Chapter 11

- technology was God’s chosen instrument of progress… Yet the progress had a darker side

- technological improvements that transformed life… these advances did not benefit everyone

These phrases stood out due to the fact that they not only reflect the pros and cons of technology then, they also reflect how technology affects us today. I think it is crazy how the issue of technology started then, yet we continue to have the same problem many years later. I could only imagine how “weird” it was for them to have such new technology and how to incorporate it in their lives (kind of out of nowhere) because nowadays, we have always had technology around us but we are constantly improving these gadgets, machines, etc. 

Another concept in which I found interesting was hydropathy- the “water cure.” Despite the book explaining what it was, I still did not understand what it meant so I looked it up. From what I researched, it was an alternative form of medical care. Hydropathy would cure by placing cold water on various places of the body. 

Sources: http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9781439904275

Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution

From the Declaration of Independence, the words that stuck to me were, “Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” I think one of the reasons it stood out to me was because of the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness. While I continued to read the Declaration of Independence, all I could think about is what exactly do those words mean. Also I thought about how the pursuit of happiness compares to then and now. 

I noticed that the Constitution differs from the Declaration of Independence through their focuses. I feel like the Constitution went into more detail of the government setup whereas more vague.

I thought it was interesting to look into both of these sources/ documents because we have somewhat skimmed it in past history class, but not really look at. It was also interesting because they are somewhat the basis of what our country/government practice. 

Primary Sources

I did not know what to think of the primary sources. When I first opened up the link of Thomas Payne I did not expect the text to be in that format. When I was reading the quotes they sort of made sense, yet I feel like there were meaning behind the words of the quotes. There were three quotes that caught my attention the most. One was, “Small islands, not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.” When I read this quote, for some reason I thought of Hawaii and how it has been conquered by multiple places. Another quote was "give me liberty, or give me death.” This stood out to me because it has been thrown around throughout different history classes of mine. Last was, “Society in every state is a blessing, but a government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.” And this stood out to me because it was repeated twice on the link and I did not fully understand war the message was saying. 

  

Class Discussion

Our group met at our usual time and place. At first we did not know where to start, but once we got the ball rolling, I think we had a good discussion. What worked with our discussion was that it was not very formal. The casual format of the dicussion made it easier to throw out topics we have not covered or which confused us. One thing we talked about in the discussion that we thought we had not covered in class was why the colonies came to being "against" Europe. We talked about how taxation was one of the factors. Another factor was that how the colonies were ruled from far away and yet they had their own government within the colonies. We discussed what it means to have a perfect society. In our opinion we thought that the people's ideal of a perfect society was to be "pure" meaning white, the same, and uniform. But we also kept in mind how different people had their own idea of a perfect society.

Chapter 4 reading

For the past three chapters, I learned about a good amount of content from when I was in high school, but the content for chapter four was foreign to me. I have heard about the Navigation Acts during high school and touch base with the topic, but did not really realize how much it affected the economy. It was also interesting to learn how mercantilism worked for British America giving a rise to "consumer revolution," yet it did not have the same affect on France and Spain. It was interesting to find out the difference it had on each place.

Chapter 3 reading

What was interesting about this chapter was the four different sections that it went into. It was interesting because I learned about how each place functioned and how each contrasts to one another. The most shocking to read from this chapter though came from the Chesapeake society section. It basically went over how race was shaping into the Chesapeake society. How slavery first started to slavery becoming a lifelong status based on the color of a person's skin was out of this world to read about. Little did I learn that slavery just was not for blacks, but also Indians… but that was it, just those to races. Reading that during these times sounds totally wrong, but it makes me question why the people of those times thought it was socially acceptable.

Chapter 2 reading

In this reading a couple things stood out to me. For instance I read that in West Africa children were a big part of the labor force. I think reading this surprised me because when I thought of child labor I thought that the children's help would help their family just a little, but I read the keyword "essential." That word was really big for me because if their work is essential I could only imagine what type of work these kids had to do. It is unfortunate to learn because I feel as if these kids had to grow up fast and did not get the chance to be kids. Not only is it unfortunate for the children, but also for West Africa as well. The child labor that West Africa practices reflects how hard it was to survive if the parents needed the help of their children. What also was mind-blowing that men would marry more than one woman in order to make children. To me, it shows the extreme practices they had to do to live.
Another point in which stood out to me was how more than half of the Europeans were peasants. When people usually think of history, they think of only the Africans who went through hardships, but so did Europeans. It was interesting to learn the tensions within their society such as the imbalance of the rich and poor, when it came to religion, and between the states and politics.

Chapter 1 reading

While reading the first chapter I was surprised to learn so much about Native Americans. It was interesting to learn about what they have accomplished because people think of the Native Americans' lives solely revolving around agriculture or hunting and gathering. The chapter informed me of the empires they have built, their development of an accurate calendar, numerical system, and hieroglyphic writing and much more. The chapter also cleared the thought of Native Americans as just one big group, but rather there are multiple "groups" and each had their own distinct accomplishments and culture.