Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Thanks for the pie.
Well personaly i like Taylors and Hayleys, because i got pie even though i got wendsday club from it thanks it was awesome. But i do give Terry and alex 2 thumbs up despite not having pie that was an awesome job summerizing the whole chapter :)>
William Penn
After here every bodys assinmants and stuff I thought that William Penn was very interesting Person he really just got blessed by God time after time he pathed the way for us so i found this website and thoughth it was cool. William Penn, America's First Great Champion for Liberty and Peaceby Jim Powell
Mr. Powell is editor of Laissez-Faire Books and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, American Heritage, and more than three dozen other publications. Copyright © by Jim Powell. Reprinted on www.quaker.org by permission.
William Penn was the first great hero of American liberty. During the late seventeenth century, when Protestants persecuted Catholics, Catholics persecuted Protestants, and both persecuted Quakers and Jews, Penn established an American sanctuary which protected freedom of conscience. Almost everywhere else, colonists stole land from the Indians, but Penn traveled unarmed among the Indians and negotiated peaceful purchases. He insisted that women deserved equal rights with men. He gave Pennsylvania a written constitution which limited the power of government, provided a humane penal code, and guaranteed many fundamental liberties.
For the first time in modem history, a large society offered equal rights to people of different races and religions. Penn's dramatic example caused quite a stir in Europe. The French philosopher Voltaire, a champion of religious toleration, offered lavish praise. "William Penn might, with reason, boast of having brought down upon earth the Golden Age, which in all probability, never had any real existence but in his dominions. "
Penn was the only person who made major contributions to liberty in both the New World and the Old World. Before he conceived the idea of Pennsylvania, he became the leading defender of religious toleration in England. He was imprisoned six times for speaking out courageously. While in prison, he wrote one pamphlet after another, which gave Quakers a literature and attacked intolerance. He alone proved capable of challenging oppressive government policies in court--one of his cases helped secure the right to trial by jury. Penn used his diplomatic skills and family connections to get large numbers of Quakers out of jail. He saved many from the gallows.
Despite the remarkable clarity of Penn's vision for liberty, he had a curious blind spot about slavery. He owned some slaves in America, as did many other Quakers. Antislavery didn't become a widely shared Quaker position until 1758, 40 years after Penn's death. Quakers were far ahead of most other Americans, but it's surprising that people with their humanitarian views could have contemplated owning slaves at all.
There were just two portraits of Penn painted during his lifetime, one depicting him as a handsome youth, the other as a stout old man. A biographer described young Penn's "oval face of almost girlish prettiness but with strong features, the brusqueness of the straight, short nose in counterpoint to the almost sensuous mouth. What gives the face its dominant character are the eyes, burning with a dark, luminous insistence ... it is known from verbal descriptions that Penn was fairly tall and athletic. Altogether, the young man must have been both handsome and impressive."
William Penn was born on October 14, 1644, in London. The most specific description of his mother, Margaret, came from a neighbor, the acid-tongued diarist Samuel Pepys who described her as "well-looked, fat, short old Dutch woman, but one who hath been heretofore pretty handsome." She did the child-rearing, since her husband, William Penn Sr., was seldom at home. He was a much sought-after naval commander because he knew the waters around England, could handle a ship in bad weather and get the most from his crew. Admiral Penn had a good personal relationship with Stuart kings and for a while served their most famous adversary, the Puritan Oliver Cromwell.
Left mostly to himself, young William became interested in religion. He was thrilled to hear a talk by Thomas Loe, a missionary for the Society of Friends derisively known as Quakers. Founded in 1647 by the English preacher George Fox, Quakers were a mystical Protestant sect emphasizing a direct relationship with God. An individual's conscience, not the Bible, was the ultimate authority on morals. Quakers didn't have a clergy or churches. Rather, they held meetings where participants meditated silently and spoke up when the Spirit moved them. They favored plain dress and a simple life rather than aristocratic affectation.
After acquiring a sturdy education in Greek and Roman classics, Penn emerged as a rebel when he entered Oxford University. He defied Anglican officials by visiting John Owen, a professor dismissed for advocating tolerant humanism. Penn further rebelled by protesting compulsory chapel attendance, for which he was expelled at age 17.
His parents sent him to France where he would be less likely to cause further embarrassment, and he might acquire some manners. He enrolled at l'Académie Protestante, the most respected French Protestant university, located in Saumur. He studied with Christian humanist Moïse Amyraut, who supported religious toleration.
Back in England by August 1664, Penn soon studied at Lincoln's Inn, the most prestigious law school in London. He learned the common law basis for civil liberties and gained some experience with courtroom strategy. He was going to need it.
Admiral Penn, assigned to rebuilding the British Navy for war with the Dutch, asked that his son serve as personal assistant. Young William must have gained a valuable inside view of high command. Admiral Penn also used his son as a courier delivering military messages to King Charles II. Young William developed a cordial relationship with the King and his brother, the Duke of York, the future King James II.
Penn's quest for spiritual peace led him to attend Quaker meetings even though the government considered this a crime. In September 1667, police broke into a meeting and arrested everyone. Since Penn looked like a fashionable aristocrat rather than a plain Quaker, the police released him. He protested that he was indeed a Quaker and should be treated the same as the others. Penn drew on his legal training to prepare a defense. Meanwhile, in jail he began writing about freedom of conscience. His father disowned him, and young Penn lived in a succession of Quaker households. He learned that the movement was started by passionate preachers who had little education. There was hardly any Quaker literature. He resolved to help by applying his scholarly knowledge and legal training. He began writing pamphlets, which were distributed through the Quaker underground.
In 1668, one of his hosts was Isaac Penington, a wealthy man in Buckinghamshire. Penn met his stepdaughter Gulielma Springett, and it was practically love at first sight. Poet John Milton's literary secretary Thomas Ellwood noted her "innocently open, free and familiar Conversation, springing from the abundant Affability, Courtesy and Sweetness of her natural Temper." Penn married Gulielma on April 4, 1672. She was to bear seven children, four of whom died in infancy.
Meanwhile, Penn attacked the Catholic/ Anglican doctrine of the Trinity, and the Anglican bishop had him imprisoned in the notorious Tower of London. Ordered to recant, Penn declared from his cold isolation cell: "My prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot; for I owe my conscience to no mortal man." By the time he was released seven months later, he had written pamphlets defining the principal elements of Quakerism. His best-known work from this period: No Cross, No Crown, which presented a pioneering historical case for religious toleration.
The Conventicle ActHe wasn't free for long. To curb the potential power of Catholics, notably the Stuarts, Parliament passed the Conventicle Act, which aimed to suppress religious dissent as sedition. But the law was applied mainly against Quakers, perhaps because few were politically connected. Thousands were imprisoned for their beliefs. The government seized their properties, including the estate of his wife's family.
Penn decided to challenge the Conventicle Act by holding a public meeting on August 14, 1670. The Lord Mayor of London arrested him and his fellow Quakers as soon as he began expressing his nonconformist religious views. At the historic trial, Penn insisted that since the government refused to present a formal indictment--officials were concerned the Conventicle Act might be overturned--the jury could never reach a guilty verdict. He appealed to England's common-law heritage: "if these ancient and fundamental laws, which relate to liberty and property, and which are not limited to particular persuasions in matters of religion, must not be indispensably maintained and observed, who then can say that he has a right to the coat on his back? Certainly our liberties are to be openly invaded, our wives to be ravished, our children slaved, our families ruined, and our estates led away in triumph by every sturdy beggar and malicious informer--as their trophies but our forfeits for conscience's sake."
The jury acquitted all defendants, but the Lord Mayor of London refused to accept this verdict. He hit the jury members with fines and ordered them held in brutal Newgate prison. Still, they affirmed their verdict. After the jury had been imprisoned for about two months, the Court of Common Pleas issued a writ of habeas corpus to set them free. Then they sued the Lord Mayor of London for false arrest. The Lord Chief Justice of England, together with his 11 associates, ruled unanimously that juries must not be coerced or punished for their verdicts. It was a key precedent protecting the right to trial by jury.
Penn had become a famous defender of liberty who could attract several thousand people for a public talk. He traveled in Germany and Holland to see how Quakers there were faring. Holland made a strong impression because it was substantially free. It was a commercial center where people cared mainly about peaceful cooperation. Persecuted Jews and Protestants flocked to Holland. Penn began to form a vision of a community based on liberty.
He resolved to tap his royal connections for his cause. With the blessing of King Charles II and the Duke of York, Penn presented his case for religious toleration before Parliament. They would have none of it because they were worried about the Stuarts imposing Catholic rule on England, especially since the Duke of York had converted to Roman Catholicism and married a staunch Catholic.
The Founding of PennsylvaniaPenn became convinced that religious toleration couldn't be achieved in England. He went to the King and asked for a charter enabling him to establish an American colony. Perhaps the idea seemed like an easy way to get rid of troublesome Quakers. On March 4, 1681, Charles II signed a charter for territory west of the Delaware River and north of Maryland, approximately the present size of Pennsylvania, where about a thousand Germans, Dutch and Indians lived without any particular government. The King proposed the name "Pennsylvania" which meant "Forests of Penn"--honoring Penn's late father, the Admiral. Penn would be proprietor, owning all the land, accountable directly to the King. According to traditional accounts, Penn agreed to cancel the debt of £16,000 which the government owed the Admiral for back pay, but there aren't any documents about such a deal. At the beginning of each year, Penn had to give the King two beaver skins and a fifth of any gold and silver mined within the territory.
Penn sailed to America on the ship Welcome and arrived November 8, 1682. With assembled Friends, he founded Philadelphia--he chose the name, which means "city of brotherly love" in Greek. He approved the site between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. He envisioned a 10,000 acre city, but his more sober-minded Friends thought that was overly optimistic. They accepted a 1,200-acre plan. Penn named major streets including Broad, Chestnut, Pine, and Spruce.
Penn was most concerned about developing a legal basis for a free society. In his First Frame of Government, which Penn and initial land purchasers had adopted on April 25, 1682, he expressed ideals anticipating the Declaration of Independence: "Men being born with a title to perfect freedom and uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of nature ... no one can be put out of his estate and subjected to the political view of another, without his consent."
Penn provided that there would be a governor--initially, himself--whose powers were limited. He would work with a Council (72 members) which proposed legislation and a General Assembly (up to 500 members) which either approved or defeated it. Each year, about a third of members would be elected for three-year terms. As governor, Penn would retain a veto over proposed legislation.
His First Frame of Government provided for secure private property, virtually unlimited free enterprise, a free press, trial by jury and, of course, religious toleration. Whereas the English penal code specified the death penalty for some 200 offenses, Penn reserved it for just two--murder and treason. As a Quaker, Penn encouraged women to get an education and speak out as men did. He called Pennsylvania his "Holy Experiment."
Penn insisted on low taxes. A 1683 law established a low tax on cider and liquor, a low tariff on imports and on exported hides and furs. To help promote settlement, Penn suspended all taxes for a year. When the time came to reimpose taxes he encountered fierce resistance and had to put it off.
Penn's First Frame of Government was the first constitution to provide for peaceful change through amendments. A proposed amendment required the consent of the governor and 85 percent of the elected representatives. Benevolent though Penn was, people in Pennsylvania were disgruntled about his executive power as proprietor and governor. People pressed to make the limitations more specific and to provide stronger assurances about the prerogatives of the legislature. The constitution was amended several times. The version adopted on October 28, 1701 endured for three-quarters of a century and then became the basis for Pennsylvania's state constitution, adopted in 1776.
Collecting rent due Penn as proprietor was always a headache. He never earned enough from the colonies to offset the costs of administration which he paid out of his personal capital. Toward the end of his life, he complained that Pennsylvania was a net loss, costing him some £30,000.
Penn's practices contrasted dramatically with other early colonies, especially Puritan New England which was a vicious theocracy. The Puritans despised liberty. They made political dissent a crime. They whipped, tarred, and hanged Quakers. The Puritans stole what they could from the Indians.
Penn achieved peaceful relations with the Indians--Susquehannocks, Shawnees, and Leni-Lenape. Indians respected his courage, because he ventured among them without guards or personal weapons. He was a superior sprinter who could out-run Indian braves, and this helped win him respect. He took the trouble to learn Indian dialects, so he could conduct negotiations without interpreters. From the very beginning, he acquired Indian land through peaceful, voluntary exchange. Reportedly, Penn concluded a "Great Treaty" with the Indians at Shackamaxon, near what is now the Kensington district of Philadelphia. Voltaire hailed this as "the only treaty between those people [Indians and Christians] that was not ratified by an oath, and that was never infringed." His peaceful policies prevailed for about 70 years, which has to be some kind of record in American history.
Defending PennsylvaniaPenn faced tough challenges defending Pennsylvania back in England. There was a lot at stake, because Pennsylvania had become the best hope for persecuted people in England, France, and Germany. Charles II tried to establish an intolerant absolutism modeled after that of the French King Louis XIV. Concerned that Pennsylvania's charter might be revoked, Penn turned on his diplomatic charm.
Behind the scenes, Penn worked as a remarkable diplomat for religious toleration. Every day, as many as 200 petitioners waited outside Holland House, his London lodgings, hoping for an audience and help. He intervened personally with the King to save scores of Quakers from a death sentence. He got Society of Friends founder George Fox out of jail. He helped convince the King to proclaim the Acts of Indulgence which released more than a thousand Quakers--many had been imprisoned for over a dozen years.
Penn's fortunes collapsed after a son was born to James II in 1688. A Catholic succession was assured. The English rebelled and welcomed the Dutch King William of Orange as William III, who overthrew the Stuarts without having to fire a shot. Suddenly, Penn's Stuart connections were a terrible liability. He was arrested for treason. The government seized his estates. Though he was cleared by November 1690, he was marked as a traitor again. He became a fugitive for four years, hiding amidst London's squalid slums. His friend John Locke helped restore his good name in time to see his wife, Guli, die on February 23, 1694. She was 48.
Harsh experience had taken its toll on Penn. As biographer Hans Fantel put it, "he was getting sallow and paunchy. The years of hiding, with their enforced inactivity, had robbed him of his former physical strength and grace. His stance was now slightly bent, and his enduring grief over the death of Guli had cast an air of listless abstraction over his face. " His spirits revived two years later when he married 30-year-old Hannah Callowhill, the plain and practical daughter of a Bristol linen draper.
But he faced serious problems because of his sloppy business practices. Apparently, he couldn't be bothered with administrative details, and his business manager, fellow Quaker Philip Ford, embezzled substantial sums from Penn's estates. Worse, Penn signed papers without reading them . One of the papers turned out to be a deed transferring Pennsylvania to Ford who demanded rent exceeding Penn's ability to pay. After Ford's death in 1702, his wife, Bridget, had Penn thrown in debtor's prison, but her cruelty backfired. It was unthinkable to have such a person govern a major colony, and in 1708 the Lord Chancellor ruled that "the equity of redemption still remained in William Penn and his heirs."
In October 1712, Penn suffered a stroke while writing a letter about the future of Pennsylvania. Four months later, he suffered a second stroke.
While he had difficulty speaking and writing, he spent time catching up with his children whom he had missed during his missionary travels. He died on July 30, 1718. He was buried at Jordans, next to Guli.
Long before his death, Pennsylvania ceased to be a spiritual place dominated by Quakers. Penn's policy of religious toleration and peace--no military conscription--attracted all kinds of war-weary European immigrants. There were English, Irish, and Germans, Catholics, Jews, and an assortment of Protestant sects including Dunkers, Huguenots, Lutherans, Mennonites, Moravians, Pietists, and Schwenkfelders. Liberty brought so many immigrants that by the American Revolution Pennsylvania had grown to some 300,000 people and became one of the largest colonies. Pennsylvania was America's first great melting pot.
Philadelphia was America's largest city with almost 18,000 people. It was a major commercial center--sometimes more than a hundred trading ships anchored there during a single day. People in Philadelphia could enjoy any of the goods available in England. Merchant companies, shipyards, and banks flourished. Philadelphia thrived as an entrepôt between Europe and the American frontier.
With an atmosphere of liberty, Philadelphia emerged as an intellectual center. Between 1740 and 1776, Philadelphia presses issued an estimated 11,000 works including pamphlets, almanacs, and books. In 1776, there were seven newspapers reflecting a wide range of opinions. No wonder Penn's "city of brotherly love" became the most sacred site for American liberty, where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, and delegates drafted the Constitution.
By creating Pennsylvania, Penn set an enormously important example for liberty. He showed that people who are courageous enough, persistent enough, and resourceful enough can live free. He went beyond the natural right theories of his friend John Locke and showed how a free society would actually work. He showed how individuals of different races and religions can live together peacefully when they mind their own business. He affirmed the resilient optimism of free people.
Mr. Powell is editor of Laissez-Faire Books and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, American Heritage, and more than three dozen other publications. Copyright © by Jim Powell. Reprinted on www.quaker.org by permission.
William Penn was the first great hero of American liberty. During the late seventeenth century, when Protestants persecuted Catholics, Catholics persecuted Protestants, and both persecuted Quakers and Jews, Penn established an American sanctuary which protected freedom of conscience. Almost everywhere else, colonists stole land from the Indians, but Penn traveled unarmed among the Indians and negotiated peaceful purchases. He insisted that women deserved equal rights with men. He gave Pennsylvania a written constitution which limited the power of government, provided a humane penal code, and guaranteed many fundamental liberties.
For the first time in modem history, a large society offered equal rights to people of different races and religions. Penn's dramatic example caused quite a stir in Europe. The French philosopher Voltaire, a champion of religious toleration, offered lavish praise. "William Penn might, with reason, boast of having brought down upon earth the Golden Age, which in all probability, never had any real existence but in his dominions. "
Penn was the only person who made major contributions to liberty in both the New World and the Old World. Before he conceived the idea of Pennsylvania, he became the leading defender of religious toleration in England. He was imprisoned six times for speaking out courageously. While in prison, he wrote one pamphlet after another, which gave Quakers a literature and attacked intolerance. He alone proved capable of challenging oppressive government policies in court--one of his cases helped secure the right to trial by jury. Penn used his diplomatic skills and family connections to get large numbers of Quakers out of jail. He saved many from the gallows.
Despite the remarkable clarity of Penn's vision for liberty, he had a curious blind spot about slavery. He owned some slaves in America, as did many other Quakers. Antislavery didn't become a widely shared Quaker position until 1758, 40 years after Penn's death. Quakers were far ahead of most other Americans, but it's surprising that people with their humanitarian views could have contemplated owning slaves at all.
There were just two portraits of Penn painted during his lifetime, one depicting him as a handsome youth, the other as a stout old man. A biographer described young Penn's "oval face of almost girlish prettiness but with strong features, the brusqueness of the straight, short nose in counterpoint to the almost sensuous mouth. What gives the face its dominant character are the eyes, burning with a dark, luminous insistence ... it is known from verbal descriptions that Penn was fairly tall and athletic. Altogether, the young man must have been both handsome and impressive."
William Penn was born on October 14, 1644, in London. The most specific description of his mother, Margaret, came from a neighbor, the acid-tongued diarist Samuel Pepys who described her as "well-looked, fat, short old Dutch woman, but one who hath been heretofore pretty handsome." She did the child-rearing, since her husband, William Penn Sr., was seldom at home. He was a much sought-after naval commander because he knew the waters around England, could handle a ship in bad weather and get the most from his crew. Admiral Penn had a good personal relationship with Stuart kings and for a while served their most famous adversary, the Puritan Oliver Cromwell.
Left mostly to himself, young William became interested in religion. He was thrilled to hear a talk by Thomas Loe, a missionary for the Society of Friends derisively known as Quakers. Founded in 1647 by the English preacher George Fox, Quakers were a mystical Protestant sect emphasizing a direct relationship with God. An individual's conscience, not the Bible, was the ultimate authority on morals. Quakers didn't have a clergy or churches. Rather, they held meetings where participants meditated silently and spoke up when the Spirit moved them. They favored plain dress and a simple life rather than aristocratic affectation.
After acquiring a sturdy education in Greek and Roman classics, Penn emerged as a rebel when he entered Oxford University. He defied Anglican officials by visiting John Owen, a professor dismissed for advocating tolerant humanism. Penn further rebelled by protesting compulsory chapel attendance, for which he was expelled at age 17.
His parents sent him to France where he would be less likely to cause further embarrassment, and he might acquire some manners. He enrolled at l'Académie Protestante, the most respected French Protestant university, located in Saumur. He studied with Christian humanist Moïse Amyraut, who supported religious toleration.
Back in England by August 1664, Penn soon studied at Lincoln's Inn, the most prestigious law school in London. He learned the common law basis for civil liberties and gained some experience with courtroom strategy. He was going to need it.
Admiral Penn, assigned to rebuilding the British Navy for war with the Dutch, asked that his son serve as personal assistant. Young William must have gained a valuable inside view of high command. Admiral Penn also used his son as a courier delivering military messages to King Charles II. Young William developed a cordial relationship with the King and his brother, the Duke of York, the future King James II.
Penn's quest for spiritual peace led him to attend Quaker meetings even though the government considered this a crime. In September 1667, police broke into a meeting and arrested everyone. Since Penn looked like a fashionable aristocrat rather than a plain Quaker, the police released him. He protested that he was indeed a Quaker and should be treated the same as the others. Penn drew on his legal training to prepare a defense. Meanwhile, in jail he began writing about freedom of conscience. His father disowned him, and young Penn lived in a succession of Quaker households. He learned that the movement was started by passionate preachers who had little education. There was hardly any Quaker literature. He resolved to help by applying his scholarly knowledge and legal training. He began writing pamphlets, which were distributed through the Quaker underground.
In 1668, one of his hosts was Isaac Penington, a wealthy man in Buckinghamshire. Penn met his stepdaughter Gulielma Springett, and it was practically love at first sight. Poet John Milton's literary secretary Thomas Ellwood noted her "innocently open, free and familiar Conversation, springing from the abundant Affability, Courtesy and Sweetness of her natural Temper." Penn married Gulielma on April 4, 1672. She was to bear seven children, four of whom died in infancy.
Meanwhile, Penn attacked the Catholic/ Anglican doctrine of the Trinity, and the Anglican bishop had him imprisoned in the notorious Tower of London. Ordered to recant, Penn declared from his cold isolation cell: "My prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot; for I owe my conscience to no mortal man." By the time he was released seven months later, he had written pamphlets defining the principal elements of Quakerism. His best-known work from this period: No Cross, No Crown, which presented a pioneering historical case for religious toleration.
The Conventicle ActHe wasn't free for long. To curb the potential power of Catholics, notably the Stuarts, Parliament passed the Conventicle Act, which aimed to suppress religious dissent as sedition. But the law was applied mainly against Quakers, perhaps because few were politically connected. Thousands were imprisoned for their beliefs. The government seized their properties, including the estate of his wife's family.
Penn decided to challenge the Conventicle Act by holding a public meeting on August 14, 1670. The Lord Mayor of London arrested him and his fellow Quakers as soon as he began expressing his nonconformist religious views. At the historic trial, Penn insisted that since the government refused to present a formal indictment--officials were concerned the Conventicle Act might be overturned--the jury could never reach a guilty verdict. He appealed to England's common-law heritage: "if these ancient and fundamental laws, which relate to liberty and property, and which are not limited to particular persuasions in matters of religion, must not be indispensably maintained and observed, who then can say that he has a right to the coat on his back? Certainly our liberties are to be openly invaded, our wives to be ravished, our children slaved, our families ruined, and our estates led away in triumph by every sturdy beggar and malicious informer--as their trophies but our forfeits for conscience's sake."
The jury acquitted all defendants, but the Lord Mayor of London refused to accept this verdict. He hit the jury members with fines and ordered them held in brutal Newgate prison. Still, they affirmed their verdict. After the jury had been imprisoned for about two months, the Court of Common Pleas issued a writ of habeas corpus to set them free. Then they sued the Lord Mayor of London for false arrest. The Lord Chief Justice of England, together with his 11 associates, ruled unanimously that juries must not be coerced or punished for their verdicts. It was a key precedent protecting the right to trial by jury.
Penn had become a famous defender of liberty who could attract several thousand people for a public talk. He traveled in Germany and Holland to see how Quakers there were faring. Holland made a strong impression because it was substantially free. It was a commercial center where people cared mainly about peaceful cooperation. Persecuted Jews and Protestants flocked to Holland. Penn began to form a vision of a community based on liberty.
He resolved to tap his royal connections for his cause. With the blessing of King Charles II and the Duke of York, Penn presented his case for religious toleration before Parliament. They would have none of it because they were worried about the Stuarts imposing Catholic rule on England, especially since the Duke of York had converted to Roman Catholicism and married a staunch Catholic.
The Founding of PennsylvaniaPenn became convinced that religious toleration couldn't be achieved in England. He went to the King and asked for a charter enabling him to establish an American colony. Perhaps the idea seemed like an easy way to get rid of troublesome Quakers. On March 4, 1681, Charles II signed a charter for territory west of the Delaware River and north of Maryland, approximately the present size of Pennsylvania, where about a thousand Germans, Dutch and Indians lived without any particular government. The King proposed the name "Pennsylvania" which meant "Forests of Penn"--honoring Penn's late father, the Admiral. Penn would be proprietor, owning all the land, accountable directly to the King. According to traditional accounts, Penn agreed to cancel the debt of £16,000 which the government owed the Admiral for back pay, but there aren't any documents about such a deal. At the beginning of each year, Penn had to give the King two beaver skins and a fifth of any gold and silver mined within the territory.
Penn sailed to America on the ship Welcome and arrived November 8, 1682. With assembled Friends, he founded Philadelphia--he chose the name, which means "city of brotherly love" in Greek. He approved the site between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. He envisioned a 10,000 acre city, but his more sober-minded Friends thought that was overly optimistic. They accepted a 1,200-acre plan. Penn named major streets including Broad, Chestnut, Pine, and Spruce.
Penn was most concerned about developing a legal basis for a free society. In his First Frame of Government, which Penn and initial land purchasers had adopted on April 25, 1682, he expressed ideals anticipating the Declaration of Independence: "Men being born with a title to perfect freedom and uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of nature ... no one can be put out of his estate and subjected to the political view of another, without his consent."
Penn provided that there would be a governor--initially, himself--whose powers were limited. He would work with a Council (72 members) which proposed legislation and a General Assembly (up to 500 members) which either approved or defeated it. Each year, about a third of members would be elected for three-year terms. As governor, Penn would retain a veto over proposed legislation.
His First Frame of Government provided for secure private property, virtually unlimited free enterprise, a free press, trial by jury and, of course, religious toleration. Whereas the English penal code specified the death penalty for some 200 offenses, Penn reserved it for just two--murder and treason. As a Quaker, Penn encouraged women to get an education and speak out as men did. He called Pennsylvania his "Holy Experiment."
Penn insisted on low taxes. A 1683 law established a low tax on cider and liquor, a low tariff on imports and on exported hides and furs. To help promote settlement, Penn suspended all taxes for a year. When the time came to reimpose taxes he encountered fierce resistance and had to put it off.
Penn's First Frame of Government was the first constitution to provide for peaceful change through amendments. A proposed amendment required the consent of the governor and 85 percent of the elected representatives. Benevolent though Penn was, people in Pennsylvania were disgruntled about his executive power as proprietor and governor. People pressed to make the limitations more specific and to provide stronger assurances about the prerogatives of the legislature. The constitution was amended several times. The version adopted on October 28, 1701 endured for three-quarters of a century and then became the basis for Pennsylvania's state constitution, adopted in 1776.
Collecting rent due Penn as proprietor was always a headache. He never earned enough from the colonies to offset the costs of administration which he paid out of his personal capital. Toward the end of his life, he complained that Pennsylvania was a net loss, costing him some £30,000.
Penn's practices contrasted dramatically with other early colonies, especially Puritan New England which was a vicious theocracy. The Puritans despised liberty. They made political dissent a crime. They whipped, tarred, and hanged Quakers. The Puritans stole what they could from the Indians.
Penn achieved peaceful relations with the Indians--Susquehannocks, Shawnees, and Leni-Lenape. Indians respected his courage, because he ventured among them without guards or personal weapons. He was a superior sprinter who could out-run Indian braves, and this helped win him respect. He took the trouble to learn Indian dialects, so he could conduct negotiations without interpreters. From the very beginning, he acquired Indian land through peaceful, voluntary exchange. Reportedly, Penn concluded a "Great Treaty" with the Indians at Shackamaxon, near what is now the Kensington district of Philadelphia. Voltaire hailed this as "the only treaty between those people [Indians and Christians] that was not ratified by an oath, and that was never infringed." His peaceful policies prevailed for about 70 years, which has to be some kind of record in American history.
Defending PennsylvaniaPenn faced tough challenges defending Pennsylvania back in England. There was a lot at stake, because Pennsylvania had become the best hope for persecuted people in England, France, and Germany. Charles II tried to establish an intolerant absolutism modeled after that of the French King Louis XIV. Concerned that Pennsylvania's charter might be revoked, Penn turned on his diplomatic charm.
Behind the scenes, Penn worked as a remarkable diplomat for religious toleration. Every day, as many as 200 petitioners waited outside Holland House, his London lodgings, hoping for an audience and help. He intervened personally with the King to save scores of Quakers from a death sentence. He got Society of Friends founder George Fox out of jail. He helped convince the King to proclaim the Acts of Indulgence which released more than a thousand Quakers--many had been imprisoned for over a dozen years.
Penn's fortunes collapsed after a son was born to James II in 1688. A Catholic succession was assured. The English rebelled and welcomed the Dutch King William of Orange as William III, who overthrew the Stuarts without having to fire a shot. Suddenly, Penn's Stuart connections were a terrible liability. He was arrested for treason. The government seized his estates. Though he was cleared by November 1690, he was marked as a traitor again. He became a fugitive for four years, hiding amidst London's squalid slums. His friend John Locke helped restore his good name in time to see his wife, Guli, die on February 23, 1694. She was 48.
Harsh experience had taken its toll on Penn. As biographer Hans Fantel put it, "he was getting sallow and paunchy. The years of hiding, with their enforced inactivity, had robbed him of his former physical strength and grace. His stance was now slightly bent, and his enduring grief over the death of Guli had cast an air of listless abstraction over his face. " His spirits revived two years later when he married 30-year-old Hannah Callowhill, the plain and practical daughter of a Bristol linen draper.
But he faced serious problems because of his sloppy business practices. Apparently, he couldn't be bothered with administrative details, and his business manager, fellow Quaker Philip Ford, embezzled substantial sums from Penn's estates. Worse, Penn signed papers without reading them . One of the papers turned out to be a deed transferring Pennsylvania to Ford who demanded rent exceeding Penn's ability to pay. After Ford's death in 1702, his wife, Bridget, had Penn thrown in debtor's prison, but her cruelty backfired. It was unthinkable to have such a person govern a major colony, and in 1708 the Lord Chancellor ruled that "the equity of redemption still remained in William Penn and his heirs."
In October 1712, Penn suffered a stroke while writing a letter about the future of Pennsylvania. Four months later, he suffered a second stroke.
While he had difficulty speaking and writing, he spent time catching up with his children whom he had missed during his missionary travels. He died on July 30, 1718. He was buried at Jordans, next to Guli.
Long before his death, Pennsylvania ceased to be a spiritual place dominated by Quakers. Penn's policy of religious toleration and peace--no military conscription--attracted all kinds of war-weary European immigrants. There were English, Irish, and Germans, Catholics, Jews, and an assortment of Protestant sects including Dunkers, Huguenots, Lutherans, Mennonites, Moravians, Pietists, and Schwenkfelders. Liberty brought so many immigrants that by the American Revolution Pennsylvania had grown to some 300,000 people and became one of the largest colonies. Pennsylvania was America's first great melting pot.
Philadelphia was America's largest city with almost 18,000 people. It was a major commercial center--sometimes more than a hundred trading ships anchored there during a single day. People in Philadelphia could enjoy any of the goods available in England. Merchant companies, shipyards, and banks flourished. Philadelphia thrived as an entrepôt between Europe and the American frontier.
With an atmosphere of liberty, Philadelphia emerged as an intellectual center. Between 1740 and 1776, Philadelphia presses issued an estimated 11,000 works including pamphlets, almanacs, and books. In 1776, there were seven newspapers reflecting a wide range of opinions. No wonder Penn's "city of brotherly love" became the most sacred site for American liberty, where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, and delegates drafted the Constitution.
By creating Pennsylvania, Penn set an enormously important example for liberty. He showed that people who are courageous enough, persistent enough, and resourceful enough can live free. He went beyond the natural right theories of his friend John Locke and showed how a free society would actually work. He showed how individuals of different races and religions can live together peacefully when they mind their own business. He affirmed the resilient optimism of free people.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Terry and Alex
man that video was really awsome you guys did a great job and you had alot to do great job i learned the why early englishmen came to the New world GREAT WORK GUYS!!!
Saturday, September 27, 2008
The Different one
Nothing against Nathan and Daniel(loved your presentation by the way!) but i just have to be the different one and say i liked Lillian and Brennans presentation. You guys had a ton of information and taught it really well. The activity was fun but really pressure building but it kind of related to what the colonists had to face. they had to find something in the midst of confusion(and pressure!) and it was cool in a way to see what they had to deal with everyday and, how they founded the colonies so others could live there with less difficulty.
Friday, September 26, 2008
William Bradford
William Bradford was truely a great man. He became fully involved in the Sepratist church at the age of 17 and then went over seas to the New World to create a better future for his children and the children of others. When the first governor John Carver died Bradford took his place and was re-elected 10 times. He has been an ispiration for me and I hope some of you will take time to research him as I have. Here is a link to a site that I found some info on: http://www.pilgrimhall.org/bradfordwilliam.htm
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Gosh, Nathan and Daniel!
I was just reading some of the past posts, and about 5 of them were on how awesome Nathan and Daniel's presentation was. They did a good job ( I loved the stock-game where they gave us each 3 m&ms and if we chose a colony that prospered we got another one as opposed to losing one if we chose a colony that didn't prosper. That was how stock companys really worked). I also thought that the summary by Terry and Alex was really good (cool video) and that Haley and Talor did awesome even though they only had 5 minutes to do it in (loved the pie) I'm looking foward to Friday because of the rest of the presentations - including Audra's and mine!
what helped me learned..
not to be like everyone else but Daniel and Nathan's presentation was really good. it helped me learn about stalks and I also learned that a good amount of colonies failed. It would be terrible to
have settled and then everything go wrong.
have settled and then everything go wrong.
what I learned
I would agree with the rest of you that Daniel & Nathan had a really good presentation. I thought the stock game was a fun and creative idea.
I also didn't know what happened to Plymouth untill last monday. I researched it more and this is one of the links I found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth
I also didn't know what happened to Plymouth untill last monday. I researched it more and this is one of the links I found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
mondays presentations
on monday, i think one of the best ones was daniel and nathans! they did a really good job! i guess i have not really ever thought about civilization in that way. i mean i knew in some areas it was bad but never prosessed it all. who new that all theses things like starvation,famine, and all kinds off things would turn out like this. they thaught us many things we need to take into concideration. we also need to pray that things change.
Monday's presentations
I learned that John Cabot claimed the Atlantic coast of North America to England in 1497.
I researched more about him and found that he made two trips to the New World. The first time he had to convince King Henry the seventh. After recieving permission, he departed on the Matthew. No one knows the precise location where he landed but it was in that first voyage where Cabot claimed the land to England.
I researched more about him and found that he made two trips to the New World. The first time he had to convince King Henry the seventh. After recieving permission, he departed on the Matthew. No one knows the precise location where he landed but it was in that first voyage where Cabot claimed the land to England.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Difficulties in Collonization
I am doing my blog about what daniel and nathen talked about on Monday. I thought that they did a really good job in doing their presentation plus I learned a lot. I didnt realize how hard Collonization really was. They faced a whole lot of hard stuff like Starvation and Sickness. Also they talked about the joint-stock company. It was really interesting to learn about how smart the people back then were to come up with something like that. Also I thought that the game we played was really fun and thats why I blogged about the Difficulties of Colonization.
On Monday, i learned alot........
What really stuck out to me, on monday, was where, i think it was nathan and daniel, talked about, the difficulties, of colonization, we dont realize how hard it would be to start a colony, with virtually nothing....... I know i couldn't do that good, as the thirteen original ones. They were pretty brave...........
Monday, September 22, 2008
The Names of New York
I never new that New York was first called New Netherland. I also didn't know that it was given to the Duke of York, and that he named the colony after himself. Does anyone know if he named New York City after himself, or if someone else named it?
Another question: Mrs. Bolander said on Tuesday that we will all be given new names. Will the states and nations also be given new names? If any of you have any thoughts about this, I'd really like to know.
Another question: Mrs. Bolander said on Tuesday that we will all be given new names. Will the states and nations also be given new names? If any of you have any thoughts about this, I'd really like to know.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Do we need War?
I think war is very important but not always necessary. I think it depends though on the reason for starting one. If it is just to get power then I think it is completely unnecessary but for example the whole Iraq thing i think that is important and here is why. When 9/11 happened it was a big deal as we all know because it was a ist attack on the USA. So the president sent our troops into Iraq to find the ist group that attacked us. Then it kind of turned into we need to defend this country against that one guy(gosh i can never remember his name) and the ost group he runs. we were defending and protecting our country but it turned into defending Iraq and Iran which i dont think we should have done unless they had asked us for help. So we were trying to protect Iraq but i dont think we should really get involved with that because then we could become more of a Target for ist attacks and its not in our country. I think it is important to really think over the reasons you would start dropping and sending out troops to another country before you start it so you would be sure it was the right thing to do. Would it be called ? I think yes it would but in the bible God tells David to go and kill all these people but they had sinned against the Lord. The Definition of is; the crime of unlawfully somebody with a malicious thought. so basically some person because you are mad or spiteful. I dont think the troops want to kill people but they want to defend their country to.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
A real hero
www.annehutchinson.com
Anne Hutchinson didn't believe in doing good works to get to heaven, and she was also a religious leader. Those two things made the Puritans distrust her, take her to trial, and exile her from the colony. I think that the Puritans tried to be too pure for their own good, making all kinds of rules and good works and not focusing on what really gets people to heaven - Jesus. Anne Hutchinson realised this, and tried to show people that it is by grace that we get to heaven even though good works are of amazing value in heaven. That's when the Puritans exiled her. I think that the Puritans could have been a lot less strict, and it would have been better for everyone.
Anne Hutchinson didn't believe in doing good works to get to heaven, and she was also a religious leader. Those two things made the Puritans distrust her, take her to trial, and exile her from the colony. I think that the Puritans tried to be too pure for their own good, making all kinds of rules and good works and not focusing on what really gets people to heaven - Jesus. Anne Hutchinson realised this, and tried to show people that it is by grace that we get to heaven even though good works are of amazing value in heaven. That's when the Puritans exiled her. I think that the Puritans could have been a lot less strict, and it would have been better for everyone.
Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson (July 20, 1591 – August 20, 1643) was the unauthorized Puritan minister of a dissident church discussion group and a pioneer settler in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Netherlands. Hutchinson held Bible meetings for women that soon had great appeal to men as well. Eventually, she went beyond Bible study to proclaiming boldly facets of her own theological interpretations of the ministers sermons of that day, some of which offended colony leadership. Great controversy ensued, and after an arduous trial before a jury of officials from both government and clergy, eventually she was banished from her colony.[1]
She is a key figure in the study of the development of religious freedom in England's American colonies and the history of women in ministry. The state of Massachusetts honors her with a State House monument calling her a "courageous exponent of civil liberty and religious toleration."
She is a key figure in the study of the development of religious freedom in England's American colonies and the history of women in ministry. The state of Massachusetts honors her with a State House monument calling her a "courageous exponent of civil liberty and religious toleration."
Different types of war
War is what we are all mainly talking about in class this week. Some people say that war is good, some say its bad and some say that is both good and bad. I am not totally sure what i think about the wars going on all over the world. But i know that we have soliders fighting to protect us. And i dont really think that, thats a bad thing. Along the same line we have talking about killing. Is killing someone ok? Well i wouldnt go straight to killing someone but if my family was being attacked by somone who was breaking into my house i would just do my best to defend myself and my family. So no i dont really think killing is right, but i do think that self defense is right. Like Nathan said in his blog the bible talks about turning the other cheek when someone like hits you or something. So yah if someone was trying to beat me up or something than i think that we are supposed to turn the other cheek. But if someone was attacking my family i think that i would defend them. For me it really just matters whether it was me getting hurt or other people.
is killing wrong?
i had the same conversation with my parents.
heres my question if a person comes up to you and punches you what do you do? some people punch them back and it becomes a fight. others walk away or look for help. BUT!! this is what i found in the bible, Matthew 5:39. "If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also". but if someone ran into my house and started hitting my mom or anyone thats Innocent i would defend her/him any day.
but thats not what im talking about im talking about is killing wrong and i found a verse in the bible again. Leviticus 24:21. "Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, BUT whoever kills a man must be put to death". ok theres pruff if someone kills a man or a women they should be put to death. its different when the Innocent are in this conversation. but if someone had a gun to my face and said are you a christian....well you know the Answer is going to be. so this is my answer for <strong>IS KILLING WRONG?, YES
heres my question if a person comes up to you and punches you what do you do? some people punch them back and it becomes a fight. others walk away or look for help. BUT!! this is what i found in the bible, Matthew 5:39. "If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also". but if someone ran into my house and started hitting my mom or anyone thats Innocent i would defend her/him any day.
but thats not what im talking about im talking about is killing wrong and i found a verse in the bible again. Leviticus 24:21. "Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, BUT whoever kills a man must be put to death". ok theres pruff if someone kills a man or a women they should be put to death. its different when the Innocent are in this conversation. but if someone had a gun to my face and said are you a christian....well you know the Answer is going to be. so this is my answer for <strong>IS KILLING WRONG?, YES
why war is god and bad...
OK, if i was at home and someone broke in my house and tried to hurt my family you better watch out cause i would attack.ha ha.
there is no way i would just sit there and let him get away with it...i would feel bad for not doing anything! at that point we would not be thinking or asking God is this is right or not!
I think war can be god but at the same time it can be bad. now if the war is going on for a reason and your on the right side and your fighting for what is right...it could be alright. Now if your just in war because you want to have the power and just for no reason, then i think its wrong.
there is no way i would just sit there and let him get away with it...i would feel bad for not doing anything! at that point we would not be thinking or asking God is this is right or not!
I think war can be god but at the same time it can be bad. now if the war is going on for a reason and your on the right side and your fighting for what is right...it could be alright. Now if your just in war because you want to have the power and just for no reason, then i think its wrong.
WAR?
The question of class right now is : "is war good or bad?"
My answer I am sure you all already know is for the most part... good.
Even though people are killed and that is not okay the out come of war is most of the time good.
My main point of a good war is the Civil War. Yes people were killed and yes it could have ruined some land and even families that is not good BUT what was the outcome? the slaves were freed and were treated by the government as normal people.. I don't believe that you can say war is flat out bad end of story. if you look through history you can find many many examples of a good out come of war. I am sure we all agree on that. I am not denying the fact that war dose incredibly bad things.. but I believe that this is not an "absolute truth" because there are good and bad things to war I will list some bad: the death of many people. the destruction of land. the tearing apart of families. good: it accomplished the task at hand. the disagreement between the two sides is gone. in the case of the Civil war and some others people were freed and were treated right.
To the argument of the war for oil:
I believe that as the United States President George Bush's main responsibility is to take care of his country. yes hopefully he can help other countries in need but his main goal is to take care of us no matter how selfish that seems to you it is the point of presidency. As the leader of our country he has make the other countries know "were not to be messed with" for lack of a better phrase. George Bush has to protect his family so the other families know "not to mess with us" if we let the other countries know that they can charge us extra on oil just to make a quick buck then they need to know they can't do that. For the United States to stay "on top" along with some other countries then we need to let them know whose boss.. we would never ever stay on top if we were to let other countries know they can take advantage of us. Now you may ask what about being humble? and we already have enough money lets let them charge us extra for gas well as to being humble.. I'm sorry but as a county we have to stay on top if we want to keep our land and not have it be invaded. and as to the we are the wealthiest county.. no.. one we aren't the wealthiest country and two we have a very good amount of poverty in this nation. we can not higher gas prices any more because right now it is hard for a lot of Americans to fill up their gas tank. it just isn't practical to higher gas prices any more.
I could say a whole lot more but I think you guys get the point and my fingers are tired..
My answer I am sure you all already know is for the most part... good.
Even though people are killed and that is not okay the out come of war is most of the time good.
My main point of a good war is the Civil War. Yes people were killed and yes it could have ruined some land and even families that is not good BUT what was the outcome? the slaves were freed and were treated by the government as normal people.. I don't believe that you can say war is flat out bad end of story. if you look through history you can find many many examples of a good out come of war. I am sure we all agree on that. I am not denying the fact that war dose incredibly bad things.. but I believe that this is not an "absolute truth" because there are good and bad things to war I will list some bad: the death of many people. the destruction of land. the tearing apart of families. good: it accomplished the task at hand. the disagreement between the two sides is gone. in the case of the Civil war and some others people were freed and were treated right.
To the argument of the war for oil:
I believe that as the United States President George Bush's main responsibility is to take care of his country. yes hopefully he can help other countries in need but his main goal is to take care of us no matter how selfish that seems to you it is the point of presidency. As the leader of our country he has make the other countries know "were not to be messed with" for lack of a better phrase. George Bush has to protect his family so the other families know "not to mess with us" if we let the other countries know that they can charge us extra on oil just to make a quick buck then they need to know they can't do that. For the United States to stay "on top" along with some other countries then we need to let them know whose boss.. we would never ever stay on top if we were to let other countries know they can take advantage of us. Now you may ask what about being humble? and we already have enough money lets let them charge us extra for gas well as to being humble.. I'm sorry but as a county we have to stay on top if we want to keep our land and not have it be invaded. and as to the we are the wealthiest county.. no.. one we aren't the wealthiest country and two we have a very good amount of poverty in this nation. we can not higher gas prices any more because right now it is hard for a lot of Americans to fill up their gas tank. it just isn't practical to higher gas prices any more.
I could say a whole lot more but I think you guys get the point and my fingers are tired..
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
my input....
This is very confusing. I'm obviously not speaking for myself. cuz in my opinion if i was in a situation where it would seem sensible to defend myself.. i probably would. But i dont think that is right. LIke what terry said, if it weren't for our sinful nature we would not have to kill and etc. But lets say that someone is trying to kill me and what do i do? in that case either way.. someone is going to die. But is it right to just be killed when i did nothing wrong?
ill just let that question hang because i actually dont know it my self :]
ill just let that question hang because i actually dont know it my self :]
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Why killing is wrong
This is where I stand on the whole debate we had in class earlier. I think that it is wrong under any circumstances at all what ever the reason to kill. I can back this up with a solid straight forward verse: Exodus 20: 13 (King James Version) "Thou shalt not kill". I belive as the verse states that we should not kill, even if it is to save the life of someone else, because there will doubtlessly be other options that don't include killing. If anyone has any other Bible verses that can state the oposite of this I would appreciate if they would respond with them.
Monday, September 15, 2008
To War or not to War?
To continue our discussion from class, I believe that to start a war with another country just because we want to have, for example, lower gas prices, is totally wrong. If we believe that a nation is ripping us off by making us pay higher gas prices than what we're used to, we should stop buying gas from that nation! It's as simple as that! There is no need to invade another nation just because America, one of the richest nations in the world, wants to pay less for gas. Alaska has gas, Canada has gas, Russia has gas; if one nation is making us pay too much for our gas, we should just get our gas from somewhere else. There is no reason at all to invade another nation just so we can pay lower prices. The money we save from buying products made by slaves should make up for the "expensive gas" in America. If you ever go to Canada (A trip I highly recommend,) you'll see that the gas is a LOT more money!
I am NOT saying that being rich is bad. I do believe that God has given America great wealth, and that American's shouldn't squander their money. However, there are so many other sources of energy besides gas, such as wind, solar, and geothermal energy, that there is no need to invade other nations to pay lower gas prices. We need to realize how much we really have, and that if we stopped wasting our money in other ways, we wouldn't notice the rising gas prices.
If another nation were going to attach America, I believe you would be totally justified to attack that nation and defend yourself. For example, in WWII, America was somewhat justified to bomb Japan, since they had bombed Pearl Harbour (Hawaii). However, to invade a nation just to get more oil is outrageous! To think that invading another nation because of high oil prices is insane; there are so many other options! Yes, God doesn't want us to squander money, but there are so many other Godless things that we invest our money on that if we would just stop spending money in those areas, we wouldn't notice the gas prices.
Also, just to clarify what I said in class, I wasn't saying that Americans are prideful. I was only making a point that I've noticed a huge difference between Canadian and American patriotism. Also, Canadians have fought in some wars. Though we are a very peaceful nation, we have fought in some wars. The reason is that you don't hear about the war accomplishments of Canadians is because:
1) Canada has 1 tenth of the population that America has, so it can't send as many people oversees
2) Canada downplays it's war heroes (that's another effect of too little national pride)
One amazing Canadian war effort was at Vimy Ridge, in the heat of World War Two. The Germans had taken a ridge from France, and the Allied Forces needed to get it back because it was in a stragetic place. The French and English both tried and failed to regain the ridge, but Canada made an amazing attack on the Germans, and, after a bloody battle, regained the ridge. Sadly, Americans don't hear about this amazing feat because Canadians don't have the national pride that Americans have.
Another thing I believe is that the reason Canada didn't have wars with the Indians in the west and didn't have a Civil War was because of America. America became a nation 100 years before Canada did, so we saw what you guys did that did and didn't work out well. Canada became a nation just after the American Civil War. To prevent a Civil War of it's own, the founding fathers of Canada wrote certain things in the BNA Act (the "constitution" of Canada) to prevent a civil war. We also didn't have wars with the Indians in western Canada because we saw the wars in America, saw what you guys did wrong, and learned from it. Canada actually owes a great deal of thanks to America, because we learned a lot from you guys. Since Canada saw the effects of war on America, that may be why we today perfer not to take part in so many wars.
So, to conclude, I think it is wrong to invade another country to have lower gas prices, and I also believe that Canadians could learn a LOT from Americans about being patriotic, and I think Americans could also learn a lot from Canadians.
I am NOT saying that being rich is bad. I do believe that God has given America great wealth, and that American's shouldn't squander their money. However, there are so many other sources of energy besides gas, such as wind, solar, and geothermal energy, that there is no need to invade other nations to pay lower gas prices. We need to realize how much we really have, and that if we stopped wasting our money in other ways, we wouldn't notice the rising gas prices.
If another nation were going to attach America, I believe you would be totally justified to attack that nation and defend yourself. For example, in WWII, America was somewhat justified to bomb Japan, since they had bombed Pearl Harbour (Hawaii). However, to invade a nation just to get more oil is outrageous! To think that invading another nation because of high oil prices is insane; there are so many other options! Yes, God doesn't want us to squander money, but there are so many other Godless things that we invest our money on that if we would just stop spending money in those areas, we wouldn't notice the gas prices.
Also, just to clarify what I said in class, I wasn't saying that Americans are prideful. I was only making a point that I've noticed a huge difference between Canadian and American patriotism. Also, Canadians have fought in some wars. Though we are a very peaceful nation, we have fought in some wars. The reason is that you don't hear about the war accomplishments of Canadians is because:
1) Canada has 1 tenth of the population that America has, so it can't send as many people oversees
2) Canada downplays it's war heroes (that's another effect of too little national pride)
One amazing Canadian war effort was at Vimy Ridge, in the heat of World War Two. The Germans had taken a ridge from France, and the Allied Forces needed to get it back because it was in a stragetic place. The French and English both tried and failed to regain the ridge, but Canada made an amazing attack on the Germans, and, after a bloody battle, regained the ridge. Sadly, Americans don't hear about this amazing feat because Canadians don't have the national pride that Americans have.
Another thing I believe is that the reason Canada didn't have wars with the Indians in the west and didn't have a Civil War was because of America. America became a nation 100 years before Canada did, so we saw what you guys did that did and didn't work out well. Canada became a nation just after the American Civil War. To prevent a Civil War of it's own, the founding fathers of Canada wrote certain things in the BNA Act (the "constitution" of Canada) to prevent a civil war. We also didn't have wars with the Indians in western Canada because we saw the wars in America, saw what you guys did wrong, and learned from it. Canada actually owes a great deal of thanks to America, because we learned a lot from you guys. Since Canada saw the effects of war on America, that may be why we today perfer not to take part in so many wars.
So, to conclude, I think it is wrong to invade another country to have lower gas prices, and I also believe that Canadians could learn a LOT from Americans about being patriotic, and I think Americans could also learn a lot from Canadians.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Puritan Law system.
In one way the puritans had good motives. but becuase they wanted to do things the they thought that was right.. that was one was reason they kinda went downhill.
If you asked me about justice and asked me then if the mother of an aborted child was to die for her actions of murder and other questions etc. i wouldn't know how to answer. but only God knows what happens to that baby or that mother. God is soveriegn and He is not a man that He would lie. So in a sense, who are we to judge someone else? I don't believe that the acts of the puritans were completely wise. God gave us free will but later on those choices will always either reward us or give us consequences. The puritans didn't really give a choice.
In revelation it says that Jesus is Faithful and True, so I think that only He has the complete authority to judge and establish righteousness on earth. The puritans tried to judge on their own standards but God is all knowing and he loves to show mercy. And in 1 corinthians ( i think :) it says that we have the mind of Christ. and that if we lack wisdom that we will recieve from the one who gives generously ( James 1:5).
So yea i just think that the puritans weren't completely correct and stuff but they are humans!
If you asked me about justice and asked me then if the mother of an aborted child was to die for her actions of murder and other questions etc. i wouldn't know how to answer. but only God knows what happens to that baby or that mother. God is soveriegn and He is not a man that He would lie. So in a sense, who are we to judge someone else? I don't believe that the acts of the puritans were completely wise. God gave us free will but later on those choices will always either reward us or give us consequences. The puritans didn't really give a choice.
In revelation it says that Jesus is Faithful and True, so I think that only He has the complete authority to judge and establish righteousness on earth. The puritans tried to judge on their own standards but God is all knowing and he loves to show mercy. And in 1 corinthians ( i think :) it says that we have the mind of Christ. and that if we lack wisdom that we will recieve from the one who gives generously ( James 1:5).
So yea i just think that the puritans weren't completely correct and stuff but they are humans!
Puritan Law
I think the puritan law was a WRONG thing to do back then. I mean
1. not going to church for one day you get wiped and put in court
2. if you are sick then you get wiped and put in court
3. and even for kids, they had to sit in the front and have a person 24/7 watching them and if they did anything they would get wiped
I believe that the puritan law was a bad thing to do for the church because it put the fear of man to other men.
1. not going to church for one day you get wiped and put in court
2. if you are sick then you get wiped and put in court
3. and even for kids, they had to sit in the front and have a person 24/7 watching them and if they did anything they would get wiped
I believe that the puritan law was a bad thing to do for the church because it put the fear of man to other men.
laws
Two of the laws back then I think that were probably kind of annoying was that you had to be at church every sunday, and that you couldn't disagree with the preacher! I mean no one should be forced to go to church, it is there own diccision. And what if the preacher acctually says something that is wrong you couldnt disagree with them or anything. Im glad today that we arnt forced to go to church or cant disagree with the preacher.
laws...
first off! i dont know what happened with that last post!
i dont think it is right that some of the laws on this earth are happening! i think it is un fair and wrong! as a class and as a community i think we need to take a stand and fight for what we believe in!
if we were to find new land and make our own new laws i think we should base them off the bible but also for what is right and for justice. we would have to base them all off what God would want.
i dont think it is right that some of the laws on this earth are happening! i think it is un fair and wrong! as a class and as a community i think we need to take a stand and fight for what we believe in!
if we were to find new land and make our own new laws i think we should base them off the bible but also for what is right and for justice. we would have to base them all off what God would want.
The puritans law system
The puritans laws were very harsh. Some I think they made to big a deal about and others well they were good. For instance a man was givin a terrible punishment just for missing one day of church! But if you ever spoke against the Bible or argued with a minister then you were REALLY in for it! The puritans laws were strict but some were very good. Like if someone were to murder somebody then they would be killed. That is somewhat similar to the law we have today. The puritans were very smart but if I had just moved to a new land i probably would have set the laws up differently! I am not saying that i am way smarter than the puritans or anything like that because i believe that they were very smart! I just think that if I had moved to a new land i would have set the laws up a little differently!
Jesus is the only one who can establish rightousness on the earth
Jesus is the only person who has the authority to establish righteousness because of these reasons:
1. No mortal man can see whether another man is sincere or not. Such as the Bible says not to lie. We do not have the power to tell whether or not people are actually lying or not.
2. If we were to enforce every thing in the Bible as a law or government would not have the ability to punish or fine every time someone sinned. It would not be practical. If the government isn't able to enforce their laws then the very important things such as killing and stealing would be more likely to happen. Because the people wouldn't have a "fear" (for lack of a better word) of the government.
3. Men do not have the position to do God's job. like the Bible says you must take out the log in your eye before you take out the speck in someone else's. Unless the leader in of this country is perfect he dose not have the place to say you must do this and you must not do this. He can only impose laws that keep the country in order and is in the good of the people.
1. No mortal man can see whether another man is sincere or not. Such as the Bible says not to lie. We do not have the power to tell whether or not people are actually lying or not.
2. If we were to enforce every thing in the Bible as a law or government would not have the ability to punish or fine every time someone sinned. It would not be practical. If the government isn't able to enforce their laws then the very important things such as killing and stealing would be more likely to happen. Because the people wouldn't have a "fear" (for lack of a better word) of the government.
3. Men do not have the position to do God's job. like the Bible says you must take out the log in your eye before you take out the speck in someone else's. Unless the leader in of this country is perfect he dose not have the place to say you must do this and you must not do this. He can only impose laws that keep the country in order and is in the good of the people.
Our New World
If our history class went somewhere in a boat and found a new land or even world, then I think we should try to make biblical laws as best as we could until Jesus returns. We should look at each possible law and pray, seek God, and read the bible so that we don't become like the Puritans (overly strict) or like modern-day Europe or America (allowing homosexuality, abortion, stuff like that). I think we should have a democracy like America's, but we should only allow Christians in the government. Basically, if everyone in our new world was a Christian then having totally amazing laws and no crime would be possible. If we had the same number of Christians and Atheists, as an example, then we would have crime and our laws would eventually go down the drain. This is the reason that only Jesus can make perfect laws and a perfect world when he comes to the earth and rules in righteousness.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Making Godly Laws
Though the best laws will always be biblical, the puritans and separatists had some very painful laws that would be illigal today. I think the best ways to make laws for the current age and day would be have them based on Matthew 5-7. I think these chapters are suitable for basing a law system on because they cover so many topics, and can be aplied to almost every situation in life. They tell you what to avoid, how to pray, and what to do if you want to be blessed (the beatutudes). I think that they are also good because they are very practical: not like the Puritan's and Seperatist's laws (such as never smiling or being happy in church).
I feel we need to pray for these women
Father,
we come before you now and agree with your heart for these women. father help them, to escape all of the hurt and the anger in their hearts. Have them look to you father, give them a greater revelation of your love for them. God i also pray that you'd help the men, that have taken advantage of these women. Father give them mercy and releive the guilt, father help them to never take advantage of another woman ever again. Let them be the ones who end the modern day slave trade.
Amen
Brennan
Slavery has been discarded as a terror of the past; seldom is it thought of as a threat in modern day society. This lack of awareness often leads to lack of action. Slavery, in one of its most sadistic forms, still thrives in the shadows of our streets. The modern day slave trade, called “human trafficking,” is a wealthy business on a global scale. Over 700,000 women are taken prisoner each year in the worldwide network of human trafficking. Approximately 50,000 of these women end up in the United States. To bring the point closer to home, on the East Coast there are many women, ranging between the ages of 14 and 35, being forced into prostitution. In fact, if you live in Raleigh, Miami, Atlanta, DC, or New York, chances are you’ve driven past a brothel without even realizing it. The revelation is almost surreal, but the story is that of a frighteningly normal reality.
The trafficking industry hides behind a facade of normality. By establishing employment for immigrants, traffickers ensnare victims, usually women hoping to escape poverty in their own country or to send money home for their families. Often, these women immigrate to the U.S. after being promised a job through such fraudulent agencies. Typically, once they arrive they are stripped of their legal papers and passports, beaten, and locked in a room. Understandably confused, a captive woman may examine her surroundings to find a crude mattress on the floor and vermin for companions. Within a few hours, though, her first customers will arrive. Initially, the men, taking advantage of her confused state, may rape the victim. Armed men guard all the brothel doors, so escaping is out of the question. Language barriers usually prevent a victim from seeking aid, and, as brothels exist in the secrecy of the cities, most captured women are lost forever to the shadows.
we come before you now and agree with your heart for these women. father help them, to escape all of the hurt and the anger in their hearts. Have them look to you father, give them a greater revelation of your love for them. God i also pray that you'd help the men, that have taken advantage of these women. Father give them mercy and releive the guilt, father help them to never take advantage of another woman ever again. Let them be the ones who end the modern day slave trade.
Amen
Brennan
Slavery has been discarded as a terror of the past; seldom is it thought of as a threat in modern day society. This lack of awareness often leads to lack of action. Slavery, in one of its most sadistic forms, still thrives in the shadows of our streets. The modern day slave trade, called “human trafficking,” is a wealthy business on a global scale. Over 700,000 women are taken prisoner each year in the worldwide network of human trafficking. Approximately 50,000 of these women end up in the United States. To bring the point closer to home, on the East Coast there are many women, ranging between the ages of 14 and 35, being forced into prostitution. In fact, if you live in Raleigh, Miami, Atlanta, DC, or New York, chances are you’ve driven past a brothel without even realizing it. The revelation is almost surreal, but the story is that of a frighteningly normal reality.
The trafficking industry hides behind a facade of normality. By establishing employment for immigrants, traffickers ensnare victims, usually women hoping to escape poverty in their own country or to send money home for their families. Often, these women immigrate to the U.S. after being promised a job through such fraudulent agencies. Typically, once they arrive they are stripped of their legal papers and passports, beaten, and locked in a room. Understandably confused, a captive woman may examine her surroundings to find a crude mattress on the floor and vermin for companions. Within a few hours, though, her first customers will arrive. Initially, the men, taking advantage of her confused state, may rape the victim. Armed men guard all the brothel doors, so escaping is out of the question. Language barriers usually prevent a victim from seeking aid, and, as brothels exist in the secrecy of the cities, most captured women are lost forever to the shadows.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Everything else was taken so I did William Bradford.
William Bradford was one of the leaders of the pilgrims who established Plymouth Colony. He was its governor for more than 30 years. His History of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647, first printed in full in 1856, is a minor classic, reflecting the unusual qualities of the man and the values of the small group of English separatists who became known as Pilgrims. Bradford was born in March 1590 in Austerfield, Yorkshire, the son of a yeoman farmer. He was self-taught. As a young man, he joined Puritan groups that met illegally in nearby Scrooby and was a member of that congregation when it separated from the Church of England in 1606. Bradford was among the 125 Scrooby separatists who sought (1608) religious sanctuary in Holland. When the congregation decided (1617) to seek refuge in America, Bradford took major responsibility for arranging the details of the emigration. The term Pilgrim is derived from his description of himself and his coreligionists as they left Holland (July 22, 1620) for Southampton, where they joined another group of English separatists on the Mayflower. Bradford was one of about a dozen original Scrooby church members who sailed for America on the Mayflower. When John Carver, Plymouth Colony's first governor, died suddenly in April 1621, Bradford was unanimously elected to replace him. He was reelected 30 times. In 1640, Bradford and the group of original settlers known as the "old comers" turned over to the colony the proprietary rights to its lands, which had been granted (1630) to him by the Warwick Patent and then shared by him with the old comers. During the period of his governorship, and especially during the first few years, Bradford provided the strong, steady leadership that kept the tiny community alive. He strove to sustain the religious ideals of the founders and to keep the colony's settlements compact and separate from the larger neighboring colonies. Bradford died on May 9 or 19, 1657.
pilgrims.net
Modern Day Slavery
Modern Day Slavery Around The World
We have all heard the stories of how slavery was ended in 1865. Yet, even today there are examples of slavery in the world. I am not talking about conditions that are the "equal" of slavery under one theory or another. I am talking about out-and-out slavery. I am talking about people being kidnapped or tricked and then held against their will. People who must work every day long hours or be beat. I am talking about people who are given no money for their labors. People who are bought and sold.
Why would slavery ever exist? The reason is money. Employees cost money. It's a lot cheaper to steal their labor than pay them.
The surprising thing is that it actually goes on in the United States.
Newsweek Magazine (May 4, 1992) reports that slavery is widespread in two African countries, Mauritania and Sudan. In Mauritania, over 100,000 Africans are enslaved. Their families were made slaves by the sword during the 12th century invasions. In the centuries that followed, they accepted it as natural.
Dada Ould Mbarek, 25, of Mauritania, says he and his whole family are slaves. Mbarek spends his back-breaking day taking water from a well and bringing it to paddies where vegetables are grown.
Mbarek's boss lives in the city and owns many cars. He owns 15 slaves in all.
Women in poor Asian countries are tricked into coming into places like Saudi Arabia with promises of jobs. When they get there they are forced to become permanent household slaves, without pay. They are not permitted to leave and are beaten often to control obedience.
One Filipino who escaped from Kuwait claimed "The whole country was a jail."
Encyclopedia Britannica 1992 World Data Annual shows that the economically active sector of the population in Kuwait is 699,000. And one must remember that this leaves out a lot of unemployed children and old people. And a lot of women. Only 20.6 percent of women are employed.
Yet, the total official population is only 400,000. That shows a lot of workers are from overseas. And, only 9% of all workers are in manufacturing, with only 1% in agriculture. What do the rest of them do?
It seems that 53% of them are in the category of "services." Compare this to the US, where 32% are in services, and Saudi Arabia, where 29% are in services, and Egypt, where 35% are in services. What do the extra 20% of service workers in Kuwait do?
Laxmi Swami, an Indian woman lured with a housekeepers job, escaped when her Kuwaiti "employers" took her on a trip with them to London. She was kept behind bars for 4 years, half-starved, with daily beatings with an electric cord. "Hundreds of times they called me slave, hundreds of times" said Swami.
Anti-Slavery International of Britain says this is all too common, even today. When Iraq invaded Kuwait, embassies in Kuwait were flooded with "guest workers" desperately taking advantage of their one opportunity to escape.
Slavery takes different forms in different lands. In Pakistan and India there is debt bondage. Poor people are tricked with promises of good jobs, but they are isolated and must deal with their employer in every way. The food they buy and other required things are sold only by their employers, with very high prices. The workers are forced to stay and work until the debt is paid off. But the deck is stacked so the debt keeps getting bigger. The "employee" is a slave for life.
And, even beyond life. The children are kept working until the debt is paid, which never happens. Generations are forced to work without ever seeing a day of freedom.
Like other slaveries, force is used to keep the worker in his place. Beatings, threats and killings are commonplace.
The type of work is different, though. In Kuwait they are household servants. In India it is usually profit making work such as working in stone quarries, brickmaking and carpetmaking.
An ABC TV show recently did an expose on slavery as it exists today. It focused on three countries: India, Brazil, and the United States.
In India it was common for agents of manufacturers to go to rural areas and trick uneducated country folk. These people often had never been to a city, and knew nothing of city life. They lived very traditionally and were very poor. India is one of the poorest countries in the world.
The agents would find poor people with a lot of children, and offer good jobs to one or more. Sometimes they would pay the parents an advance on salary, which would be pennies to us, but was valuable to people in India. Then, they would take the children away. They would make all sorts of promises to the parents that were never kept.
The report showed the heartbreak of parents who never saw their children again. All they knew was that their children were gone forever.
Back in the city, the children were put at work weaving carpets. It seems that their little fingers can make tighter, better knots than adults can, making a higher quality carpet. The ABC news camera burst into a room with dozens of children working feverishly at their looms.
One child, named Israel, told his story. Israel was 12 years old. One day agents appeared at his village, and spoke to his parents. They promised he would make money, but they never pay him. They feed him very little. They make him work all day and night, and beat him when he stops. He sleeps on the floor with 40 other boys. He shows his scars for the camera.
When he left his village, they promised he could visit his family every year. In 4 years, he had not seen any member of his family. Naturally, he never went to school. He was way too busy working for that.
It turned out that every boy working there was under 16. Once they got too big, it was cheaper to just dump them on the street in another town, and go round up some more boys. So, if Israel had not been rescued, he would someday go free. But he could never go home.
Without help, Israel could never find his native village. He had never left his village before. He did not know its location. He could not read. He did not even know where he was. Most importantly, he had no money. And, the bosses would scare them with stories of what would happen if they tried to run away.
An anti-slavery campaigner got the man running the sweatshop to tell who he was working for. And, when the trail was followed, the employer turned out to be a very important man in the community, the school principal. "How could you make all those boys work and not go to school?" he was questioned. He just shrugged.
Lots of carpets sold in this country labeled as being Persian or Chinese actually come from India. Many of the largest carpet distributors had business dealings with little Israel's "employers." The beautiful carpets many people have in their homes were made with the labor of these sad little boys.
On December 9, 1994, ABC News with Peter Jennings named escaped slave Iqbal Masih as the Person of the Week. "They threaten us not to even think of leaving. They tell us, 'We'll burn your fingers in oil if you even try to leave. We'll put you in oil.'"
"I would start working at 4:00 a.m. and work until 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. at night. If the children fell asleep or were slow in their work, they would be punished by either being beaten or starved."
Iqbal was 12 years old. He worked at the factory since he was 4. He never got paid and was a slave. "Even when we are sick, we are forced to work. If we are slow, we are struck" he said.
Two carpet dealers tried to say this was just a regular job. "It gives kids something to do. It's not hard labor. They like what they do" said one.
"It's a family business. It is not all that bad what they say. They exaggerate everything." said another.
The expose show next traveled to Brazil, where a different kind of business was involved. In big cities of Brazil there are a lot of unemployed people. A lot of them are very poor and live in very little shacks all crowded together. Lots of them hang out all day and have no hope for the future.
A man would go around and meet teenage girls. He was handsome and talked real smooth. He would flirt with them. He would tell them that he knew where there was a lot of good paying jobs working as maids and cooks. Up in the gold fields of Brazil there were boom towns, filled with rich men and not enough women to do the cleaning and cooking (as in the US, such jobs in Brazil are generally held by women). He would fill their heads with whatever dream seemed to be the girls thing. And he would get them to agree to fly away with him and some other girls he met to a great new opportunity.
When they got there, they got some surprises. The boom town turned out to be a few muddy blocks of crummy little shacks. They were told they owed huge amounts of money for the plane ticket and their rent and their food. There were no jobs as maids or waitresses. The only jobs were as prostitutes. They were told they had to be prostitutes and pay back their debts. They would not be allowed to leave.
These places were hundreds of miles deep in the jungle and none of the girls knew where they were. There was no phones and no police. The only way in and out was by plane, and no one could afford that, assuming the boss would allow it in the first place. There was only one way to get any money at all.
Girls who refused to go along were beaten. Some who tried to escape were killed. The rest of them were scared and did what they were told.
Like in other countries, the debt can never be paid. In the little mining town you had to deal with your boss. He provided the room where the girl slept with customers, and he took most of the money as rent. Every bit of food she bought was bought at his prices. And they made it a point to introduce the girls to alcohol and drugs, which of course were sold only by their boss. Some girls, being very unhappy, were regular customers. The more the girl worked, the deeper in debt she became. And she became a slave.
When ABC News with Brazilian police raided this one mining town, they found about 40 teenage girls working as prostitutes for one boss. They asked who wanted to leave this place and go back to the city. Every single one of them raised their hands. Several began to cry.
And that brings us to the United States. The slavery uncovered in the United States was not prostitution like in Brazil. It was not manufacturing work like in India and Pakistan. It was not household servant like in Kuwait. But it was worked a lot like them.
A guy would go around places where unemployed people would hang out and offer them jobs working on a farm. "It's just temporary" they would say. A farmer would need help picking his oranges or his cotton or his sugar cane just for a few weeks. They could all ride up there, work for a few weeks, and come back to the city with a few dollars in their pockets. People were picked up in all the major cities of Florida. They would load up in vans and station wagons and head out. They would go to places like Georgia and South Carolina.
When they got there they moved into a compound surrounded by fences and barbed wire. Vicious dogs patrolled all night. The bosses got them up early. They were worked hard all day long. They were charged room and board that was more than they got paid. They were encouraged to buy liquor and drugs on credit.
None of the workers was allowed to leave. When they worked, they had a overseers armed with shotguns. They were marched to work, and marched home again. They never saw a telephone. They never saw an outsider. And they picked cotton all day long. Sometimes it was other crops.
Sooner or later the cotton would be picked, and the workers would want to go home like he promised. But they could not leave. They owed a lot of money. So the boss took them out late at night and drove them to some other big farm where they needed help with the crops, and it started all over again.
These places were all on private property, far away from the road. They never saw any outsiders. No one knew they were there. If anyone knew, they didn't care. The people they worked for and that the boss got paid by were rich important people in their area. The workers were nobody.
Most of the slaves were poor black people, but some of them were poor white people too. In this one operation, it was actually a black man who was the slave driver.
Some of the people rescued had been slaves for years. Others were younger. One young black man talked about how now he finally knew what it was like for his ancestors. He said he would never pick cotton again, not for all the money in the world.
As you can see, there is still a lot of slavery in the world today. As long as people want to make money, some will want to steal. Slavery is the worst kind of stealing. They don't just steal your money. They steal your life, your freedom, everything.
It was not long ago when slavery was completely legal in the United States. It was accepted that people could be stolen, kept prisoner at gunpoint, and forced to work. It was accepted that you could be beaten or whipped if you didn't work fast enough.
Now these things are illegal, but the law still helps the slavemasters. Unions can't get to farm workers because they are on private property. The law keeps them out. So no one can find out that maybe they are being kept as slaves.
People own these giant plantations that need a lot of workers and make it pay to steal them. If these were small farms the workers would get paid. Some of these families have had these big farms ever since the days of slavery.
In India and Pakistan, there is no law making kids go to school, and there is no law saying kids can't work. So if kids are working, that could be legal. Again, private property keeps snoopers out.
The stories of today's slaves helps us understand a little about the slaves from before. At least today's slaves have some hope of being rescued someday. Before the Civil War, the slaves did not even have that.
Story submitted by a contributor.
For further information, please visit the website of the American Anti-Slavery Group.
Read 1856 U.S. Supreme Court decision on slavery.
We have all heard the stories of how slavery was ended in 1865. Yet, even today there are examples of slavery in the world. I am not talking about conditions that are the "equal" of slavery under one theory or another. I am talking about out-and-out slavery. I am talking about people being kidnapped or tricked and then held against their will. People who must work every day long hours or be beat. I am talking about people who are given no money for their labors. People who are bought and sold.
Why would slavery ever exist? The reason is money. Employees cost money. It's a lot cheaper to steal their labor than pay them.
The surprising thing is that it actually goes on in the United States.
Newsweek Magazine (May 4, 1992) reports that slavery is widespread in two African countries, Mauritania and Sudan. In Mauritania, over 100,000 Africans are enslaved. Their families were made slaves by the sword during the 12th century invasions. In the centuries that followed, they accepted it as natural.
Dada Ould Mbarek, 25, of Mauritania, says he and his whole family are slaves. Mbarek spends his back-breaking day taking water from a well and bringing it to paddies where vegetables are grown.
Mbarek's boss lives in the city and owns many cars. He owns 15 slaves in all.
Women in poor Asian countries are tricked into coming into places like Saudi Arabia with promises of jobs. When they get there they are forced to become permanent household slaves, without pay. They are not permitted to leave and are beaten often to control obedience.
One Filipino who escaped from Kuwait claimed "The whole country was a jail."
Encyclopedia Britannica 1992 World Data Annual shows that the economically active sector of the population in Kuwait is 699,000. And one must remember that this leaves out a lot of unemployed children and old people. And a lot of women. Only 20.6 percent of women are employed.
Yet, the total official population is only 400,000. That shows a lot of workers are from overseas. And, only 9% of all workers are in manufacturing, with only 1% in agriculture. What do the rest of them do?
It seems that 53% of them are in the category of "services." Compare this to the US, where 32% are in services, and Saudi Arabia, where 29% are in services, and Egypt, where 35% are in services. What do the extra 20% of service workers in Kuwait do?
Laxmi Swami, an Indian woman lured with a housekeepers job, escaped when her Kuwaiti "employers" took her on a trip with them to London. She was kept behind bars for 4 years, half-starved, with daily beatings with an electric cord. "Hundreds of times they called me slave, hundreds of times" said Swami.
Anti-Slavery International of Britain says this is all too common, even today. When Iraq invaded Kuwait, embassies in Kuwait were flooded with "guest workers" desperately taking advantage of their one opportunity to escape.
Slavery takes different forms in different lands. In Pakistan and India there is debt bondage. Poor people are tricked with promises of good jobs, but they are isolated and must deal with their employer in every way. The food they buy and other required things are sold only by their employers, with very high prices. The workers are forced to stay and work until the debt is paid off. But the deck is stacked so the debt keeps getting bigger. The "employee" is a slave for life.
And, even beyond life. The children are kept working until the debt is paid, which never happens. Generations are forced to work without ever seeing a day of freedom.
Like other slaveries, force is used to keep the worker in his place. Beatings, threats and killings are commonplace.
The type of work is different, though. In Kuwait they are household servants. In India it is usually profit making work such as working in stone quarries, brickmaking and carpetmaking.
An ABC TV show recently did an expose on slavery as it exists today. It focused on three countries: India, Brazil, and the United States.
In India it was common for agents of manufacturers to go to rural areas and trick uneducated country folk. These people often had never been to a city, and knew nothing of city life. They lived very traditionally and were very poor. India is one of the poorest countries in the world.
The agents would find poor people with a lot of children, and offer good jobs to one or more. Sometimes they would pay the parents an advance on salary, which would be pennies to us, but was valuable to people in India. Then, they would take the children away. They would make all sorts of promises to the parents that were never kept.
The report showed the heartbreak of parents who never saw their children again. All they knew was that their children were gone forever.
Back in the city, the children were put at work weaving carpets. It seems that their little fingers can make tighter, better knots than adults can, making a higher quality carpet. The ABC news camera burst into a room with dozens of children working feverishly at their looms.
One child, named Israel, told his story. Israel was 12 years old. One day agents appeared at his village, and spoke to his parents. They promised he would make money, but they never pay him. They feed him very little. They make him work all day and night, and beat him when he stops. He sleeps on the floor with 40 other boys. He shows his scars for the camera.
When he left his village, they promised he could visit his family every year. In 4 years, he had not seen any member of his family. Naturally, he never went to school. He was way too busy working for that.
It turned out that every boy working there was under 16. Once they got too big, it was cheaper to just dump them on the street in another town, and go round up some more boys. So, if Israel had not been rescued, he would someday go free. But he could never go home.
Without help, Israel could never find his native village. He had never left his village before. He did not know its location. He could not read. He did not even know where he was. Most importantly, he had no money. And, the bosses would scare them with stories of what would happen if they tried to run away.
An anti-slavery campaigner got the man running the sweatshop to tell who he was working for. And, when the trail was followed, the employer turned out to be a very important man in the community, the school principal. "How could you make all those boys work and not go to school?" he was questioned. He just shrugged.
Lots of carpets sold in this country labeled as being Persian or Chinese actually come from India. Many of the largest carpet distributors had business dealings with little Israel's "employers." The beautiful carpets many people have in their homes were made with the labor of these sad little boys.
On December 9, 1994, ABC News with Peter Jennings named escaped slave Iqbal Masih as the Person of the Week. "They threaten us not to even think of leaving. They tell us, 'We'll burn your fingers in oil if you even try to leave. We'll put you in oil.'"
"I would start working at 4:00 a.m. and work until 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. at night. If the children fell asleep or were slow in their work, they would be punished by either being beaten or starved."
Iqbal was 12 years old. He worked at the factory since he was 4. He never got paid and was a slave. "Even when we are sick, we are forced to work. If we are slow, we are struck" he said.
Two carpet dealers tried to say this was just a regular job. "It gives kids something to do. It's not hard labor. They like what they do" said one.
"It's a family business. It is not all that bad what they say. They exaggerate everything." said another.
The expose show next traveled to Brazil, where a different kind of business was involved. In big cities of Brazil there are a lot of unemployed people. A lot of them are very poor and live in very little shacks all crowded together. Lots of them hang out all day and have no hope for the future.
A man would go around and meet teenage girls. He was handsome and talked real smooth. He would flirt with them. He would tell them that he knew where there was a lot of good paying jobs working as maids and cooks. Up in the gold fields of Brazil there were boom towns, filled with rich men and not enough women to do the cleaning and cooking (as in the US, such jobs in Brazil are generally held by women). He would fill their heads with whatever dream seemed to be the girls thing. And he would get them to agree to fly away with him and some other girls he met to a great new opportunity.
When they got there, they got some surprises. The boom town turned out to be a few muddy blocks of crummy little shacks. They were told they owed huge amounts of money for the plane ticket and their rent and their food. There were no jobs as maids or waitresses. The only jobs were as prostitutes. They were told they had to be prostitutes and pay back their debts. They would not be allowed to leave.
These places were hundreds of miles deep in the jungle and none of the girls knew where they were. There was no phones and no police. The only way in and out was by plane, and no one could afford that, assuming the boss would allow it in the first place. There was only one way to get any money at all.
Girls who refused to go along were beaten. Some who tried to escape were killed. The rest of them were scared and did what they were told.
Like in other countries, the debt can never be paid. In the little mining town you had to deal with your boss. He provided the room where the girl slept with customers, and he took most of the money as rent. Every bit of food she bought was bought at his prices. And they made it a point to introduce the girls to alcohol and drugs, which of course were sold only by their boss. Some girls, being very unhappy, were regular customers. The more the girl worked, the deeper in debt she became. And she became a slave.
When ABC News with Brazilian police raided this one mining town, they found about 40 teenage girls working as prostitutes for one boss. They asked who wanted to leave this place and go back to the city. Every single one of them raised their hands. Several began to cry.
And that brings us to the United States. The slavery uncovered in the United States was not prostitution like in Brazil. It was not manufacturing work like in India and Pakistan. It was not household servant like in Kuwait. But it was worked a lot like them.
A guy would go around places where unemployed people would hang out and offer them jobs working on a farm. "It's just temporary" they would say. A farmer would need help picking his oranges or his cotton or his sugar cane just for a few weeks. They could all ride up there, work for a few weeks, and come back to the city with a few dollars in their pockets. People were picked up in all the major cities of Florida. They would load up in vans and station wagons and head out. They would go to places like Georgia and South Carolina.
When they got there they moved into a compound surrounded by fences and barbed wire. Vicious dogs patrolled all night. The bosses got them up early. They were worked hard all day long. They were charged room and board that was more than they got paid. They were encouraged to buy liquor and drugs on credit.
None of the workers was allowed to leave. When they worked, they had a overseers armed with shotguns. They were marched to work, and marched home again. They never saw a telephone. They never saw an outsider. And they picked cotton all day long. Sometimes it was other crops.
Sooner or later the cotton would be picked, and the workers would want to go home like he promised. But they could not leave. They owed a lot of money. So the boss took them out late at night and drove them to some other big farm where they needed help with the crops, and it started all over again.
These places were all on private property, far away from the road. They never saw any outsiders. No one knew they were there. If anyone knew, they didn't care. The people they worked for and that the boss got paid by were rich important people in their area. The workers were nobody.
Most of the slaves were poor black people, but some of them were poor white people too. In this one operation, it was actually a black man who was the slave driver.
Some of the people rescued had been slaves for years. Others were younger. One young black man talked about how now he finally knew what it was like for his ancestors. He said he would never pick cotton again, not for all the money in the world.
As you can see, there is still a lot of slavery in the world today. As long as people want to make money, some will want to steal. Slavery is the worst kind of stealing. They don't just steal your money. They steal your life, your freedom, everything.
It was not long ago when slavery was completely legal in the United States. It was accepted that people could be stolen, kept prisoner at gunpoint, and forced to work. It was accepted that you could be beaten or whipped if you didn't work fast enough.
Now these things are illegal, but the law still helps the slavemasters. Unions can't get to farm workers because they are on private property. The law keeps them out. So no one can find out that maybe they are being kept as slaves.
People own these giant plantations that need a lot of workers and make it pay to steal them. If these were small farms the workers would get paid. Some of these families have had these big farms ever since the days of slavery.
In India and Pakistan, there is no law making kids go to school, and there is no law saying kids can't work. So if kids are working, that could be legal. Again, private property keeps snoopers out.
The stories of today's slaves helps us understand a little about the slaves from before. At least today's slaves have some hope of being rescued someday. Before the Civil War, the slaves did not even have that.
Story submitted by a contributor.
For further information, please visit the website of the American Anti-Slavery Group.
Read 1856 U.S. Supreme Court decision on slavery.
Mayflower
The English ship the Mayflower carried the Separatist Puritans, later known as pilgrims, to Plymouth, Mass., in 1620. The 180-ton vessel was about 12 years old and had been in the wine trade. It was chartered by John Carver, a leader of the Separatist congregation at Leiden, Holland, who had gone to London to make arrangements for the voyage to America. The ship was made ready at Southampton with a passenger list that included English Separatists, hired help (among them Myles Standish, a professional soldier, and John Alden, a cooper), and other colonists who were to be taken along at the insistence of the London businessmen who were helping to finance the expedition. In the meantime the Leiden Separatists, who had initiated the venture, sailed for Southampton on July 22, 1620, with 35 members of the congregation and their leaders William Bradford and William Brewster aboard the 60-ton Speedwell. Both the Speedwell and the Mayflower, carrying a total of about 120 passengers, sailed from Southampton on August 15, but they were twice forced back by dangerous leaks on the Speedwell. At the English port of Plymouth some of the Speedwell's passengers were regrouped on the Mayflower, and on September 16, the historic voyage began.
This time the Mayflower carried 102 passengers, only 37 of whom were from the Leiden congregation, in addition to the crew. The voyage took 65 days, during which two persons died. A boy, Oceanus Hopkins, was born at sea, and another, Peregrine White, was born as the ship lay at anchor off Cape Cod. The ship came in sight of Cape Cod on November 19 and sailed south. The colonists had been granted territory in Virginia but probably headed for a planned destination near the mouth of the Hudson River. The Mayflower turned back, however, and dropped anchor at Provincetown on November 21.
That day 41 men signed the so-called Mayflower Compact, a "plantation covenant" modeled after a Separatist church covenant, by which they agreed to establish a "Civil Body Politic" (a temporary government) and to be bound by its laws. This agreement was thought necessary because there were rumors that some of the non-Separatists, called "Strangers," among the passengers would defy the Pilgrims if they landed in a place other than that specified in the land grant they had received from the London Company. The compact became the basis of government in the Plymouth Colony. After it was signed, the Pilgrims elected John Carver their first governor. After weeks of scouting for a suitable settlement area, the Mayflower's passengers finally landed at Plymouth on Dec. 26, 1620. Although the Mayflower's captain and part-owner, Christopher Jones, had threatened to leave the Pilgrims unless they quickly found a place to land, the ship remained at Plymouth during the first terrible winter of 1620-21, when half of the colonists died. The Mayflower left Plymouth on Apr. 15, 1621, and arrived back in England on May 16.
William Bradford's classic account of the Mayflower's voyage does not mention the ship by name, nor does it describe the vessel. In 1926, however, a model was constructed by R. C. Anderson from general information about late-16th-century merchant ships of its tonnage. This model, which is in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, gives the ship's dimensions as 90 ft (27.4 m) long, with a 64-ft (19.5-m) keel, 26-ft (7.9-m) beam,and a hold 11 ft (3.4 m) deep. In 1957 a close replica of the Mayflower, the Mayflower II, wasbuilt in 1957 by England as a gift to America and sailed from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth,Mass., where it is now on view. This is the only time that Mayflower II has sailed accross theAtlantic.
For nearly 38 years, this recreation of the Pilgrim's famous vessel has been little more than afloating museum confined to its pier near Plymouth Rock rarely leaving the dock, and when ithas, it has mainly reached its destination by tug.Modeled faithfuly after the slow andcumbersome 17th-century merchant vessels that sailed the waters between England andEurope, the Mayflower II lacks the most modern conveniences including an engine. It is hard tosteer and has an unsettling habit of rolling with sea.
In 1964 the ship went on a brief sail, and crews unfurled her sails briefly in 1990 and 1991, afterthe square-rigged ship went through major renovations to make her more seaworthy. In 1992, theMayflower II won approval to carry passengers after congress passed special legislation toloosen some of the Coast Guards strict certification guidelines. In 1992, the Mayflower II led aprocession of the Tall Ships through the Cape Cod Canal. In the end of that year, it left on a 4 month tour to Florida, however the ship was usually towed and very little sailing actually tookplace. The Plimoth Plantation which runs the Mayflower II as part of its living history exhibit hasadded radios, navigational equipment, electric bilge pumps and lifevests.
On July, 23, 1995, The Mayflower set sail again to commemorate the 375th anniversary of the original Mayflower's arrival to the new World. (Site Plymouth: The Mayflower)
The English ship the Mayflower carried the Separatist Puritans, later known as pilgrims, to Plymouth, Mass., in 1620. The 180-ton vessel was about 12 years old and had been in the wine trade. It was chartered by John Carver, a leader of the Separatist congregation at Leiden, Holland, who had gone to London to make arrangements for the voyage to America. The ship was made ready at Southampton with a passenger list that included English Separatists, hired help (among them Myles Standish, a professional soldier, and John Alden, a cooper), and other colonists who were to be taken along at the insistence of the London businessmen who were helping to finance the expedition. In the meantime the Leiden Separatists, who had initiated the venture, sailed for Southampton on July 22, 1620, with 35 members of the congregation and their leaders William Bradford and William Brewster aboard the 60-ton Speedwell. Both the Speedwell and the Mayflower, carrying a total of about 120 passengers, sailed from Southampton on August 15, but they were twice forced back by dangerous leaks on the Speedwell. At the English port of Plymouth some of the Speedwell's passengers were regrouped on the Mayflower, and on September 16, the historic voyage began.
This time the Mayflower carried 102 passengers, only 37 of whom were from the Leiden congregation, in addition to the crew. The voyage took 65 days, during which two persons died. A boy, Oceanus Hopkins, was born at sea, and another, Peregrine White, was born as the ship lay at anchor off Cape Cod. The ship came in sight of Cape Cod on November 19 and sailed south. The colonists had been granted territory in Virginia but probably headed for a planned destination near the mouth of the Hudson River. The Mayflower turned back, however, and dropped anchor at Provincetown on November 21.
That day 41 men signed the so-called Mayflower Compact, a "plantation covenant" modeled after a Separatist church covenant, by which they agreed to establish a "Civil Body Politic" (a temporary government) and to be bound by its laws. This agreement was thought necessary because there were rumors that some of the non-Separatists, called "Strangers," among the passengers would defy the Pilgrims if they landed in a place other than that specified in the land grant they had received from the London Company. The compact became the basis of government in the Plymouth Colony. After it was signed, the Pilgrims elected John Carver their first governor. After weeks of scouting for a suitable settlement area, the Mayflower's passengers finally landed at Plymouth on Dec. 26, 1620. Although the Mayflower's captain and part-owner, Christopher Jones, had threatened to leave the Pilgrims unless they quickly found a place to land, the ship remained at Plymouth during the first terrible winter of 1620-21, when half of the colonists died. The Mayflower left Plymouth on Apr. 15, 1621, and arrived back in England on May 16.
William Bradford's classic account of the Mayflower's voyage does not mention the ship by name, nor does it describe the vessel. In 1926, however, a model was constructed by R. C. Anderson from general information about late-16th-century merchant ships of its tonnage. This model, which is in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, gives the ship's dimensions as 90 ft (27.4 m) long, with a 64-ft (19.5-m) keel, 26-ft (7.9-m) beam,and a hold 11 ft (3.4 m) deep. In 1957 a close replica of the Mayflower, the Mayflower II, wasbuilt in 1957 by England as a gift to America and sailed from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth,Mass., where it is now on view. This is the only time that Mayflower II has sailed accross theAtlantic.
For nearly 38 years, this recreation of the Pilgrim's famous vessel has been little more than afloating museum confined to its pier near Plymouth Rock rarely leaving the dock, and when ithas, it has mainly reached its destination by tug.Modeled faithfuly after the slow andcumbersome 17th-century merchant vessels that sailed the waters between England andEurope, the Mayflower II lacks the most modern conveniences including an engine. It is hard tosteer and has an unsettling habit of rolling with sea.
In 1964 the ship went on a brief sail, and crews unfurled her sails briefly in 1990 and 1991, afterthe square-rigged ship went through major renovations to make her more seaworthy. In 1992, theMayflower II won approval to carry passengers after congress passed special legislation toloosen some of the Coast Guards strict certification guidelines. In 1992, the Mayflower II led aprocession of the Tall Ships through the Cape Cod Canal. In the end of that year, it left on a 4 month tour to Florida, however the ship was usually towed and very little sailing actually tookplace. The Plimoth Plantation which runs the Mayflower II as part of its living history exhibit hasadded radios, navigational equipment, electric bilge pumps and lifevests.
On July, 23, 1995, The Mayflower set sail again to commemorate the 375th anniversary of the original Mayflower's arrival to the new World. (Site Plymouth: The Mayflower)
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Plymouth Colony (sometimes New Plymouth or The Old Colony) was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 until 1699. The first settlement was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. At its height, Plymouth Colony occupied most of the southeastern portion of the modern state of Massachusetts.
Founded by a group of separatists who later came to be known as the Pilgrims, Plymouth Colony was, along with Jamestown, Virginia, one of the earliest colonies to be founded by the English in North America and the first sizable permanent English settlement in the New England region. Aided by Squanto, a Native American, the colony was able to establish a treaty with Chief Massasoit which helped to ensure the colony's success. The colony played a central role in King Philip's War, one of the earliest and bloodiest of the Indian Wars. Ultimately, the colony was annexed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1699.
Plymouth holds a special role in American history. Rather than being entrepreneurs like many of the settlers of Jamestown, the citizens of Plymouth were fleeing religious persecution and searching for a place to worship God as they saw fit. The social and legal systems of the colony were thus closely tied to their religious beliefs. Many of the people and events surrounding Plymouth Colony have become part of American mythology, including the North American tradition known as Thanksgiving and the monument known as Plymouth Rock. Despite the colony's relatively short history, it has become an important symbol of what is now labeled "American".
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Plymouth Colony (sometimes New Plymouth or The Old Colony) was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 until 1699. The first settlement was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. At its height, Plymouth Colony occupied most of the southeastern portion of the modern state of Massachusetts.
Founded by a group of separatists who later came to be known as the Pilgrims, Plymouth Colony was, along with Jamestown, Virginia, one of the earliest colonies to be founded by the English in North America and the first sizable permanent English settlement in the New England region. Aided by Squanto, a Native American, the colony was able to establish a treaty with Chief Massasoit which helped to ensure the colony's success. The colony played a central role in King Philip's War, one of the earliest and bloodiest of the Indian Wars. Ultimately, the colony was annexed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1699.
Plymouth holds a special role in American history. Rather than being entrepreneurs like many of the settlers of Jamestown, the citizens of Plymouth were fleeing religious persecution and searching for a place to worship God as they saw fit. The social and legal systems of the colony were thus closely tied to their religious beliefs. Many of the people and events surrounding Plymouth Colony have become part of American mythology, including the North American tradition known as Thanksgiving and the monument known as Plymouth Rock. Despite the colony's relatively short history, it has become an important symbol of what is now labeled "American".
SEPARATIST
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h575.html
The Separatists, or Independents, were English Protestants who occupied the extreme wing of Puritanism. The Separatists were severely critical of the Church of England and wanted to either destroy it or separate from it. Their chief complaint was that too many elements of the Roman Catholic Church had been retained, such as the ecclesiastical courts, clerical vestments, altars and the practice of kneeling. The Separatists were also critical of the lax standards of public behavior, citing widespread drunkenness and the failure of many to keep the Sabbath properly.
Referring to themselves as the Saints, the Separatists believed that they had been elected by God for salvation (see Calvinism) and feared spiritual contamination if they worshiped with those outside of their congregations, often referred to as the Strangers.
In 1608, a community of English separatists decided to escape persecution by moving to Holland, an area long known for its toleration. Dutch society was so welcoming that the Pilgrims, as they had come to be known, eventually feared that they were losing control over their children. In 1620, they set out for a more remote location that would allow them to protect their community. This effort resulted in the founding of Plymouth Colony.
Other contemporary religious dissenters, the Puritans, believed that the Church of England was badly in need of reform, but could be salvaged.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
separatists
Not only were the puritans persecuted but the separatists also.
Here is the website: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/colonial/religion/history.html
The Separatists, however, did not recognize the established church, and some of them, at least, doubted that the Church of England was scriptual or that its administrations were valid. They held that any convenient number of believers might form a church and make or unmake their officers as they saw fit; that over the spiritual affairs of the church no bishop, council, synod, court, or sovereign had authority. Other churches of the same faith might no, unasked, even offer advice. Their pastors had no standing outside the parish. They were Separatists, Independents, or Congregationalists. The first independent church in England, however, was opened in Long in 1616 by the Rev. John Lothrop, afterwards the famous pioneer preacher of Barnstable, Mass., who had been won from Puritanism to Separatism by Robinson in Holland.
The Separatists, though few in number, were cruelly persecuted under Mary (1553-1558). In 1567-1569, under Elizabeth, a London congregation was thrown into prison. The men and women died of the horrors of their prisons. They were allowed while in prison neither clothing or food, and subsisted upon donations that came through their jailers. The few Puritans who were thrown into prison were mostly clergymen, whose prison life was comparatively mild. The Separatists, however, suffered not only from the persecutions of the established church, but encountered also, says Bradford, the sharp invective of the Puritans, who stirred up not only hostility at home, but even prejudiced the reformed clergy of other countries against the Separatist refugees. From 1660 to 1688 sixty thousand non-conformists and dissenters were cast into English prisons.
Here is the website: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/colonial/religion/history.html
The Separatists, however, did not recognize the established church, and some of them, at least, doubted that the Church of England was scriptual or that its administrations were valid. They held that any convenient number of believers might form a church and make or unmake their officers as they saw fit; that over the spiritual affairs of the church no bishop, council, synod, court, or sovereign had authority. Other churches of the same faith might no, unasked, even offer advice. Their pastors had no standing outside the parish. They were Separatists, Independents, or Congregationalists. The first independent church in England, however, was opened in Long in 1616 by the Rev. John Lothrop, afterwards the famous pioneer preacher of Barnstable, Mass., who had been won from Puritanism to Separatism by Robinson in Holland.
The Separatists, though few in number, were cruelly persecuted under Mary (1553-1558). In 1567-1569, under Elizabeth, a London congregation was thrown into prison. The men and women died of the horrors of their prisons. They were allowed while in prison neither clothing or food, and subsisted upon donations that came through their jailers. The few Puritans who were thrown into prison were mostly clergymen, whose prison life was comparatively mild. The Separatists, however, suffered not only from the persecutions of the established church, but encountered also, says Bradford, the sharp invective of the Puritans, who stirred up not only hostility at home, but even prejudiced the reformed clergy of other countries against the Separatist refugees. From 1660 to 1688 sixty thousand non-conformists and dissenters were cast into English prisons.
Monday, September 8, 2008
The 13th Colony
There were a few Spanish settlements along the coast, north of Florida, in the 16th and early 17th century but what is now Georgia was originally just the southern portion of the Carolina grant. Hoping to provide a second chance for adventurous members of the English under class, King George II, in 1732, granted Georgia to James Edward Oglethorpe, an English general. In addition to its lofty social goals the new Colony was also intended to provide additional protection for its northern colonial partners. Prior to Oglethorpe and his party settling the area in 1733, Fort King George was the only English occupation in the area. The Fort, which was established in 1721, was the Southern-most post in the Colonies and was situated to provide a buffer against Spanish and French intrusion from the South.
In 1738, General Oglethorpe brought a large military contingent to Georgia and the following year his troops provided a strong showing against the Spanish in King George's War ( the War of Austrian Succession in Europe). General Oglethorpe led his men into St. Augustine and although they were not able to obtain a victory there, when the Spanish sailed into Georgia seeking retaliation two years later, he and his soldiers were able to drive the Spanish back to Florida for, what turned out to be, the last time.
One of the Southern Colonies, Georgia started out as a Proprietary colony but eventually became a Royal colony in 1752.
In 1788 Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the Constitution.
http://www.timepage.org/spl/13colony.html
In 1738, General Oglethorpe brought a large military contingent to Georgia and the following year his troops provided a strong showing against the Spanish in King George's War ( the War of Austrian Succession in Europe). General Oglethorpe led his men into St. Augustine and although they were not able to obtain a victory there, when the Spanish sailed into Georgia seeking retaliation two years later, he and his soldiers were able to drive the Spanish back to Florida for, what turned out to be, the last time.
One of the Southern Colonies, Georgia started out as a Proprietary colony but eventually became a Royal colony in 1752.
In 1788 Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the Constitution.
http://www.timepage.org/spl/13colony.html
Stink Alley
Stink Alley is the title of a book I read in sixth grade. It is set in 17th century Holland, and the main characters are all pilgrims before they went to America on the Mayflower. What a lot of people don't know is that the pilgrims went to Holland to escape being put in jail for having their own church services instead of going to the Kings church before they went to America. Some of the pilgrims even stayed in Holland their whole lives. Anyway, the book is about this girl who is living with Master William Brewster's family because she is an orphan, and her life in Holland. It is very historical and fun too! The only downside is that the author portrays Master Brewster as very strict and mean and in real life he isn't. Anyway I thought it was interesting.
French Colonies in Quebec
While the English were building colonies in what would become America, the French were also building in what would become Canada. The major French Colonies were Quebec and Acadia. Of the two, Quebec was the main one because it was closer to the heart of the fur trade, while Acadia was on the coast of Nova Scotia (New Scotland). The French built a huge fortress on Quebec. today, it is North America's only city with the fortress walls still remaining. You can take a tour of the fortress as it stands today here:
http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dci/src/3d_e.asp?what=site&sitename=fq&theme=dc&btn_state=Texte%20seulement
It's a very good 3-D tour.
http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dci/src/3d_e.asp?what=site&sitename=fq&theme=dc&btn_state=Texte%20seulement
It's a very good 3-D tour.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
A Puritan
Puritans
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. Puritans felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England was tolerant of practices which they associated with the church of Rome. The word "Puritan" was originally an alternate term for "Cathar" and was a pejorative used to characterize them as extremists similar to the Cathari of France. The Puritans sometimes cooperated with presbyterians, who put forth a number of proposals for "further reformation" in order to keep the Church of England more closely in line with the Reformed Churches on the Continent.
Magna Carta
hey i was wondering what this was so i looked it up and found a pretty cool website about it http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/magna_carta/ its basically like what it is and what it did to the government when it was made
tobbaco in the new world
Tobacco was one of the main raw materiels that America sent to Britan. It was very important for the economy and many men were tobacco farmers, including George Washington, before he joined the army and after he stopped being the president. The first time that Europeans were introduced to tobacco was when Christopher Columbus and his men encountered native americans "drinking" in the smoke of tobacco leaves. As we have figured out today the usasage of tobacco is bad and deadly for the person using it (recent studys have indicated that second hand smoke only increases the victems cancer rate by 1 or 2%. This doesn't mean however that you can smoke when other people are around.)
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Jean de Brebuef
We know very little of the early years of Jean de Brebeuf. He was born at Conde-sur-Vire on March 25, 1593, fifteen years before the founding of Quebec by Samuel de Champlain in 1608. Brebeuf himself would see this Quebec on June 19, 1625.
At the age of twenty-four, Jean entered the Jesuit novitiate at Rouen, and ill-health seemed to dog one who later would be remem-bered as the most robust of the blackrobes. Such poor health shortened somewhat his course of studies and brought on an early ordination to the priesthood in February 1622. Three years later he sailed off to Canada, a land that would never forget him.
Brebeuf's initial contacts with the Indians he had come to convert to Christianity were with the Algonkian Montagnais close to Quebec. In his first winter in Canada, 1625-1626, he learned something about the Algonkian language and perhaps still more about Indian ways. He was a shrewd observer and learned quickly and well.
We know that in time this affable Norman would become an expert in the Huron language and culture. He would also write long detailed reports that set him apart as Canada's first serious ethnographer.
Longing to do missionary work among the promising Hurons, he left for their country on July 25, 1626. His companions were a fellow Jesuit Anne de None and a Recollet Father Joseph de la Roche Daillon. Anne de None was forced to withdraw in 1627; la Roche Daillon followed suit in 1628; and Brebeuf himself was recalled by his superior to Quebec in June 1629. The occasion was the imminent capitulation of Quebec to the Kirke brothers fighting on behalf of English interests.
THE LONG VOYAGE Paddling their light bark canoes, for hours at a stretch, the Hurons traveled up the St. Lawrence from Three Rivers to the point where this great river met the Ottawa. They then ascended the Ottawa to where it joined, well to the north, the Mattawa which took them to Mud Lake. Further along they crossed large and, at times, rough Lake Nipissing, the region of their friendly allies the Algonkian Nipissings. From the western end of Lake Nipissing they descended the French River until they came to Georgian Bay, a rather large inlet of Lake Huron.
Once they had reached Georgian Bay, the Hurons were back in home waters and at the north-northwest boundary of Huronia.
At the age of twenty-four, Jean entered the Jesuit novitiate at Rouen, and ill-health seemed to dog one who later would be remem-bered as the most robust of the blackrobes. Such poor health shortened somewhat his course of studies and brought on an early ordination to the priesthood in February 1622. Three years later he sailed off to Canada, a land that would never forget him.
Brebeuf's initial contacts with the Indians he had come to convert to Christianity were with the Algonkian Montagnais close to Quebec. In his first winter in Canada, 1625-1626, he learned something about the Algonkian language and perhaps still more about Indian ways. He was a shrewd observer and learned quickly and well.
We know that in time this affable Norman would become an expert in the Huron language and culture. He would also write long detailed reports that set him apart as Canada's first serious ethnographer.
Longing to do missionary work among the promising Hurons, he left for their country on July 25, 1626. His companions were a fellow Jesuit Anne de None and a Recollet Father Joseph de la Roche Daillon. Anne de None was forced to withdraw in 1627; la Roche Daillon followed suit in 1628; and Brebeuf himself was recalled by his superior to Quebec in June 1629. The occasion was the imminent capitulation of Quebec to the Kirke brothers fighting on behalf of English interests.
THE LONG VOYAGE Paddling their light bark canoes, for hours at a stretch, the Hurons traveled up the St. Lawrence from Three Rivers to the point where this great river met the Ottawa. They then ascended the Ottawa to where it joined, well to the north, the Mattawa which took them to Mud Lake. Further along they crossed large and, at times, rough Lake Nipissing, the region of their friendly allies the Algonkian Nipissings. From the western end of Lake Nipissing they descended the French River until they came to Georgian Bay, a rather large inlet of Lake Huron.
Once they had reached Georgian Bay, the Hurons were back in home waters and at the north-northwest boundary of Huronia.
WOW
. There are more people in slavery now than at any other time in human history.
According to research carried out by the organization Free the Slaves, more people are enslaved worldwide than ever before.
In its 400 years, the transatlantic slave trade is estimated to have shipped up to 12 million Africans to various colonies in the West. Free the Slaves estimates that the number of people in slavery today is at least 27 million.
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center suggests that three out of four slavery victims are women and that half of all modern-day slaves are children. ‘Countless other’ people are in other forms of servitude which are not legally classified as slavery, according to the Anti-Slavery Society, described ambiguously by some as ‘unfree labour’.
2. The value of slaves has decreased.
A slave in 1850 in American South cost the equivalent of approximately $40,000. According to figures published by FST, the cost of a slave today averages around $90, depending on the work they are forced to carry out.
Photo by saibotregeel
A young adult male laborer in Mali might only fetch $40, whereas an HIV-free female might attract a price of up to $1000.
Expert Kevin Bales says that because modern slavery is so cheap, it is worse than that of the Atlantic slave trade.
People have become disposable and their living conditions are worse than ever before as a result of their value.
3. Slavery still exists in the US.
Estimates by the US State Department suggest up to 17,500 slaves are brought into the US every year, with 50,000 of those working as prostitutes, farm workers or domestic servants.
According to the CIA, more than 1,000,000 people are enslaved in the US today. Thousands of cases go undetected each year and many are difficult to take to court as it can be difficult to prove force or legal coercion.
4.Slavery is hidden behind many other names, thus disguising it from society.
These names are chattel slavery (the traditional meaning of slavery), bonded labor, trafficking, forced labor, and forced marriage, amongst others.
Photo by saibotregeel
5. The least known method of slavery is the most widely used.
Bonded Labor occurs when labor is demanded in order to repay a debt or loan and the cyclical nature of debt and work can enslave the person for the rest of their life. Some conditions are so controlled that slaves are surrounded by armed guards while they work, many of whom are slaves themselves. This has been found in Brazil. It is estimated that there are 20 million bonded labourers in the world.
According to research carried out by the organization Free the Slaves, more people are enslaved worldwide than ever before.
In its 400 years, the transatlantic slave trade is estimated to have shipped up to 12 million Africans to various colonies in the West. Free the Slaves estimates that the number of people in slavery today is at least 27 million.
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center suggests that three out of four slavery victims are women and that half of all modern-day slaves are children. ‘Countless other’ people are in other forms of servitude which are not legally classified as slavery, according to the Anti-Slavery Society, described ambiguously by some as ‘unfree labour’.
2. The value of slaves has decreased.
A slave in 1850 in American South cost the equivalent of approximately $40,000. According to figures published by FST, the cost of a slave today averages around $90, depending on the work they are forced to carry out.
Photo by saibotregeel
A young adult male laborer in Mali might only fetch $40, whereas an HIV-free female might attract a price of up to $1000.
Expert Kevin Bales says that because modern slavery is so cheap, it is worse than that of the Atlantic slave trade.
People have become disposable and their living conditions are worse than ever before as a result of their value.
3. Slavery still exists in the US.
Estimates by the US State Department suggest up to 17,500 slaves are brought into the US every year, with 50,000 of those working as prostitutes, farm workers or domestic servants.
According to the CIA, more than 1,000,000 people are enslaved in the US today. Thousands of cases go undetected each year and many are difficult to take to court as it can be difficult to prove force or legal coercion.
4.Slavery is hidden behind many other names, thus disguising it from society.
These names are chattel slavery (the traditional meaning of slavery), bonded labor, trafficking, forced labor, and forced marriage, amongst others.
Photo by saibotregeel
5. The least known method of slavery is the most widely used.
Bonded Labor occurs when labor is demanded in order to repay a debt or loan and the cyclical nature of debt and work can enslave the person for the rest of their life. Some conditions are so controlled that slaves are surrounded by armed guards while they work, many of whom are slaves themselves. This has been found in Brazil. It is estimated that there are 20 million bonded labourers in the world.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
This website and whole thing is what makes me love history!
When i was in fifth grade my teacher taught us history in one of the most amazing and fun ways ever. There is a place in virginia called colonial williamsburg. Its really hard to explain. which is why i'll give you the website so you can check it out:
www.history.org
And what it is is a place where people now have made the whole area look like the colonial times in the 1800s.
Its really awesome. And so in fifth grade we would watch videos of actual films they have made in williamsburg about things that happened during that time period. for example one time we watched a video about the slavery times and how cruel they were to the slaves and how dangerous it was to escape for a slave. They are also really big about the first settlements like Jamestown and stuff like that. If you visit williamsburg now, there are different places that you can see and talk to the people that work there that are all in colonial clothing and they take you around the "colonies" to show you what the past was like. It's super educational and you learn a lot from the past.
I hope this is getting through you guys. Check out the website. You'll be surprised how well they have made the whole place and how real it looks.i've never had more fun learning about history.
www.history.org
And what it is is a place where people now have made the whole area look like the colonial times in the 1800s.
Its really awesome. And so in fifth grade we would watch videos of actual films they have made in williamsburg about things that happened during that time period. for example one time we watched a video about the slavery times and how cruel they were to the slaves and how dangerous it was to escape for a slave. They are also really big about the first settlements like Jamestown and stuff like that. If you visit williamsburg now, there are different places that you can see and talk to the people that work there that are all in colonial clothing and they take you around the "colonies" to show you what the past was like. It's super educational and you learn a lot from the past.
I hope this is getting through you guys. Check out the website. You'll be surprised how well they have made the whole place and how real it looks.i've never had more fun learning about history.
Jamestown VS Plymouth
On the National Parks of America website, I found a good article that compares and contrastes the Plymouth and Jamestown settlements. It's really interesting. Here's the address:
http://www.nps.gov/jame/historyculture/jamestown-and-plymouth-compare-and-contrast.htm
http://www.nps.gov/jame/historyculture/jamestown-and-plymouth-compare-and-contrast.htm
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Christopher Columbus
Below is an interesting journal entry rewritten by kids. It makes the whole voyage thing and the trip across the ocean sound so much more real and vivid. Enjoy.
Brennan
(got it from library.thinkquest.org
The Journal of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea
July 15, 1492
As I prepare for my expedition to the Indies, I wanted to write about my life so far so that when I return triumphantly, everyone shall remember my greatness!
My name is Cristoforo Colombo, but most people know me as Christopher Columbus. I was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451, the oldest of five children. I was an obedient son.
I had little schooling, so I did not learn to read or write as a young boy. But I always loved the sea. I vowed as a young boy that as soon as I was old enough, I would go to sea.
I traveled to Greece and Portugal, and I became a sailor in my early teens. In 1476, I was a crewman on a ship that was attacked by French pirates. I was lucky and found a piece of what was left of the ship. Fortunately, I was able to swim the six miles to shore. I traveled to Lisbon, Portugal where my brother, Bartholomew, owned a book and map store. I read many of the books and studied the maps until I had taught myself all I could learn about navigation and mapmaking.
I was fascinated by Marco Polo’s accounts of his journey to Asia in 1271. I believe that the quickest and most direct route to this fascinating place is to cross the unknown waters that we call the "Sea of Darkness." [Editor’s note: Europeans did not know that the North and South American continents and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans all lay between the Indies and Spain.]
Starting in 1484, I tried to convince King John of Portugal to pay for supplies, ships, and a crew to make the voyage to Marco Polo’s amazing gold mine. He refused to pay for my voyage saying that I would fail. At least he knew the world isn’t flat like so many others. He just thought the world is much larger than I do. [Editor’s note: King John was correct, Columbus thought the world was much smaller than it really was.] I decided to ask King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to pay for my voyage instead. It took me a couple of tries, but they agreed to supply me with the things I needed. Let the Portuguese sail all the way around Africa and across the Indian Ocean. That is the long way to go! The Portuguese king will regret not paying for my voyage!
August 3, 1492
The rulers of Spain gave me three ships—the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. They also paid for 90 crewmen and supplies.
I am so excited! I cannot believe that I am the captain of my own voyage to find spices, gold, and precious jewels. I plan to sail to the Canary Islands and then make a long jump across the Ocean Sea to the gold treasures of the Indies. [Editor’s note: The Ocean Sea that Columbus sailed across was actually the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus and the rest of Europe’s explorers believed there was only one huge sea that connected Europe to Asia.]
October 1, 1492
This is killing me! Where is land? We have sailed for days and days, and there has been no sight of land. We have had clear skies and steady winds, but my crew is angry and fighting. There is even talk of turning back. The crew has even threatened to push me overboard and sail back to Spain. I am not letting that happen. I have gone too far to turn back now.
Land must be near, I know. Crewmen have spotted branches in the waters and birds that could not possibly go very far from land. From these signs I am sure land is near.
October 7, 1492
I am growing impatient. There are more signs, but no land. According to my calculations, we should have spotted land many days ago. I have decided to offer a reward for any sailor that spots land. I only hope that the reward will buy me a few more days before the crew revolts.
October 12, 1492
We have spotted land! I have named it San Salvador. I believe that Japan is only a short distance to the west. [Editor’s note: Columbus landed in the Bahamas south of Florida. He believed that he was on islands off the coast of Japan.]
There are strange looking people here, very different from my men and me. They wear little clothing and are of a different color. Our giant ships with enormous white sails amaze them. These Indians are not what I expected, and there are no cities of gold like Marco Polo described. [Editor’s note: Columbus had actually met members of the Taino tribe, but he believed he was in the Indies. This is why he called them Indians.]
I spotted several of them wearing GOLD! They tell me that islands to the north and south are where the gold will be found, so I ordered my men to set sail for the gold!
December 5, 1492
We searched many different islands, but we found only more Indians. There were no cities and no gold. We traveled north to a much larger island, but still more Indians and no gold. The King and Queen will not be happy if I do not find gold!
December 25, 1492
As we prepared to return to Spain, the Santa Maria ran into a coral reef. It tore holes in the bottom of the ship. We were forced to build a fort out of the wreckage of the Santa Maria. With only two ships, we could not take everyone back to Spain with us, so I found 40 volunteers to stay behind to build a small colony.
March 15, 1493
We sailed back across the Ocean Sea. Despite terrible storms, my navigation skills have brought us back to Spain. I have received a letter from the king and queen. They have named me Admiral of the Ocean Sea and the governor of all of the islands that I discovered. News of my discoveries has traveled across Europe. My voyage is known by all, and I am a hero! I would like to see the look on King John of Portugal’s face! I bet he regrets not paying for my voyage now. I am anxious to return to the land that I discovered because I still have not found the gold that I know is there.
September 29, 1494
I have spent the last year on my second voyage across the Ocean Sea. Sadly, I found the fort and the men that I left behind from the first voyage dead. I do not know what happened to them. I built a new village on another island. My men found gold on this island! I sent a load of gold back to Spain. The Indians were not as friendly this time, and I was forced to kill many of them. I still have not found the great cities that Marco Polo described.
October 9, 1501
The king and queen are ungrateful! They have thrown me in jail because the men in the new colony complain that I am not a good governor. How dare them! I have now sailed across the Ocean Sea three times. I have claimed many islands for Spain, and this is how they treat me?
November 7, 1504
The king and queen realized their mistake and freed me from jail. They even paid for another voyage across the Ocean Sea. Unfortunately, my ships leaked so badly that I was stranded for an entire year on an island I called Jamaica. I have decided that my explorations have come to an end. The king and queen refuse to pay for a fifth voyage. At least I can retire a hero!
Brennan
(got it from library.thinkquest.org
The Journal of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea
July 15, 1492
As I prepare for my expedition to the Indies, I wanted to write about my life so far so that when I return triumphantly, everyone shall remember my greatness!
My name is Cristoforo Colombo, but most people know me as Christopher Columbus. I was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451, the oldest of five children. I was an obedient son.
I had little schooling, so I did not learn to read or write as a young boy. But I always loved the sea. I vowed as a young boy that as soon as I was old enough, I would go to sea.
I traveled to Greece and Portugal, and I became a sailor in my early teens. In 1476, I was a crewman on a ship that was attacked by French pirates. I was lucky and found a piece of what was left of the ship. Fortunately, I was able to swim the six miles to shore. I traveled to Lisbon, Portugal where my brother, Bartholomew, owned a book and map store. I read many of the books and studied the maps until I had taught myself all I could learn about navigation and mapmaking.
I was fascinated by Marco Polo’s accounts of his journey to Asia in 1271. I believe that the quickest and most direct route to this fascinating place is to cross the unknown waters that we call the "Sea of Darkness." [Editor’s note: Europeans did not know that the North and South American continents and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans all lay between the Indies and Spain.]
Starting in 1484, I tried to convince King John of Portugal to pay for supplies, ships, and a crew to make the voyage to Marco Polo’s amazing gold mine. He refused to pay for my voyage saying that I would fail. At least he knew the world isn’t flat like so many others. He just thought the world is much larger than I do. [Editor’s note: King John was correct, Columbus thought the world was much smaller than it really was.] I decided to ask King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to pay for my voyage instead. It took me a couple of tries, but they agreed to supply me with the things I needed. Let the Portuguese sail all the way around Africa and across the Indian Ocean. That is the long way to go! The Portuguese king will regret not paying for my voyage!
August 3, 1492
The rulers of Spain gave me three ships—the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. They also paid for 90 crewmen and supplies.
I am so excited! I cannot believe that I am the captain of my own voyage to find spices, gold, and precious jewels. I plan to sail to the Canary Islands and then make a long jump across the Ocean Sea to the gold treasures of the Indies. [Editor’s note: The Ocean Sea that Columbus sailed across was actually the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus and the rest of Europe’s explorers believed there was only one huge sea that connected Europe to Asia.]
October 1, 1492
This is killing me! Where is land? We have sailed for days and days, and there has been no sight of land. We have had clear skies and steady winds, but my crew is angry and fighting. There is even talk of turning back. The crew has even threatened to push me overboard and sail back to Spain. I am not letting that happen. I have gone too far to turn back now.
Land must be near, I know. Crewmen have spotted branches in the waters and birds that could not possibly go very far from land. From these signs I am sure land is near.
October 7, 1492
I am growing impatient. There are more signs, but no land. According to my calculations, we should have spotted land many days ago. I have decided to offer a reward for any sailor that spots land. I only hope that the reward will buy me a few more days before the crew revolts.
October 12, 1492
We have spotted land! I have named it San Salvador. I believe that Japan is only a short distance to the west. [Editor’s note: Columbus landed in the Bahamas south of Florida. He believed that he was on islands off the coast of Japan.]
There are strange looking people here, very different from my men and me. They wear little clothing and are of a different color. Our giant ships with enormous white sails amaze them. These Indians are not what I expected, and there are no cities of gold like Marco Polo described. [Editor’s note: Columbus had actually met members of the Taino tribe, but he believed he was in the Indies. This is why he called them Indians.]
I spotted several of them wearing GOLD! They tell me that islands to the north and south are where the gold will be found, so I ordered my men to set sail for the gold!
December 5, 1492
We searched many different islands, but we found only more Indians. There were no cities and no gold. We traveled north to a much larger island, but still more Indians and no gold. The King and Queen will not be happy if I do not find gold!
December 25, 1492
As we prepared to return to Spain, the Santa Maria ran into a coral reef. It tore holes in the bottom of the ship. We were forced to build a fort out of the wreckage of the Santa Maria. With only two ships, we could not take everyone back to Spain with us, so I found 40 volunteers to stay behind to build a small colony.
March 15, 1493
We sailed back across the Ocean Sea. Despite terrible storms, my navigation skills have brought us back to Spain. I have received a letter from the king and queen. They have named me Admiral of the Ocean Sea and the governor of all of the islands that I discovered. News of my discoveries has traveled across Europe. My voyage is known by all, and I am a hero! I would like to see the look on King John of Portugal’s face! I bet he regrets not paying for my voyage now. I am anxious to return to the land that I discovered because I still have not found the gold that I know is there.
September 29, 1494
I have spent the last year on my second voyage across the Ocean Sea. Sadly, I found the fort and the men that I left behind from the first voyage dead. I do not know what happened to them. I built a new village on another island. My men found gold on this island! I sent a load of gold back to Spain. The Indians were not as friendly this time, and I was forced to kill many of them. I still have not found the great cities that Marco Polo described.
October 9, 1501
The king and queen are ungrateful! They have thrown me in jail because the men in the new colony complain that I am not a good governor. How dare them! I have now sailed across the Ocean Sea three times. I have claimed many islands for Spain, and this is how they treat me?
November 7, 1504
The king and queen realized their mistake and freed me from jail. They even paid for another voyage across the Ocean Sea. Unfortunately, my ships leaked so badly that I was stranded for an entire year on an island I called Jamaica. I have decided that my explorations have come to an end. The king and queen refuse to pay for a fifth voyage. At least I can retire a hero!
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