Sunday, September 21, 2014

Africans in the Americas: The Revolution

Greetings, Class. 


Be sure to view Africans in the Americas: The Revolution. If you have comments or concerns, please post them here and we will invite them into our next class discussion. 

Dr. Hill 



Africans in the  Americas: the Revolution  

Part 1
1.     1768 – 4000 British Troops arrived in the colonies to attempt to control the colonists. March 5, 1770 – 5 men were shot. Who was the first to die in what is remembered as The Boston Massacre?
2.     The poets are always present. J What was the name of the young African woman poet published in 1773?
3.     By the American Revolution of 1776, how many African Slaves were living in the American colonies?
4.     Why do you think the colonist continually compared themselves to ‘slaves’?  Why is that important to consider when exploring notions of liberty and American/African American History?
5.     Why do you think that George Washington initially refused to enlist any African, slave or free, in the revolutionary way?

Part 2
1.     How did David George’s experiences with reading influence his life and community?
2.     Many scholars of American/African American Studies find it interesting that Thomas Jefferson's comments on liberty often conflict with his writings about African Americans and further conflicted with his lifestyle.
I encourage you to continue to consider the contradictions you observed in Thomas Jefferson's life and then do some very hard work. The hard work is to consider how the contradictions in Thomas Jefferson's life and writings foreshadow or speak to some of the contradictions evident in American culture.
One could spend their lives writing several books on that topic. Do you think you could give a summary of your initial thoughts in 3 to 5 sentences?
3.     What year did George Washington feel the need enlist African American soldiers in the Revolutionary war?  Why?
4.     What precautions coincided with the British Armies surrender?
5.     Why did the import of Africans increase after the Revolutionary War? Hint: consider our class community theory of commodified bodies.
6.     Explore the ideology associated with the 3/5ths rule.  How did this rule aid in the forming of the United States of America?
7.     The census of 1880 indicated what figures concerning populations of free versus enslaved African Americans in the US colonies? 

39 comments:

  1. 1. 1768 – 4000 British Troops arrived in the colonies to attempt to control the colonists. March 5, 1770 – 5 men were shot. Who was the first to die in what is remembered as The Boston Massacre?
    Crispus Attucks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Part 2
    3. What year did George Washington feel the need enlist African American soldiers in the Revolutionary war? Why?
    In 1777, because there was a fear of possible rebellion

    ReplyDelete
  4. Part 1 ; Question 1

    The first man shot in the Boston Massacre was Crispus Attucks. Crispus Attucks was a Mulatto man whose mother was Indian. I find this somewhat interesting, though not greatly surprising, that he was a slave despite the hereditary slavery law passed in 1662 in Virginia. Now I know that this didn't stop them from doing whatever they wanted but its just more proof that even with laws that discern who is and who isn't a slave you still couldn't escape it. What truly irks me is that his complexion wasn't even purely black as depicted in his escaped slave wanted posters years before he was noticeably Mulatto.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Part 1:
    3. By the American Revolution of 1776, how many African Slaves were living in the American colonies?
    20% of the US population were slaves

    ReplyDelete
  6. Part 2:
    6. Explore the ideology associated with the 3/5ths rule. How did this rule aid in the forming of the United States of America?
    According to the 3/5ths rule, slaves would only count as 3/5ths of a person when it came to representation. Because of this rule, southern states were able to lead in the House.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Part 1 ; Question 5

    I believer the reason that George Washington didn't want to enlist Africans in the army was because he simply didn't want another Bacon's Rebellion on his hands This would involve not only arming Africans but also teaching them his war tactics and potentially educating them even further based on what was required of them. This would also unite Africans bringing them together armed. Beyond the fear of arming them how could he possibly think that they would fight for him. He couldn't expect them to fight against the tyranny and oppression of the British to keep intact the Tyranny of the Colonies over the Africans. I also believe that allowing them to fight would chip at the wall of segregation between blacks and whites. Anytime in our lives when you go through trials with people no matter how different you get closer and in the case of war couldn't help but see a man that saved your life as your equal. .

    ReplyDelete
  8. Part 2 ; Question 7

    In a nutshell the Census was more detailed. Though always were free Africans documented by name as opposed to comodified bodies, that was all that they had on them until 1880. Though I would like to add that in the case of all black household they didn't name everyone. They named the head of the house and everyone else was simply a gender and age. In 1880 they basically did it all; Names, age, gender, address, country of origin, race, occupation, literacy.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Part 2 ; Question 2

    To me this answer is simply stereotypes. My entire life I have been raised non-racist by my parents and to be perfectly honest it wasn't much of a subject matter in my house. People were simply people. But despite this equal representation given to me by my household I still was instilled with stereotypes from school and TV. My freshman year in college I was advised in UK 101 to go to a presentation by UK's Dr. Judy Jackson and she spoke on the topic of stereotypes. She spoke about the problem of micro-racism ( I believe was her term) and what it is is simply how to people of different races may ;unknowingly insult the other by a unconscious stereotype that is internally accepted as common place. Though they meant nothing by it it is a struggle that keeps racism alive in non-racist people.

    ReplyDelete
  10. View change

    This information changed my views in the manner that slavery was a publicity stunt. I don't mean to underplay it but to me it seems more and more like a way to make money and keep people in line. With slavery the rich got richer and the poor realized it could be worse. I feel I developed this conclusion thinking about Part 1 ; Question 5 why George Washington didn't want to enlist Africans. It was all to keep up this allusion and perpetuate the progressive economical state of the Colonies through slavery.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Part 1 Question 2 The poets are always present. J What was the name of the young African woman poet published in 1773?
    Phillis Wheatly

    ReplyDelete
  12. Part 1, Question 2: What was the name of the young African woman poet published in 1773?

    Phillis Wheatley was the name of the poet. She was a slave but the video states that her owners treated her like family and were very proud of her. They also taught her how to read and write. I found this to be interesting because you never really hear about owners treating their slaves in this way. It makes me wonder how often this happened? Also after searching her on Google I found that she was the first published African American woman AND the second published African American poet.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Part 1, Question 5: Why do you think that George Washington initially refused to enlist any African, slave or free, in the revolutionary way?

    The video says that the sight of former slaves in the revolutionary war might have an adverse effect. He didn't want slaves or former slaves to turn on them or gain further knowledge of how to participate in a war and possibly win the war. Also he most likely didn't want to enlist them in the war because if they served in the war they might think that they are entitled to their freedom since they fought for the country. African Americans may have started to seen themselves as equals because they were in the same positions (soldiers) as whites and of course whites did not want that to occur.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Part 2, Question 1: How did David George’s experiences with reading influence his life and community?

    David George was able to read the Bible which helped his Baptist faith. He was actually one of the founders of the first African American Baptist church. David George was able to spread and share his beliefs with others in the community. Even whites were attracted to his congregation. His spread of the Baptist faith helped the religion to grow within the places that he visited and lived. Personally, I think that his faith is what kept him strong and persistent during a trying time which showed throughout his life.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Part 2 Question 6 What year did George Washington feel the need enlist African American soldiers in the Revolutionary war? Why?
    George Washington let African American soldiers into the Revolutionary War in 1777 because there was a fear of rebellion amongst the slaves if he would not have

    ReplyDelete
  16. Part 1 Question 1:
    1768 – 4000 British Troops arrived in the colonies to attempt to control the colonists. March 5, 1770 – 5 men were shot. Who was the first to die in what is remembered as The Boston Massacre?

    The first to die was an African American sailor by the name of Crispus Attucks.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Part 1 Queston 2:
    What was the name of the young African woman poet published in 1773?

    The name of the young African woman poet published in 1773 was Phillis Wheatley.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Part 2 Question 1:

    How did David George’s experiences with reading influence his life and community?

    David George's experiences with reading influenced his life and community in that he learned from the little white children how to read and would later on be able to read the bible in which he could share the word of the Lord with his people.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Part 2 Question 3:

    What year did George Washington feel the need enlist African American soldiers in the Revolutionary war? Why?

    In 1777 George Washing felt the need to enlist African American soldiers because of fear that the slaves would rebel. While many slaves felt that this would allow for them to become free, after the war ended many of them came to find out that there was still no hope that they would ever be free.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Part 1-Question 1: Crispus Attucks
    Part 2-Question 5: I think the increase of Africans after the Revolutionary War happened because the colonists wanted more slaves to fight in the next upcoming war.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Part 1: Question 1: 1768 – 4000 British Troops arrived in the colonies to attempt to control the colonists. March 5, 1770 – 5 men were shot. Who was the first to die in what is remembered as The Boston Massacre?

    The first man to die in what is remembered as The Boston Massacre was Crispus Attucks.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Part 1: Question 2: The poets are always present. J What was the name of the young African woman poet published in 1773?

    The name of the young African woman poet was Phyllis Wheatley.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Part 2: Question 2: Do you think you could give a summary of your initial thoughts in 3 to 5 sentences?

    I believe that when Thomas Jefferson had wrote that "all men are created equal", he was trying to appeal to everyone, while doing so he contradicted himself. I don't understand how one man can own over 200 commodified bodies but yet believe that all men are equal. Clearly, he didn't believe his own statement or he thought of African Americans as less than man.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Part 2: Question 6: Explore the ideology associated with the 3/5ths rule. How did this rule aid in the forming of the United States of America?

    The 3/5th's rule aided in the forming of the United States of America because African American population were considered as 3/5th part of the population. With that being that there were more African Americans in the south, the southern views on how things should be were able to be shown more throughout the political aspect of America because they had more representation than the north.

    ReplyDelete
  25. 1. 1768 – 4000 British Troops arrived in the colonies to attempt to control the colonists. March 5, 1770 – 5 men were shot. Who was the first to die in what is remembered as The Boston Massacre?

    The first person to be killed in the Boston Massacre was Crispus Attucks

    Part 2 question 3.

    What year did George Washington feel the need enlist African American soldiers in the Revolutionary war? Why?

    The year was 1777 and George Washington feared rebellion and figured it would be better to have some sense of unity



    ReplyDelete
  26. 5. Washington probably refused Africans to enlist because he didn't want them to break the unison of the armed forces; he didn't want the rebellion of the commodified bodies to become a problem.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Part 1

    The poets are always present. J What was the name of the young African woman poet published in 1773?

    phillis wheatley

    ReplyDelete
  28. Part 2

    2.) In regards to Thomas Jefferson

    Playing the devil's advocate sort of.

    It's possible Thomas was thinking that he had to act like a plantation owner so he could reach those who controlled the world at that time, and try to work with them, and teach them what they were doing was wrong.

    Like Batman beats up innocent cops pointing guns at him so he can stop the real criminal.

    I'd love to get some replies on this!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Part 1. question 1.

    -Crispus Attucks

    ReplyDelete
  30. Part 1, question 2. The poet's name was Phyllis wheatley

    ReplyDelete
  31. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Part 1: Question 1
    1768 – 4000 British Troops arrived in the colonies to attempt to control the colonists. March 5, 1770 – 5 men were shot. Who was the first to die in what is remembered as The Boston Massacre?
    The first to die was an African American mane named Crispus Attucks.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Part 1: Question 2
    What was the name of the young African woman poet published in 1773?
    The name of the young African woman poet published in 1773 was Phillis Wheatley.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Part 2: Question 3
    What year did George Washington feel the need enlist African American soldiers in the Revolutionary war? Why?
    In 1777 George Washington felt the need to enlist African American soldiers in the war because there was fear of rebellion.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Part 2: Question 6
    Explore the ideology associated with the 3/5ths rule. How did this rule aid in the forming of the United States of America?
    During this time there were more white northern males who could vote than white males in the south. The high number of slaves in the south could correct this imbalance of power to some extent, but they didn't want to recognize that Africans are human beings, so they counted them as only 3/5 of a person. In the Constitution, the 3/5ths clause stated that slaves would count as 3/5ths of a person.

    ReplyDelete
  36. 3. Washington felt the need to enlist African Americans in 1777 because of his fear of rebellion.

    ReplyDelete
  37. 1. David George's life was influenced by reading because he learned from the kids abd then ended up being able to read the bible, which subsequently helped him teach his ppl and share the wealth.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Crispus Attucks was the first person shot at the Boston massacre. There were also somewhere between 20% to 25% of USA were slaves. Phillis Wheatley was the young lady poet.

    ReplyDelete