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American Studies 100
Wednesday, March 25th, 1999
Announcements:Extension on final paper.
It is now due on April 23, 1999.
There is no recitation for the week of April 19 - 23, but we will meet
at normal class time on FRIDAY to
turn in the final papers.
Second mid-term on March 31, 1999
Review on Monday, March 29th
Lecture notes:
Westering as an Expansion of
the Slave System
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Frontier of Slavery
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Prime motivation of the South and Southwest was to
expand slavery and plantations
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Between the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg
Address, America was balancing on a knife's edge over the issue of slavery
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Cultural Paranoia during the years leading up to
the Civil War.
"Declaration of Independence" -
Thomas Jefferson
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Usually divided into three parts
- Preamble
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List of Abuses
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Declaration
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It takes the form of a petition, but it is more in
the form of a slave petition
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Audiences
- King
George III
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English Parliament
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American People (mostly higher class, educated)
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People and Governments of the world
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Universal laws of Nature
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"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal,...."
- Is it
just that all white men are created equal?
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Equal in Ability?
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Men and women are equal?
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All landowners are equal?
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*All are created equal, but we do not live equal
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By virtue of being created we are all equal
- Unalienable
Rights - Cannot be taken away
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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness"
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The rough draft of the Declaration
- Jefferson
wrote more on the issue of slavery
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King George III was blamed and held responsible for slavery
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Morale outrage
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The other delegates would not sign the first version because most owned
slaves
- Jefferson
owned many slaves, yet he was against slavery
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Cannot eliminate the contradiction
"The American Scholar" - Ralph
W. Emerson (1837)
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Identity
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What American Philosophy/Culture should or could
be
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Three main ideas in essay
- The
Sources
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The Role
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The Projection
- Nature
- "opposite of the mind or soul", the vastness of the mind
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Past - there is a newness with each generation
~ Books
~ Old books do not fit in new generations
~ Old books are not going to give one the truth about their time period,
one must find their own truth
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Action - One can have practical knowledge, but the knowledge is not complete
without experience
- Individual
- "free and brave"
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Learn how culture and the individual work
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"Man Thinking"
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Be a guide
- Three
things scholars should do
~ Newness
~ Study high and low class
~ Individualism
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