203 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2015
    1. The working class citizens of New York felt especially angered as wealthy New Yorkers paid $300 for substitutes, sparing themselves from the hardships of war.

      The rich always get away for everything that's probably the reason why they live for so long.

    2. Gooding argued that, because he and his brethren were born in the United States and selflessly left their private lives and to enter the army, they should be treated “as American SOLDIERS, not as menial hirelings.
    3. African American soldiers in the Union army endured rampant discrimination and earned less pay than white soldiers, while also facing the possibility of being murdered or sold into slavery if captured by Confederate forces.

      African Americans never really felt the true sense of freedom!

    4. In order to avoid the issue of the slaves’ freedom, Butler reasoned that runaway slaves were “contraband of war,” and he had as much a right to seize them as he did to seize enemy horses or cannons

      The extreme measures that were taken in desperation of not letting the eradication of slavery occur.

    1. One measure of the popularity of antislavery ideas came in 1852 when Harriet Beecher Stowe published her bestselling antislavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

      Antislavery was becoming more and more popular.

    2. But the Liberty Party also shunned women’s participation in the movement, and distanced themselves from visions of true racial egalitarianism.

      As if antislavery movement was not big of a deal to handle.

    3. English political theorists, in particular, began to re-think natural law justifications for slavery.

      How inhuman is it for a certain group of humans to try to think of a natural law to justify their repulsive act of enslaving other humans?

    4. Southerners feared that without slavery’s expansion, the abolitionist faction would come to dominate national politics and an increasingly dense population of slaves would lead to bloody insurrection and race war.

      Northerners and Southerners had the same motive despite the opposite mentalities and thought processes.

  2. Nov 2015
    1. Both Locke and Whitefield had empowered individuals to question authority and to take their lives into their own hands.

      Both education and religion played the key role in changing people's train of thought.

    2. Education would produce rational human beings capable of thinking for themselves and questioning authority rather than tacitly accepting tradition.

      Educating people is the initiate step a government could take towards better future.

    1. No group—European or Indian—held sovereign power, and diplomatic, military, trading, and social exchanges continued for much of the eighteenth century.

      Only if this could have lasted for a longer period of time.

    1. every horse seemed to go with all his might to carry his rider to hear news from heaven for the saving of Souls;

      The horse riders were making their horses run as fast as they could since they were so eager to hear to the news.

    2. I dropt my tool and I had in my hand an ran home to my wife telling her to make ready quickly to go and hear Mr. Whitefield preach at Middletown

      shows clearly how excited people were to go listen to Mr. Whitefield.

  3. classicliberal.tripod.com classicliberal.tripod.com
    1. It is true governments cannot be supported without great charge, and it is fit every one who enjoys his share of the protection should pay out of his estate his proportion for the maintenance of it

      That's where taxes came into the picture.

    2. The rules that they make for, other men's actions must, as well as their own and other men's actions, be conformable to the law of Nature — i.e., to the will of God, of which that is a declaration, and the fundamental law of Nature being the preservation of mankind, no human sanction can be good or valid against it.

      The world would be a much peaceful place to reside in if humankind followed the will of God.

    3. This legislative is not only the supreme power of the commonwealth, but sacred and unalterable in the hands where the community have once placed it

      I'm not sure whether having an unalterable law is a good thing or bad?

    1. 'Many of the most mutinous leapt overboard and drown'd themselves in the ocean with such resolution, shewing no manner of concern for life.'

      Anyone would accept death with open arms if living means having to die everyday.

    2. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.

      One could only imagine the horrifying experiences these unfortunate people had and the scar that had been left in their minds and souls.

    1. This distribution of property, which kept wealth and property consolidated, guaranteed that the great planters would dominate social and economic life in the Chesapeake.

      This system made sure that the money circulated around the rich only, which in turn made the rich richer and the poor poorer.

    1. hain migration allowed Irish men to send portions of their wages home, which would then be used to either support their families in Ireland or to purchase tickets for relatives to come to the United States

      This tradition still has not changed much. People working in the US still send part of their wages back home to their families.

    2. Middle-class owners and managers justified their economic privilege as the natural product of superior character traits, including their wide decision-making and hard work.

      "Superior character traits", the lamest excuse ever!

    3. They no longer shared the bonds of their trade but were subsumed under a new class-based relationships

      The introduction of the factories were changing a lot of relationships and were having negative impacts on many people's lives.

    1. You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much—for we won’t take more than our pint’ll hold.

      Men were really scared of giving women their rights since they knew women were as intelligent as them, but they just didn't want women to have a chance at proving themselves.

    1. During the first day the meeting will be exclusively for women, who are earnestly invited to attend.

      It just sounds like women were very conservative and that majority did not have the courage to voice their opinion.

    1. The white men pursued and fired on us several times.

      The whites first made the blacks their servants and now that a prophet has been in making, the whites can not come with anything new but attacking them. When would the fear of the white ever disappear?

    2. they would often carry me with them when they were going on any roguery, to plan for them

      It gives us an idea of how smart this guy was since other Negroes would trust him enough to let him devise the robbery plan even though, he himself did not take any part in it.

    1. Some enslaved people converted to Christianity while others rejected it as the religion of their oppressors.

      The ones who rejected to convert were the descendants who could not forget the atrocities of the slave owners.

    2. Africans forced onto slave ships were drawn from a large range of societies and cultures.

      The African slaves didn't take another African slave who was from another lineage as their brother, but rather as a foreigner.

    1. They do not dare to stop even at dinner time, nor return to the quarters, however late it be, until the order to halt is given by the driver

      Did they even consider the slaves as humans or what? they treated the slaves as if they were machines.

    1. a sense unity that remained unsaid, but was acted out daily.

      The slaves had been through a lot and since they did not have the power to say anything verbally, they acted out their shared sense of unity.

    2. The decades before the Civil War in the South, then, were not times of slow, simple tradition

      It was times of tough competition between the land owners. The more money a land owner made the more slaves it needed to work on the fields.

    1. What good man would prefer a country covered with forests

      It's an ugly truth how we are cutting down nature for the temporary pleasure of having more infrastructure. I think the human race has forgotten that the results of our actions are leaving permanent scars on earth and our future generations will be the victim of it.

  4. Oct 2015
    1. While not easy, this goal was far easier to achieve than the unanimous consent of the states required by Article 13 of the Articles of Confederation.

      Taking consent was, is, and will always be one of the hardest goal to achieve.

  5. Sep 2015
    1. Wars offered the most common means for colonists to acquire Native American slaves

      In that case can we say that waging wars were just a tactic to gain more slaves for the labor that was in high demand for plantations?

    1. And not being content with taking away life alone, they fell after again upon the dead, making, as well as they could, a fresh murder, defacing, dragging, and mangling the dead carcasses into many pieces, and carrying away some parts in derision

      This paragraph shows the barbarity of the savages to the extreme extent. After murdering the innocent people, the savages weren't satisfied enough so they decided to chop the dead bodies into smaller pieces. I wonder if there is any extent to being inhumane?

    2. Yea, such was the treacherous dissimulation of that people who then had contrived our destruction

      It tells us about the secret planning of the Native Americans to execute a massive massacre on the English colonies.

    1. Conquest

      1) The goals of the Spanish were to build empires both secular and religious. The religious goals were to win people for Catholic church and the secular goals were to gain more power over the southern and northern america to have access to the wealth and gold.

      2) The greatest killer was the smallpox diseases that almost erased human life which was spread through direct human contact. Other diseases that killed Native Americans were influenza, malaria, whooping cough, diphtheria, and measles. European also brought in large domestic animals such as sheep, cattle, pig, and horse and plants e.g corn, avocado, squash, pineapple, peanuts, potatoes, etc which was more nutritious than the wheat, rice, barley and oats that the Native Americans were used to consuming.

      3) The Europeans claimed their right on claiming the land in America by the authority of the pope. Europeans also claimed to have conquered the native Americans and discovered the land. They claimed possession by occupying the land.

    2. Much of the city was built on large artificial islands called chinampas which the Aztecs constructed by dredging mud and rich sediment from the bottom of the lake and depositing it over time to form new landscapes

      Building cities from mud and rich sediment is very awe inspiring. It presents the Aztecs as very hard working native civilization. One can only imagine how much physical effort they must have put in.

    3. . In central America the Maya built massive temples, sustained large populations, and constructed a complex and long-lasting civilization with a written language, advanced mathematics, and stunningly accurate calendars

      The Maya civilization was filled with smart and witty human population. Their architecture and sharpness in math and physics is world known.

    1. As time went on, the wife became pregnant. Her and her husband were very, very happy.

      This couple sounds like Adam and Eve. How Eve had the fruit from the forbidden tree and how Eve and Adam were sent to the water world as a punishment.