111 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2024
  2. Sep 2023
  3. Oct 2022
    1. The major presentation in the Jefferson Building, The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship, explores black America's quest for equality from the early national period through the twentieth century. The Library's materials, gathered over the two hundred years of its existence, tell the story of the African American experience through nine chronological periods that document the courage and determination of blacks, faced with adverse circumstances, who overcame immense odds to fully participate in all aspects of American society. The exhibit includes the work of abolitionists in the first half of the nineteenth century, depictions of the long journey following the Civil War towards equality in employment, education and politics, strategies used to secure the vote, recognition of outstanding black leaders, and the contributions of sports figures, black soldiers, artists, actors, writers and others in the fight against segregation and discrimination.

      The author of the article tells the story of the Afro-American population from the times of slavery to the twentieth century. The non-white people had to face many difficulties and challenges to achieve the basic human and citizens' rights (right to vote, self-expression etc.).

  4. Aug 2022
  5. Jul 2022
    1. 25:32 - We have no social constraints anymore

      Technology has liberated us and there is nothing to constrain us, except our reflective ability. We are wired for accumulation. Americans are, on average shorter than they were two decades ago, and this is a reflection of poorer health.

  6. Jun 2022
    1. “In my Irish American Massachusetts family, you were born a Democrat and baptized a Catholic,” Mr. Shields wrote in 2009. “If your luck held out, you were also brought up to be a Boston Red Sox fan.”
    1. It is a fact that lands have been sold for five shillings, which were worth one hundred pounds: if sheriffs, thus immediately under the eye of our state legislature and judiciary, have dared to commit these outrages, what would they not have done if their masters had been at Philadelphia or New York?

      This is almost hilarious in light of how the U.S. Government has since repeatedly dispossessed Indigenous Americans of their lands for far less than "five shillings."

  7. May 2022
    1. The ninth edition entry, reprinted in Slate, also recommends the use of “Harts-horn.” Harts-horn, according to Merriam-Webster, is an “American pasqueflower.”  According to “Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West” by herbalist Gregory L. Tilford, pasqueflowers were used by Native Americans to induce abortions, or speed up childbirth.  
  8. Apr 2022
  9. Feb 2022
    1. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-02-09/riverside-sohcahtoa-teacher-viral-video-mocked-native-americans-fired

      Riverside teacher who dressed up and mocked Native Americans for a trigonometry lesson involving a mnemonic using SOH CAH TOA in Riverside, CA is fired.

      There is a right way to teach mnemonic techniques and a wrong way. This one took the advice to be big and provocative went way overboard. The children are unlikely to forget the many lessons (particularly the social one) contained here.

      It's unfortunate that this could have potentially been a chance to bring indigenous memory methods into a classroom for a far better pedagogical and cultural outcome. Sad that the methods are so widely unknown that media missed a good teaching moment here.

      referenced video:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu4fulKVv2c

      A snippet at the end of the video has the teacher talking to rocks and a "rock god", but it's extremely unlikely that she was doing so using indigenous methods or for indigenous reasons.

      read: 7:00 AM

  10. Jan 2022
    1. Or, in Lallemant’s words: ‘I can say in truth that, asregards intelligence, they are in no wise inferior to Europeans and tothose who dwell in France. I would never have believed that, withoutinstruction, nature could have supplied a most ready and vigorouseloquence, which I have admired in many Hurons; or more clear-sightedness in public affairs, or a more discreet management inthings to which they are accustomed.’25

      How do we go from such varied statements from Jesuits which entered the popular discourse to the complete erasure of this knowledge in subsequent generations. Was the greed for land and power so great?

  11. Nov 2021
  12. Aug 2021
    1. COGNITIVE CONSEQUENCES OF FORCED COMPLIANCE

      The title of the article immediately made me think of the world we are living in now. For example it is becoming more and more evident that the country has mixed opinions on the vaccine. The government, state agencies and other public entities are requiring proof of a vaccine to even enter the premises. Some companies are offering incentives across the country to incentivize the vaccine by offering free products and discounts. To an extent from a medical perspective you want everyone as healthy as possible, but from a freedom perspective it is on the verge of violating an individual's freedom of choice through forced compliance.

  13. Jun 2021
    1. I have heard from pastors in different parts of America who describe a “generational catastrophe” that is unfolding because of how disillusioned young people, including many young Christians, are by what they have seen.

      Is it possible that this religion has been forcing itself on it's youth and thus chasing them away, thereby eroding support?

      When will this "apocalypse" happen? What will it look like? What will be the cultural and political fall out look like?

  14. May 2021
    1. Monday on the NewsHour, we look at the violence in the Middle East as rockets continue to fly into Israel, and Israelis hammer Gaza with heavy airstrikes. Then, we talk to the president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, as U.S. troops leave his country and violence escalates. And, we explore why Americans are divided on whether or not to follow new CDC guidance relaxing mask and distancing rules.

  15. Apr 2021
  16. Mar 2021
  17. Aug 2020
  18. Jul 2020
  19. Sep 2018
    1. man

      Paine is using "man" to refer to all of humanity. It is important to remember, however, that women were excluded from formal participation in politics as citizens. They could not vote. Neither could most African-Americans and Native Americans.

    2. Paine is using "man" to refer to all of humanity. It is important to remember, however, that women were excluded from formal participation in politics as citizens. They could not vote. Neither could most African-Americans and Native Americans.

  20. Dec 2017
    1. What, but education, has advanced us beyond the condition of our indigenous neighbours? and what chains them to their present state of barbarism & wretchedness, but a besotted veneration for the supposed supe[r]lative wisdom of their fathers and the preposterous idea that they are to look backward for better things and not forward, longing, as it should seem, to return to the days of eating acorns and roots rather than indulge in the degeneracies of civilization.

      In this phrase, Jefferson talks about the importance of education and advancement by using the native Americans as an example. He describes them as barbaric and is basically making fun of their ideology to worship their ancestors and their traditional ways. This is not the first time Jefferson expressed his views of Native Americans in such a negative light. For my Art Inside/Out Engagement course, I am doing a project on the Declaration of Independence. The quote that my group decided to use was “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” The discrimination against Native Americans is engraved in the Declaration of Independence of the United States and in the Rockfish Gap Report of the University of Virginia.

  21. May 2017
  22. Apr 2017
    1. qualified voters

      "Qualified voters" meant almost exclusively white men. As the former colonies began the process of writing state constitutions, debates over who should be included as a "qualified voter" often divided conventions. Vermont and Pennsylvania had two of the most liberal constitutions. Vermont permitted all men, regardless of color, to vote, while Pennsylvania permitted all white men to vote regardless of income. Other states, like Maryland, had much more restrictive qualifications for voting and required that free white men also hold property.

    1. a continent—of at least one eighth part of the habit- able globe

      The colonists believed they had a right to continued westward expansion, and were frustrated at Britain's attempts to slow westward expansion and protect Native American land.

    1. which hath stirred up the In- dians and Negroes to destroy us

      The charge that the British Crown had induced Native Americans to attack colonists was later repeated in the Declaration of Independence.

  23. Nov 2016
    1. The 1620 agreement (first called the Mayflower Compact in 1793) was a legal instrument that bound the Pilgrims together when they arrived in New England. The core members of the Pilgrims' immigrant group were Separatists, members of a Puritan sect that had split from the Church of England, the only legal church in England at that time. Others in the group, however, had remained part of the Church of England, so not all of the Pilgrims shared the same religion.

      The Mayflower compact was a signature sheet that would be used for the signers to go to America for religious freedom.

  24. Oct 2016
    1. Even people who believe in freedom frequently overlook our issues

      Without trying to detract from the point, I'd be interested in a viable call to action here. Police demilitarization is a good example of a call to action that has come out of #BLM. Regarding indigenous rights, should we be reconsidering the reservation system? Should we be seeking more complete integration, or the opposite, more complete separation?

      I confess that I've read woefully little about this and would love a gateway in.

    2. we are more likely to be killed by law enforcement than any other group

      This article seems to be the source of this statistic. As they note, it's a hard number to come by because the crime is neither well-covered in the media nor well-reported by the authorities. Regardless, though, given the centuries-long and wildly painful indigenous struggle in the US, this certainly deserves our attention.

  25. Jan 2016
    1. What were the three major crops developed in the Americas? What impact did they have?

      The three major crops were corn, beans and squash which all had nutritional needs that sustained the cities and civilizations.

    2. The last global ice age trapped much of the world’s water in enormous continental glaciers. Twenty thousand years ago, ice sheets, some a mile thick, extended across North America as far south as modern-day Illinois and Ohio.

      The ice age across North America left many people to panic on how they were going to survive these harsh temperatures. They had to find many ways to stay warm and finding food was tough because they would be trapped from going out in the cold.

    3. There, three crops in particular–corn, beans, and squash, the so-called “three sisters”–provided nutritional needs necessary to sustain cities and civilizations.

      I'd like to know how the title "three sisters" was first coined. Also, was wheat harvested as well.

    4. As many as 15,000 people lived in the Chaco Canyon complex in present-day New Mexico. One single building, Pueblo Bonito, stretched over two acres and rose five stories. Its 600 rooms were decorated with copper bells, turquoise decorations, and bright macaws.6

      With a population of only 15,000 people, the creation of such a massive building for that time is impressive. Especially considering the tools used at the time, as well as the building material (adobe clay). Not to mention that this was not the only building.

    5. The Mississippian’s signature mounds–enormous earthworks that could span acres and climb several stories tall–physically set priests and elites above the general population of craftsmen, agricultural workers, and slaves.

      This can relate even to modern day social status, as the higher up on a hill a property lies, the more expensive it tends to be.

    6. but for some, it also may have accompanied a decline in health. Analysis of remains reveals that societies transitioning to agriculture often experienced weaker bones and teeth.3

      While I can see why their bodies may have suffered from agricultural work due to stress on the body and repetitive motion, what caused the damage specifically to bones and teeth? In addition, are these symptoms found in modern day farmers?

    7. Nomadic hunter-gatherers, they traveled in small bands following megafauna–enormous mammals that included mastodons and giant horses and bison–into the frozen Beringian tundra at the edge of North America.

      Image Description

      I find it amazing that the nomadic hunter-gatherers traveled in small groups, but followed these massive creatures. Looking at this photo of the size comparisons, I can only imagine what it must have been like to hunt them.

  26. Sep 2015
    1. While Penn never doubted that the English would appropriate Native lands, he demanded his colonists obtain Indian territories through purchase rather than violence.

      This could have helped avoid a lot of previous violence in other colonies.

    2. The English compounded their problems by attacking the powerful and neutral Narragansetts of Rhode Island in December 1675.

      What if they had called for peace instead?

    1. so that we, who hitherto have had possession of no more ground than their waste and our purchase at a valuable consideration to their contentment gained, may now by right of war, and law of nations, invade the country, and destroy them who sought to destroy us

      Nothing was gained by the attack. Only lives were lost, on both sides

    1. Some enslaved Africans, for instance, successfully sued for back wages.

      Did the slaves leave when they wanted too> what is a half freedom?

    2. Indian traders carried surplus products east along the Camino Real, the royal road that connected the western anchor of the mission system with St. Augustine.

      Trade and exchange

    1. When the Spaniards saw that some of these had escaped, they sent a ship to find them, and it voyaged for three years among the islands searching for those who had escaped being slaughtered

      Seems like a waste of time to be searching for them, but I can only think that they were viewed as valuable slaves.

  27. Aug 2015
    1. But disease was deadlier than any weapon in the European arsenal. It unleashed death on a scale never before seen in human history.

      Even if the Europeans had come over bringing peace, disease would have killed the Native Americans

    2. They were not quite Indios, or Indians, but their lack of limpieza de sangre, or “pure blood,” removed them from the privileges of full-blooded Spaniards

      The Spaniards completely took control.

    3. Motives were plain: said one soldier, “we came here to serve God and the king, and also to get rich.”

      Would God be happy with this statement?

    4. The Indian population collapsed. Within a few generations a whole island had been depopulated and a whole people exterminated.

      Utter destruction.

    5. Columbus described them as innocents.

      so he saw them as an easy target to get what he wanted

    6. Meanwhile, kinship bound most native North American people together.

      Family was very important to them

    7. 1. What were the variety of exchanges that occurred in Native American Societies? What role did giving play in establishing status and obligation? The exchanges between Native American Societies was about trading goods, resources, marriages between two different community lines, different ideas, religious ideas. It expanded resources and alliances - both in political and religious perspectives. The role of exchanges established status and obligation, in a way that if your tribe was able to provide the most useful resources - you would be higher than others. Also, it gives the opportunity to establish obligation unto other communities if it was necessary. 2. What developments occur in Europe that helps set the foundation for European exploration and empire building?

      1. Massive growth in population after the epidemic that killed half the population within the area. 2. With the population growth, there was a growth of economy and high demand of the necessities of living. 3. From the growing demand of goods, led to ship building and navigation so merchants could expand their variety with what they were able to trade. 4. Trade led to the establishment of higher regions, and also people who want to establish their own hierarchy in their own regions. 5. As monarchies were made, communities had gained the amounts of necessities allowing exploration, trade between farther regions as well as producing routes for transportation as well as trade. 3. What was Portugal's intent in slave? What role do the Portuguese come to play in the trade of African slaves? African slaves were around before Portugal had began using slaves, going back to Muslim using them during the crusade. Due to sugar plantations being grown from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, there was a growing need of labor. After seeing an exchange of slaves between their source and another slave trader, the Portuguese soon became another main source of slaves as well.
    8. 2. The First Americans
    9. everything.

      Study Questions for this section:

      What were the three major crops developed in the Americas? What impact did they have?

      What were the major differences between Native American and European peoples?

    1. Seneca Creation Story

      This Seneca story was recorded by Jeremiah Curtin, a white man fluent in the Seneca language. In 1883, 1886, and 1887, Curtin spent many hours talking with Seneca men and women on the Cattaraugus reservation in New York state. The largest of the five tribes of the Iroquois confederacy, the Seneca had inhabited much of central New York in the sixteenth century, but by the mid-seventeenth century they had moved west to Lake Erie and south into Pennsylvania. Curtin recorded this tale in the Seneca language, and it was subsequently translated into English by I. W. B. Hewitt. Source: Jeremiah Curtin and I. W. B. Hewitt, “Seneca Fiction, Legends and Myths, Part 1,” Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology 32 (1910–11 [1918])

      I would like you to read it as an origin story. That is, think about it as it explains the creation of humanity.

      What is the relationship between humanity and nature? What structure do you think society will take based on this origin story? These are questions I want you to think about and seek the answers to while you do this reading