journal #11

responded to Molly Zuber

journal #9

In today's economy many are trying to save their assets and plan accordingly for the future in an attempt to prevent another fall out. I find that this is somehow related to the politics of the United States after the war. The Civil War was a huge dispute that tore the nation apart and caused the people to change their way of life after it ended. This reminds me of the economic depression that our nation is currently trying to pull out of. When the economy crashed the entire nation was in a panic and everyone had to change the way they lived their daily lives. Ever since the government has been doing whatever they can to pull the nation back together and bring the people back to normal. Bailouts, new laws, new healthcare/welfare systems have been put in motion to try to get the country back to the way it was before. Similarly the industrialization and expansion was a way to bring the nation back together as a whole. After the war many had to change they way they lived. Slave owners had to adjust to life without slaves, the freed slaves had to adjust to life on their own. Many had to struggle to get an education or a job, weather it was a slave in the south unable to get hired because of their skin color or a poor white worker who could not get an education because of the schools set up solely for those freed slaves. When the nation began expanding and developing all of these new technologies, the nation grew together. This time period was so exciting for the people, everything was changing and everyone was a part of it. Today these changes are not nearly as exciting, but they are all in an attempt to try to bring the nation back together and build a better future for its people.

journal #10

While reading "the Wife of his Youth" there were several transitions into complete enlightenment of the story. There is no subtle introduction of characters, setting, or any summation of the tale; the reader is simply thrown in to the story. It isn't hard to catch on to what is happening, about a passage in and you are already fully enlightened on the Blue Vein society who were the upper social standing of that society. Once I fully comprehended the social group, I was intrigued to read on. Then I learned it was actually mulattos that were a majority of this pale group, and this put a whole new spin on my interpretation of what this group was about. The pressure to prove themselves as worthy of their class standing as an inner drive and to prove to others, of both races. When Mr. Ryder is planning this ball to propose he reads over a verse about those of mixed race, and this pressure on those who can call no place home is revealed as extremely important to him and most likely his entire group. When the small black woman entered the story it was not until the very end, while he was asking what the husband should do to the party, that I suspected it was him. I could not guess at the relevance of her story, only that it could have effected the path he chose to take when picking a wife. Surprisingly I was right in that aspect. He chose to acknowledge this woman as his, even when he had worked so hard to get where he was in society and had thrown this entire ball for a woman younger, paler, smarter, wealthier, and more beautiful than his wife of that slave marriage. I believe that he chose her to speak on his character as man of two races. I think by choosing his first wife he showed his guests that even though he looks white, acts like a upper class white businessman, and can afford a lifestyle only open to white men previously; he cans till stay true to his roots. In a way this separates him from the "superior race" that segregated and enslaved other human beings. Here he seems to be revealing what we would all hope of our citizens and future generations, to live well but not forget where you came from. Humility, as a virtue, should never die.

journal #7

Response to Olivia Caridi "A Call to Action"

journal #8

After the reading I noticed a strange connection between Brown's last speech and the segment of a Diary from Dixie. Both of these people came from opposing views, Brown being a liberal abolitionist and Chesnut strongly believing in the way of life in the south. I found it interesting that she knew the fallacies of slavery but wished there was a way to keep it going in everyday life. This contradictory idea bridge to Brown's last speech, for me, because he seemed to be a little contradictory himself. Although he did admit to helping slaves escape to Canada, it seemed he was trying to lessen the abolitionist aspects of his other intentions. The prologue to his speech made him seem more like a more violent and active abolitionist, but in his speech he claims to be doing nothing more than helping slaves escape the country. No doubt this was a way to try to gain some form of sympathy from those in the south and those in the north, but to me it seemed almost like a cop out. This man is about to be hanged and could make a powerful speech calling for an uprising and demanding people to take a serious look at what slavery is doing to them, but he seems to just give up. If I was a 19th century citizen I feel it would be moving to witness this stand against slavery. Although it was good of him to try to keep others involved out of trouble, but the entire message seemed to far less enthusiastic than I would have expected from a doomed man. 

Chesnut wrote in her Diary about the General Lee's capture and the inevitable overtake of the south by the north. Her depiction of these Yankees and how much her family and friends were troubled seems to shed no light to her awareness of the evils of slavery. She seems almost aggressive against the way of life in the north and wants nothing to do with it. She seems more enthusiastic to her views of slavery then Brown who is about to die. Even her reference to the plagues of Egypt is more powerful than Brown's speech. This related to how the slaves viewed Moses as their savior but Chesnut is changing that entire metaphor around to mean that the slaves are the plague on the civil world. This seemed like a clever blow to that form of praise for the slaves and quite brutish.