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slavery in American society
Thomas Paine, “Common Sense” 1776 (essay)
slavery in American society
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Thomas Paine In September of 1776, on the outskirts of Newark, among the tired, discouraged, soldiers, as they paused from their daily retreat, sat Thomas Paine. He wrote many papers that would have a major effect on the outcome of the quest for independence. Born the son of a Quaker Laymaker on January 29th, 1737 at Thetford, Norfolk England. He received a basic elementary education, and started to work for his father as an apprentice, and later as an excise officer. He was not a huge success at either, and was in fact fired twice from the job as an excise officer. When he arrived in Philadelphia on November 30th 1774, he was sick and feverish, and had to be carried on a stretcher. With a letter of recommendation from Ben Franklin, he was accepted into a hospital and given special care, until he recovered. With that same letter from Ben Franklin, he found many doors opened for him, including jobs tutoring many of the sons of the wealthiest men in Philadelphia. Paine started over again, by publishing African Slavery In America, in the spring of 1775, in which he criticized slavery in America as being unjust and inhumane. At about this same time, he became the co-editor for the Pennsylvania Magazine. When he arrived in Philadelphia, Paine noticed the tension, and the rebellious attitude, that was continually getting larger, after the Boston Tea Party. In Paine's opinion, the Colonies had all the right to revolt against a government that imposed taxes on them, and which did not give them the right of representation in the Parliament at Westminster. Then he went one massive step further, he decided there was no reason for the Colonies to stay dependent on England. He published his opinions in the American independence pamphlet Common Sense. In Common Sense Paine states that sooner or later Independence from England must come, because America had lost touch with the mother country. He felt that the function of government in society was to only be a regulator, and thus pretty simple. His strong beliefs made him a major influence on the Declaration Of Independence. He joined General Washington in his battle against General Howe in the War of Independence. Where he motivated many downhearted soldiers who needed reassurance. The retreating of General Washington's army was a slow, daily affair. Being an Englishman himself, Paine knew that the British enemy, would not take the Revolutionary Army seriously and was familiar with tactics of the English Army, and could advise the Revolutionary Army of what was to be expected. The English were polite in the way that they did not attack at night.
In sum, many colonists were killed for various reasons. These reasons include sickness and disease, lack of resources, and where Jamestown was chosen to be built. This analysis was important because it included most of the main reasons why many Jamestown colonists
was a school master. At the age of 16 he left school to work as a wool
...vement was also a trouble, Smith died when returning to Jamestown after an expedition. Both men had the goal and dream of setting up a new town in which they wanted as their own or as a place to start new. Smith and Winthrop achieved their ambition and are remembered in history for it.
all men should be educated and have the ability to read so that they might learn
Unlike Plymouth, the colonists in Jamestown did not have good relationships with the Native Americans. This caused them to kill each other, thinning the colonists’ numbers even more. The colonists did not realize that their movements into the New World angered the 15,000 Powhatan Native Americans already living there. Document D by Ivor Noel Hume, The Virginia Adventure, Alfred A. Knopf, 1994 shows how a trading incident went haywire. In 1609, “Francis West and thirty-six men sailed up the Chesapeake Bay to try to trade for corn with the Patawomeck Indians…” This event proved to be futile, since the Indians did not want to trade and the “success” involved killing the Native Americans. Their horrible relationship with the Native Americans was shown again in Document E by J. Frederick Fausz, in the book “An Abundance of Bloodshed on Both Sides: England’s First Indian War, 1609-1614,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, January 1990. On may 26, 2 colonists are the first to die ever in the colony by an “Indian attack on Fort James.” The next event written down explains how at least 3 more colonists fall to the Native American ambushes. In addition, in December, the Pamunkey Native Americans kill 2 more colonists. The last two events stated show that of the 100 men at Nansemond, the Native Americans kill half of them, leaving the men at Nansemond with only 50 left. In addition, the last
A lot of the colonists died because of starvation. In document B it shows a timeline that shows about how long they went with it raining and not raining. The longest unbroken time they went without rain was year 1610. Due to the drought none of their crops could grow because they needed to keep some of the rainwater to drink. During this time they barely had food for everyone to eat and they barely had enough water for everyone to drink. According to document B this time period was known as the ‘starving time”. In document D Francis West sailed up the Chesapeake Bay to hopefully trade corn with the Patawomkeke Indians. In document D they knew that the supply would last them to their way back to Jamestown. But no one thought that the
Jamestown’s first major error that resulted in countless colonists’ deaths was their location. The Jamestown colony was located on an island. (Doc A) The island bordered the James River that was full of brackish water. Brackish water is a mixture of salt water from an ocean and fresh water from a river that often causes dehydration and disease. In the very first summer, half of the colonists perished due to illness. (Doc E) Because of the lack of clean fresh water there were very few animals that lived on the island, which made hunting increasingly difficult for the colonists. It was also shown that this ...
If the people believe they need government, then give them the type of government that gives them the illusion of sovereignty. In a democracy, the people are allowed to vote for their next leader. Voting gives the people the feeling that they are actually participating in their government. In a democracy there is a general will set by the majority. The people would need to create a constitution in order to protect the minorities. According to James Madison in Federalist 10, a majority rule in necessary. He says that no man should be allowed to judge his own actions because his judgement would be biased towards
One way the settler skills had to do with the deaths in jamestown is the people who were brought were mostly
The end was nigh for the settlers of Jamestown. In 1607, three English ships housing at least one hundred passengers sailed up the James River forming the first permanent English settlement. But by 1611, eighty percent of the population of Jamestown have died. Why did so many settlers die? There were many causes for this. But three of them were the most effective: Drought, disease, and the choice of passengers.
just wanted a job, he went from place to place trying as hard as he
They were unprepared for life in the wilderness. Most had the impression that everything would be easy in the new world. The men and boys who first settled in Jamestown were townsmen and gentlemen. “They had come expecting to find gold, friendly Indians, and easy living.” (America: A Narrative History, 57) This information was given to them before making the journey to the new world. The settles were also told they would be provided with everything they would need, but supplies from England were undependable. When they arrived there was no town or any shelter waiting for them. They had to learn how to hunt and grow their own food, which they were not use to or even knew how to do in this untamed world. Captain John Smith took charge of the colony ensuring that of the 38 original survivors had to pull their own weight. He used various means to archive his goals and through his efforts Jamestown pulled through. After a period called the “Starving Time,” (America: A Narrative History, 60), where most of the colonist died, a man named John Rolfe provided a way for the colony to survive. He was able to acquire tobacco seeds from the Spanish and with it he made the colony a source of trade (America: A Narrative History, 61). Tobacco and other grown good where used to improve the lives of the colonies, but their daily lives were still very harsh as they were
accountant at a Big Eight accounting firm, Baker Greenleaf. He was given the duty of
him to go to the land where his brothers were fighting a war against the