Character Not Race

This unit has been about the Atlantic revolutions, the lesson we recently learned about was about the Latin American Revolutions in Brazil, Gran Colombia, and Mexico. The essential question from this less is, “Why is it essential to acknowledge human value regardless of race? How are the events in the Latin American Revolutions evidence of this social imperative?” The essential question is important to think about because race played a big role in our world's history. The race of people had an affect on what that person could or couldn't do, and what status that person held. People should be treated fairly without their race being a factor.  In class, we learned about the different races that made up the population in Latin America. We read a document that explained the different races in Latin America and explained what each combination of race meant. People in Latin America had an obsession with race and social status they created a ladder, with each different race combination on it. The positions on the ladder from highest to lowest went from, Peninsulares, Creoles, Mestizos, Mulattos, Indians, and African Slaves. After learning about the different races the class broke up into smaller groups and was assigned on of the three revolutions; Gran Colombia, Brazil or Mexico. My group was assigned the revolution in Gran Colombia. In our groups we created a timeline of events that occurred and when we were done we went around to other groups sharing our revolutions.

 

The image below represents the race percentage in Latin America.

Race Percentage.

After we shared our revolutions to the other groups we had to discuss two commonalities and two differences that we observed between all revolutions. Some of the commonalities we came up with were that all the countries wanted to break free of European rule and become independent. We also observed that all the rulers that claimed power after the country was declared independent did not stay in office long. The differences between the revolutions were that the Brazilian war wasn’t as violent as the other two revolutions, and the Gran Colombia revolution resulted in multiple different countries while the other two countries resulted in one independent country. Each revolution took a different route to gaining independence; however race was still an issue in all three. The Mexican revolution was launched by a priest, Miguel Hidalgo, he wanted the goal of the revolution to be racial equality in Mexico. In Gran Colombia the revolution was started by Simon Bolivar, he was unhappy with the discrimination in the country. He was able to unite many people despite race and fight against the Spanish. In Brazil, Pedro only allowed the Peninsulares become government officers. There was rumor of another revolution for equality and Pedro fled. The goals for all the revolutions was to create racial equality and gain independence.

This is an image of my groups timeline of Gran Colombia.

Timeline of Gran Colombia

Even today racial judgments occur, but they are less prominent. People still make judgements against race in society today, and there are many stereotypes. People tend to think that dark skin people are more violent than light skin but that is not true at all. An example of racial discrimination that has occurred recently today was in Ferguson Missouri. In Ferguson, an 18 year old African american boy was shot by a police officer. The boy supposedly attacked the policemen, but many people believe the officer could have done something different that did not result to the death of the young boy. It is extremely important to consider the issue of race today. People should be judged upon their personalities and characters rather than their skin type.

Not So Much A People Person

In class we started a new lesson on Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United states. The essential question for the lesson was, “Is Andrew Jackson’s long-standing reputation as ‘the people's president’ deserved? Why? Why not?” The essential question is important because it helps us evaluate the leaders in history and compare to see if they benefited the people of our nation. During class my teacher showed the class two videos, one was a Crash Course Video, and the second was a Ted-Ed video. These videos gave important information on Andrew Jackson’s actions while he was president. After we watched the videos and took notes we split up into five groups of four and were assigned a topic; Indian Removal, Spoils system, and the Bank War.

My group was assigned the Bank War. My group decided to make a PowerPoint for our presentation. In our PowerPoint we talked about how Andrew Jackson should not have the title, “peoples president”. The Bank war was in 1833, Andrew Jackson did not agree with the National bank and decided to repeal the second bank. Jackson used the federal funds from the national bank to make smaller “pet banks.” By Jacksons actions he made it seem like he removed the national bank to accommodate the poor; however his actions created a financial crisis. After watching the presentations for Indian Removal act it seems Jackson was not a people's president. The Indian Removal act was when Jackson forced Indian tribes out of their homes and led them to their death on the “trail of tears.” Jackson claimed he was helping the Indians by forcing them to move but he was only looking out for the white people. The spoils system showed that Jackson was not a people's president also. The spoil system is when Andrew Jackson offered his supporters government jobs, and many others lost their jobs. Jackson hired these people knowing that they weren't as qualified as the ones who got fired. Andrew Jackson does not deserve the reputation as ‘peoples president,’ he was not looking out for the greater good of all people, and he affected peoples lives more negatively than positive.

This is my group's presentation about the bank war.

Work Of Art

This unit was about the Rise of Democracy. The essential question for this lesson is, "How should we define democracy? How democratic was the United States in the early 1800s?" In class we separated into groups, and defined democracy. My group defined democracy as a system of government where everyone can participate and vote from elected representatives. After we defined democracy we took notes on different documents and brainstormed ideas for a project. My group decided to cr4eate a poster as seen above.