New York Historical Museum Trip

             The New York Historical Society Museum was a very interesting place. It seemed to be a very fancy place and everything was very clean. The exhibit WWII in NYC was put together great. It was interesting seeing a war veteran with his kids going through the museum in his wheelchair. I noticed he was very into everything the museum had to offer, this made me feel that it's collection was accurate and rare. Being from Staten Island I was surprised at the information I learned of how Staten Island was home to a training base for many of NYC soldiers. New York City had 900,000 soldiers commit to the war cause and fight for their country. The exhibit really showed how honorable and brave the citizens of New York City really were.
            There were many things in the museum that were interesting but three of them caught my eye. The first was the piece of the Nuclear plant that developed the bombs hit on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was called The Manhattan Project, it was here in NYC where the development of the atomic bomb. This was started in 1939 and the bombs were released in 1945 virtually ending the war. The second part of the exhibit was the ticket and collage of the event at Madison Square Garden. It was titled "We Will Never Die" and it was a memorial for the 2 million Jews that were killed because of the war and concentration camps. Going to Knicks games at the Garden made me realize just how different NYC was during WWII. The third piece that was extremely interesting was the New York Times front page stating "Hitler Dead in Chancellery." This was a huge piece of history of the death of a extremely evil man and New Yorkers were rejoiced because of it.
       

Group Work Blog

         On page 87 in Lewis', "It Can't Happen Here," Buzz goes through his fifteen points he is running on. We discusses why people would have voted for Buzz. He claimed that he would give $5,000 to everyone who works hard in the country. This would increase the blue collar workers, lower class, and middle class. He also promised to tax the rich, which would in turn help him out with the lower class votes. In a fascism type government the votes were bought. Windrip was basically buying votes, Lewis wants to make this seem like a fascists type government in its early stages.
       When "Buzz" Windrip was running he seemed like a common man that could relate to the ordinary people in America. He could be there voice if elected president and Buzz ran on this type of campaign. Little did the citizens know that he would eventually gut the Bill of Rights and send his militia the Minute Men to set up his fascist government. He seemed to be a regular guy, very personable, and reasonable to the people. This would quickly change once he was elected. This is what the title of this book hints at, the unaware Americas that can never see this happening in here.

MET Assignment

                 The museum was a great trip and I learned more then I could of imagined. The experience was very interesting and was my first time at the MET. The people there were very different then I would imagine. There was a lot of students like us but also a ton of tourists. Also there was an older crowd that seemed to be dressed well and seemed to be studying every aspect of the museum. I walked around the rest of the museum after our exhibit and was blown away by the art work, especially Van Gogh's paintings. For the Civil War exhibit it was put together perfectly. I felt extremely informed walking through each room from the injured soldiers and to the devastation of big cities in the south.
               Three photos that stuck out to me was the wounded soldiers, the ruins of a town in Richmond Virginia, and the African American soldiers burying the dead soldiers in Virginia. For America to be in shambles with whole cities destroyed is something that is hard to imagine. The war went through southern towns and they were hit hard. The people in these towns lives would change dramatically as the war came through. But these towns could be rebuilt, the lives and limbs of the soldiers could not be replaced.
              The soldiers went through so much throughout the war that was shown in the photos. One that stood out to me was 22 year old Private James H. Stokes of New York. He had a bullet hole through his upper chest. Me being 22 and from New York I would of been in the same situation as this Union private. The African Americans that were burying the dead soldiers made me realize how hard it must of been after each battle to deal with all dead friends and family members.

Assignment 2

The most interesting claim made by Tannembaum in Slave and Citizen that I found to be interesting was that slavery was very different in Anglo America, where slaves had no rights, than in Latin America, where black persons could buy their freedom. This surprised me because I was always taught the Anglo American side of slavery, the civil war which lead to the freedom of slaves. In Brazil it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for a black woman to be walking around in jewelry and fancy clothes.  

I did not know that there was two different super powers England and Spain could value the lives of slaves so differently. Each of these countries had reasons for their stance of how a slave should be treated. The Spanish went back to the devote faith in the Catholic religion. They claimed that their God created everyone equal no matter if that person is white or black. They thought of slavery as a unfortunate event that a slave could eventually get through and be free.  Whereas England took the science route in why they justified slavery. They claimed that slaves were not human; instead they were viewed as animal-like. The English scientists said that the white man is the perfect person and all else is lower.

These two different forms of slavery that were settled so close to one another can be so different really surprised me.  The two masters were poles apart in the way they interacted with their slaves.

Assignment 1

Jefferson was speaking as a rich property owner male caucasian as assumed by the phrase all men created equal. This was the norm for these individuals to assume all the power and fortunes. Whereas Walker responds that these times have to change, people especially salves need to fight for their freedom as Jefferson did from the British. But these slaves, who the wealthy rely on, are fighting a different war. This war not only has to do with the income of their owners, but the United States economy. The economy boom relates directly to the work of the slaves and the products they produce. Walker is trying to ignite the flame for the slaves to stand up for their rights. He goes on to say if these white men have the same Creator as us then why are we not equal. Both of their Creators made everyone have the same rights black or white. Both documents relate to God. This God is giving both Jefferson and Walker the right to wage war. In all reality this country was started by a religious God given right to seek freedom. Walker wants black people to realize this and for them to gain the same as the white men did earlier.