The Impact of Slave Leaders

There were many causes that lead to the Civil War. Politically, the Mason-Dickson Line was creating many problems and large amount of tension in the government. The Missouri Compromise added to the tension as well as when Texas gained independence from Mexico and would join the United States as a Union State. On top of that, any states west of the Mason-Dickson Line could choose whether to be  Union or Slave state. But the most major component that lead to the Civil War was slavery. There were many slaves uprising in the South after the heard of the slave uprisings in Haiti. Many free slaves started to leaders in the Union states and would start to spread their word through preaching, creating one of the first black Churches. The most important black leaders would be a free man named David Walker. He used to speak out in public of the tragedies that used to occur in the South. The most impactful action he took was when he criticized the Declaration of Independence of this particular quote "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." He claimed that if this is the truth, why re blacks treated as minorities and have equal rights that of animals. He also criticized Thomas Jefferson's only book when he wrote that blacks should be treated as whites, but did nothing when he was in presidency. He was so hated in the south that the south started to put bounty's on Walker's head so he could stop stirring and provoke the slaves to retaliate. On June 28, 1830, he was found dead on the doorsteps of his house. Many people speculated that he was assassinated while others believe it was a natural cause. Nevertheless, his influence helped the slaves become free which influenced the outcome of the Civil War.   

Slavery in America

This week in American Studies we learned about how America adopted the idea of slavery. The reason behind slavery was because the economy of the south was mainly based on agriculture, their most important crop being cotton. The amount of labor was too much for them as they had other things to look after, and that is when they entered the slave trade. This brought blacks from Africa into America where they started to work on the plantations for long, hard hours. Many people wondered why they couldn't use the Native Americans, as they were within "hand's reach" and were also were living in America as well. The Native's couldn't nearly do the amount of work the African slaves could and the African slaves had a better body build and physique than the Native Americans. There was no space for the Indians to reside with the colonists that the Indians had to be put on ships and shipped to the West Indies. At one point, there were more Africans coming in to America than Indians being shipped out of America. The act of slavery caused many conflicts in the United States, mainly between states together. Some people thought the idea of enslaving people were against humanity as everyone is created equal, while others believed that it was beneficial to the economy of the south and is driving America. This would in turn lead to the bloodiest war in United States history when the people of America turn against each other and split themselves into two, which is known as the Civil War.  

Different Perspectives of Colonialism.

When the English came into the New World, they were surprised to see that there were already people inhabiting the land. They at first established their colonies and started to gain resources to survive. They then realized that the Native American's where inhabiting the land in which the settlers needed the resources. They then asked the Natives to sign a treaty in which the Natives would be giving up the land to the colonists. The Natives, however, could not understand the contract and assumed that both settlements would be sharing the land. They soon learned that this was not the case as some hunters were shot and killed by the English for trespassing their territories. The English kept pushing them off their land until there was no other place to push them at, where then they shipped them off tot eh West Indies. This is where there were more African Slaves coming in then, then there were Natives being shipped out. This kind of colonialism is a one where the English are pretty much saying "Go away, this is not your land anymore, it is ours". There are also modern examples of this kind of colonialism called "Settler's Colonialism". One modern example would be the crisis in Ukraine and Russia. Russia is trying to invade and take over Ukraine after the impeachment of Ukraine's president. They are not trying to push the people of Ukraine away, but more of a 'We take you over and you come join our civilization", which is a Colonial Imperative. These kinds of colonialism can happen at any time period and has happened in the past, is happening in the present, and will occur in the future.