Welcome to the blog site for History 412 Section 38277 at the University of Kansas for Fall 2007. We meet regularly on Thursdays at 12pm in Wescoe 4001. Lon Strauss is your discussion leader.
This blog is a more casual environment to foster discussion and your understanding of the course readings and lectures. Your participation here will count toward your overall discussion grade. Please be respectful to each other, but don't be afraid to disagree or play devil's advocate. Have fun with the subject matter.
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7 comments:
If in the constitution the slave trade was to end in 1808, after 1808 what would have been more profitable for the seller and buyer, illegally shipping slaves from Africa or breeding them here in America? What would be the advantage to getting slaves from Africa, rather than in America?
That's a good point. Although I think it would be more profitable to bring over vast amounts of kidnapped slaves from Africa. In America slaves would have to be purchased and then "bred" over a number of years. To me this sounds like a more costly operation.
I guess the one thing that I've thought about after reading the Northup book and listening to the lectures is how consistent was the practice of kidnapping free northern african-americans? After 1808 there were obviously a few ways to increase the slave population, whether it be illegally from Africa or the north or by just breeding from your present population, but there definitely had to be a large demand if people were so willing to kidnap human beings.
One thing that grabbed my attention in the reading this week was the opposition of southerners to homesteading in the west. It seems very interesting to note that even though homesteading was something meant to benefit free whites and settle new territory, the south saw it as a threat to slavery and their way of life.
I think now at this time the south is considering just about everything the North does a threat to their way of life. It seems that Southerners have gripped a total paranoia against the north. You would think that expanding America and helping whites would be fantastic for all, but the south has begun to think in a secular way and is basically beginning its total decent into North V South battle.
It is crazy that the tension between north and south got so thick that it actually turned into violence on the floor of the senate. I mean, a senator being beaten in his own desk by a congressman with his cane, you can't even make that up.
Throughout all of the readings that the class has covered so far, I get the impression that the south had clearly given the impression that it was either their way or the highway. It seems as though everyone was walking on eggshells in order for the south not to secede. It seemed as though people knew the south, would leave the union in due time.
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