Week 5, Day 4

Today (Thursday, Sept. 18th) we continued to watch the documentary that we started on Tuesday. Because of the Bill of Rights, suggested by Thomas Jefferson and other Democratic Republicans, Americans gained religious freedom. Although there were many advantages to those who had religious freedoms, some people began to rethink the religion that they been brought up practicing, and considered changing religions. Others questioned religion altogether, and considered not practicing a religion at all. One man, named James Finley, who had been raised Protestant, began to question why he should pray. He assumed that if he was going to be in the elect, God already decided that, and if he wasn't, there was nothing he could do to change God's mind.

There were some cases like James Finley when the freedom of religion was given to the people, but there were also many just the opposite. Large gatherings of people formed a "revival" where preachers would passionately preach the word of God. The masses were so awestruck by the word of the Lord and consumed by his spirit, that they would fall on their knees to pray. Finley finally decided to attend a revival, without much hope to understand why everyone there was so passionate about religion and God, but was completely overtaken by the spirit of the Lord. He became fiercely religious, to make up for all the times in his life when he had let God down, like when he stopped praying and practicing his faith. Finley also went on to become a preacher.

Also in this documentary, there was an issue in public schooling in America. Many lessons taught to the students encouraged the religion of Protestantism. Catholic parents were furious about this that they took their children out of the schools. John "Dagger" Hughes was so passionate about this issue, that he appealed to the court to get money from the state to fund exclusively Catholic schools. Although he lost, he still spread awareness about what these public schools were teaching to their students.

After the movie ended, we discussed the project on Wikispaces that is due next Thursday. Those that had not chosen partners or topics did so and the rest of us worked on the project, and decided what we wanted to accomplish on each project workday.

Immigration!

As immigration was one of the major topics from a recent documentary (Irish Catholics, 1830s) here are some modern day numbers...

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/06/us/immigration-statistics-fast-facts/

Week 5, Day 2

      During class on tuesday the sixteenth, we began to watch a movie about the different sects of christianity that popped up around the 13 colonies.  These different forms of christianity were mostly protestant and included the Puritans in the New England colonies), Anglicans and some Baptists in the southern colonies, and mixed protestants in the mid-atlantic colonies.  This emergence of baptists in the south created a lot of religious tension, especially since the southern elites held most of their power because of anglicanism.  Nowadays we may not understand why there was so much tension, as we have the Bill of Rights that protects our freedom to worship as we please.  However, this was before even the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, let alone the Bill of Rights.  Fortunately, America was home to one named Thomas Jefferson.  

      Jeremiah Moore, a Baptist pastor, was similar to George Whitfield (talked about in the beginning of the video session before anything about Baptists) in the way they preached and what they believed.  They were both oppressed by Anglicans for unorthodox methods of preaching and because of their different beliefs on how to experience the holy spirit and be a true christian.  Despite Jeremiah's incarceration, he would preach through the bars of his prison to the congregation. Imprisoning minority religions for simply being different angered Thomas Jefferson and he supported Moore's petition to end state-supported religion, the system that was being used where states would only tolerate one religion.  It was because of these feuds that prompted the first congress to propose a Bill of Rights, which is where we left off in the movie. 

Norton I: Emperor of the United States

      Since America's birth, there have been 44 presidents (well, technically 43).  However, this number doesn't count for America's one and only dictator:  Joshua A. Norton, or Emperor Norton I.  Norton, a once successful businessman driven to bankruptcy, declared himself Emperor of the United States on September 17 1859.  As you may have already realized, today is September 17, making today the 155th anniversary of the beginning of his rule.  Interestingly enough, this rise to power took place right up the peninsula in San Francisco.  The emperor originally made a fortune in the real estate business, but lost it all when he became too ambitious and tried gain control of the San Francisco market during a rice shortage.  After that, he seemed to have lost his mind in addition to his money.  

      Despite this man's ridiculous claims of being emperor, the citizens of San Francisco embraced this claim, sort of like an ongoing joke.  Restaurants would let him eat for free in return for seal of approval and theaters would reserve front row seats for him.  Under the rule of Emperor Norton, a new currency was created with his his seal.  Army officers would provide uniforms for him.  Police officers would salute and civilians would bow to him when he walked past them on the streets.  He even made laws, one of which would fine anyone who called his city "Frisco."  Not only that, but he was the first to propose the construction of a bridge connecting San Francisco and Oakland.  Norton's rule was brought to an end when he died from a stroke on January 8, 1880.

      Although many believe America to be the greatest democracy in history, it was actually "ruled" by an autocrat for 20 years.

9 Things You May Not Know About "The Star-Spangled Banner"

http://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-star-spangled-banner

9 Things You May Not Know About "The Star-Spangled Banner"

This article, posted 4 days ago on History.com, reveals 9 things that most people do not know about the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner", Francis Scott Key, and how our national anthem came to be. Many of these facts were recently discovered and shed a new light on our national anthem. 

1. Francis Scott Key intended his verses to be song lyrics, not poetry.

2. Key was not imprisoned on a British warship when he penned his verses.

3. The flag Key “hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming” did not fly “through the perilous fight.”

4. The song was not originally entitled “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

5. It did not become the national anthem until more than a century after it was written.

6. The national anthem has four verses.

7. Key opposed American entry into the War of 1812.

8. Key was a consummate Washington insider.

9. Key was a one-hit wonder who might have been tone deaf.

So basically, we have been singing 1 verse of a lie for 100 years (#3, #5, #6), written by a guy who was tone-deaf(#9). 

yay for 'merica!!!!!

Week 5, Day 1

9/15/14

Today in class, we enacted a simulation of the economy. A small group of the class were entrepreneurs, and the rest were regular "household" people. The regular people started with natural, human and capital resources, while the entrepreneurs started with money. The goal of the entrepreneurs was to gain more money and the goal of the people was to get as many "econos" as they could (1 econo= 1 natural, 1 human, 1 capital resource) by trading their resources into a factory. The catch was that only entrepreneurs could go to the factory to trade, and the people had to make deals with the entrepreneurs to get them to trade in their resources.

Soon into this simulation, the class came across a problem. The regular people did not have any money because they did not start with any and almost all the entrepreneurs were not willing to give the people money, or buy econos off of them for money. So, when the entrepreneurs got a fraction of the econos for trading in the resources, they had no way to sell them because the people had no money, and the other entrepreneurs did not want to buy them.

The purpose behind this simulation was to teach us about why there are economic crises and "panics." When there is not a steady flow of money in the economy, it is basically impossible to buy or sell any products.

Although this game was very frustrating at the end when no one would give me any more money, I still enjoyed it because I won....just letting everyone know!!!

Fun Fact relating to War of 1812 (and American History in General)

Enjoy!  See link below.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-star-spangled-banner-200-anniversary-20140912-story.html