my parents and other than that the only real communication that I had with the world was through an email to a friend and the emails sole intention was to bring the recipient encouragement.

Thursday- Hmmm... Well I went behind my parents back and went to see a movie at midnight and spent the whole night driving around with some friends... I lied about my whereabouts to them and was pretty selfish all in all... Yeah I'd give today an F.

Friday- I spent all day with Emily and her mother. I flunked terribly at this assignment today... They actually had to start keeping track on paper all of the times that I failed. Whoops!

Saturday- Well my mother learned about my midnight excursion and I came clean and confessed. Honesty really is good for the soul and humility ;-) Other than that I worked an 8 hour shift and became part of the working community. It was rough.. But humility wise today I get an A :-)

Sunday- Well I skipped church to sleep in, didn't go to the cookout and singing because I decided to work, and then spent all evening arguing with my two atheist parents about religion. They were instigating but I should know better... F.

A Midwife's Tale- Authors Intent

The book A Midwife's Tale was constructed by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. It is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Ulrich proves himself to be a fairly craft historian through the writing of this book. The book is entirely about the life of Martha Ballard and the community that she lived in. It is based mainly upon a diary that Martha kept between the years 1785-1812.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich was the first person to truly take Martha's thoughts seriously. She was the first one to peer beyond the sex prattle and see all of the historical facts that lied just beyond it. Ulrich is a professor of history at Harvard. Many historians had thumbed through Martha's diary before her but none had taken it seriously.

When Ulrich flipped through Martha's writings she saw much more potential. She gave Martha the credit that no one else had and constructed an entire work around it. She discovered that there was much to learn from these writings. Martha could not have made it very easy on Ulrich as she was a woman of very little emotion and kept her entry's as precise as possible. Through her writings we discover that she was not a woman of great emotion and her many of her entry's become more repetitive and appear more like a log of births and deaths than anything. This is most likely what had turned off so many historians before Ulrich.

Ulrich took the time to decode Martha's misspellings and to look deeper into the lack of emotion to draw some more influential conclusions. She looked at the writings of another man from Martha's time as well and compared some of their recordings and found that many of them matched up in a decent fashion and from this was able to pull even more conclusions. From constructing this book and the research that it took Ulrich learned many things about what the role of women was like during this time period and the community that they all lived in.

By publishing her book she was able to share all that she had learned with many people. Ulrich is able to accurately depict the life of a midwife or any woman during the late 18th and early 19th century. She is able to outline the roles of the average woman and in doing so even the role of the average man. Through this book many things can be learned about the community that Martha lived in and what types of things Martha was expected to do as midwife. This also leads the reader to see the types of medicinal practices that were used during this time period. Ulrich saw many things in Martha's diary that historians that had come before her had missed. By publishing these things in A Midwifes Tale she found herself able to share all of those revelations with any genuinely interested person today.

A Midwife's Tale Part Two

There are many things needed to make a community successful. Objects such as money, equipment, and laws are all major requirements. Many things can be used to make a community larger and more successful and an all around better place to be, but at the very heart lies the people. A community is nothing without willing and able hands. A community where no one is willing to lend an ear to listen, a hand to help, or a heart to pray, is a place that is unfit to live in. It can be a place that has the most money, several town establishments, a huge schooling system, and many clinics and still be unsuccessful.

Martha Ballard's community held that which we do not always possess today, willing and able hearts and minds. If someone was hurt or in trouble the people would bind together to help them. Resources would be pooled and help would arrive on scene. If a fire were to break out then the neighbors would show up with buckets in hand ready to douse the fire with water. If a family was going hungry there would be neighborly families handing over their extra resources to help feed them.

Today if you were to drive through nearly any city you would find many people homeless and starving. The basic principals that used to be applied in Martha's time no longer seem to hold any value. Many years ago most people would know every family that lived within several miles of them on a personal basis. Today it is considered a rarity to know your next door neighbor that lives but a few feet away.

Martha Ballard and her husband were almost always opening their house up to someone in need. Be it someone that had lost a family member or a child in need of a home or nearly anyone there was almost someone residing in their home. We see several times in the diary "--slept here". Today in big communities many shelters can be found. Is this because people are less willing to open up their houses and allow people to stay? Or is it merely because the community itself has become so dysfunctional in so many areas, that there are simply too many people in need of housing to be able to provide for them all?

Stores during Martha Ballard's time were much more scarce in a small community than they are today. The people learned to rely upon one another. The women did a great deal of trading amongst themselves. Most women had their hand at some small trade and if one woman found herself skilled in the art of growing or collecting herbs and the another found herself skilled in the kitchen than they would trade with one another. Today when something is needed instead of trading with a close neighbor people will take a trip out to Walmart.

Another thing that brought a community closer together back then was that the town events were considered important. Today very few local meetings occur and the ones that do receive very small turnouts. In Martha's time on average each town had a meeting house. Every Sunday nearly every man, woman, and family could be found in the church service. It was found to be an important part of the week that most people would frown upon sleeping through.

Church was not the only thing that brought in full scale community action though. Men from every household would go to town meetings where laws and punishment would be discussed. It was important to them for their communities to be kept together and clean. Back then voting a person as head of one of the town committees was important business. Today many people could not tell you who is in charge of their local communities to contact for something important. Many people would find it necessary to Google it.

Martha Ballard's community had many things that are still present in local communities today. Every place is going to have its bad seeds (in more than one sense) and its rough patches. But Martha Ballard's community also had something that is not present in many communities today. The people that are willing to come together to help make it through the rough times. The people that are willing to hold hands on a Sunday morning and pray for those in need, the people willing to bake something for a family going hungry, and the people willing to reach out a hand to someone and say "I'm here." The relationships within a community have changed drastically since Martha's time and not in a decent manner. Communities today could be considered anything but successful.

A Midwife's Tale Part One

There is very little evidence in relevance to women's roles in the early 19th century. Much of what we "know" is based merely on assumption or some well educated guesses. This is due to many different circumstances. A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 written by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, is one of the very few remaining articles that may provide us with some insight as to what a woman's role truly was during that era.
Perhaps, the main reason that we do not have an ample amount of evidence left for us to discover today that will describe a woman's role is because it never really existed to begin with. Very few woman found themselves educated and even fewer actually made written accounts that still survive today. Martha Ballard was a midwife and her diary is one of very few accounts that still survive today that can provide us with some insight into how people lived in the 19th century.
Another reason that we have so little evidence remaining of women's roles during that time is that the women were not considered to be of the same importance as men. They were either stay at home moms, midwives, or working in textile production. The big jobs belonged to the men. All of the judges, reverends, and the majority of doctors were all men. Very few things were recorded during the early parts of the 19th century and those that were generally fell into a religious, medical, or lawful category and the women did not technically play very large roles in these fields.
Many people before Ulrich has read Martha's diary and dismissed it as just a bunch of ramblings. They found it to be of very little use. By taking the time to scour through and assess the smaller pieces of the diary Ulrich was able to determine many things about the average daily life of a woman in the 19th century. He was able to make many discoveries and even prove a few historians and their educated guesses wrong.
Women played a much more important role in the early 19th century than many people commonly believe. For instance Martha herself as only a midwife often treated many of the common and sometimes uncommon illnesses in the areas surrounding her home. She not only delivered babies but administered medicine to the sick and occasionally played the role of mortician as well. She often took on the duties known to only doctors today and only on a rare occasion actually consulted with a physician. Many sick people found relief through Martha Ballard, a female resident of Maine in the early 19th century.
The 19th century appears to have been a time of transition. Moving out of an age where men controlled every aspect of life and into an age where the role was shared mutually with women. The women helped to assure that the household was running and were able to take on many of the common local duties. Men seemed to be just learning the true value of women.
Not only were women key to making a household run smoothly and useful in medical practices but they were also essential when it came to local trade as well. They were needed to continue making the economy run in an organized fashion. Women were constantly trading with one another for cooking necessities, blankets, clothing, vegetables etc. If one family seemed to be having a particularly hard time making ends meet than the women would go over to that household and take the looming equipment and such with them and provide them with the necessary help.
By the beginning of the 19th century women's roles had increased drastically and Ulrich's research through Martha's diary and few other accounts help us to see this. Women were a necessity for success and no man could have failed to recognize it during such an era. They were needed in almost every aspect. The very medical foundations, economy, and heart of 19th century would have been missing if the women had not taken on the roles that they did and accomplish tasks daily that many still struggle with today. One can only wish that more women had taken it upon themselves to keep an accurate daily record of their activities. So much still remains to be learned.

at.oow

I decided to research more about what an at.oow is because I felt as though it would only gain more significance as the book continues. It was really touching that Garvey gave Cole the blanket when it apparently had a great deal of meaning to him and he entrusted it to such a troubled youth. This showed that he has great faith in and hope for Cole.
The idea of an at.oow originated from the Tlingit tribe. An at.oow was a clans most prized possession. It could be any kind of object, story, or song, or even something such as the moon. All of the rights to an object had to be aquired through some sort of ancestor of the tribe.
Cole has a very negative attitude towards everything. It will take quite a bit to turn him around. Fortunately the at.oow that Garvey passed on to him was not destroyed and lost in the fire. I hope that it will continue to gain significance throughout the story.

The Great Collaboration that Turned 13 Colonies into a Nation

The American Revolution was the movement that freed America from British reign. It was the leadership and qualities possessed by a few good men that won the nation and built it from the ground up. The sources used in constructing this essay were Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis, Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary, and Th.JeffersonMonticello.com .

The American Revolution began in 1775 and did not truly come to an end until 1783 when John Adams took office as the second president of the United States. These were eight very difficult years for anyone living in the 13 colonies. Britain had more money and a much larger army fighting its battles, but America had something that Britain did not, passion. There were many American leaders that stepped in to defend and help form their country that cared for nothing more than their impending freedom. It was through the ambition, collaboration, and determination of these few men that America became what it still is today.

When considering the American Revolution the first man that must be brought up would be John Adams of Massachusetts. He was really the catalyst for the entire revolution. He and his family resided very close to where the British had been invading. He urged the council repeatedly to declare war and bind the colonies together as one to fight. He cared very strongly for his country. “If revolutionary credentials were the major criteria, Adams was virtually unbeatable. His career, indeed his entire life, was made by the American Revolution; and he, in turn, had made American Independence his lifes project.” (Founding Brothers pg. 164). He eventually became president and turned out to be an admirable leader though he had been rather radical to begin with. “Adams was an inherently erratic character who often lacked control over his own emotional impulses.” (Founding Brothers pg. 214.)

John Adams would have never accomplished anything during his lifetime if it had not been for his wife Abigail and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania. They helped to keep him grounded and skilled him in the art of dealing with politicians. Franklin himself made both great advances scientifically and for the freedom of his nation. Without Franklin there would have never been a war. He went over to France to try to encourage them to help us with the war. Abigail often provided her husband with advice when it came to political matters. “Adam’s partner in the dance was Abigail, whose political instincts rivaled Madison’s legendary skills and whose knowledge of her husbands emotional makeup surpassed all competitors.” (Founding Brothers)

Perhaps the most memorable man of the time is George Washington and for good reason. He was elected as the first president of the United States and nominated by Adams to be the General of the Army. He was an honest and decent man and kept his soldiers going even while enduring the worst possible living conditions. He marched and fought beside his men and thus led by example. Washington was an extremely modest man that fought only for the good of our country and refused to let the power corrupt him even after being offered the title of “kingship”. He has been considered the father of our country since 1776, which was before we even had a country. The only person that ever came close to taking this title from him was Benjamin Franklin. “The only serious contender for primary was Benjamin Franklin, but just before his death in 1790, Franklin himself acknowledged Washington’s supremacy.” (Founding Brothers)

Washington’s right hand man throughout was Alexander Hamilton. He requested that Hamilton be named second in command of the army and refused to work without him. This caused some trouble for Adams who severely disliked Hamilton. He did not have a distinguished bloodline and so was forever trying to prove himself to the other men and his country. “In part because of his undistinguished origins, Hamilton always seemed compelled to be proving himself.” (Founding Brothers pg. 22). Wherever Hamilton went, drama seemed to follow. When he was not busy making enemies with Adams, he was butting heads with Aaron Burr and this proved to be the death of him. All that can be said for Hamilton was that he was extremely ambitious and did care for his country. “Hamilton tended to regard worldly problems as personal challenges.” (Founding Brothers pg. 22).

Aaron Burr believed Hamilton to be a complete fool. Burr was ambitious and willing to take on and face political challenges. He was gifted with the ability to form and carry out governmental strategies. His bloodline was a lot more pure than Hamilton’s and he was more reserved. “Burr’s overall demeanor seemed subdued, as if the compressed energies of New England were up inside him, waiting for the opportunity to explode.” (Founding Brothers pg. 22). Burr’s political and personal downfall came after killing Hamilton. They had fought for 15 years and finally decided to have a duel to prove superiority at Weehawken. Burr went into the duel determined to show up Hamilton and Hamilton refused to back down because he would look like a fool to all of his superiors and companions. “If Burr went to Weehawken out of frustration, Hamilton went out of a combination of fear and insecurity.” (Founding Brothers pg. 23)

While Hamilton was alive he became fairly close with James Madison. Madison was a very clever man that could talk his way out of virtually anything. It is believed that in the art of speech he ranked similarly to Franklin. He was very difficult to become angry with and could make any man that tried to debate with him on an issue, look like a fool. Madison was a valuable asset to America’s founding.

Madison’s loyalties lied with one man and one man alone; Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson believed that all Americans should have the right to freedom and worked hard to try and achieve that. He was initially, in his earlier years, very close with John and Abigail Adams but turned on them in later years for political interest. Jefferson became the third president of the United States, was the author of the Declaration of Independence, passed the Statute of Religious Freedom in Virginia, and he founded the University of Virginia. He held many leadership positions in his time. He served in the House of Delegates, was the governor of Virginia, chairman of the committee dealing with the government of the western lands, minister to France, Secretary of State, vice-president of the United States (under John Adams), and then the president of the United States. Jefferson did a great deal to serve his country.

All of these men may have had their differences and fought amongst each other, but thankfully their positive attributes outweighed the negative and they became the founders of America. Franklin was a man that possessed great ideas and was always willing to take the risks necessary to see them through. Aaron Burr may have had a real problem with his temper but he had a real passion for his country. Adams may have been a bit radical but it was his radical thoughts that initiated the stand against Britain. Adams listened to Franklin and helped carry out his ideas, kept Hamilton’s ego in check, cooperated with Jefferson, and kept Washington in command, all of which, were key aspects in winning the war against Britain. Madison collaborated well with Jefferson and Hamilton and later became the fourth president of the United States and continued to lead the nation in the right direction. It was Washington’s obvious charisma that kept up the troop’s morale and led them towards the ultimate victory. His modesty worked very well in contrast with Adams personality. Hamilton was ambitious and energetic and worked hard to fight for freedom. Jefferson and Adams may have had their problems but they always cared for one another and Adams is even said to have spoken Jefferson’s name upon his death bed. The men all had their differences in opinion and strategy but in the end it was their collaboration and effort that founded the nation. Without each of their personal ambitions, ideologies, and personality quirks, the British would have conquered what is now a free standing nation.

August 1st, 1776

My Dearest Debby,

I find myself in the midst of quite a predicament while here in Philadelphia. I cannot wait to come home to you my darling wife but I fear that I may not be able to for a long while now. We are currently attempting to face down a giant that is much larger than ourselves. Unfortunately, The Giant's strengths do not merely end in size. Amount of artillery power and powder are also of their advantage as is money in general. If we stand any chance at all it is in will power alone. Our men fight for their freedom and for their land, possessions, and families .Here The Giant will discover its weakness I believe. We are at an all around advantage with familiarity with the terrain.
I truly believe that we have a long road ahead of us my dear. The end is no where in sight. I do however, have the utmost respect for General Washington and have instilled all of my faith in him that he will see our troops through this time. He is a courageous and modest man and I doubt that there is any other man as well suited for such a position than he.

It is a sad disappointment to me that it has come to this war at all but I would be a fool to deem it unnecessary. Dickinson was a fool himself to resist the motion for as long as he did and a good 400 Boston patriots gave their lives because of it. None of them being professional soldiers but merely citizens of Massachusetts who willingly gave their lives to defend what was already theirs. Do not dwell upon this though my dear for they took with them more than 1,000 British soldiers and 100 of their officers and in this we may rejoice! Dickinson could hold no defense against the war after this. No one in the room wanted to hear about another of his plans for peace. I believe everyone in the room felt it necessary to rise up against such a brutish attack. Many a men found themselves rather embarrassed to be in the same room with such a man that would suggest otherwise. In this manner Dickinson found himself overruled.

During the first of our meetings Mr. John Adams made himself out to be a blathering idiot. He even went so far as to insult the Quakers and their ways. I could not believe the fool and had to choke back a spat of laughter. Dickinson of course appearing much less of an idiot became the voice of reason that was listened to and proposed that we publish a statement, issue a non-importation, non-consumption, non-exportation of British goods act, and prepare a loyal address to His Majesty. All but four of the colonies voted in favor of this. Due to Mr. Adams foolish ways I found myself being in the remaining nine.

I spoke with Mr. Adams the afternoon of his outburst and cautioned him as to his ways. I merely suggested that he had won nothing at all by opposing the motion and suggested that he only made himself new enemies. I advised him to seek out the gentlemen of Virginia because everyone follows their lead. If one does not win Virginia than one will win nothing at all.

Fortunately, the brutish and uncalled for attack on Boston seemed to justify Mr. Adams concerns and we came together to vote once again. This time he remained much more calm and blew the defense out of their wigs. Mr. Dickinson was left without defense. Mr. Adams moved that the Congress might adopt the Massachusetts Militia. This of course brought about much grumbling, all of which ceased when he suggested that it be lead by Colonel Washington. This was a brilliant move and I, myself, felt compelled to act in its favor and stood up in support of it. Washington being the humble man he is blushed and accepted in a meek manner. I recall that he was wearing a black band around his arm that very day in mourning of the lost men of Massachusetts, a very touching sentiment.

So my darling Debby I may be here a while but you may rest assured that it is for good reason that I am away. We would have been complete fools to allow The Giant to come any further without putting up some resistance. We are all at the aid of Massachusetts and we will not abandon course until all of our men lie dead in the fields and there are none left to fight but women and children. The Giant may have money but we have willpower, discipline, and intelligence fighting on our behalf. Do not fret my dear for we will not lose. Continue to pray that God may keep our men and their officers.

All of my love,

Your Humble Husband,

B. Franklin

References: Mr. Viles' classroom speaches, and John Adams on HBO

Alton S. Tobey

Revolutionary Changes

Contact between Native Americans and Europeans between the founding of Jamestown (1607) and the outbreak of the American Revolution (1776) constituted a continuous cultural revolution for native people. The sources used in the writing of this essay were Native Tech.org, The Earth Shall Weep by James Wilson, Wikipedia.com, Pilgrim Hall.org, Sparknotes. com, Merriam Websters Online Dictionary, and Google Images.

Once the Europeans and the French had set foot upon the Native American soil, life for the natives took a turn for the worst. It would be safe to say that it was a revolutionary time period. Nothing in their lives stayed the same. Their religions began to slowly change, their trade was overtaken, and all out war ensued on more than one occasion. Each side had a different reason for entering the wars. For the Europeans and Frenchmen for the most part they were fighting for ownership, whereas the Native Americans were almost always fighting to maintain their freedoms.

In 1620 the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth. They were not the first settlers to come to the area. No, that title belonged to the settlers of Jamestown who arrived in 1607. The Pilgrims had fled from their homeland for several reason but one of the biggest of the few was religion. They were seeking freedom from the laws of England so that they could practice under their own religions without being persecuted. In 1630 another group of people sailed over from England. These were the Puritans and this movement was called the Great Migration. They had all had the same motives in mind when they had left England. They left solely to practice their religion. Unlike the Pilgrims the Puritans still held out hope to return to England someday. They hoped that the country would mend its evil ways.

By 1630 when the Puritans arrived it would be safe to state that the Native Americans were completely surrounded by a new religion and new ideas. These people soon began to force their ideas upon the natives. The Europeans had brought many diseases over with them from England and the natives were especially susceptible. They began to fall like flys and the remaining few saw it as a sign from heaven that they had not been worshipping properly. However, these Europeans just seemed to continue coming over on boats being replenished by an invisible source. The Native Americans attributed this to their religion and soon some began to consider conversion into Christianity.

By 1650 new establishments were founded. These were called Praying Towns. These were places where Christian Indians could reside. The Native Americans that resided here were often referred to as "Praying Indians". In a Praying Town the natives were forced to renounce their native language, ceremonies, beliefs, traditional dress and customs. In short they were converted into mini Europeans. These were the rules of the Praying Towns: "If any man shall be idle a week, or at most a fortnight, he shall be fined five shillings. If any unmarried man shall lie with a young woman unmarried, he shall be fined five shillings. If any man shall beat his wife, his hands shall be tied behind him, and he shall be carried to the place of justice to be punished severely. Every young man, if not anothers servant, and if unmarried, shall be compelled to set up a wigwam, and plant for himself, and not shift up and down in other wigwams. If any woman shall not have her hair tied up, but hang loose, or be cut as a man's hair, she shall pay five shillings. If any woman shall go with naked breasts, she shall pay two shillings. All men that shall wear long locks, shall pay five shillings. If any shall crack lice between their teeth, they shall pay five shillings." In short it does not seem that Praying Towns were such an awful place to live if you did not mind remaining clothed and keeping lice out of your mouth.

Throughout the entire ordeal between the natives and the Europeans and Frenchmen people were always trading. After the Great Migration the natives were able to trade some with the Puritans. However, for the most part the Puritans saw the native peoples as heathens and unworthy of the ground that they walked on. Perhaps, fur was the most highly traded object. The Pilgrims traded with the Indians more than any other culture. They would trade back and forth for corn and fishing privileges as well.

The worst outcome of trade would have to be seen as the Compulsory Purchase. This took place in Jamestown. The Compulsory Purchase was a system developed under the leadership of John Smith. If the Indians refused to sell their corn then the men of Jamestown would take it by force. This was a reasonably easy task because the Indians used the skill of archery and the Europeans had firearms. At this John Smith wrote "I durst undertake to have corne enough from the Salvages for 300 men, for a few trifles. And if they should be untoward (as it is most certaine they are) thirty or forty good men should be enough to bring them all in." Often times because of this the Native Americans had to go hungry themselves and could not plant for the next year because they did not have enough seed. Thus wrecking trade forever in the eyes of the Native Americans.

There were three major wars between the Europeans and Frenchmen with the Indians. The Pequot War, King Philips War, and the French and Indian War. The Pequot War took place between 1637 and 1638 with the Native Americans versus the Pilgrims. Of course the Pilgrims used their superior pieces of technology to win. Many Pequots were harmed in this time of war. The Pequot people who had survived the war were distributed as slaves. This was the first armed war between the Europeans and the Native Americans in history.

King Philips War was one of the bloodiest wars in history. It ran from 1675-1676. One in ten soldiers on both sides was injured or killed. It took several years for Plymouth and several of the other colonies to recover from the amounts of damage done to their property. Once again the colonists won. Hundreds of the Native people who had fought with Philip were sold into slavery and the women and children were forced to become servants locally. Several of the Native communities had to begin to adapt to the new ways to survive.

The French and Indian War ran from 1754-1763. This war took more lives than the American Revolution. It involved people on three continents including the Caribbean. It was the direct result of a clash between the French and English over colonies and land and other such matters. It is often considered as a war between the British and the French. This war was eventually the end of the French's political and cultural influence in North America. England gained tons of land and tightened its hold on the continent. This was not a good thing for the Native Americans. Though at this point they had just been stuck between the English and French anyway.

According to Merriam Websters Online Dictionary, the term "revolution" means: "a sudden, radical or complete change; a fundamental change in political organization; the overthrow or renunciation of one government and the substitution of another." This was definitely a revolutionary time period for the Native Americans. However, it was not one that worked at all in their favor. It was one that nearly drove their entire culture into extinction. They completely lost who they were as a culture in the midst of it all. They no longer were all united together under one religion, they could no longer trade properly, and several of them had been made into slaves by the English and Frenchmen. It was a complete cultural revolution for all of them and those who survived it did not fair so well in the end. However, without those awful Englishmen what is known as New England would not currently exist today.

-Ashley Nichols

The Reality of Jamestown vs. the Illusion of Plymouth

The story of Thanksgiving in America is for all intensive purposes a lie. It began as a way to justify what was done to the Native Americans culture. It is crucial for people to know the truth about this piece of history so that some justice is brought to all of those who lost their lives simply because they were not English or Frenchmen. This essay will explain the truth about the Native Americans and how they interacted with the pilgrims and will include the details of Jamestown which was actually a place of settlement before Plymouth. The sources used in the creation of this essay were Top Ten Myths About Thanksgiving posted on the History News Network website, Deconstructing the Myths of the First Thanksgiving posted on the Oyate website, Lectures given in class by Daniel Viles, Google Images, The Earth Shall Weep written by James Wilson, and Merriam Websters Online Dictionary.

Every year Thanksgiving is celebrated as an American holiday. In schools children are taught of the pilgrims and the Indians and of the feast that they shared together including turkey and various other traditional foods. Pictures are passed out to the children, in which the pilgrim men and women are completely covered and dressed in all black. They had arrived on their gigantic boat, the Mayflower. The Mayflower landed on Plymouth rock. These pilgrims wear big buckles and tall hats. The Indians are nearly naked and wear tall hats with feathers stuck into the backs of them and have paint smeared on their faces. These two groups clash and combine together for this one feast. This is the perfect image of Thanksgiving. It is 100% historically accurate, is it not?

Actually, this image that has been so vividly painted for us for hundreds of years, is not even close to correct. The pilgrims were not the first English settlers. They did not solely wear all black or have large obscene buckles. In fact, the Mayflower didn't even land on Plymouth rock! That was a myth that was added on to the story as an extra detail by a 95 year old man named Thomas Faunce. The legend rests entirely within his testimony which he did not even begin to tell until almost a century after the Mayflower had landed. The Mayflower actually landed in Province-town The first Thanksgiving may not have even taken place in Plymouth at all! According to the Berkley Plantation in Virginia, the first Thanksgiving in America was held there. Every year they celebrate this event and try to reenact it as precisely as possible. There legend tells them that 38 English settlers were brought to the plantation in 1619 by means of their ship the Margret.

So how is it that this story came to be so jumbled? Is any of the story accurate and why do we so willingly accept the inaccurate pieces? James Wilson answers all of these questions in his book The Earth Shall Weep. There had actually been English settlers and traders in the area for two years before the Mayflower even landed. During that time the mortality rates for the Native Americans increased drastically. There were two main sites that Englishmen and women settled on. These are known as Jamestown and Plymouth. Jamestown is often overlooked historically today as school children are taught about only Plymouth and the good natured pilgrims. The pilgrims were of a small Protestant sect. under John Calvin. They had fled England to gain independence and the right to practice under their own religion. This is what is often told as the main story today. What is commonly overlooked is the near complete extinction of another race that this move caused.

"Many Native American communities lost 75 per cent or more of their members within just a few weeks, the kind of losses predicted for a nuclear holocaust, and certainly greater than those suffered at Hiroshima." Diseases had been brought over to the Native Americans by the tradesmen and settlers. It entirely annihilated their population. It was a blow that they would never be able to recover from. Even World War One only killed two percent of the British population in four years. Death on this large of a scale would be enough to permanently scar if not destroy any culture. Eventually the Native Americans began to deal with starvation and famine as well. Due to all of the disease the crops were not able to be planted and harvested as had previously been the way. There were very few farm hands that were still willing and able to help.

The Pilgrims new that the land that they were about to settle on was not uninhabited. By 1920 hundreds of tradesmen and English/Frenchmen of different sorts had been to the land. None of the people that had gone out in search of the land were ignorant to the fact that Native Americans were already present in the territory and had a claim on it. The culture that the Englishmen had come from had taught them that land that had not been "tamed" and was not under constant improvement and was wild. So this meant that it was theirs for the taking. In other words, they did not recognize Native Americans as farmers nor did they respect their culture and way of life. Though they did not believe that the land was properly taken they did try to live off of the supplies that seemed to appear from the culture that did not farm. The Englishmen demanded that the Native Americans give them their surpluses of corn so that they could survive. All the while still denying that the culture had any real value whatsoever.

It is told in the Americans traditional version of the Thanksgiving story that the Pilgrims provided the food for their "Indian friends". This is not so. It was actually the Native Americans of the Wampanoag tribe that supplied the food for the event. They brought five deer with them and allowed the Englishmen to join them in the feast. Part of the myth that is currently believed today is that at the feast there was turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pie, and pop-corn. This is also not so. In truth they only had deer, possibly some wild fowl (most likely not turkey), mashed pumpkin, and possibly "nasaump" (dried corn pounded and boiled into a thick porridge). Potatoes did not end up in New England until the 18th century during trade and cranberries were to bitter for the people to eat and they had no sugars at the time to sweeten them with.

Though Thanksgiving is a joyful holiday time to get together for many American families it is simply nothing more than a time of mourning for others. It is a time that represents roughly 500 years of betrayal, much death, and famine. In truth Thanksgiving is really nothing to celebrate. It should be a time of mourning for all of the lives that were lost and a beautiful culture and its traditions. The depictions that still circle today do not do this culture any justice whatsoever with the exception of a few intelligent people such as James Wilson. Many people merely do not care enough to search to find the truth that resides behind the many lies. In a school in Seattle it has actually been banned that Thanksgiving should be celebrated. The local board of education declared that it was "insensitive" to their Native American population. The teachers have been required to teach the true story of Thanksgiving. Many people view it as robbing our culture of tradition but perhaps it is merely righting a wrong that has long be ensued on a culture that is nearly lost.

Pilgrims and Puritans are all too often mixed up in modern society. Neither of the two groups were alike other than that they both fled from England. Though they both left, only one of the two groups actually gave up on England entirely and that was the pilgrims. All along the Puritans held out hope that one day England would change and come to its senses. The Puritans did not even land in Plymouth until nearly a decade after the pilgrims. Some pilgrims came for religious reasons and others because they had heard tales of riches to be made and found but all of the Puritans came simply for religious freedom. The puritans viewed the pilgrims as a people whose actions were driven by a misguided hope for perfection rather than by a real view of the world.

The Pilgrims that came over on the Mayflower believed that their God had created and cleared this land for them. They refused to acknowledge that the Native Americans had any part of it or that they had any rights to the land. In fact some of the pilgrims even tried to convert the Native tribes over to their religion and many did follow. The Native Americans resolve towards the beliefs began to falter as they saw all of the people that they loved begin to slowly die off around them. They began to believe that perhaps they had done something to offend their gods and so perhaps it might be best to take on the religion of these strange Englishmen. Obviously whatever the Englishmen were doing had to be working for them because they just kept coming in by the boat load so perhaps there was more to their religion and belief system after all.

Often the people of Jamestown are left out of the traditional story's and the pilgrims are made out to be something that they are not. Pilgrims did not dress in all black with funny belt buckles and they did not come to the new land simply for religious purposes. Native Americans were not simply half naked people that spoke with trees. Both were very distinct cultures and one nearly drove the other into extinction. Perhaps the pilgrims and tradesmen did not intend to bring the diseases over to the Native tribes but regardless, they did. Then the people of Jamestown and the people of Plymouth all took of the Native Americans corn unfairly claiming that they had "found" it and they dug up Indian graves and stole from them. They terrorized a culture that was different from theirs and because it did not operate identically to their own they decided that it was not worthy of "their" ground. It was a truly awful time period. Yet though this was a time period of nothing more than death and lack of justice it is celebrated yearly in America and the children are brought up believing lies about the entire ordeal. In truth, it was horribly tragic and all America should acknowledge the truth of the matter. It is easy to see why people would want to believe that the forefathers of the country were simply acting upon their faithfulness to their high moral standards and that their cooperation with the Indians brought the nation to what it is today, but this is simply untrue. It is beyond time to recognize the matter for what it truly was. Any culture that bases its traditions around lies and prides itself on the make believes, is no culture at all.

Living in Cyclical Time vs. Linear Time

Native Americans lived in cyclical time whereas the rest of the world and all of its cultures lived in linear time. When most cultures progressed the Native American cultures continued to run in circles and even viewed themselves from a cyclical viewpoint. The resources used to create this paper were Merriam Webster Online Dictionary and Google Images.

The Native Americans lived in a much different time period than we do today. Even the Europeans that lived during their time did not live in quite the same way. Europeans viewed themselves in much the same way that we do today. We view ourselves in linear time. We are forever progressing and moving forward. Even our main religions are based in linear progressive time. The Native Americans viewed themselves in cyclical time. They were in an on-going circle and their life styles, technology and religion were all based around this view.

According to Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, cyclical is defined as "of, relating to, or being a cycle; moving in cycles" and time is defined as "the point or period when something occurs". Linear is defined as "of or relating to a straight line". To live in cyclical time would be to view oneself in the midst of an on-going cycle that will just repeat day to day, week to week, and season to season. To live in linear time would be to view oneself as constantly moving forward towards an inevitable end and taking several stops along the way.

Living in linear time like the Europeans did and as is done today religion is progressive. One of the largest world religions is Christianity. In this religion you have a book called the Bible that is referred to by all that partake in this faith. The Bible begins with the book of Genesis and ends with Revelation. This walks its readers from the creation of the universe to its destruction. Along the way you have the story of the first man and woman, the flood story, and various others. The Bible consists of a total of 66 books.

The Native Americans had a religion that consisted of all of the organisms that lived in their environments with them. They had spiritual connections with certain trees and animals and many items of the sort. They had different ties to specific pieces of land. They had many cultural dances and other such traditions that revolved in their lifestyles with them.

As far as technological advances were concerned the Native Americans had a very different point of view than the Europeans. The Europeans could not get enough of the new technology. They loved the new discoveries and possibilities that were opening up to them daily. The Native Americans on the other hand were more of a content religion. They enjoyed relishing in their already preset ways of gathering food, hunting, dancing, and transportation. Both the Europeans and the Native Americans had all that they needed the difference between the two lied in their expectations and what each cultured wanted and thrived for. While the Europeans moved further in the direction of comfort the Indians were content in keeping peace. This in itself shows a clear distinction between living in cyclical time and living in linear time.

Today it can be observed that each parent wants for their child what they have already accomplished and then some. They want their child to strive for the best and fulfil their potential. The Native Americans were content with the idea of their children simply filling their own shoes. If their child could just live up to what they had accomplished than for the most part they would be okay. Due to the fact that they viewed themselves differently through time and space it is no wonder that they would have a different view on a contentment and what it truly stands for.

It could be observed today and in the European colonies that there were three tenses present in the English language. There is the past, present, and the future. In a Native American culture only the present tense existed. They placed no real value on anything that was to happen or had already happened only what was currently taking place. Most modern civilizations cannot wrap their heads around this idea. In order to do so one would first have to place them-self in cyclical time.

The differences between cyclical time and linear time are so profound that it is hard to fully understand both while living in one. Living in cyclical time entirely changes how a person would view not only them-self but those around them as well. If one was to place them-self within cyclical time it would be seemingly easy to see why the Native Americans felt no real need to integrate and continue to push their society forward and thrive. It is also easy to see why the Native Americans became completely obliterated by disease and the Europeans who brought the diseases. This is a concept that is commonly lost in the translation between the two entirely different concepts of time and space. Linear time vs. cyclical time not only changes a few minor things but entirely re-shapes a culture as a whole.

Ashley Nichols

essay question

What is the difference between the cyclical time and linear time? How did did living in cyclical time change how the indians viewed themselves and those around them?

Improvement or Deterioration?

For the last several centuries it has been the trend of Western History to "avoid dogma" and develope a "skeptical faith". "As long as the end justifies the means" is an age old saying. The question that this paper arises is does the end justify the means. The answer to this is no. People have avoided dogma and kept a skeptical faith for many years and we have merely regressed beyond where we started. The sources used for this paper was ReligiousTolerance.org, Merriam Webster, and The Wealth and Poverty of Nations.

The world as a whole has been on a slow path of self destruction for at least the last four centuries, if not since the fall. With each passing year the world seems to fall apart just a little bit more. There are ambitious people that would disagree with this thesis. This is because it is true that we are better off scientifically today than we were a thousand years ago. We have had huge technological and medical advances. But is science really all that matters? Must we continue pushing until every human being alive has developed "a skeptical faith", and has learned to "avoid dogma". Are all of these technological developments, humanists, reformations, and revolutions helping to improve our world or are they simply holding us down?

The reformation that occurred in the 16th century greatly changed the course of history. Up until this time everyone had remained under the rule of the Roman Catholic Church. The government basically consisted of the church hierarchy and instead of taxes people payed a tithe to the church. This was just the natural order of things until Martin Luther came into the picture. He was a monk and then he later became a priest. He believed that the manner in which the church was going about its business was wrong and freely began to speak out against it. Instead of merely leaving the faith he decided to take it upon himself to try to alter some of the age old traditions. He wrote what is known as the 95 Theses. Basically this was a list of 95 things that he believed to be wrong within the Roman Catholic Church. At first many people disregarded him. It was as if he was saying here is a list of 95 things wrong with what I believe in. It could be compared to a modern day scientist with a PHD in bio-science technology publishing a book titled The 95 Things That I Do Wrong Every Day.

It seems as though Luther merely intended for people to clean up the ways of the Catholic Church. But instead of helping clean up this faith that he believed in, all that he managed to accomplish was driving people away from Christianity for good. Today because of him and other such humanists, our world stands divided. According to Religious-Tolerance.org as of the year 2000 Christians made up 33% of the worlds population. There are now a total of 19 major world religions that are divided into a total of 270 religious groups. There are roughly 34,000 Christian groups around the world. Instead of cleaning up one religion, all Martin Luther managed to do was take the first step towards dividing that one into 34,000.

The humanists way of thinking in the 16th century soon lead to the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century. It was called the Age of Enlightenment because many people believed that it was a light shining in the darkness. These very same people soon found that this was not so and that it was truly quite the opposite. People believed that this was a time to expel the ignorance that had once been known and trust in science and equality. The most admired writer of the 18th century was Voltaire. He was feared in part because he used his writing to criticize all that he disagreed with. Voltaires biggest enemy was the church.

This time of enlightenment certainly lead to disruption but not the kind that these humanists had been hoping for. It turned into a time of mass murder during the French Revolution. The people in France found themselves dealing with starvation, terrible taxes (more than a 10% tithe), tons of suffering, and a group of upper-class people that did not care about what was happening and that were exempt from taxes.

The Industrial Revolution began about 1733. The ideas and thought processes that it began would continue on for several centuries. The revolution brought about the coming of factories, cotton-spinning machines, steam engines, sewing machines, steel plows, the reaper, and vulcanized rubber. All of these items ended up being extremely beneficial to the world but they came at a bit of a cost. It changed the way that people viewed themselves and the world around them and not necessarily in a good way.

Before the Industrial Revolution a person could be walking down a side street and meet another person and recognize them as a neighbor, fellow Christian, or just an acquaintance. Due to the Industrial Revolution the same person could be walking down the same side street but recognize the person as homeless, poor, or rich. Everything became about money and marketing titles and schemes. A persons self-value began to rapidly change too. Before the Industrial Revolution people independently made items from their homes and owned private businesses but after the revolution people worked mainly in groups or in factories. For example a man that had owned his own shoe business for twenty years would be pressured into working in a factory where he would only be allowed to stitch one small piece of the shoe together and for just half of the pay. The value of any given persons life began to go down but it was okay because it was in the name of science.

In chapter 29 of The Wealth and Poverty of Nations Landes is able to provide his reader with many things to ponder and many quotable quotes. For example on pg. 514 he states "We should want to know why, all of us, because the why may help us to understand today and anticipate tomorrow." So if we were to know why things have gone so badly in the past and why peoples self-worth and that of those around them have gone down, why so many people have ended up working in factories, and why so many people have died from starvation because of weak government ruling, than maybe we could understand what is occurring now and figure out what may happen in the near future. On pg. 517 Landes talks about the Thais and how they used to spend years on their religious rituals and traditions that were important to their culture but now they cut all of those short. Landes states "As a result, young men spiritualize for a few weeks-- time enough to learn some prayers and rituals and get back to the real, material world. Time, which everyone knows is money, has changed in relative value." Time, money, science, atheism, and technology may have increased in value but everything that used to be held close to people and was considered morally right has flown out the window and our world is suffering because of it.

Perhaps the best point the Landes makes in the entire book is on pg. 518 "Convergence is the watchword of the day, the promise of eventual equality, of the generalization of prosperity, health and happiness. That, at any rate, is what economic theory tells us, assuming mobility of the factors of production. Experience is another matter. The numbers for the small set of advanced industrial countries seem to confirm convergence, but individual countries do not always stay with the pack." This pretty much says it all. People keep striving for equality and perfection but as we have clearly witnessed in the past it is nearly impossible to achieve a world wide convergence of anything. All that we have managed to do is end up with less of a sense of belonging and individuality than what was known centuries ago. People engaged in the enlightenment period looking to gain individuality but in the end they have ended up with less than what they began with.

According to Merriam Webster the definition of revolution is "a sudden, radical, and complete change" or "A fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something." The definition of reformation is "the state of being reformed; the act of reforming." A revolution may mean change but it does not necessarily mean that it is change for the better and reformation may reform something but that does not necessarily mean that the object in question was not better off before it was reformed. There is much less acceptance in the reformed version of the world and a much lower level of tolerance. So what exactly was achieved? Or maybe an easier question to answer would be, what was lost? Perhaps the lesson of the past 600 years is that we should stop trying. Though it has been the trend of Western History to "avoid dogma", "cultivate a skeptical faith", and "listen and watch well", perhaps the world might just be better off if a new trend was started. Something to the effect of cultivating a skeptical science, looking towards dogma (as opposed to avoiding it), and learning to be content with what has already been achieved instead of pushing each other into the dirt to be the first to discover the next ipod touch. Though this is all as likely to occur as complete convergence. So perhaps a happy medium might be best. Maybe we will locate one before some suicidal humanist decides they have had enough and just blows up the earth. Maybe not.

Ashley Nichols

watch this to check out how far equality has really come