Mid-Term practice (13)

-----America, land of Liberty and Freedom. Something that all people of the world see when they look at us, and due to this "city on a hill" status, we defend this right whenever necessary. We have survived so long with liberty as our main governing attribute, but what if this founding principle of our nation was being attacked? This attack on liberty is widespread and constant, while being directed from the place we would least expect it, ourselves. We are in constant need of things to keep alive, government being one of them. According to Thomas Hobbes, Necessity and Liberty coincide, and therefore are inseparable. Fear and Liberty are also consistent, since the fear of our laws keeps us in check. The way I see it, Necessity drives Liberty, but in the process takes from it.

-----Liberty cannot exist without Necessity, and therefore, Fear. As human beings we need things to stay alive. By being alive, we create liberty for ourselves to do whatever we please, but in order to maintain it, we must satisfy our needs. Needs such as protection, secure food sources, and shelter are never assured to us if we have pure liberty, and so we must create a government to protect and supply these needs. The government must create laws to hold these needs in place, but in making laws, they are restricting liberty. Since we are the ones to set up and folow the government, we are the main culprits of liberty supression. Hobbes saw this problem and adresses it in his writing.

-----Hobbes realized that Liberty is held by Necessity. Hobbes realized the pattern of Liberty-Necessity-Government-Liberty. This section of his writings tells us of how he figured this out, “Fear [sic], and Liberty are consistent . . . . And generally all actions which men do [sic] in Common-wealths, for fear [sic] of the law, are actions, which the doers had liberty to omit […]. Liberty and Necessity are Consistent [. . .]. [B]ecause they proceed from their will, proceed from liberty; and yet, because every act of man’s [sic] will, and every desire, and inclination proceeds [sic] from some cause, and that from another cause, in a continual [sic] chain [sic], (whose first link in the hand of God the first of all causes,) they proceed from necessity” (Thomas Hobbes). His first idea of Fear+Liberty is in the environment of a government, where the liberty to do anything is suppressed by the laws and the fear of the government. This shows the third phase of the repression cycle. The second part shows the remaining two parts of the repression cycle, Liberty requires Necessity, which requires Liberty to preform. Together, Hobbes was displaying the message that Liberty is fed by Necessity and is also needed to maintain ones Necessity. Liberty cannot do this alone though, and so the law must be introduced to ensure and protect the needs of the person. The cost of this cycle is repressed Liberty due to fear of the government's laws, like what was stated in the first half of Hobbes writing. With the knowledge that Hobbes knew of this repression cycle, one can deduce that the cycle has basis to it.

-----The repression cycle fully adresses the issue of repressed liberties, like in America. We must satisfy our needs to keep our liberty. In order to protect these needs, and therefore the existance of liberty, we must make a government to protect the needs. The government must become successful by restricting our liberties with laws which is the only way to protect and ensure the needs that supply our liberty. Following this cycle, you see that the result is repressed liberties due to the supporting of actions that protected our neccesity, which we were doing to keep our liberty in the first place. In the long-run, you will never be able to have pure liberty your whole life, because either you won't be able to protect your needs, or you'll protect your needs, but respress your liberties.

-----As Americans, we will always protect our Liberty. Unforunately, in order to do so, we must give some of that which we are protecting. Our own Neccesity dictates a sacrifice of these pieces of our liberties, and in turn allows us to keep what we have left as our new liberty. This repression cycle is the only way to ensure our liberty, and our lives. Without it, liberty would be dying because of dying neccesities. With it, the fear of the tool which is put in place for protection, prevents our full Liberty. As Hobbes said, Liberty+Fear, Liberty+Neccesity.

Reflection Post (12)

I think I prepared and worked on the essay very well. I always worked in class and never goofed off. When I was at home, I worked on my outline, R.D., second R.D., or F.D. until I completed the requirements that were given to fix up what was wrong with the essay. I always took any opportunity I had to get an evaluation of the essay when the opportunity was given to the class.

I have learned that apparently I put to much information into my essays and that this ruins my argument. I also learned that I seem to go beyond the boundaries set by my topic sentneces and that I need to contain them better. One more thing I learned was that I should stop using so many words in my essay that aren't neccesary, which will be very hard for me to fix because my nature is just to use many words for smaller ideas, which means filtering my essays will be very, very challenging.

As for my writing philosophy, I still do e-mails, type, and just very basic programming. I don't exactly write that much anymore, thanks to my laptop, and I am currently against texting for it is a vile and corrupt form of language that forces you to rewire your brain in order to use it, where I could just call someone and use my VOICE to talk to them. Anyways, as for what I still have contained within my writing philosophy, the approaches to them have changed somewhat. E-mails are begginning to become a common-place for me, making me have to be e-mail able, so with this new found skill, writing out e-mails is becoming very easy for me. I usually check the box when I begin to write an e-mail, just in case there is already an e-mail for what I was going to send. Then I type in the formalities (Hey (blank), (message) Sincerly(or Good Bye, (witty text), next line)Brady). Since e-mails don't neccesarily have to have complete sentences, paragraphs, or for that case follow any grammer rules, they are very easy for me to write up, and my point generally comes across without the complete usage of law-binded words. Typing is just as easy as always, with the introduction of this quaters history notes, so it's usually pretty easy to start. Since it's notes, I don't have to use that many sentences or any paragraphs, which makes the writing go along much more smoothly. When writing large texts, such as essays, I take long amounts of time to type them up, because writing isn't exactly my strongest subject, and words don't pour out in strong, perfect sentences. Starting these up takes a lot of time to organize my thoughts and resources that are neccesary to the project. Programming has almost ground to a halt, since I not only forgot most of the codes and such I used, but I also have school now, and therefore, no time. When I do very rarely do some, it is rarely for an amount of time over 30 minutes, and most of that time is looking up notes I typed up and saved last year. When writing, I usually don't use any templates at all. The onlt type of writing I actually do use templates in is essays, because they are very neccesary. I try to use the "They Say/ I Say" when siting quotes, but it seems I make these to large due to my quotes size. My writing this year doesn't seem nearly as harsh as my writing last year, so it doesn't seem that I need to use the "flip/flop" template much anymore.

Highschool writing has pitiful requirements and grading compared to college writing. Highschool writing just wants you to write more and to put plently of information in, while college writing wants to see how you write and how you are displaying the information. Not to say they don't care about the other points of information and such, just that the way it is displayed is much more important.

The changes I am hoping to make in my next writing is to use less words for sentences, and to summarize my quotes. I want to cut my paragraphs to fit the topic sentences properly. Also, I need to make my thesis more apparent so that the reader knows exactly what I'm arguing. One more thing I need to work on is becoming less informational, because it kills the argument and bombards the reader with information that overpowers their senses.

AoD (3)

In our history readings we have learned about the diversity of the middles colonies, such as Philadelphia.

The middles colonies were given out by the king to some of his loyal friends. These people attempted to control the current settlers in the area, but due to the strong Puritan beliefs of the inhabitants, the governors couldn't set new laws or really do anything that conflicted with their beliefs. Passing the tasks off as impossible, theses governors sold the land to some Quakers, who decided to turn the land into the opposite of the New England colonies, whose strict religious government and laws made it extremely hard for the Quakers to practice their religion. People from all over Europe migrated into these middle colonies. With each person came a different nationality, religion, and craft. With the massive amount of different cultural groups, the middle colonies did not have religiously restricting laws. This greatly benefited the colonies because, with freedom of religion, the inhabitants could focus on work, therefore increasing the productivity of the colonies as a whole. Not only that, but the different cultures opened many new perspectives to the people living there, allowing them to sample many types of religions and cultures. This heterogeneous mixture of peoples created a new loosely governed and massively productive area of the English colonies, and became somewhat of a n example for others. Some smaller regions in the New England and Southern areas began to follow these ideas as well, which spread out into the surrounding colonial section. This caused a change in all of the colonies with strict religious governments because the laws began to loosen, the churches began to spread into different branches, and people became more open to new ideas and cultures.

Bacon's Rebellion: Land or No Land?

Bacon’s Rebellion: Land or no Land?

-----Most people haven’t heard of the Hidden Rebellion. One usually just looks over it in history class, skipping straight to the American Revolution, because it’s the most famous. Most people don’t even think where a good portion of the ideas in those founding documents came from, what the first rebellion was that spawned such ideas as “class equality” and “government relationships with people”. Not many people have heard of Nathaniel Bacon, herald of new ideas, leader of uprisings, and defender of the poor man. This man was involved in a massive rebellion in one of the first and most prosperous colonies in the New World of America, Chesapeake Bay. The government was ruled by the iron fist of greed and money, funded by the sweat and blood of the working class. When the government made a deal with the savages of the new land, they cut off the only way the poor farmer of yesterday survived, land. The Virginian land grants that were given out to the Indians caused class tension that led to Bacon’s Rebellion. If you read this paper about the massacre that has not been heard, you will find that the restrictive orders that came from the Virginian elite prevented the success of the little guy. With such restrictions, hatred and pain seeped from the cracks in society, aimed towards the Indians and those who worked with them, the grandees of tobacco.

-----Land grants caused less land to be available to the freed servants, which started a growing dislike for the grandees. The government, being mostly land owners, was not affected by the restricted land because they already had all of the land they needed. However, this was not true for the freed servants, who needed to buy more land to survive. The text book discusses this situation that created tension between the two economic classes, “The treaty that concluded the war established policies toward the Indians that the government tried to maintain over the next 30 years […]. Had the Chesapeake population remained constant, the policy might have worked. But the number of land-hungry colonists, especially poor, recently freed servants, continued to multiply. In their quest for land, they pushed beyond the treaty limits of English settlement and encroached steadily on Indian land.” (The American Promise, pg. 92). The way the first sentence is put, displays the idea that the government, which was all grandees at the time, did not need the land because they were attempting to uphold that treaty for at least 30 years. The end of the quote states that the population kept growing due to the constant expansion of freed servants, who had come for land in the first place. Being unable to get the land, they began to breach the land that was assigned to the Indian by the grants, in order to fulfill their dreams of the New World. This began to direct some anger from the colonists at the source of the grants itself, the government.

-----Having to fight Indians every day in order to make a living, the poor farmers began to think that the government didn’t care about them. When the government attempted to appease the Indians, the poor farmers just got angrier at them. Not only the Indian relationship, but lowered prices, higher taxes, and restrictive Navigation Acts greatly damaged the relationship between the government and its people. “Berkeley had refused to react to the claims that the Indians were committing murders and thefts on the frontier. The colonial governor was making a good profit from trading with the Indians, and was not willing to disrupt that business by triggering open war. Nathanial Bacon triggered the civil war (one century before the American Revolution...) by demanding a military commission that would authorize him to attack the Susquehannock Indians. [...] Bacon quickly left Jamestown, rallied a mob, and attacked innocent Occaneechi, Tutelo, and Saponi Indians” (http://www.virginiaplaces.org/military/bacon.html). Governor Berkley, head of the government, tried to keep good relationships with the Indians, where the poor farmers saw them as a major threat to their livelihood. The government also put on seemingly excessive taxes while the economic demands for tobacco were going down, while they themselves were benefiting from the trade with the Indians, which didn’t help to improve their image with the poor farmers. As a final annoyance to the farmers, England brought up the Navigation Acts, which took even more money from them. The farmers were losing a lot of money, and it seemed to them that it didn’t affect the grandees in the government as much, which was why they were attempting to appease the enemies of the poor farmer, while also putting more barriers up for them on an economic level. The next declaration of Governor Berkley, or any of that current government, would become the straw that broke the camel’s back.

-----After things began to look up for the poor farmers, Berkley attacked their icon, provoking the beast which was Bacon’s Rebellion. Berkley had once before labeled Bacon as a traitor, but quickly took it back when he was voted into the House of Burgesses. This was the attempts at a “tactic” to appease the majority of the public, “Hoping to maintain the fragile peace on the frontier in 1676, Governor Berkley declared Bacon a rebel, threatened to punish him for treason, and called for new elections of burgesses who, Berkley believed, would endorse his get-tough policy. To Berkley’s surprise, the election backfired. Almost all the old burgesses were voted out of office, their places taken by local leaders, including Bacon…..When Bacon learned that Berkley had once again branded him a traitor, he declared war against Berkley and the other grandees.” (The American Promise, Pg. 93). Bacon, the leader of the poor farmers, had finally gotten in to the government and began to pass Bacon’s Laws that benefitted the farmers by pushing back Indians and cutting away taxes. Berkley, being pressured by the grandees, once again declared Bacon as a traitor, which finally pushed the poor farmers to war against the unfair higher class. The rest of the story is pretty much just fighting for a while until Bacon’s side is defeated by a very unfortunate chain of events. This rebellion might not have pushed out the grandees, but it did affect the society in many other ways.

-----Land grants prevented the quick, mass expansions of farmers in the Chesapeake Bay area. As said in the first quote of this essay, the number of farmers who needed land multiplied after the treaty was made, which forced the farmers to push on the boundary lines. The lack of land for farmers to use caused a better market for the grandees due to lack of competition, which increased the profit being made by the rich plantation owners. The mass production of tobacco by the large plantations caused lowered prices for the farmers as well. These collective negatives from the restrictive land grants made it very hard for farmers to make a living in the Chesapeake Bay area. Not only were those two issues problems for the farmers, but the Indians who fiercely protected their lands were also a major problem.

-----The land grants added to the general hatred of the Indian people because they fought anyone who tried to take their land. Ever since their arrival, hostilities have been present with the colonists and the Indians, whether it was small tensions dampened by the prospects of a new world, or heightened malicious tensions created by the greed of the colonists. The constant battles between both sides only increased these tensions, "[We must defend ourselves] against all Indians in general, for that they were all Enemies." This was the unequivocal view of Nathaniel Bacon, a young, wealthy Englishman who had recently settled in the backcountry of Virginia. The opinion that all Indians were enemies was also shared by a many other Virginians, especially those who lived in the interior." (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p274.html). People in the Virginia area already hated the Indians due to their actions against the growth of poor farms. The mindset of the poor farmers was that Indians would rather die than civilize, which caused most farmers to treat the Indians as an incurable pestilence that could only be held back by violence and discrimination. This reason was not the only one though; the other was the desires of the colonists, land. Colonists came to the New World for land, not Indians, and when the Indians fought them, they became even angrier that they couldn’t get what they wanted. This government decision created an economic class tension, racist battles that lined the borders, and eventually a whole rebellion. All of this happened because a large group of people couldn’t become successful doing what they wanted to do when they came to the New World.

-----A current example of government laws preventing the prosperity of a certain group of people is the illegal alien issue. Currently, many illegal immigrants come into our country, which has caused a problem with people in the lower states. One of the reasons it’s a problem is because it’s against the law for these people to come across in such ways. Laws have been created that say this is illegal, “Aliens found to be in violation of U.S. immigration laws may be removed from the country through a formal process (which can include penalties such as fines, imprisonment, or prohibition against future entry) or may be offered the chance to depart voluntarily (which does not preclude future entry).” (http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/70xx/doc7051/02-28-Immigration.pdf). This summarizes a legal document that prevents the illegal entry in the U.S.A., therefore preventing a whole group of people from doing work. Like in Bacon’s times, the government has passed laws that have had a greatly negative effect on a group of people, almost to the extent of stopping them from making a livelihood.

-----The unfeeling greed of the colonial government in Chesapeake Bay would be soon confronted with the fury of almost all of the population up in arms against them. Nathaniel Bacon would lead them in this attack, fueling them with his charismatic presence and successful campaigns. Sadly, the grip of death came early for their leader, with the disease of the land he promised to give to his followers, killing him with the cruel spike of irony the Mother Nature gives out daily. With him gone, the rebellion started to crumble, and seeing this, the government brought in reinforcements which finished it once and for all. Even though all hope seemed lost for these poor farmers, in want of the success that they had given all they had for, the government realized their plight. Even though Bacon had died, his ideals lived on in the people who he was involved with. The government worked with the small time farmers against the obstacles that had held them back for so long. People began to live their dreams after waiting almost half their lives. Every day, these men and women woke in the morning looking upon a new day, and remembering the foundations of what was a dream, but was now reality. Hope, cooperation, and prosperity filled this bright future and prepared it for many more to come, all because of a man, Nathaniel Bacon.



(Sorry that I could post pictures, I've been a bit straped for time so I wasn't able to do it. Your imagination should do just as well with the images I've attempted to paint in the intro and conclusion.)

Bacon's Rebellion (R.D. 2)

Bacon’s Rebellion: Land or no Land?

----------Most people haven’t heard of the Hidden Rebellion. One usually just looks over it in history class, skipping straight to the American Revolution, because it’s the most famous. Most people don’t even think where a good portion of the ideas in those founding documents came from, what the first rebellion was that spawned such ideas as “class equality” and “government relationships with people”. Not many people have heard of Nathaniel Bacon, herald of new ideas, leader of uprisings, and defender of the poor man. This man was involved in a massive rebellion in one of the first and most prosperous colonies in the New World of America, Chesapeake Bay. The government was ruled by the iron fist of greed and money, funded by the sweat and blood of the working class. When the government made a deal with the savages of the new land, they cut off the only way the poor farmer of yesterday survived, land. The Virginian land grants that were given out to the Indians caused class tension that led to Bacon’s Rebellion. If you read this paper about the massacre that has not been heard, you will find that the restrictive orders that came from the Virginian elite prevented the success of the little guy. With such restrictions, hatred and pain seeped from the cracks in society, aimed towards the Indians and those who worked with them, the grandees of tobacco.
----------Land grants caused less land to be available to the freed servants, which started a growing dislike for the grandees. The government, being mostly land owners, was not affected by the restricted land because they already had all of the land they needed. However, this was not true for the freed servants, who needed to buy more land to survive. The text book discusses this situation that created tension between the two economic classes, “The treaty that concluded the war established policies toward the Indians that the government tried to maintain over the next 30 years […]. Had the Chesapeake population remained constant, the policy might have worked. But the number of land-hungry colonists, especially poor, recently freed servants, continued to multiply. In their quest for land, they pushed beyond the treaty limits of English settlement and encroached steadily on Indian land.” (The American Promise, pg. 92). The way the first sentence is put, displays the idea that the government, which was all grandees at the time, did not need the land because they were attempting to uphold that treaty for at least 30 years. The end of the quote states that the population kept growing due to the constant expansion of freed servants, who had come for land in the first place. Being unable to get the land, they began to breach the land that was assigned to the Indian by the grants, in order to fulfill their dreams of the New World. This began to direct some anger from the colonists at the source of the grants itself, the government.
----------Having to fight Indians every day in order to make a living, the poor farmers began to think that the government didn’t care about them. When the government attempted to appease the Indians, the poor farmers just got angrier at them. Not only the Indian relationship, but lowered prices, higher taxes, and restrictive Navigation Acts greatly damaged the relationship between the government and its people. “Berkeley had refused to react to the claims that the Indians were committing murders and thefts on the frontier. The colonial governor was making a good profit from trading with the Indians, and was not willing to disrupt that business by triggering open war. Nathanial Bacon triggered the civil war (one century before the American Revolution...) by demanding a military commission that would authorize him to attack the Susquehannock Indians. [...] Bacon quickly left Jamestown, rallied a mob, and attacked innocent Occaneechi, Tutelo, and Saponi Indians.” (http://www.virginiaplaces.org/military/bacon.html) Governor Berkley, head of the government, tried to keep good relationships with the Indians, where the poor farmers saw them as a major threat to their livelihood. The government also put on seemingly excessive taxes while the economic demands for tobacco were going down, while they themselves were benefiting from the trade with the Indians, which didn’t help to improve their image with the poor farmers. As a final annoyance to the farmers, England brought up the Navigation Acts, which took even more money from them. The farmers were losing a lot of money, and it seemed to them that it didn’t affect the grandees in the government as much, which was why they were attempting to appease the enemies of the poor farmer, while also putting more barriers up for them on an economic level. The next declaration of Governor Berkley, or any of that current government, would become the straw that broke the camel’s back.
----------After things began to look up for the poor farmers, Berkley attacked their icon, provoking the beast which was Bacon’s Rebellion. Berkley had once before labeled Bacon as a traitor, but quickly took it back when he was voted into the House of Burgesses. This was the attempts at a “tactic” to appease the majority of the public, “Hoping to maintain the fragile peace on the frontier in 1676, Governor Berkley declared Bacon a rebel, threatened to punish him for treason, and called for new elections of burgesses who, Berkley believed, would endorse his get-tough policy. To Berkley’s surprise, the election backfired. Almost all the old burgesses were voted out of office, their places taken by local leaders, including Bacon…..When Bacon learned that Berkley had once again branded him a traitor, he declared war against Berkley and the other grandees.” (The American Promise, Pg. 93). Bacon, the leader of the poor farmers, had finally gotten in to the government and began to pass Bacon’s Laws that benefitted the farmers by pushing back Indians and cutting away taxes. Berkley, being pressured by the grandees, once again declared Bacon as a traitor, which finally pushed the poor farmers to war against the unfair higher class. The rest of the story is pretty much just fighting for a while until Bacon’s side is defeated by a very unfortunate chain of events. This rebellion might not have pushed out the grandees, but it did affect the society in many other ways.
----------Land grants prevented the quick, mass expansions of farmers in the Chesapeake Bay area. As said in the first quote of this essay, the number of farmers who needed land multiplied after the treaty was made, which forced the farmers to push on the boundary lines. The lack of land for farmers to use caused a better market for the grandees due to lack of competition, which increased the profit being made by the rich plantation owners. The mass production of tobacco by the large plantations caused lowered prices for the farmers as well. These collective negatives from the restrictive land grants made it very hard for farmers to make a living in the Chesapeake Bay area. Not only were those two issues problems for the farmers, but the Indians who fiercely protected their lands were also a major problem.
----------The land grants added to the general hatred of the Indian people because they fought anyone who tried to take their land. Ever since their arrival, hostilities have been present with the colonists and the Indians, whether it was small tensions dampened by the prospects of a new world, or heightened malicious tensions created by the greed of the colonists. The constant battles between both sides only increased these tensions, "[We must defend ourselves] against all Indians in general, for that they were all Enemies." This was the unequivocal view of Nathaniel Bacon, a young, wealthy Englishman who had recently settled in the backcountry of Virginia. The opinion that all Indians were enemies was also shared by a many other Virginians, especially those who lived in the interior." (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p274.html). People in the Virginia area already hated the Indians due to their actions against the growth of poor farms. The mindset of the poor farmers was that Indians would rather die than civilize, which caused most farmers to treat the Indians as an incurable pestilence that could only be held back by violence and discrimination. This reason was not the only one though; the other was the desires of the colonists, land. Colonists came to the New World for land, not Indians, and when the Indians fought them, they became even angrier that they couldn’t get what they wanted. This government decision created an economic class tension, racist battles that lined the borders, and eventually a whole rebellion. All of this happened because a large group of people couldn’t become successful doing what they wanted to do when they came to the New World.
----------A current example of government laws preventing the prosperity of a certain group of people is the illegal alien issue. Currently, many illegal immigrants come into our country, which has caused a problem with people in the lower states. One of the reasons it’s a problem is because it’s against the law for these people to come across in such ways. Laws have been created that say this is illegal, “Aliens found to be in violation of U.S. immigration laws may be removed from the country through a formal process (which can include penalties such as fines, imprisonment, or prohibition against future entry) or may be offered the chance to depart voluntarily (which does not preclude future entry).” (http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/70xx/doc7051/02-28-Immigration.pdf). This summarizes a legal document that prevents the illegal entry in the U.S.A., therefore preventing a whole group of people from doing work. Like in Bacon’s times, the government has passed laws that have had a greatly negative effect on a group of people, almost to the extent of stopping them from making a livelihood.
----------The class tensions that began Bacon’s Rebellion were caused by the Virginian land grants. Poor farmers began to appear in mass quantities due to the amount of freed servants. These people needed more land to grow crops, but began to push more towards the Indians in an attempt to satisfy themselves. The Indians attacked the farmers who intruded, which caused the government to pass land grants to prevent these conflicts, but with a boundary on the land, and an ever-growing supply of farmers, this boundary was constantly pushed, causing the Indians to fight even more fiercely than before. With the government one of the groups involved in the land grants that provided these hardships for the farmers, there originated some tension between the poor and the government. Indians had also fought colonists in other places and had gone on massive attacks before, lowering the colonists liking for them. When a man began to lead these people to a better way, the government interfered once again, increasing the tensions to such levels that it broke and began a rebellion. The hatred of Indians and a constant vigilance towards the relationship with government and people remained a constant in the Chesapeake Bay area before and after the rebellion. Such problems are still around today, though in different forms. The most obvious problem is the immigration problem. The government has passed laws towards the prevention of illegal immigrants, and so the large masses of illegal people are being affected to the point that they almost can’t work. This creates mixed feeling towards all sides involved, hatred of the laws by the immigrants, hatred of the immigrants by people, and hatred of the situation by all three. The hidden rebellion that is Bacon’s Rebellion brought up the issue of the relationship between government and people, that laws should be investigated thoroughly before being passed, and that the people should always have a say in the government, or else you’re going to have a rebellion on your hands.

Bacon's Rebellion (R.D.)

----- Land grants caused less land to be available to the freed servants, which started a growing dislike for the grandees. The government, being mostly land owners, was not affected by the restricted land because they already had all of the land they needed. However, this was not true for the freed servants, who needed to buy more land to survive. The text book discusses this situation that created tension between the two economic classes, “The treaty that concluded the war established policies toward the Indians that the government tried to maintain over the next 30 years……Had the Chesapeake population remained constant, the policy might have worked. But the number of land-hungry colonists, especially poor, recently freed servants, continued to multiply. In their quest for land, they pushed beyond the treaty limits of English settlement and encroached steadily on Indian land.” (The American Promise, pg. 92). The way the first sentence is put, displays the idea that the government, which was all grandees at the time, did not need the land because they were attempting to uphold that treaty for at least 30 years. The end of the quote states that the population kept growing due to the constant expansion of freed servants, who had come for land in the first place. Being unable to get the land, they began to breach the land that was assigned to the Indian by the grants, in order to fulfill their dreams of the New World. This began to direct some anger from the colonists at the source of the grants itself, the government.
-----Having to fight Indians every day in order to make a living, the poor farmers began to think that the government didn’t care about them. When the government attempted to appease the Indians, the poor farmers just got angrier at them. Not only the Indian relationship, but lowered prices, higher taxes, and restrictive Navigation Acts greatly damaged the relationship between the government and its people, “Governor Berkeley strove to treat American Indians equitably and to distinguish carefully between American Indian allies and foes. Regardless, many colonists, particularly those located on the western frontier, were deeply suspicious of all American Indians….. Indian relations were further exacerbated by a depressed tobacco economy, anger over what were perceived to be excessive taxes, and displeasure with the restrictions on trade as a result of England's Navigation Acts.” (http://www.bookrags.com/research/bacons-rebellion-aaw-01/). As it says in the beginning, Governor Berkley, head of the government, tried to keep good relationships with the Indians, where the poor farmers saw them as a major threat to their livelihood. The government also put on seemingly excessive taxes while the economic demands for tobacco were going down, which didn’t help to improve their image with the poor farmers. As a final annoyance to the farmers, England brought up the Navigation Acts, which took even more money from them. The farmers were losing a lot of money, and it seemed to them that it didn’t affect the grandees in the government as much, which was why they were attempting to appease the enemies of the poor farmer, while also putting more barriers up for them on an economic level. The next declaration of Governor Berkley, or any of that current government, would become the straw that broke the camel’s back.
-----After things began to look up for the poor farmers, Berkley attacked their icon, provoking the beast which was Bacon’s Rebellion. Berkley had once before labeled Bacon as a traitor, but quickly took it back when he was voted into the House of Burgesses. This was the attempts at a “tactic” to appease the majority of the public, “Hoping to maintain the fragile peace on the frontier in 1676, Governor Berkley declared Bacon a rebel, threatened to punish him for treason, and called for new elections of burgesses who, Berkley believed, would endorse his get-tough policy. To Berkley’s surprise, the election backfired. Almost all the old burgesses were voted out of office, their places taken by local leaders, including Bacon…..When Bacon learned that Berkley had once again branded him a traitor, he declared war against Berkley and the other grandees.” (The American Promise, Pg. 93). Bacon, the leader of the poor farmers, had finally gotten in to the government and began to pass Bacon’s Laws that benefitted the farmers by pushing back Indians and cutting away taxes. Berkley, being pressured by the grandees, once again declared Bacon as a traitor, which finally pushed the poor farmers to war against the unfair higher class. The rest of the story is pretty much just fighting for a while until Bacon’s side is defeated by a very unfortunate chain of events. This rebellion might not have pushed out the grandees, but it did affect the society in many other ways.
----- Land grants prevented the quick, mass expansions of farmers in the Chesapeake Bay area. As said in the first quote of this essay, the number of farmers who needed land multiplied after the treaty was made, which forced the farmers to push on the boundary lines. The lack of land for farmers to use caused a better market for the grandees due to lack of competition, which increased the profit being made by the rich plantation owners. The mass production of tobacco by the large plantations caused lowered prices for the farmers as well. These collective negatives from the restrictive land grants made it very hard for farmers to make a living in the Chesapeake Bay area. Not only were those two issues problems for the farmers, but the Indians who fiercely protected their lands were also a major problem.
-----The land grants added to the general hatred of the Indian people because they fought anyone who tried to take their land. Ever since their arrival, hostilities have been present with the colonists and the Indians, whether it was small tensions dampened by the prospects of a new world, or heightened malicious tensions created by the greed of the colonists. The constant battles between both sides only increased these tensions, "Hostilities between colonists and American Indian tribes were omnipresent in the second half of the seventeenth century. In New England, Metacom's War devastated the landscape in 1675-76, and New Englanders were, according to Gary Nash, indeed fighting for their lives. At war's end several thousand colonists and twice as many Indians were dead. Twelve Puritan towns were destroyed and another forty attacked by the resisting tribes. Indian villages were even more devastated. The lessons of such a war reverberated throughout the colonies: Many Indian nations "were prepared to risk extinction rather than become a colonized and culturally imperialized people," and they would go to great lengths, particularly by banding together in confederation, to defend their way of life, their survival.” (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/us_labor_history/105076). People in the Virginia area already hated the Indians due to the attacks they did against fellow colonists in other regions. The mindset of the poor farmers was that Indians would rather die than civilize, which caused most farmers to treat the Indians as an incurable pestilence that could only be held back by violence and discrimination. This reason was not the only one though; the other was the desires of the colonists, land. Colonists came to the New World for land, not Indians, and when the Indians fought them, they became even angrier that they couldn’t get what they wanted. This government decision, created an economic class tension, racist battles that lined the borders, and eventually a whole rebellion, all because a large group of people couldn’t become successful doing what they wanted to do when they came to the New World.
-----A current example of government laws preventing the prosperity of a certain group of people is the illegal alien issue. Currently, many illegal immigrants come into our country, which has caused a problem with people in the lower states. One of the reasons it’s a problem is because it’s against the law for these people to come across in such ways. Laws have been created that say this is illegal, “A person (including a group of persons, business, organization, or local government) commits a federal felony when she or he: 1- Assists an alien s/he should reasonably know is illegally in the U.S. or who lacks employment authorization, by transporting, sheltering, or assisting him or her to obtain employment, or 2- Encourages that alien to remain in the U.S. by referring him or her to an employer or by acting as employer or agent for an employer in any way, or 3- Knowingly assists illegal aliens due to personal convictions.” (http://www.americanpatrol.com/REFERENCE/AidAbetUnlawfulSec8USC1324.html). This summarizes a legal document that prevents people helping illegal aliens by punishment of law. It also prohibits illegal aliens to come into the country or to be helped by anyone in this country, which prevents illegal immigrants to work in the U.S. Like in Bacon’s times, the government has passed a law that has had a greatly negative effect on a group of people, almost to the extent of stopping them from working.


Side Note: (I am very sorry that I am not in today. The combination of my cold and the after-effects of my weekend event aren't doing to well for me.)

AoD Post #2

The U.S. government is evaluating the dangers of using Blackwater, due to its previous actions in the killing of innocent civilians.

This action is an example of evaluation because the U.S. government is using the lessons they have learned in the previous action of hiring Blackwater by doing a security review. Blackwater is heavily relied upon by the U.S. government. When Blackwater does anything, they mostly represent the American army and therefore America's government. Blackwater was protecting a U.S. embassy when they apparently killed 17 innocent civilians. This caused some trouble for the U.S. with the Iraqi government, meaning that our government ran to checking the problem. They learned that perhaps hiring military mercenaries that run and shoot like cowboys is a bad idea because it usually hurts your PR with not only your own, but other countries. They are now considering 2 other soldier-hiring businesses that might perform better than Blackwater. They have also realized certain points that should be present in a hired force: the handling of suspicious situations, whether or not the "cowboy-mentality" affects performance in these situations, and whether of not a foreign force is necessary to protect U.S. embassies and such. Even though the review is not yet completed, restrictive measures are also being temporarily put in place by the government to prevent such mistakes from happening again. These actions and outlines display the governments evaluation of the Blackwater incident. Another issue the evaluation may bring up is that using foreign contractors is a bad idea in the first place because they aren't 100% controlled by the government, whereas the army is.

The Outline of Bacon

Title/Thesis:
The land grants being given out to the Indians by the Virginian government caused the mass tension between grandees and poor farmers that became the rebellion.
I. Land grants caused less land to be available to the freed servants, which started a growing dislike for the grandees.
A. The government being mostly land owners, was not affected by the restricted land because they already had all of the land they needed, whereas the freed servants needed to buy more land to survive.
1. “The treaty that concluded the war established policies toward the Indians that the government tried to maintain over the next 30 years……Had the Chesapeake population remained constant, the policy might have worked. But the number of land-hungry colonists, especially poor, recently freed servants, continued to multiply. In their quest for land, they pushed beyond the treaty limits of English settlement and encroached steadily on Indian land.” The American Promise, pg. 92.
a. The way the first sentence is put displays the idea that the government, which was all grandees at the time, did not need the land because they were attempting to uphold that treaty for at least 30 years.
b. The end of the quote states that the population kept growing due to the constant expansion of freed servants, who had come for land in the first place.
c. Being unable to get the land, they began to breach the Indian lands in order to fulfill their dreams of the New World.
II. Main Idea
B. Having to fight Indians every day in order to make a living, the poor farmers began to think that the government didn’t care about them.
2. “Governor Berkeley strove to treat American Indians equitably and to distinguish carefully between American Indian allies and foes. Regardless, many colonists, particularly those located on the western frontier, were deeply suspicious of all American Indians….. Indian relations were further exacerbated by a depressed tobacco economy, anger over what were perceived to be excessive taxes, and displeasure with the restrictions on trade as a result of England's Navigation Acts.” http://www.bookrags.com/research/bacons-rebellion-aaw-01/
a. As it says in the first part, Governor Berkley, head of the government, tried to keep good relationships with the Indians, where the poor farmers saw them as a major threat to their livelihood.
b. The government also put on seemingly excessive taxes while the economic demands for tobacco were going down, which didn’t help to improve their image with the poor farmers.
c. As a final annoyance to the farmers, England brought up the Navigation Acts, which took even more money from them.
d. The farmers were losing a lot of money, and it seemed to them that it didn’t affect the grandees in the government as much which kept things as they were.
III. Main Idea
C. After things began to look up for the poor farmers, Berkley attacked again, provoking the beast which was Bacon’s Rebellion.
3. “Hoping to maintain the fragile peace on the frontier in 1676, Governor Berkley declared Bacon a rebel, threatened to punish him for treason, and called for new elections of burgesses who, Berkley believed, would endorse his get-tough policy. To Berkley’s surprise, the election backfired. Almost all the old burgesses were voted out of office, their places taken by local leaders, including Bacon…..When Bacon learned that Berkley had once again branded him a traitor, he declared war against Berkley and the other grandees.” The American Promise, Pg. 93
a. Bacon, the leader of the poor farmers, had finally gotten in to the government and began to pass laws that benefitted the farmers.
b. Berkley, being pressured by the grandees, once again declared Bacon as a traitor, which finally pushed the poor farmers to war against the unfair higher class.
IV. Main Idea
D. Land grants prevented the quick, mass expansions of farmers in the Chesapeake Bay area.
4. As said in the first quote, the number of farmers who needed land multiplied after the treaty was made, which forced the farmers to push on the boundary lines.
a. The lack of land for farmers to use caused a better market for the grandees due to lack of competition, which increased the profit being made by the rich plantation owners.
b. The lack of land and lowered tobacco prices in England made it much harder for farmers to make a living.
V. Main Idea
E. The land grants added to the general hatred of the Indian people.
5. "Hostilities between colonists and American Indian tribes were omnipresent in the second half of the seventeenth century. In New England, Metacom's War devastated the landscape in 1675-76, and New Englanders were, according to Gary Nash, indeed fighting for their lives. At war's end several thousand colonists and twice as many Indians were dead. Twelve Puritan towns were destroyed and another forty attacked by the resisting tribes. Indian villages were even more devastated. The lessons of such a war reverberated throughout the colonies: Many Indian nations "were prepared to risk extinction rather than become a colonized and culturally imperialized people," and they would go to great lengths, particularly by banding together in confederation, to defend their way of life, their survival.” http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/us_labor_history/105076
a. People already hated the Indians due to the attacks they did against colonists in other regions.
b. The mindset that Indians would rather die than civilize, set the way most farmers treated the Indians, as an incurable pestilence that could only be held back for a while.
c. That is the reason farmers fought against the Indians, as well as the reason that they needed more land.
VI. Main Idea
F. A current example of government laws preventing the prosperity of a certain group of people is with illegal aliens.
6. “A person (including a group of persons, business, organization, or local government) commits a federal felony when she or he:
* Assists an alien s/he should reasonably know is illegally in the U.S. or who lacks employment authorization, by transporting, sheltering, or assisting him or her to obtain employment, or
* Encourages that alien to remain in the U.S. by referring him or her to an employer or by acting as employer or agent for an employer in any way, or
* Knowingly assists illegal aliens due to personal convictions.” http://www.americanpatrol.com/REFERENCE/AidAbetUnlawfulSec8USC1324.html
a. This summarizes a legal document that prevents people helping illegal aliens by punishment of law.
b. This law prohibits illegal aliens to come into the country or to be helped by anyone in this country, which prevents illegal immigrants to work in the U.S.
c. Like in Bacon’s times, the government passed a law that had a greatly negative effect on a group of people, almost to the extent of stopping them from working.

Mmmmm, Bacon (6) [2nd Draft]

Treaties with Indians by the Virgian government needed lack of growth for successful execution.

Recently freed servants required land to make a living, and therefore had to infringe upon the treaties.

This caused the poor farmers to think that the government prized their relations with the Indians more than the expansion of the low-class farmer.

Since the grandees filleed almost all of the government positions, the poor farmers began to dislike the grandees.

This piled upon the already present dislike of the grandees due to the grandees working the farmers extremley hard back when they were indetured servants, which made the relationship between the grandees/governement and the poor farmers very tense.

Governor Berkley attempted to quell this tension by declaring their main leader, Nathaniel Bacon, a rebel.

Berkley decided afterwards that he might attempt to quell this a different way, by holding elections for the House of Burgeses after a 15-year long period of the same Burgesses.

This backfired due to all of the Burgesses being voted out, with their replacements actually being the main proponents of the hate towards the grandees, one of these men being Nathaneil Bacon.

Berkley tried to leave this alone by holding an Indian campaign, but the grandees convinced him to hold Bacon as a rebel again after he passed a few laws in favor of his fellow farmers.

This caused a war between Bacon's men and Berkley with the grandees.

Bacon and his men fought Indians, pillaged grandee houses, and disrupted grandee lives.

Berkley and his men retaliated by burning Bacon supporting homes.

Bacon's side was losing and was struck by the final blow when Bacon died of disease near the time when Berkley's reinforcements came in from England.

Although the rebellion ended horribly, it actually directed the governments eyes towards a solution, the Indians.

Instead of giving treaties, the government actually supported poor farmers going into Indian lands to build farms, which relieved the tension between grandee and farmer.


Sources:
http://www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jthanout/BacRebel.html
A slightly opinionated site about Bacon and the history surrounding.

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0805681.html
a small summary of Bacon's Rebellion

Tobacco, Killer Through Time (6)

Since the start of tobacco distribution to the present day, this business has weakened the lives and cultures of many innocent people due to merciless greed. When tobacco farming was in its infancy at the discovery of the Virginia colony, it was and expensive product, which meant large amounts of money for farmers. As they began to grow more, they killed Indians and took out their villages in order to have more lands to farm, which would give them more money. Wars started because of the invasion of Indian land, and massive slaughtering happened, all because of tobacco farming. As servants left, slaves came in to work on these plantations, and the cruelties that happened to slaves demoralized, disabled, and even killed them. Now, the processes of growing and maintaining tobacco doesn't exploit the workers or kill off people, instead the distribution of tobacco does. Large tobacco companies lie constantly about their products, in order to get a larger market. They manipulate the product in order to almost force people into buying more after the first try, due to many addictive substances now contained within cigarettes. They make promises to improve PR, but these promises end up tainted, put off, or completely ignored. Not only promises are ignored, but evidence as well. Tobacco companies only post the fatal facts of smoking when pressed to by law. Documentaries, websites, and articles that display the risks of smoking are put down or discredited by the large tobacco companies, which increase sales, and therefore disabilities and fatalities. Back then, like now, no one is preventing the rampage of tobacco companies in the market, where they drain funds and lives from many people every day. An example of this is my grandpa. He was ensnared in the greedy clutches of the tobacco companies. He smoked, like many others, and the companies triumphed over them. He died of lung cancer before I was even ten, and actually might have lived if the tobacco companies hadn't kept the fatal information of their products. From the English colonies of Virginia, to the modern homes of many citizens, tobacco has killed cultures and damaged families.

AoD, Post #1

Two days ago I had a discussion with my dad where I actively listened about his work. Apparently, he was getting his new product certified and ready to sell to one of his customers. The problem was that his business partners, a company that allowed his company to build this new product, was being slightly un-cooperative. They wanted him to buy a certain number of product units from them before a certain date, or else they could terminate the agreement, which would be bad for both of them actually, just the owner of the partner business was young and had enough money to cushion a mistake. I was talking to him to learn about business a little more and to see if I could help him, maybe.

I unknowingly used the proper principles of active listening during the full length of the discussion. During the beginning, my dad brought the subject up as something to talk about during dinner. I then encouraged him to elaborate on the subject, so I could learn more about it. He told me that his business was getting ready to sell their new product, but their business partners were being stubborn. They wanted his business to order 500 of the products, and nobody would buy that many at first, plus they needed to see how the product would do in the market first. Their partners went on the reactions of their consumers when told of this new product, and thought they had better make 500 units for sale without first testing the market completely. I started to get some ideas about how to fix the situations, which I then presented to my dad. We discussed the subject and ways to fix it for 2 hours, and I eventually thought that baiting the partner business by telling them they would order more after the testing, was a good idea. This would prevent the partner business from becoming angry and leaving the deal, but would be enough time to get money from the project along with proper information to get rid of any doubts (or add to them). After that would be completed, my dad's business could attack the other businesses that he they believed were copying parts from their product, and the money would flow in. I believe he agreed with some parts of my idea, such as attempting to find a mediation between both the companies, and the investigations of his competitors products. In the end, I learned something new about his business and how to deal within business, and also something new about how my dad worked in certain situations.

ARG's (5)

We had to read the article on ARG's because we will most likely do one of these in class. It seems pretty understandable, but I still have a couple questions and concerns. First off, what type of enviorment will we be using for the ARG? Would it be the classroom, our lives I general, what? Secondly, I would like to know what makes it different from real life. Thirdly, I'm a bit worried about this no enemy thing. It said in the article that a game needs a big opponent, and thatif that is what a game needs, than an ARG isn't a game. I would find it hard to be in some type of gamish thing that has no overwhelming conflict. It would just seem like a chat room or something like animal crossing, blah. Anyways thoose are my only concerns and questions, as for your second question, I would assume that this ARG would grow realationships with other people in the class. It might also teach certain lessons that could benefit me later on in life.

My Feelings On Community Service (4)

This last Friday Some other students of PSEC and I went to the house of a man and a woman. IO cannot say their names because: 1, I'm not allowed to, and 2, I forgot anyways. This house was in need of some clean up, which we were to do. I helped clean roofs, chimneys, and gardens, while my other PSEC-ians did other chores around the house. While doing said chores, I noticed the guy walking around constantly while telling us little things we should also be looking for. Now, I had originally thought that both the man and wife (who actually wasn't there) had disabilities that prohibited them from taking care of the house, but it seemed as though only the wife had such problems (which was why she wasn't there), where as the husband seemed a-OK. Now I am aware that some problems aren't as visible as others, but half the time he actually refereed to him doing the job in the past as an example for me to follow while doing the chores, which led me to believe he could actually have done them all himself. Instead of leaving the scene after almost 2 hours or so of work with a warm, fuzzy feeling that you get from helping those with problems, I left with the feeling of emptiness and slight wonder as to why the man didn't do the chores around the house himself. I'm not trying to be offensive to the guy, but he didn't seem to have any physical or mental problems that stopped him from doing the chores. Anyways, it wasn't too bad, I got a bit dirty, and almost fell through the roof a couple times, but it wasn't a horrible experience. In fact, I've never been in an area like his before. I am actually a very sheltered child, an example is I got cable TV when I was 11, and my first video game (not including those crappy learning ones) when I was 10. I learned my first cuss word in middle school, and my first public school was actually in ninth grade. So the whole impoverished situation was new to me. So that is what I felt over-all for the whole community service project on Friday.

This post was not meant to offend anyone, but if you were offended, comment of the post, and i might reply with an answer. Maybe.