Effects of Slavery on America

Effects of Slavery on American History Andrew Avila US History 1301 Dr. Raley April 18, 2013 The U. S. Constitution is primarily based on compromise between larger and smaller states, and more importantly, between northern and southern states. One major issue of the northern and southern states throughout American history is the topic of slavery. Although agreements such as the Three-Fifths Compromise in 1787, and the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 were adapted to reduce and outlaw slavery, it took many years for slavery to be completely abolished and allow blacks the freedom they had been longing for.The Three-Fifths Compromise was a agreement reached at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia in which three-fifths of states’ slaves would be counted as representation regarding distribution of taxes and apportionment of members to the House of Representatives[1]. This meant that slave owners would be taxed on the number of slaves they owned as well as states receiv ing representation for the allotted 3/5, or â€Å"Federal ratio,† of slaves owned.During the Continental Congress of 1783, a committee was appointed to decide upon a method to be integrated in the Articles of Confederation to prevent states from ignoring their fair share of the tax burden. The proposed fix was to tax based on population rather than property value. Delegates who opposed slavery only wanted to count all free inhabitants of each state, while supporters of slavery wanted to count all slaves for representation purposes only and not for taxation.Being that southern states were heavily populated with slaves, naturally, northern states feared that the south would gain a political upper-hand and become extremely powerful[2]. Seeing such opposition from northern and southern states, representatives James Wilson and Roger Sherman came up with a plan that stemmed from the one proposed at the Continental Congress. The Three-Fifths Compromise, which was designed to meet th e demands of both sides, gave the south their much anticipated representation, while easing the fears of the north of being politically overpowered by the south[3].After the Virginia Plan was rejected, the Three-Fifths Compromise seemed to guarantee more political power to the south. As a result, southern states dominated the Presidency and Speakership of the House. While the south gained more representation because of the higher ownership of slaves, the north gained very little. However, the longterm results of the Three-Fifths Compromise did not work well to the southern states’ advantage[4]. The increased importation of slaves to the south upset the north leading to the Missouri Compromise.The Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the 36o 30’. By 1820, the northern states began to grow faster than southern states resulting in the fall from southern representation in the House of Representatives. The Three-Fifths Compromise paved the way for the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 which outlaws slavery. However, the Thirteenth Amendment was meant to guarantee slavery. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued an Emancipation Proclamation declaring that any people held as slaves would be free[5].Many people questioned the validity of the Proclamation as well as President Lincoln’s power. Because President Lincoln failed to mention that slaves in the loyalist states would be free in the Proclamation, many doubted the effect would last beyond restoration of the states[6]. Although the Emancipation Proclamation declared that slaves would be free, it did not actually free any slaves in border states nor did it abolish slavery. President Lincoln and other supporters decided it was necessary to include an amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery.The Thirteenth Amendment was the first amendment proposed in 60 years. The Thirteenth Amendment was the only slavery-related bill to oppose and abolish slavery while o ther bills protected slavery[7]. Eventually, the bill was taken to the Senate and passed on April 8, 1864. Although the bill was passed as an effort to keep the country united, it was stopped from being ratified as the south began to secede and the Union dissolved. This prevented the bill from becoming an actual law. President Lincoln took active measures to get the proposed bill on the Republican Party platform for the 1864 presidential election.After several months of debate, the bill finally reached the two-thirds vote on January 31, 1865, although the signed amendment’s archival copy states the bill was passed February 1, 1865[8]. After the approval of the Thirteenth Amendment, Congress passed four statutes known as the Reconstruction Acts. The Reconstruction Congress was required to pass two laws that implemented the Thirteenth Amendment[9]. The first was the Civil Rights Act declaring that freed slaves were allowed to enjoy the same rights as white people. This law made it a crime on the federal level to deprived freed slaves of these rights.The second was the Anti-Peonage Act of 1867 which made the holding of any person as a slave unlawful[10]. The Thirteenth Amendment completed the abolition of slavery in the United States. The process to abolish slavery began with President Lincoln’s issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Although the Thirteenth Amendment outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude, officials had to selectively enforce laws such as vagrancy forcing blacks to be subject to involuntary servitude. The southern states' attitudes towards abolition made it nearly impossible for blacks to shake being ex-slaves.After the abolition of slavery, life for Black Americans got even more difficult before it could get better. Public beatings and lynchings became and everyday occurrence through â€Å"white supremacy groups† such as the Ku Klux Klan. Segregation between whites and blacks had become widespread at the time a s well. Many blacks found it difficult to survive off the poor wages they received and terrible living situations. Slavery was not legal or illegal until each individual state made it so. Up until that point, slavery was an accepted common law practice.However, after slavery was declared illegal in individual states and had been outlawed, many slave owners, and slaves alike, needed to adjust to the newly acquired changes. Needless to say, this was a change that would take many years to adapt to. To this day, these movements are still discussed as the judicial system . Many people still do not support the abolition of slavery. The United States Constitution states that slavery and involuntary servitude are illegal unless ordered by the court. However, this does not mean that any individual may own a slave.This simply means that if a person is convicted of a crime, said person may be ordered to prison or community service. This however does not mean that there are absolutely no cases of slavery in America today. Although in slightly different form, slavery still exists today despite the trial and error endured by the American government to abolish slavery in its entirety. Slavery today is known as human trafficking. Not only does human trafficking include involuntary servitude and forced labor, but various other acts that are to be carried out by those who are being held as slaves.Human trafficking is one of the biggest crimes committed today. Throughout history many measures have been taken to prohibit and outlaw slavery. However, documents such as the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Thirteenth Amendment were two of the major stepping stones in the direction of abolishing slavery. The issue of slavery has been around since the beginning of the United States and has undergone many changes over time. With agreements such as the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Thirteenth Amendment, slavery was able to be decreased and eventually abolished.Bibliography Peter Robins on. Uncommon Knowledge: A Slave to the System? Thomas Jefferson and Slavery. Hoover Institution, 2009. Garry Wills. â€Å"Negro President†: Jefferson and the Slave Power. Houghton Mifflin Company. New York, 2003. Herman Belz. Emancipation and Equal Rights: Politics and Constitutionalism in the Civil War Era. New York, 1978. Michael Vorenberg. Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment. Cambridge University Press, 2001. Report of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice.The House Joint Resolution proposing the 13th amendment to the Constitution, January 31, 1865; Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, 1789-1999; General Records of the United States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives Harp Weekly. Ratification and Results. 2008. Oman Nathan. Specific Performance and the Thirteenth Amendment. Minnesota Law Review, Forthcoming. 2008. Unknown Author. â€Å"The Slavery Compromises†. University of Louisiana-Lafayette Computing Support Services. Unknown Date. Gilder Lehrman Institute. The Three-Fifths Compromise. Digital History. 2013. ———————- [1] Gilder Lehrman Institute. The Three-Fifths Compromise. Digital History. 2013. [2] Peter Robinson. Uncommon Knowledge: A Slave to the System? Thomas Jefferson and Slavery. Hoover Institution, 2009. [3] Unknown Author. â€Å"The Slavery Compromises†. University of Louisiana-Lafayette Computing Support Services. Unknown Date [4] Peter Robinson. Uncommon Knowledge: A Slave to the System? Thomas Jefferson and Slavery. Hoover Institution, 2009. [5] Herman Belz. Emancipation and Equal Rights: Politics and Constitutionalism in the Civil War Era. New York, 1978. 6] Michael Vorenberg. Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment. Cambridge University Press, 2001. [7] 3Herman Belz. Emancipation and Equal Rights: Politics and Constitutionalism in the Civil War Era. New York, 1978. [8] 3Herman Belz. Emancipation and Equal Rights: Politics and Constitutionalism in the Civil War Era. New York, 1978. [9] Oman Nathan. Specific Performance and the Thirteenth Amendment. Minnesota Law Review, Forthcoming. 2008. [10] Oman Nathan. Specific Performance and the Thirteenth Amendment. Minnesota Law Review, Forthcoming. 2008.

Pythia (the Oracle of Delphi)

Portrait of a Priestess By: Joan Breton Connelly The historical figure referred to as the â€Å"Oracle of Delphi,† in ancient writings by Aeschylus, Aristotle, Diogenes, Euripides, Herodotus, Plato, Plutarch, and Sophocles, was the â€Å"Pythia,† or â€Å"Priestess† of the temple of Apollo at Delphi; located in a cave on mount Parnassus, beneath the caspian Spring. The Pythia was a respectable position for a women among the ancient greeks. Several women were selected to succeed the position of Pythia over the span of the temples practice from 1,400 BC-393 A.D. I will be focussing on one in particular, whose experience changes the requirements of the position. The Pythia was known for her prophetic visions, said to to be inspired by the God Apollo. Ancient from all around Greece would travel to Delphi in hopes to hear a prophecy from the Pythia that be would be reflect favorable on their future. The myth was that the fumes from the Caspian Spring inspired her visi ons. Three male priests would accompany her, and interpret her hysterical, unintelligible babble to the visitors.Modern historians and scientists theorize that a hallucinogenic gas from a seismic crack in the mountain intoxicated her, and was the cause of her erratic behavior. However, scientist extensive scientific research has been performed on the location and been found contradictory and inconclusive on both sides. There is no documented procedure on how they selected the Pythia, but it is assumed that she was selected upon the death of her predecessor and chosen from a guild of priestesses. She was always a young, respectable virgin, native to the area.Once she was selected she had to leave her family, forfeit her personal identity, and sever all communication with those she’d previously known. The benefits were that she would receive monetary compensation, position, attend public events, and own her property. They also appeared to select women upon aptitude rather than position in society. One Pythia could be well education and aristocratic, and another could be from the working class. At the Height of the Temples popularity there were up to three Pythias in residents.They would alternate between sessions, because the activity left them exhausted and delirious. It was said that the Pythias life was shortened from the strenuous occupation. After an incident where a Pythias was been attacked and killed for giving unfavorable prophecies, they increased the number. The Pythia I’m choosing served in 300AD, she was attacked and raped in the temple. Upon this incident the priests were forced to make a decision on the policy of the requirements of a priestess, because she was no longer a virgin. They changed the policy which opened the opportunity up to married women as well.I would like to write about this incident, because she was not only violated, but in jeopardy of losing her job, being exiled, and possibly killed. Once a year the Pythia would undergo a cleansing ritual, where she would bathe in the Caspian Stream. The procedure was extremely detailed and strict. I think this would be an awesome incident to write my monologue about. The importance and specificity of the ritual makes it an important event in her life. Also bathing in the toxic spring could also present an interesting opportunity to intoxication, and visions.The Pythias personal life, (I can only imagine) was one of deep sadness and extortion. She may have had high hopes for the position, she may not have wanted to serve at all, but it was not a position that would be socially acceptable to refuse. Not only did she have to lose her family and her identity, but she had to forfeit any chance of getting married and having children. She was in a temple, that was essentially a converted cave, and constantly hyped up on hallucinogens. It was basically an ancient form of prostitution. The temple made money off of her â€Å"prophecies† while her mind and bo dy was slowly destroyed from abuse.The danger of attack, rape and death were very real to her in everyday life. I can only imagine the state of her mind, and her misery. She was dealt a hand that appeared glamorous from the outside, but was misleading. The source of the Pythias visions remain a mystery, which I find both exciting and troubling. If it were true that the woman selected to be Pythia received divine visions from the God Apollo my conjecture about her personal life would differ greatly than if she were a drugged, captive woman who was forced to live a desolate life. I think the mystery of the Pythia, is what makes it so intriguing even to this day.

Drug Treatment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Drug Treatment - Essay Example The answer, may be found in the second article. Perhaps if the approach taken was a cultural one, society in general would look at addiction for what it isa disease. Historically speaking, addiction was never looked at through culture but merely as man's weakness for the drink. In the nineteenth century the temperance movement argued that alcohol inevitably provoked loss of control. That is, the nineteenth-century view of alcohol addiction is exactly that which in the twentieth century has been connected to narcotics: that the drug is inherently addictive so that regular use guarantees an enslavement of the individual that leads progressively to moral collapse and death. This idea of progressive, irreversible, inevitable exacerbation of the habit, causing loss of control of personal behavior and of the ability to make moral discriminations, actually retains strong elements of both colonial and temperance moralism. It is therefore not correct to say simply that modern disease notions have replaced outdated "moral" models of drug use. Rather, relabeling misbehavior as a medical consequence of drug use locates the source of evil in the drug and dictates that the addict's moral responsibility is to avoid the substance entirely--that is, to abstain. If the Strengthening Families Program was applied culturally, weakness would not be the focal point. Instead, vulnerability would.

History of Telephone Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

History of Telephone - Essay Example Bell developed new and original ideas, but did so by building on older ideas and development (Farley). Transmission of electricity over wires by Stephen Gray in 1729, first Battery produced by Alessandro Volta in 1800, Michael Faraday's experiments with electromagnetism in 1821, Professor Henry's transmission of the first practical electric signal and the invention of the electromagnet in 1830 were the major developments, which paved the way for the invention of the first working telegraph by Samuel Morse in 1837, and the completion of the first non-working telephone in 1861 by Johann Phillip Reis. Successful experiments with a clock spring reed in transmitting actual sound over a pair of wires, ultimately led to the birth of the telephone on March 10, 1876, with the famous first sentence to be transmitted accidentally: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you". With other inventors like Elisha Gray closely on his heels, Bell received his patent No. 174,465 for his epoch making invention. Since his invention was unprecedented, Bell was obliged to call it as "an improvement in telegraphy". Obviously, it was the telegraph and its wired network, which was most responsible for the development and success of the telephone. Impact of the Telephone on the social elements: Even after being baptized by the patent office and given a royal reception at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, Bell, instead of being applauded was pelted with a hailstorm of ridicule. While men of trade and commerce preferred to call it a scientific toy,. The newspapers went to the extent of describing it as 'the latest American humbug' (the London times), Salem Witchcraft , and something associated with the powers of darkness (The Providence press).The very idea of speaking to a metal piece seemed too bizarre and freakish. Since no one could understand how it worked, people saw this performance as a loss of dignity. Public Officials were slow to adopt it, as they were accustomed to use of written documents, and so was the banking community. It was only after a series of demonstrations and lectures arranged by Bell, as well as an account of a documented 3 hour demonstration, published in The Boston Advertiser (October 19, 1876), that people started taking it seriously. They r ealized, after several years of turmoil, that the telephone offered a hitherto unknown advantage of a 'Human Touch' to the communication. One could converse, respond to tones of voice and moods, discuss, persuade, enquire, argue and even reach agreements in a few minutes, in a personal way. It enabled members of the family to travel and even emigrate with increased security. It enabled the government to handle emergencies, like war, fires, accidents storms etc. Medical emergencies could be attended to much more efficiently. As it was having several advantages over telegraph, the businesses were in a position to handle all the issues in a more personalized way, and much faster. The Telephone in people's homes: Reasons for the delayed entry: The real popularity of the telephone in the home segment had to wait for more than 20 years after the invention of the

American History Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

American History - Term Paper Example Unequal conditions among the blacks and the whites were rampant in almost every sector and part within the country. Considering that the blacks received unfair treatment than their white counterparts, the demonstrations were justified. Considering the cause of reasons behind these protests, i would advice that it is right to support the demonstration as opposed to the white students during that period who failed to support their fellow black students’ demonstrators. The next incidence that occurred in the following year relates to the Weather Underground Organization formation. The organization founded at Ann Arbor branch of Michigan University aimed at achieving a democratic society by students. The primary objective as evidenced through the naming of the faction as Students for a Democratic Society was to work as a radical left wing that would materialize and succeed in overthrowing the American government. October 8, 1969 characterized the first demonstration organized by t he group in Chicago that was deliberate to coincide with the trials of Chicago eight. The group embarked on bombing demonstrations, jail breaks among other ill forms of demonstrations. The attacks mostly focused on government buildings as well as various banks while evacuation warnings were also given to others. It is important to note that these students’ demonstrators grew to become criminals over time and facilitated bombings or became parts of bombings after their engagement in 1969. Although the authorities failed to engage them forcefully to abandon their demonstrations, deaths among the students were reported on various occasions. My opinion relating to such engagements falls against joining such students owing the acts of violence the group engaged in, it is ill-advising for any student of the current multi-cultural and civilized U.S to participate in such demonstrations. From

Change Management of the Company Engaged in a Merger Term Paper

Change Management of the Company Engaged in a Merger - Term Paper Example Effective management of change process in an organization is vital as this determines and contributes to a successful implementation of the changes. Change implementation in an organization is a process which if well managed it can lead to a decrease in change resistance and higher productivity, competitiveness, and profitability of an organization. The management should come up with strategies to ensure that the change management process is successful. For effective change management to take place, the human resource must be highly involved it is the gear towards attaining a change in an organization. Change is naturally detested especially because of the uncertainty it leads to and as such, cases of resistance must occur. Effective management of resistance is vital in ensuring that the changing process runs smoothly and quickly. As mentioned, the management must ensure that the changes which are about to be implemented in an organization are highly appreciated by the workers. Manag ement should engage in dialogue with the workers so as to ensure changes are implemented. Training and counseling are also vital in enhancing change management in an organization (Johnson, 1992). ABC Company a high-tech company, being faced with hyper-competition decided to engage in a merger with two of its competitors. The merger required a major changing process, especially because the other two competitors were employing completely different management and production styles. This required implementation of a change management process which is explained below. Competition has been on the rise which is caused by globalization, dynamism in the technological environment and emergence of competitive companies in the market. This has necessitated constant changes in most organizations which are aimed at taking advantage of opportunities posed by the environment while at the same time minimizing costs and threats which the environment poses.

Marketing Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Marketing Communication - Essay Example Partnership with an agency will pool resources and promote a project with more people, expertise, and capabilities working towards the same goal. As a result, an organization can produce a synergistic effect greater what it could achieve on its own. Choosing a communication agency or what some call an information agency is, therefore, a pivotal task for the success of a particular communications project. There is no standard selection process for this task since organizations follow different approaches tailored according to their requirements. However, it should be done in a systematic manner so that the organization does not lose time, effort and money. All processes in communication agency selection start with the decision to seek an agency and henceforth, a definition of exactly what the organization will require from the agency (in terms of capabilities, skills, tasks, etc.) as well as the expected nature of the client-agency relationship. In defining agency requirements, a marketing audit may be performed. Current services must be analyzed to determine who is served well and how well. Marketing audit, Greg Clarke (2000) wrote, is a systematic information gathering process that highlights clearly where an organization stands along a scale ranging from no marketing to total sophistication. (p. 184) The idea is that by employing such approach a communication agency’s niche – a portion of a market segment in which that provider can meet specialized needs that are not being met by other providers as well as the specific services, capabilities, commitment, and experience offered – will be identified. An organizati on can, hence, filter out the agencies that would not meet their requirements. The downside of this process is that it could be a daunting task when performed early in the process.