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HIST 1700
Response Assignment #2
Spring 2013
I. Lecture/Film/Discussion Question
According to the lecture, the film (Slavery & the Making of America, Episode 3: Seeds of
Destruction), and our class discussion (if applicable), why did the Union break up? Explain.
There are a few national reasons why the Union broke up during the
years following up to the Civil War. During the early years of the 19th century
the population of the US was growing exponentially, from the years 1790 to
1830 the national population grew from 4 million to 13 million inhabitants.(1)
Population expansion heightened the demands for more land expansion to the
west to support not only the housing of the inhabitants but also the land
needed for the production of goods and services. In the years leading up to the
Civil War the value of slaves was worth more than the entire nation’s
manufacturing, textile and national banking system combined.(1) As the
westward expansion of the US began to boom after the California gold rush of
1848, western states began to petition for statehood.
This influx of applications for statehood divided Congress, southern
Congressmen wanted new western states to be slave-states because of the
economic benefits they saw with slave markets. Northern Congressmen saw
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the negative effects that slavery had to the democracy that American was
supposed to represent and denounced slavery as a viable policy for the
American economy. By the mid-19th century Congress passed the Compromise
of 1850 which 1) Declared California a free-state, 2) New Mexico and Utah will
apply for state-hood when they are ready, and can choose to be free or slave, 3)
slave-trade abolished in DC, 4) boarder dispute between New Mexico and Texas
resolved and 5) the nation had strict fugitive slave laws.(1) The Compromise of
1850 was intended to advert tensions that were growing between the North and
South, but the repercussions of the Compromise lead to sectionalism that still
has effects on the United States.
Along with western expansion was the growing power of slaves as active
leaders against the institution of slavery. Slaves were converted to Christianity
in the year years of slavery 250 years prior. Slaves were inspired and took
fundamental principles of Christianity, this began the slave uprising
movements of the 19th century. In 1831, slave riots killed 57 white men,
women and children – which led white Southerners to torture and kill as many
blacks as they could find.(2) Violence between blacks and whites in the South
was intensifying by the day, this further pressured the free northern states to
take further actions to prevent the new western states from becoming slavestates. Many of the slaves, like first generation African American Harriett
Jacobs, used the Underground Railroad to migrate to the free North.(2) Racial
tensions were heated in the free North; many escaped blacks still faced racial
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hierarchies in the North. As institutions of slavery in the 19th century US
passed continuous laws to detain and return blacks to the South, blacks
around the country started to involve themselves on a national level in pressing
the country into a free nation.
II. Films
2. What are some of the ways Savage Acts connects the issue of “race” to the conquest of the
Philippines? Why do you think the filmmakers make these connections? Explain.
The film Savage Acts was able to explore the conquest of the Philippines
in the context of the institutionalized racism of late 19th century American
culture. Manifest destiny was a kind of rhetoric used throughout America in
order to justify American colonialism across the North American continent.
But, by the end of the 19th century the United States stretch across the entire
continent but the imperialist rhetoric continued to dominate the culture. In
1896 the Philippines gained their independence from Spanish control – the
Filipino people were inspired by the independence of the United States, even
mimicking the US Declaration of Independence.(3) American political
institutions saw the imperialist nature of conquest as a way to declare it a
global power. In order for the American production markets to strive it needed
to control the pacific route to China. By 1898 American no longer recognized
the Philippines as an independent nation-state – America’s aim was to
overthrow the developing Filipino government for the use as a refueling station
for US trades ships on the route to China.(3)
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Within one month of Americas annexation of the Philippines, there were
40,000 US troops stationed and it has become an all-out war on the Philippine
Islands. During this time, US public opinion of the Phillipino war was low – the
imperialist structures needed a way to gain public support. A way to expand
public support for the American imperialism was to propagate racial
hierarchies within American culture. The St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904
brought 12,000 kidnapped Filipino natives, the Filipinos were placed on
demonstration – used to imply a sense of savagery about the Filipino people.(3)
Racial propaganda at the 1904 World’s Fair justified the human rights
violations of the Philippines War, continued imperialism and racism in
American culture.
III. Primary Documents
3. Read Edna Kenton Says Feminism Will Give Men More Fun, Women Greater Scope,
Children Better Parents, Life More Charm (1914) and Inez Milholland’s The Changing Home
(1913) and answer the question.
Question
Feminists of the Progressive Era were self-consciously “modern.” What evidence do you see for
this sensibility in both documents? Explain. (Consider issues such as economic independence
and changes in relationships and marriage.)
By expressing the self-control of the “modern” woman Edna Kenton was
able to spread a message of women’s self-determination during the suffrage
years of the early 1910s. “Intellectual attitude towards herself and life “is a
direct relation to the concept of women’s self-awareness.(4) Edna’s publication
was printed the same month as the start of WW1 – women were recognizing
their abilities in the workplace with the population of men at war. With men at
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war, American women were able to recognize the limited amount of choices
presented by a history of male oppression. Economic conditions presented by
WW1 set the arena for women “to seek her own personal goal by her own
path.”(4)
The industrial revolution allowed for a global surplus of social resources
– people of industrialized nations no longer had to live off the fruits of the land,
rather the industrial labor system of the early 20th century. The loss of lands
to urban developments and factories “forced (women) in considerable numbers
to follow these tasks into their new industrial environment “and away from
farming the lands.(5) “Modern” women in the industrial workplace developed
the women sense of economic needs within society. As abilities of the “modern”
woman were being utilized in the workplace, Milholland explains how because
the “modern” woman was closer to sovereign economic stability women should
no longer to forced into male dominance. Millhollan talks of women no longer
needing to be at the “mercy of individual man” – reasoning with women to
develop a sense of self-conscious attitudes when it comes to personal life
relationships.(5)
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Works Cited
(1) Hoskisson, Tamora. "Why Did the Union Break Up?" South City Campus,
Salt Lake City. 2 Feb. 2013. Lecture.
(2)"Slavery & the Making of America, Episode 3: Seeds of Destruction." PBS.
Web. 16 Apr. 2013. Film.
(3) Savage Acts: Wars, Fairs, and Empire 1898-1904 « American Social History
Project · Center for Media and Learning. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
(4)Kenton, Edna. “Edna Kenton Says Feminism Will Give Men More Fun, Women
Greater Scope , Children Better Parents, Life More Charm” 1914. Online
Resource. 16 Apr. 2013.
(5)Millholland, Inez. “The Changing Home” 1913. Online Resource. 16 Apr.
2013.