Post your brief (roughly one paragraph) comments here about how your topic could be considered both a preventer and an agitator of war.
Remind the class of what your topic is before you present your explanation.
Group A: Cotton Gin -- CJ, Lauren, Josiah
Group B: Haitian Revolution -- Tommy, Anni, Dean
Group C: William Lloyd Garrison/The Liberator -- Jake, Andrew
Group D: Frederick Douglass/The North Star -- Nick, Zion, Osaro
Cotton Gin:
ReplyDeleteIn 1793 an American from the North, Eli Whitney, invented the cotton gin and made it possible to produce cloth at a faster, cheaper rate. With this invention, the demand for more slaves to pick the cotton increased. This sudden rise in the need for slaves worsened a hostile environment between the North and South. The cotton gin prolonged the war because the economy was doing so well. In the North, even though they were opposed to slavery, cotton was purchased daily to create goods. The South reaped the benefits of the North using this cotton allowing the use of slaves to continue on. Unlike the economy in Germany before World War II, the economy in the North and South following on the invention of the cotton gin was doing fine, preventing the immediate Civil War until years later.
Frederick Douglas:
ReplyDeleteFrederick Douglas was the son of a slave woman and a white slave owner. When he escaped slavery the wrote an autobiography about his life as a slave called "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave." Frederick also used his great oratory skills to speak in front of large groups of northerners to lecture against slavery. The North Star was an abolitionist paper that became the most influential antislavery paper during the Antebellum era. It also used to fight the emancipation of women and other oppressed groups.
The Haitian Revolution acted as a agitator of war because it spread the idea of revolutions to other similar-situated peoples. In addition, the fact that it was successful only increased its level of effectiveness elsewhere. This is shown in slave rebellions in Britain and the United States which only served to intensify racial divides and conservatism in the US. It also served as a preventer of war due to the fact that it allowed for Haiti to become a sovereign nation, avoiding future wars with France (kind of like ripping a band aid off), and it made Napoleon lose hope in a world empire when the loss of money from the sugar plantations made the upkeep of Louisiana illogical.
ReplyDeleteFrederick Douglass:
ReplyDeleteAs the son of a black slave woman and a white father, Frederick Douglas served as a great example of the atrocities and the immorality of slavery. He learned to read and write, and he escaped from slavery in 1838. He fled to Europe to avoid being returned to his masters, which was legal by the Constitution. Douglass was also part of the Anti-Slavery Society. I believe he served as an agitator to war because his whole life was a rebellion against slavery and he helped spread the idea that slavery was immoral through his newspaper North Star.
The radical abolitionist movement.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the radical abolitionist movement was an agitator of war because it increased tension between people who wanted to get rid of slavery and people who still wanted to keep slavery directly. It affected a lot of people and encouraged many of them to against slavery. Because the radical abolitionist movement kept on for a long period and problems between freedom and slavery were still exist, it began to pull the situation into a war. Although those abolitionists didn't end slavery at that time, their ideas encouraged people to fight for freedom and finally led to the Civil War.
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DeleteI mean William Lloyd Garrison/The Liberator, what he said has an influence (above)
DeleteWilliam Lloyd Garrison:
ReplyDeleteHe would definitely be considered a agitator of war because of his radical approach to the situation of slavery. He made sure his voice was heard and his intentions were clear; no slavery. But his aggressive tone/ vibe can be provocative towards those in favor of slavery. He basically said he will stop at nothing until justice prevails, but there is always the other side of the story. He also doesn't seem as if he would care to have a war. If war was necessary, he would be in favor in order to support his claims and efforts. This makes him an agitator of war.
The cotton gin was created by Eli Whitney, the cotton gin revolutionized the speed of producing cotton products. The cotton gin may have been a preventer of war because it made the lives of slaves comparatively better. It made it "better" because they were able to use a device to separate cotton rather than doing that by hand. It might have been an agitator of war because it raised the amount of cotton that was produced. This allowed plantations to plant more cotton, this raised the amount of time slaves needed to work in order to bring in all of the cotton.
ReplyDeleteFrederick Douglas was born through a slave initially making him a slave in Maryland. As a child he spent most of his day as a houseboy. He escaped slavery and went to New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1836. Later on he started a career as an abolitionist against slavery.
ReplyDeleteThe Cotton Gin was invent by Eli Whitney. The cotton gin speed up the process of turning cotton into cloth, which resulted in the need of more slaves to pick the cotton. I believe that this was a big agitator in leading into the civil war. It is simple math, Slaves pick cotton + the demand for more Cotton = the Need for More Slaves.
ReplyDeleteMy topic was the Haitian Revolution. The Haitian slave revolt occurred in 1791 to 1804 where revolting slaves nearly exterminated the white population in Haiti. The salves did this by burying people alive and sawing them in half. This ultimately scared many of the whites in the South at the time, so as a result the white Southern slave owners strengthened their ability to keep blacks “in their place,” which was isolated and illiterate. This was a preventer of war because it distanced the blacks to where they didn’t know what “revolution” was or had any access to anti-slavery acts. This was also an agitator of war because it ultimately led to the Declaration of Independence where Thomas Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal,” although this was not the case for any free black man or women living in the south, which would enrage them and cause a further confrontation.
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ReplyDeleteThe Haitian Revolution can be considered a preventer and agitator of war. There was a very organized and successful form of slave resistance way before the actual rebellion took place. They were also forced to create new laws and restrictions for the enslaved people. The Haitian Revolution is an agitator because it gives slaves the idea they can achieve anything. Since the slaves battled and won that gives other slaves inspiration and pride. It is sort of like nationalism but not in one nation. Also Haiti became the first independent black state in the world. None of this was ever treated like a big deal on a worldwide scale.
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