Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Cotton economy and slavery, conditions of enslavement, resistance movements

Post your brief (roughly one paragraph) comments here about how your topic could be considered both a preventer and an agitator of war.

Begin your post by reminding the class of what your topic is.

12 comments:

  1. I think that the haitian revolution is a good example of both a preventer and a agitator of war. This is because it was a successful form of a slavery revolt. The southerns heard the stories of what had happened and they were in shock. This made southerners make new laws so it would not happen again. This revolt made a preventer of war because this scared the southerners because if it happened once it could happen again. So they tried to make it so it would not happen. So these new laws made the slave owners more in control of there slaves.This revolt is also a agitator of war because once slaves heard of this revolt and it gave them the idea that it could be done, so slaves before never even thought about the idea until after the Haitians took Haiti over. So this conflict started to form the civil war.

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  2. The cotton gin is a good example of both an agitator, and preventer of war. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 dramatically increased the demand and stability for American crops, as well as the need for slaves. Some may argue that since the cotton gin boosted the American economy and increased the stability of the agricultural market, slavery should be kept in order to support the demand in the field. Those on the opposing side of the slavery argument could say that the cotton gin caused more harm than help because of the great increase in slave demand. Those who found the stability of the American economy and agriculture industry more important would support slavery and the cotton gin, whereas people who felt strongly about the unjustness of slavery would deeply resent and disapprove of the cotton gin. Both of these opinions have enough conflict between them to start a violent civil war.

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  3. William Lloyd Garrison could be considered both an agitator and a preventer depending on how you view his arguments. In 1831 Garrison started a radical abolitionist movement by publishing a newspaper called The Liberator. This could be seen as an agitator because it is bringing up the problems of slavery, and eventually leads to an Anti-Slavery Society fighting against slavery. At the same time this could be a preventor because this group of men is just trying to get their voices heard through newspaper and moments so they could change the way this country was behaving by owning slaves, and they didnt have to threaten to fight to do so. Garrison did however act as an agitator when he burned a copy of the Declaration of Independence, stating that it was "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell." Following these events the abolitionists also had the Liberty party, the Free Soil Party and started the underground railroad. This was enough to make the North (where the slaves were escaping) to realize the problem in the south and so after enough agitation -attention being brought to the subject of slavery- a war over Slavery between the North and the South finally broke out.

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  4. William Lloyd Garrison, as we can read in his writings was completely against slavery, in fact, he confesses once that her mother was a black slave. He was pretty young when he published his first issue of the newspaper The Liberator, wich was part of the Abolitionis Movement.
    He is a good example of an agitator of war because he was clearly provoking the South to start a war with the bad things he writes about it. It seems that he really wanted the South to be against the North..
    Although some people could think that he was that he was also a preventor because he was kind of stopping the revolution the black slaved and their "group" could have been planning by proposing the abolition of slavery.
    I believe anyways that he was more and agitator of war than a preventor

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  5. The Cotton Gin is both a preventer as well as an agitator of war for a few different reasons. One reason why it was an agitator was because before the invention of the cotton gin many people "including Tomas Jefferson, believed that slavery would eventually die out because of the limited market for the crops". However when it was invented in 1793, it caused a high demand for slaves because the owners now needed more people to work the machines. On the other side, it was a preventer of war because the economy in the South was bad, and the invention of the cotton gin caused a mass production of cotton to be sold which lead to a boost in the economy. Over all the cotton gin was more of a agitator of war then it was a preventer.

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  6. My topic is Frederick Douglass and his paper "The North Star". According to a brief research on him, there is few chance that Douglass would ever be a preventer of the civil war. Douglass wants to separate the north from the south, which he describes as "wicked". Douglass does not only strongly support the Civil war, but also argue that "African American should be allowed to engage in the fight for their freedom". By showing his determination on slavery abolition, he had both of his sons fought in the Civil Wars. Douglass is also quite a demanding person. All his actions shows that he is not those people who wants a gradual reform, but instead, an instant revolution. Even after the civil war, he still does not slow down his pace. He was disappointed at Lincoln for not "publicly endorse suffrage for African American". Overall, Douglass could be the number one agitator of the Civil War, but definitely not a preventer of the war.

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  7. The Haitian revolution was the only successful black slave revolution in history. The oppressed slaves of Haiti rose up and fought for thirteen years for the basic human rights. The Haitian slaves not only fought off the French but the Spanish and English who tried the claim the wealthy colony for their own. This event can be perfectly used as a preventer and agitator for the war. The abolitionist would the use the revolution as a way to push complete emancipation and prevent the war. The revolution could be used a pre curser to what will happen in America if slaves weren’t released. Also during the Haitian revolution NapolĂ©on was busing slaughtering and massacring every nation on the European continent; if he weren’t enslaving a race then he wouldn’t have to send twenty thousand troops to Haiti on a numerous basis. A agitator for the war would be that if the south doesn’t secede and lockdown and completely oppress its slaves then the south would be consumed in war and riots. The Haitian revolution showed the world that slaves wanted their freedom and they wanted it now.

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  8. My topic is Frederick Douglass and his abolitionist newspaper, The North Star. Douglass was an escaped slave who taught himself how to read, became a world renowned orator, and was well-known for his speeches against slavery and for women's rights. The white Southerners were obviously quite averse to Douglass's preaching. They were against any changes to their comfortable lifestyles in which they were making fortunes on the backs of unpaid and enslaved laborers. So any threat to their way of life, such as the abolitionist newspaper The North Star, was an agitator for war. However, it can also be argued that Fredrick Douglass was a preventer of war. He was a strong proponent of the abolition of slavery, but he was not trying to start a war. He simply wished for the freedom and equality that all people deserve.

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  9. Cotton gin can be consider as a preventer of the war and also a agitator of the war. The reasons why it was a preventer of the war were it became a primary crop in the South when the crops market was dying out in North which helped the economy to grow fast and increased the stability of the society. However, at the same time, the need of slaves also grew up dramatically which makes it was a war agitator. How is the invention of cotton gin a war agitator? It is primarily not its fault. The people who against slavery saw more slaves were used under the production of cotton. The idea of oppose to slavery grew stronger alone with more slavery use. Two ides conflict together. Then civil war.

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  10. William Lloyd Garrison is a big advocate for the abolishment of slavery, due to his statement that his mother was once a black slave, he began a radical movement in 1831, he started a newspaper called, "The Liberator". In this newspaper, William Lloyd Garrison openly stating the problems of slavery which made him more of an agitator than a preventer. With his newspaper, he created a lot of turmoil and caused the south and the north to go against each other.

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  11. My topic is Frederick Douglass and his newspaper The North Star. In addition to being against slavery, he supported women's rights and believed that After escaping from slavery, Douglass became a leader of the abolitionist movement. He, and other abolitionists believed that African Americans should be allowed to fight in the war. Douglass even talked with Abraham Lincoln himself to help move slaves out of the South. Douglass's The North Star was definitely an agitator of war. However, he was also a preventer of war. Douglass wanted to end slavery and have equality and freedom, but he was a Christian and didn't full support it.

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  12. The Haitian Revolution, although rarely mentioned, can be seen as an agitator and preventer of war. The thought of a slave revolution must of come across the minds of slave owners, especially in places where the number of slaves was larger than the number of owners because it is a very real possibility. However, it was probably one of those things that people never really thought would happen until it actually does. The revolt in Haiti against their white oppressors france was very much successful but because of the circumstances haiti till this day doesn't have a stable government.

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