UsBundles College Scholarship Essay

As an adult with a full time job in a remote part of Arizona, I have returned to college.  Without question, the online college experience is a vastly better fit for me, I am able to complete my coursework on my schedule and still do my job.  

I am convinced that the quality of the courses, the difficulty and academic rigor, at least at Arizona State University, is equal to traditional classes.  The online discussion boards are an example, instead of having to come up with an interesting and useful point on the spot in a classroom, I can take the time to compose a reasoned argument or response to another student.  

I have two reservations however.  First, many people, including the younger me, would not succeed in an online program.  It is absolutely essential to be highly motivated, you must organize your time, you must complete your coursework and submit it when it is due.  No slacking!  My second hesitation has to do with the type of course, I am a history major with a political science minor, these programs both work well online, lots of reading, writing papers, occasionally an exam.  I do not think that all programs are a good fit online, for example I can not imagine how a chemistry course would work.

Despite my two caveats, I firmly believe that online education should have a place in the modern university setting, complementing rather than replacing the traditional classroom model.  It can only be beneficial to use every tool possible to improve our nation’s education.

Engines for Progressive Thought

The articles by Maureen Flanagan and Shelton Stromquist argue for two different groups of people as the main shapers of the Progressive movement at the turn of the twentieth century.  Flanagan emphasises the role of women over that of men in Chicago in the growth of progressive thought while Stromquist describes the role of labor over that of the middle class.  Clearly, there were many contributors to the Progressive movement including both women and labor.

Flanagan argues that politically and socially active women focused their efforts on making the city "a place where the health and welfare of all members should be sought"1.  She supports this claim by describing the ideological differences between Chicago's City Club, a men's club, and the Women's City Club, which had as members many of the wives and daughters of the City Club.  On the various issues discussed in the article, namely garbage collection, public education, and the limits of police power during labor unrest, the City Club first researched the problem and then found the most fiscally sound and generally conservative path.  The City Club opposed municipal control of utilities, and supported the opinions of the courts as related to strikes.  The Women's City Club, on the other hand, did not rely on fiscal evidence to choose a position, rather, they supported the side which they felt would contribute most to the general well being of the populace.  In doing so, they supported greater municipal regulation, and even ownership, of utilities in order to ensure public health, and sided with labor even to the point of joining the picket lines.  Of these two clubs, one made up of professional men, the other of women from the same level of society, the women tended to favour the move toward progressivism, while the men took a conservative and risk averse position.

Stromquist claims that the progressive movement was "congealed in a crucible of class polarisation and conflict"2, noting that, "Class conflict and mass protest created conditions that invited reform but did not wholly dictate the outcomes"3.  Organized labor and the working class, argues Stromquist, created enough unrest to unsettle establishment politics in Cleveland to force the Republican and especially the Democratic parties to reevaluate their platforms and to add some reformist planks.  Because of Cleveland's labor unrest, especially the 1899 Streetcar Strike, an independent candidate for Governor, Samuel P. Jones, running as a pro-labor reform candidate, carried Cleveland, especially working class neighborhoods.  Jones' success frightened the established parties and brought progressive ideas into their platforms.  

Each paper illustrates the power of groups of focused activists.  The women of the Women's City Club believed that they needed to make their cities safer and that the way to do so was to support progressive ideals.  Cleveland's workers wanted fair wages and fair treatment, to accomplish this they took direct action which polarised the city and propelled a progressive independent candidate to a position which threatened the established political machine.  Both of these groups, and many others, contributed to the coalition calling for progressive change in the 1912 presidential election.

1.  Maureen A. Flanagan, "Gender and Urban Political Reform: The City Club and the Woman's City Club of Chicago in the Progressive Era," The American Historical Review 95, no. 4 (October 1990): pg. #1050, doi:10.2307/2163477.

2.  Shelton Stromquist, "The Crucible of Class: Cleveland Politics and the Origins of Municipal Reform in the Progressive Era," Journal of Urban History 23, no. 2 (1997): pg #194, doi:10.1177/009614429702300203.

3.  Ibid.

"Every Dog" (No Distinction of Color) "Has His Day."

Cartoon B is an opinion from Thomas Nast about anti-Chinese sentiment that led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.  This cartoon was published in 1879 and references the rising force in California, and national politics  Denis Kearney, "a real American."  


Kearney worked to organise unions and fought for workers rights and for the removal of Chinese labor from the US.  Much of what Kearney fought for helped the average working man eventually, for example the eight hour work day and the right to organise.  Kearney felt that immigrant, especially Chinese immigrant, labor was detrimental to the American worker as they were willing to work for less and do jobs others did not want, Kearney's work helped eventually to pass SB 1070.  Oops, check that, The Chinese Exclusion Act.  


The signs on the wall that the Chinese man and the Indian are reading indicate that "foreigners are not wanted," a problem when looking too closely at Kearney who was born in Ireland and did not arrive in America until he was in his twenties.  Pat Irish, esquire indeed.  The wall mentions other immigrant groups who were persecuted before prospering, the Irish, the Dutch, the Germans.


The Indian who is reading the wall tells the Chinese man, "Pale face 'fraid you crowd him out, as he did me."  This is a reference to the westward expansion of the United States that led to the defeat of the Native Americans and the establishment of the reservation system.  Ironically, a key tool for the expansion of the United States were the railroads, built largely with Chinese labor.


The final comment in the cartoon is the African American sitting in the background with the legend "My Day is Coming" printed on the wall above him.  This emphasises the racism that is endemic in the nation, anyone who is not white will have a turn on the exclusion and deportation ride.

"The Chinese Exclusion Act." Teaching American History in Maryland - Documents for the Classroom - Maryland State Archives. Accessed February 13, 2012. http://teachingamericanhistorymd.net/000001/000000/000136/html/t136.html.

"The Heathen Chinee : Words by Bret Harte ; Music by F.B." Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE. Accessed February 13, 2012. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/flipomatic/cic/brk5426.

"Item 003." Immigrant and Ethnic America at HarpWeek.com. Accessed February 13, 2012. http://immigrants.harpweek.com/ChineseAmericans/2KeyIssues/DenisKearneyCalifAnti.htm.

Universal rights, myth or reality?

For my blog post on the French Revolution, I am going to propose a theory on the proper foundations for “universal human rights.” I will try to articulate my thoughts clearly, but it is a thoroughly soggy topic for a necessarily short post.

     
The prompt for this post states that there are “really just two contenders for foundations -- either “nature” or “nature’s God.” I think that both of these conditions fit into Bentham’s

“nonsense on stilts” category, to me the idea of “nature” and “nature’s God” are interchangeable, both implying some omnipotent force which has, among other things, the ability to invest the collection of conveniently formed atoms that is mankind with an undefined set of inalienable rights. I suggest therefore, that there are no inalienable rights.

     
The idea of “inalienable” rights that cannot be taken away from a human is preposterous, there are things that ought not be taken away, but rights are taken away from humans at every turn. Ask Olaudah Equiano who’s right to freedom was alienated. Ask Ai Weiwei who’s right to free expression has been alienated. Ask the families of the fifty-thousand people who have died during the current civil war in Mexico who’s right to not be killed in the street has been alienated. Sometimes this goes even goes to conflicts between my rights and your rights, if I interfere with your rights, the state can interfere with mine. 

     
What if, when the French declaration says, “The law is the expression of the general will,”1 we substitute “rights are” for “the law is?”  Rights are not determined by any mysterious force of nature or by someone’s invisible friend or deity, rather they are agreed upon by society, by the general will.  

     
For an example of the general will evolving and searching for what rights humans are  entitled, we can look at this week in the news of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Are the rights awarded to humans in California that are in a long term, committed relationships with other humans dependent on their sexual orientation? Unless there is empirical evidence that granting these rights will harm society or other humans, I see no reason to draw a line. And no, apocryphal tales of ancient lands attributed to someone’s invisible friend are not empirical evidence.

     
Since there are no natural inalienable rights, are there things that are absolute rights that

every human has? I say yes, things like freedom of expression, the right to resist tyranny and oppression, and so on, this is not the space for an exhaustive list and weighing of every possible right.  From where then do these absolute rights arise? A trickier question. As humans, we are conscious of ourselves and our behaviors, since we know what we are doing, we ought to strive to do right. We ought to strive for universally humane behavior, others deserve the same treatment we feel we deserve. The simple chore of looking at oneself in the mirror every day and coming to terms with our actions and facing our conscience is the foundation of absolute rights.

1 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, in Lynn Hunt, ed., The French Revolution and Human

Rights: A Brief Documentary History, trans. Lynn Hunt (Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press,

1996), pg. #78.

Equiano

After reviewing the Brychan Carey website and reading Equiano’s Interesting Narrative, I am inclined to believe Equiano’s claim to have been born in Africa, although I agree with Carey’s “bottom line” statement in which he reminds us that “we just don’t know.”  

The early chapters of the Interesting Narrative provide a full and rich description of Equiano’s homeland, a place that he probably had some memory of, although since he was kidnapped when he was somewhere between seven and eleven years old,

 his memories would have been vague and garbled.  Equiano’s use of other accounts of the middle passage and of African life and culture and his occasional mistakes in describing his childhood are evidence of the overall veracity of his story.  If Equiano used contemporary sources to fabricate his tale, he would have made sure to be completely accurate and not to have made errors like his confusion between the kinds of perfume used by the Igbo on page 47, and his confusion of the kinds of local priests and wise men noted by Allison on page 53.  

There are, of course, some instances of poetic license which Equiano used to strengthen his argument.  On page 54, Equiano describes the similarities between “the manners and customs of my countrymen and those of the Jews, before they reached the Land of Promise...”  This analogy prepares the thesis that, as Dr. Barnes mentioned in the 6th lecture, Equiano and his people were Old Testament people, good but pre-Christian and not “the spawn of Satan” as slavers claimed to justify their assault on humanity.  Another example of this is in the beginning of Volume II when Equiano describes his various interactions with religious meetings on the mainland of North America.  He describes his experience at the Quaker meeting in Philadelphia and describes the meeting featuring the Rev. Mr. George Whitfield, who, as Allison points out was not in Philadelphia when Equiano encountered him, but rather in Georgia.  Again, this lapse in strict chronological reporting does not detract from Equiano’s condemnation of slavery, but instead serves to make the story flow more smoothly, keeping the reader engaged and increasing the power of the document.

As to the documentary evidence at St Margaret’s Church and the Royal Navy muster roll from the 1773 Arctic expedition, it is not surprising that Equiano as a young man would have had been confused.  Considering that Equiano was a child when he was baptized he may not have had sufficient command of the English language to realize that the question “where are you from” meant “in what place were you born” and not “from which place have you recently arrived.”  As a young man on the Arctic expedition, Equiano may have, as Carey suggests, have considered the error unimportant, or more likely, as Dr. Barnes suggests in the fifth lecture, seen the advantage in being considered a Creole, born in the New World over having been born in Africa.  When Equiano wrote his story down, he was framing an argument against slavery, an argument that was, at the time, controversial.  He would have known therefore that people would check his story and search for ways to discredit him, indeed anonymous notes were published in the London papers at the time, and Equiano successfully refuted their claims. 

Finally, Equiano had become a sort of born again Christian after the death of his friend John Annis.  This process is described in Volume II, Chapter X of the Narrative and involves the usual crisis of conscience, feelings of hopelessness, and spiritual visions.  Often, people who believe that they have had these sort of “road to Damascus” moments occasionally try to practice the nominal Christian exhortation for honesty, at least until they seek the Republican presidential nomination.

¹ Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, ed. Robert J. Allison, Second ed. (Boston: Bedford / St. Martin's, 2007), pg. #25.

² Ibid. pg #54.

Photos from the Equiano Exhibit at the Birmingham Museum

Stopped at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery today (http://www.bmag.org.uk/) here are some photos that may be relevant to next week's unit.  There is a permanent exhibit on Equiano, it is just one room, but there are some interesting objects including a replica of the suit he bought to celebrate his freedom, a Wedgwood medal, a sugar cone, and an inexplicable statue of a polar bear.

The entrance to the exhibit.

The explanation.

A globe, a writing quill, a polar bear, a photo of the book, and a glass tumbler.

Leg irons, sugar nippers, tobacco, and a cone of sugar.

Replica suit. 

Wedgwood medal, 2007 postcard, conch shell, 1789 advert for the book.

Anti-Slavery Medal.

Postcard from 2007 exhibit.

Columbus

 I apologise for the spelling and the formatting in this blog post.  My computer seems to know where I am and has adjusted the spelling accordingly, I hope someday to outsmart this feature, but that day is not today.  Also, the transition from "pages" to "blogger" seems to have mangled my formatting.

Nathaniel McCain

     Because Symcox and Sullivan’s introduction emphasises that Columbus’ first voyage was undertaken mainly as “a commercial enterprise” and that “building an empire and spreading the Gospel would come later,1” and because the first documents either establish Columbus’ Genoese roots and are not directly connected to the voyages, or were written well after the first voyage with the benefit of hindsight, I am also including in this blog entry documents ten and eleven which detail the reasons for the first voyage and the formal agreements made between Ferdinand and Isabella and Columbus.

     Columbus probably planned his voyages with a religious justification in mind, the

Spanish Monarchs had united Spain, instigated the Reconquista to remove the Muslim rulers from Iberia, and began pogroms aimed at removing or converting the large and influential Jewish population. After the Reconquista was completed with the capture of Grenada in 1492, the Spanish crown needed a new outlet for their martial pursuits, “colonisation of the Americas can be seen both as an extension of the Reconquista and as part of the imperial state building initiated by the dynastic union of the two crowns.2”

     The impetus of Columbus’ trip west was commerce and exploration, the religious

justification of the enslavement and genocide of the Indians under the encomienda system came later. Meanwhile the Spanish crown had enlisted the aid of the Pope, Rodrigo Borgia or Alexander VI, in their race with Portugal to claim the New World and, in exchange, brought the previously latent religious impulse to the surface.3

     Document 10, the Santa Fe Capitulations details the reward that Columbus is to receive while Document 11 the Granada Capitulations officially grants the rewards explained in the previous document. In these two documents, we see that because Columbus offered his “command and expertise” and because the nature of maritime exploration means “placing yourself in danger for our [the Spanish Monarchs] service,” in order to “discover and acquire certain islands and mainland in the Ocean Sea4” he deserves a reward. The Crown agreed to grant Columbus and his heirs the titles of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and viceroy and governor general of all those islands and any mainland and islands that he may discover and acquire in the seas.”5 Along with the titles, Columbus is given the right to one-tenth of all treasure found, jurisdiction over any lawsuits that may arise from his explorations, and the right to invest a one-eighth share in outfitting trade ventures and to receive a one-eighth share in the profit. The only mention of religion in either of the documents authorising Columbus’ first voyage is the usual proclamation that Jesus knows that it is the year 1492.

     The documents written later, by Oviedo, De Las Casas, and even Columbus himself place much more emphasis on the religious components of the conquest of the Americas, maybe they were searching for forgiveness for the enslavement and genocide of the New World, maybe they understood, like their contemporary that religion was a wonderful tool for keeping people docile and fearful. 

“If our religion claims of us fortitude of soul, it is more to enable us to suffer than to achieve great deeds.  These principles seem to me to have made men feeble, and caused them to become an easy prey to evil-minded men, who can control them more securely, seeing that the great body of men, for the sake of gaining paradise, are more disposed to endure injuries than to avenge them.”

Niccoló Machiavelli, The Discourses. 1517.6

1 Geoffrey Symcox and Blair Sullivan, Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief

History with Documents (Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005), pg. #14.

2 Ibid, pg. #11.

3 Ibid, pg#19.

4 Ibid, pg#63.

5 Ibid, pg#61.

6 "Machiavelli - Quotes Justify the Man," Latest Articles, accessed January 16, 2012, http://

www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/670893/posts.