Freedom during World War I

As you remember my topic is freedom. Many American men left to fight in the war. America’s factories lost many workers. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans served in the military, as did many Mexican Americans, German Americans, and American Indians. Thousands more African Americans left the South to work in factories in the north. America helped the Allies win the war. On November 11, 1918, the Allies and Central Powers signed on armistice. Leaders from each alliance met in Versailles, France. They signed a peace treaty. President Wilson wanted the treaty to include a new organization. It was called the League of Nations. The organization would work for peace. Many Americans felt they had done enough for outer countries. There was a growing feeling of isolationism. The United States did not join the league of nations.

Freedom during the Civil War

As you remember my topic is freedom, which I'll be applying to the civil war period. The obvious thing to right about is emancipation, which started with the emancipation proclamation  I read this link.  Although the proclamation took effect on January 1st 1863, Lincoln had released it several months prior following the union victory at Antietam. It originally applied to parts of the confederacy, but introduced abolition to northern war aims for the first time. Eventually all slaves were freed in 1865 by the 13th amendment.

Freedom in Revolutionary America

As you remember from before, my topic is freedom. Freedom during this period is commonly associated with the American Revolution. Obviously, the American colonists were fighting for their freedom from Great Britain. but what we often forget is that some soldiers on the British side were also fighting for freedom. I'm speaking about the slaves who fought for Britain in exchange for emancipation. This link describes how both sides were fighting for freedom. Freedom was still at stake, but not an American monopoly. After its defeat, Britain relocated the freed slaves to Canada and Africa.

Freedom in Colonial America

As you remember my last blog was about race. Now i have to relate the theme to our colonial America unit. This means I could write about Native Americans or African slaves. The following link, from the Colonial Williamsburg site, is about slavery in the colonies. Although slavery was found in every colony, it was much more prevalent in the Chesapeake region. There, slaves grew tobacco for sale in Britain. But slavery was more than an economic system, it established a pattern of social inequality between the races. I believe that slavery was the reason that blacks and whites have racial problems even today.

Welcome

I'm a US history student, and my teacher has asked us to blog about a particular theme. I have chosen the theme of race. Even though this country has been very diverse for many years, there are still a lot of negative stereotypes about races. The following link documents the persistence of racial stereotypes in America. It find poll respondents less willing to admit to racism, yet still likely to consider African Americans less intelligent or more lazy. As a kid I use to believe that this country was a perfect place where everyone got along, but the older i grew the more I realized what was really going on. I believe that racism is still going on and the best we can do is have more people speak up about it and take responsibility for whats going on around us.