Jessica Klein
History 1700-054
Lecture question: Based on what we watched, learned and discussed, I feel there are
many reasons that the union broke up. There was the Missouri compromise line, where states
created above the 26 degree line would be free states, and all states under that line would be
entered into the union as slaves states. This was done to keep the balance between slave and free
states closer to equal, because in this day and age slaves were counted as three fifths of a man,
and by sheer numbers the slave states had a considerably higher amount of power in congress.
Also when Kansas and Nebraska were given the territory legislature of popular sovereignty
which pretty much gave them the ability to choose whether they were slave states or not, this
lead to "Bleeding Kansas" which was a battle of numbers, between proslavery and antislavery
supporters, they would move to Kansas in hopes to sway the vote one way or another and with
this they did not believe in doing this in peace which is why it was called "Bleeding Kansas".
These are just a few of the factors that lead up to the union breaking up.
Film Question: Based on the film Savage Acts there is many ways that the issue of race is
tied into the conquest of the Philippines. Throughout the film you see many references in the
media where they portray the Filipinos as savages, often showing them as smaller and looking
more like savages. We also see how the Americans of this time period regard them with little to
no respect, in one letter a guy had referred to killing them was like "hunting rabbits" and that
they were killing hundreds even thousands. We also see how we as Americans have the need to
parade our "possessions" out for everyone to see, we brought over 1200 of them to live in
basically a human zoo.
One of the most popular exhibits in Midway, was A monkey, a Filipino, and a "white"
human. Midway was a big indicator about how class was a major player of this era, the film
showed a white woman standing by a Filipino showing that if you were a white family in this era
you were sitting higher on the totem pole then everyone else.
Document Question: I feel that in the first document they are for one hinting at they feel
like owning land meant they are truly free, and that land ownership was how they will be
recognized as something other than dumb driven cattle(Doc 1, p 2). Also I feel that for this time
period they have been shown that freedmen get to own the land which in this time it meant they
had the respect. When they get recognized as equal and free they would be able to enjoy being
free. Share cropping limits the laborers by pretty much giving them a bit more money that they
would be getting as being slaves but they put so many ways to be able to lose money such as you
lose a dollar a day if your wife is giving birth and you stay with her. I feel this documents show
how even after slavery was abolished they weren't truly free, which is all they really wanted.
They wanted to be recognized as not being colored, but as people.