A Lecture On The Anti-Slavery Movement

 

 

                 There are four different types of anti-slavery principal divisions. The first one is the Garrisonians , or the American anti-slavery society. This division leaves it up to the slaves and their masters to fight their own battles. The second one is the anti-garrisonians, or the American and foreign anti-slavery society. "It does not aim to abolish the union, but aims to avail itself of the means afforded by the union to abolish slavery." The Anti-Slavery Movement: A Lecture by Frederick Douglass Before the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society by Frederick Douglass (Rochester, NY: Lee, Mann, and Co., 1855), pp. 3–4, 28–40, 44. The third one is the free soil party, or the political abolitionist. "It aims to limit and denationalize slavery, and to relieve the Federal Government from all responsibility for slavery." It's motto which is "Slavery Local-Liberty National." The fourth one is The Liberty party, or Gerrit Smith School of abolitionists. " It makes a clean sweep of slavery everywhere. It denies that slavery is, or can be legalized. It denies that the Constitution of the United States is a pro-slavery instrument, and asserts the power and duty of the Federal Government to abolish slavery in every State of the Union. Strictly speaking, I say this is the only party in the country which is an abolition party.…The Liberty Party, by its position and doctrines, and by its antecedents, is pledged to continue the struggle while a bondman in his chains remains to weep." The Anti-Slavery Movement: A Lecture by Frederick Douglass Before the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society by Frederick Douglass (Rochester, NY: Lee, Mann, and Co., 1855), pp. 3–4, 28–40, 44.

 

         From reading this article, I can tell that Frederick Douglas was a very smart man. He came from being a slave to an anti-slavery speaker. In this article he described the four different divisions of anti -slavery which I found very interesting. It is good to know that one of these divisions 'The liberty party' made the complete sweep of slavery everywhere. I was always taught that slavery was abolished in the North before it was abolished in the south. It seems like more people in the North had more sympathy for how these slaves were being treated by their masters than those in the South.

                                            The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription



          "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." "Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

                My understanding of this passage is that although all men are created equal, governments are institute among men. We are the ones who decides who we should place in the position of power. If there is ever a time where there's destruction, we have the right to replace the ones we place in power. I chose this passage because it was interesting to me to know that we the people have a lot of rights. Although we have a lot of  rights, these rights are often taken away from us. We live in a country that is suppose to make us feel safe and free, but that isn't always the case. They try to make us believe that we are indeed safe and free, showing us only part of the news on television. I believe that things would be a bit different if we were being told the full truth instead of part of the truth.

          

                    Trans-national America by Randolph Bourne. 

         This article is about the idea of the melting pot in the United States. Bourne speaks about how we are all foreign born or the defendants of foreign born. He mentioned that we all have a reason for coming to the United States. "The early colonist came over with motives no less colonial than the later." (P. 2 ph. 2 Bourne). "They came to get freedom and live as they wanted." The colonist also came so that they can escape the chaos going on in their own country. 

      I chose to write about this article because I am an immigrant. I was interested in learning a little bit more about how the whole idea of the melting pot started. I always thought that it was a great idea to call The United States a melting pot. As I got older, I noticed that others weren't too interested in learning about a culture different from there's. (p. 2 ph 2 Bourne) They did not come to adopt the culture of the American Indian." A lot of the times I see that people look at you differently once they hear you're an immigrant. I laugh at the thought of them thinking differently of me when they are too defendants of foreign-born. This article gave me a better understanding of why the colonist came here and also how the U.S is not much of a melting pot after all.  

Americans Name Government as No. 1 U.S. Problem by Justin McCarthy

       I don't believe anyone can truthfully say that the government isn't the number one problem in the United States. If you look at the graph on economy, government and unemployment from March 2014 and March 2015, you can see that there is a higher percentage for government than there is for economy and unemployment. Although the economy is one of our most problems, the government  will always be at the top. From 2000 to 2015, there's been a huge difference to how satisfied people were by the direction of the United States.

        When I hear the word politics, the first thing that comes to my mind is government. So when I saw that the title of the article had the word government, I just had to read it. I too believe that the government is the number one problem in the United States. I feel like they aren't completely honest about everything  that is going on. How can we make or try to make a change if there's a lot of things that we aren't aware of. The sentence that stood out to me the most, was "While dissatisfaction with government is by no means a new issue to the American people, it has not in recent months been as clearly the leading problem as it is now, given that fewer Americans mention the economy." More and more people are probably starting to see that the government isn't being truthful.