Philanthropy Bibliography

Sources

"J.K. Rowling - Philanthropic People." Philanthropic People. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2016.            

  <http://www.philanthropicpeople.com/profiles/j-k-rowling/>.

"J.K. Rowling OBE." J.K. Rowling OBE | Philanthropy Impact. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2016. <http://www.philanthropy-impact.org/inspiration/personal-stories/jk-rowling-obe>.

N.p., n.d. Web. <https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/child-welfare-2/80-orphans-families-j-k-rowlings-lumos-raising-awareness-orphanages/12898>.

"About." About | Lumos. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2016. <https://wearelumos.org/about>.

Book Cover

I added the part about the tycoons to show the significance of this time period to history.  The train shows the importance of railroads during this time.  The picture of Ford's Factory shows the massive amount of workers available to the companies.

SCM cocoa production

Today I learned more about supply chain management.  The cocoa farmers in Africa live in poverty because they are at the bottom of the supply chain.  Even though the demand for cocoa is rising each year the cocoa farmers are making less money each year. When a farm begins to fail the families are not able to get new trees or heal the ones they have because their profit keeps falling.  This leads to the farmers abandoning their farms and moving into the cities most of which are not ready to take on the rise in population.  The farmers use their children as free labor to help on the farm because of this they are not able to get an education and they will have no choice but to run the failing family farm.  Big chocolate companies are now setting up schools for the children and paying higher prices for beans that have not been involved in child labor.  Nestle is now making efforts to track their entire supply chain of all of the 12 main ingredients of chocolate.  By 2016 they plan to track 50 % of the supply of the 12 main ingredients.

Smoke Signals

In the film Smoke Signals the characters are heavily influenced by Native American history and Native American Stereotypes.  One way that they are shaped by this is by struggling with the stereotypes and history of their people, but they also are able to find power and meaning in their history and traditions.

Victor and Thomas were affected by Indian stereotypes created by white people.  They used these stereotypes to shape themselves into the Indians America wanted to see.  In an attempt to look tough like Victor thought an Indian should Thomas takes out his braids while off the reservation and also changes out of his suit.  Victor told him he had to look tough or the white people will not respect him.  He told Thomas to look as if he had just killed a buffalo, but the tribe they were from was made up of fisherman.  Victor thought it would be more important to fit the American stereotype of an Indian rather than show the actual history of his tribe.  These stereotypes helped shape who Victor and Thomas' cultural identity without even staying true to the history of their tribe.

The characters were able to find comfort in participating in Indian rituals.  Victor and Arnold participated in the Indian ritual of cutting your hair while mourning.  Victor cut his hair while mourning Arnold's death and eventually comes to terms with his relationship with Arnold.  Arnold cut his hair after causing the fire that killed Thomas' parents, but many years later he still kept his hair short because he was never able to forgive himself for what he had done.  Victor also took Arnold's ashes the river and spread them which demonstrated the Indians strong connection with nature.  Through letting Thomas participate in the spreading of Arnold's ashes Victor gave Thomas a sense of pride and belonging to the tribe.  Another way the Indians used their rituals was the communal feasts they had where Victor's mom would cook frye bread for the whole community.  This was a way of preserving the Indian communal lifestyle that was destroyed by the whites. The rituals that the Indians struggled to preserve brought a sense of pride and peace to the Indian community in the movie.

The Indians in Smoke Signals were made in to what they are today through a combination of struggle and pride with their culture.  They were able to find comfort and joy in the traditions of their community, but also have to struggle with the burden of stereotypes and the struggle of their people.

                                                                                                                                    Wyatt Robinson

The Swastika in Native American Culture

The Swastika was used by Native Americans long before the Nazis adopted the symbol.  The Native Americans often reffered to it as whirling log and it had a meaning of prosperity and positivity.  It was very popular with the mound builders who lived along the Mississippi River and in the Ohio valley.

Sources
Swastika in Native American Culture
native american jewelry

Los Angeles Newspapers

Today I read old newspapers from Los Angeles in the 1870s.  The main newspaper in Los Angeles was called the Los Angeles Herald and it was printed daily.  There were many articles written about attempts to make sugar from beets.  People had trouble growing large amounts of sugar cane after the end of slavery because labor was much more expensive and many of the trials to make sugar from beats were happening in California.  Another interesting story was similar to something you would see in the news today, a man called Yankee Jim robbed mines around San Diego and claimed to steal from the rich to give to the poor.  The newspaper wrote about the trial and jury and eventually his sentencing to be hung.  One story was about  man who tried to stay on a pacific coast train after his ticket expired and was tossed overboard, the transpacific railroad was fined 400 dollars for damages.  There were also advertisements similar to what you could see today such as furniture stores claiming to have the lowest prices and people offering jobs.

Sources

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

http://web.csulb.edu/~odinthor/socal6.html

http://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_City_Views%20(1800s).html

Human Trafficking

  Human Trafficking has become a considerable problem around the globe  It exists everywhere but some factors make a country or region more susceptible than others.  Developing countries such as India have a lot of trouble fighting human trafficking due to an inability to provide a stable life for victims after they have escaped, insufficient police training regarding the subject, and the belief that there is a group of people that it is acceptable to victimize due to social status, religion, or ethnicity.  Also in many countries the government is corrupt and can be paid to look te other way, it is hard to fight human trafficking when charges can not be pressed against the wealthy people involved.

Modern Day Slavery in India

Modern day Slavery is a huge problem in India.  Nearly 16 million people are enslaved in India today.  This is roughly the same as the population of Chile.  In 2014-2015 three thousand people were freed from slavery.  It was shocking to me that with the 1600 groups working against slavery they were only able to free 3000 people.  There are many ways to become enslaved, but one that is more abundant in India than anywhere else is becoming enslaved from debt accumulated by paying for a wedding.  An Indian wedding is a huge ceremony that can last for days.  It is common for families to borrow money from very corrupt lenders.  Once they can not pay the debt back the entire family becomes enslaved and it is very hard to escape.  There are now weddings organized by previous victims of slavery where a bunch of couple get married at once.  One wedding had over one thousand people attend and five couples got married costing each family only around fifteen dollars.  One Indian police officer claims that when she tries to contact the human trafficking department she is transferred to a department dealing with traffic problems.

Sources
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071016/asp/opinion/story_8436850.asp

http://www.freetheslaves.net/where-we-work/india/

Learning History Through Film

                Watching movies is a great way to learn about history.  Two movies that prove this point are Glory and 12 Years a Slave.  12 years a slave is great for learning about slavery because it was based on a freed slave, Solomon Northup’s narrative.  This primary source provided great insight in to what it was like to be a slave.  Film director Steve McQueen claims that he based the movie on Solomon’s narrative only, and an editor of the book, Henry Louis Gates, was also involved in the making of the film.  With this closing the gap between book and film the only thing left to prove is that Solomon Northup’s narrative was a true story.  This can be proved by federal documents, the 1840 federal census has on record that Solomon was a free man living in New York.  Next a slave manifest, a document that proves slaves are domestic, from the Brig Orleans shows that Solomon was sold into slavery.  Finally the federal census from 1850 has on record Edwinn Epps and all of his slaves, one of which matches the description of Solomon.  Solomon’s story was also proved to be true by historians Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon. This story ended up making an interesting film despite its lack of elaboration.  McQueen was able to do this by choosing a slave narrative that is easier to relate to for audiences.  The American Historical Association explains that it is easier for an audience to relate to a free man being captured and his need to escape, rather than someone who was born in to slavery and wanted to escape.  Some very important aspects of slavery were include in the movie.  For example it demonstrated the complex social system of the South when the poor white man that worked with the slaves was disrespected by Solomon.  This shows how poor white people, even though they were paid, would do the same work as the slaves and were ashamed of it.  The man planned on killing Solomon after their fight because he felt that it was his place to prove to the slaves that they were not on the same status as him.  A movie was an effective way to teach the social relationships between people.  The movie also captured th relationship between slave owner’s wives and female slaves.  Mrs. Epps resented Patsey because of her relationship with Mr. Epps even though Patsey hated the relationship as much as Mrs. Epps did.  A real life example of this is Harriet Jacobs Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl has a passage that talks about how slave owners would bribe the slaves with gifts in order to get what they wanted, but if this did not wok they would be beaten and starved.  The movie had a scene where Solomon was able to go play his instrument for people and ear a little money, this shows how slaves were able to negotiate with their masters to earn a little money.  The film also showed the slaves learning the bible and singing gospel music, which according to Eugene D Genovese’s book Roll Jordan Roll was an important part of the slaves lives.   Glory also used a primary source(General Shaw’s Letters) to help write the film and demonstrated  many important historical truths, such as portraying some soldiers as run away slaves.  One soldier named Sergeant William H Carney was an escaped slave and he was the first African American to receive the medal of honor.  The film also addressed how black soldiers were treated differently from white soldiers.  When Sergeant Carney received his medal of honor it was not presented to him in a ceremony, instead it was just mailed to his house.  The main challenge faced by film makers is how to tell an entire story in a two hour film.  This was coped with by both directors very well because they did not leave out key aspects of history.  12 Years a Slave left out some tragedies that happened to Solomon in order to not lose the audiences focus due to it being too graphic, but every tragedy
included was recorded in Solomon’s narrative.  Overall both of these films were historically accurate and displayed the information in a way that is easy to understand.

                                           

            Work Cited

Huffington post
Proved Accuracy of 12 years a slave and provided thoughts from the director

History.com
Provided information on the accuracy of Glory and information on the attack on Fort Wagner

National Archives
Provided historical documents that proved Solomon Northup's story was true

National humanities center
Provided information about the life of a slave from The incident in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

CW memory-glory
Provided information about the historical accuracy of Glory

American Historical Association
Provided information on the historical accuracy of 12 years a lave and also had information about the importance of religion in the life of a Slave

New York Times

Provided Information on how the director of 12 years a slave made the movie and discussed its historical accuracy

Images

Attack on Fort Wagner

Union Soldiers

     

Solomon singing gospel music

Solomon at Auction

Solomon eating before he was kidnapped

Reflection on Paraphrase practice

Today I learned how to paraphrase a source and successfully incorporate a quote.  Before this class I did not know the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing.  Paraphrasing is a much more effective way to prove a point because it is more specific and includes more detail than a summary.  I also learned how to add information to a quote to further explain it and how to trim the quote so tat it only includes the information I need.

This is what I learned today:

• Only use a direct quote when it adds power and style to my writing.
•  Always make it clear, from context, that I understand the full meaning of he quote.
• Whether I quote or paraphase, I must always I mus always be transparent about the source and how I'm using it.
• If I use another authors exact words in any way I must use quotation marks and give credit, If I use another authors presentation of facts or ideas, but put their ideas in my own words, I better have a good reason for doing so and give credit.
• Hyperlinkng is so easy there is no excuse for not being transparent about my sources.

I understand these statements.

Practicing, Incorporating a Quote

"The decision to end the movie with the failed assault at Wagner solidifies this progressive theme, which links the men to one another ."

Glory was a very powerful movie because it did a very good job of developing all the characters.  Once the audience felt like they really liked the characters they all heroically die attacking Fort Wagner, but this helped the movie make a key point.  As one film critic said,  "The decision to end the movie with the failed assault at Wagner . . . links the men to one another."  The theme adressed in this quote was the unity of the people in America.  The black soldiers and white officer were finally united in death, while fighting to unite the states. 

Paraphrase pratice

CW memory article


" As for problems, well, they abound throughout the movie such as the profile of the regiment, which is presented primarily as a unit of fugitive slaves. Most of the men were free blacks from Massachusetts. Other problems include the time frame for the raising and training of the regiment which began in 1863 rather than 1862 as well as the failure to acknowledge Shaw’s marriage at any point in the movie."

My paraphrase
The movie was not very historically accurate.  The 54 regiment was mostly made up of free black men from Massachusetts, and the movie portrayed them as runaway slaves.  The movie also did not mention that Shaw was married.  Also the 54 regiment was trained in 1863 but the movie started in 182.  These are just some examples of what was wrong with the movie.

This week in class I learned a lot about slavery.  I learned that slaves were forced to pick cotton much faster once the other parts of cotton processing became mechanized.  I had never thought about how the ability to spin cotton faster created a need to weave cotton faster which created a need to clean cotton faster which created another need to pick the cotton faster.  Machines were invented to speed up all of these processes except the picking because it was already being done basically for free.  This meant instead of inventing a machine to pick the cotton slaves were just forced to work faster.  Slave productivity was increased through very harsh methods of enforcement.  People across America eventually found out about the level of brutality used on the slaves and this created a movement to end slavery, eventually contributing to the start of the Civil War.
                                                                                                                               Wyatt

There are a lot of differences between empathy and sympathy.  Sympathy is Feeling bad for someone elses misfortune, this deals a lot with emotion.  Actions often associated with sympathy are comforting someone or offering condolences.  Empathy is the intellectual identification with an experience of thoughts or feelings of others.  Empathy is a critical thinking skill.  Empathy is an essential tool for historians because in order to understand why something happened or why someone made the decision they did you have to put yourself in to their shoes and think about what different types of people might have done in that situation.
                                                                                                                              Wyatt

The time between the 1600s and the Civil War was a very important time in US history.  The US grew a ton through the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, the Louisiana Purchase in 1801, the Missouri Compromise in 1820, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1829-1848, and the Gadsden Purchase in 1853.  The US also faced a lot of challenges. The first government the US had was called the Articles of Confederation this did not work out because the government had no power to tax the states and every vote had to be unanimous or it did not pass.  The states remained unified up until the Civil War because they relied on each other to fend off the British.
                                                                                                                                               Wyatt