19th Century Reformers

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on May 25, 1803 in Boston. In 1832, he became a Transcendentalist leader who later wrote the essays "Self-Reliance" and "The American Soldier." He was both an essayist and a poet. Emerson wrote essay in order to express his ideas on transcendentalism, along with other figures. The very first article that he published was titled "Thoughts on the Religion of the Middle Ages" in 1822. Ralph Emerson was also known for giving lectures to people.

http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/world_civ/worldcivreader/world_civ_reader_2/emerson.html

Author: The author of the excerpt is Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Place: Self-Reliance, the essay written by Emerson, was published in London in the year of 1844.

Prior Knowledge: He was a leader of the American Transcendentalist along with others. He was also an essayist and a poet.

Audience: The essay was directed to the people who believed in transcendentalism. 

Reason: Emerson wrote this piece in order for him to propose to the audience that being an independent individual is important, thus giving it the title "Self-Reliance."

T: Emerson wanted to be able to share his ideas on transcendentalism with his audience.

S: The significance of his essay was to not only express his ideas, but for his audience or the people in general to take action in what they are doing.

Sylvester Graham

Graham was born on July 5, 1794 in Connecticut. After becoming a minister, he became a part of the temperance movement. He believed in good dieting that involved eating an abundance of fruits and vegetables. Graham is best know for the invention of Graham crackers today. Due to the fact that he was ill, he began to be interested in nutrition. He also gave lectures to people based on his idea of what dieting meant to him.

http://www.ivu.org/history/williams/graham.html

A: The author that describes Graham's ethics of diet was Howard Williams.

P: It was published in the year of 1883.

P: Sylvester Graham was the one who discovered Graham flour; later discovering a type of diet.

A: This piece was intended for people who was into dieting.

R: To show people that there are different ways of dieting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

T: The main idea was to show how dieting was a major issue to Graham so he decided to invent a diet.

S: The significance to this writing piece is to show the importance of how dieting was a big thing back then like it is today.

Oregon Trail, Wagon Trail Member

The Oregon Trail was a route that emigrants usually took, which started from the Oregon Valleys to the Missouri River. The trail was the main route that people often took when they were trying to get to the Oregon country.  The first people who used the route were explorers and fur traders; however, a couple of years later, there were settlers that were using the Oregon Trail. In the year of 1836, the very first wagon train was put together. Despite the fact that there were wagon trains for people to use, they would still encounter hardships. The Oregon Trail is known as a part of the westward expansion.

http://oregontrail101.com/00.ar.sager1.html

Catherine Sager Pringle tells her experience about the Oregon Trail. Her family considered moving to Oregon because immigration was the big in the winter of 1843. She explains how saying goodbye to relatives was one of the most difficult parts. Being on the wagon train made the passengers sick due to all the movement and how long the trip was. She then describes incidents that happened while they were traveling to Oregon.

The Chesapeake Leopard Incident

The Chesapeake did make the right choice because the British could not be trusted on whether they were being honest or not. Giving up four sailors from the British would not have been one of the best choices. If the incident would have occurred further off shore, there may have been more risks opposed to the original spot. However, being closer to shore could have possibly led to more chaos than what there already was. Even though this incident was a major deal for the Americans, they should not have declared war.

Of course if the Chesapeake was more military prepared the outcomes would have been positive for them. Being economically stable would have also helped the Chesapeake. The main focus on the incident was not necessarily based on the kidnapping of American sailors. By the British not yet abandoning the forts they had, one assumes that they would be the most prepared for the war.

The British should have the full right to demand the return of their sailors back to them. The British should not force any of the sailors to do anything they refuse to do. An American captain should not be held responsible for a fugitive, much less if they do not even know a fugitive is on board. This situation is not worth a war. The justice in this situation is that the fugitives will be sent home rather than a worse outcome.

Wars and Rebellions: John Adam's

During John Adams's presidency,  there was a major war called the Quasi War. This war officially started on July 7, 1798. The war was fought overseas by the United States and France. However, the war ended on September 30, 1800 due to the Treaty of Mortefontaine.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/USSConstellationVsInsurgente.jpg

Because the Quasi War occurred,  the Jay Treaty was signed by the United States and Great Britain in 1794. The French however, disagreed with the Jay Treaty and believed that it contradicted the Treaty of Alliance with the American colonists. The United States had created peace with both nations, but the French thought that the United States was favoring Britain.
John Adams attempted to prevent a war by trying to call peace with the two nations of Britain and France. The United States cancelled all treaties with the French and sent the US Navy to attack the French warships. Throughout the entire war, the United States only lost one warship to their enemy. Around the late 1800's, the French government had finally allowed the US to new negotiations.

John Dickinson

John Dickinson was born on November 2, 1732. Like his father, he decided to study law. He married Mary Norris and had five children. He traveled overseas to get to London because he wanted to study the court system. On his trip, he heard of people discussing ideas of the Enlightenment.
In 1757, Dickinson went back to Philadelphia so he could continue studying law. After three years of returning, he was elected to the Pennsylvania assembly and the Delaware legislature. John Dickinson went against Benjamin Franklin because there was an issue of the state turning into an outright British colony. Unfortunately, he lost the debate against Franklin, which made him lose his assembly seat.
The British government was in debt due to the Seven Years' War, which then created the Stamp Act of 1765. He published letters that pointed out the violations of the Stamp Act, which made him gain plenty of fame. In 1779, Dickinson had returned to the Continental Congress and was elected as president of Delaware. He was able to revise the Articles of Confederation, which later became the U.S. Constitution.  However, he was unable to sign the constitution because he died.

Stono Rebellion 1739

The Stono Rebellion took place in South Carolina on September 9, 1739. The rebellion was named after the Stono River, where the revolt occurred. This rebellion was led by African American slaves who wanted to rebel against their owners. The revolt was planned a day before it actually happened by the slaves. Due to the fact that they couldn't afford weapons, they killed the owner of a gun shop in order to supply themselves with weapons. The leader of the rebellion is still unclear; however, his name could have been either Cato or Jemmy.

The group of slaves were heading toward south for Florida; they had signs that read "liberty" as they were marching toward their destination. As they were heading to Florida, other slaves started to join the group of slaves that had been marching for a while. However, some slaves were forced to join the rebellion. They also killed the masters, along with their families. The African Americans made an exception for one slave owner because he treated his slaves better than the others. A military force found the rebels and captured them; however, some were able to escape. The captured slaves were killed in order to teach a lesson to the South Carolinians. 

The Negro Act was passed in 1740, due to the Stono Rebellion. The Negro Act didn't allow for people to take or import slaves directly from Africa. The African American population was greatly increasing; therefore, the whites were outnumbered. South Carolinians felt insecure so they stopped getting slaves from Africa. In addition, the Negro Act enforced the military force to be aware of their surroundings in order to prevent another rebellion like the Stono. If the salves were treated harshly, the slave owner would get fined for mistreating the slave. 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p284.html

Connecticut Colony During the 1600s

Thomas Hooker was a Puritan & was also a colonial leader. He was the man who founded Connecticut in the year 1635. However, the colony was actually settled a year later in 1636. When the people first settled in, the population was 1,000. Thomas Hooker wanted to start a new colony and that's when he discovered Connecticut. The colony was named after an Indian word, "quonentacut", meaning long tidal river.
An important event that occurred was the Pequot War. The Pequot War lasted from 1636-1637. Even though it seems like a short amount of time, many Pequot Indians were killed. The war was fought between the English settlers and the Pequot Indians. The population of the Indians drastically decreased due to this war. New Haven became a part of Connecticut in 1660. Both John Daven and Theophilus Eaton were given the credit of discovering New Haven.
The people of Connecticut also created the Fundamental Orders in 1639. Many people believed that the Fundamental Orders would be similar to the U.S. Constitution. The majority of the people within the colony were Puritans and Congregationalist. John Winthrop was governor of Connecticut from the years of 1659-1675. The settlers were able to maintain wheat, corn, and fish because they lived close by the coast & the soil was fertile.