Tension on the Frontier

This lesson about buffalo soldiers was taught by us, like the last lesson. The essential question we came up with was: "Were federal policies towards Native Americans and buffalo soldiers intentionally discriminatory or well intentioned?" To answer this, we watched a few videos. Then we read some documents, one of which was the Dawes Act. Reading these documents gave us a better understanding of how buffalo soldiers and Native Americans were treated during westward expansion.
Buffalo soldiers were African American cavalry soldiers. They got this nickname from their wooly hair and superior fighting skill.  The government put them in the Midwest because they believed the U.S. needed more of a military presence there. The buffalo soldier camps did not have the same conditions as the white camps. While the buffalo soldiers were successful in their jobs expanding westward, they faced some discrimination from the government.
The government also put in several policies in place for Native Americans when expanding the nation. This included the allotment program. The allotment program divided up land that was previously owned by full tribes and distributed it to individuals. While this seemed well-intentioned, most of the land ended up going to the white public. Though the government also put in education programs for Native Americans, the children faced beatings and discrimination. When they tried to move natives to reservations, some tribes refused and total war ensued. The Battle of Little Bighorn is well-known as a battle during this period of Indian removal.
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The government did have good intentions in the beginning. They wanted to give the Native Americans land and education and the buffalo soldiers opportunities in the army. However, many of their promises fell through, leaving the buffalo soldiers with poor working conditions and the Native Americans with less land and pain in their hearts. The original intentions of the government were good, but became buried by discrimination when things did not go their way.

Pictography
Edline. Pictochart of American Indians. http://www.edline.net/files/stream/2CCF071593645104-0000014DC410FB41/ABC-CLIO+Federal+Native+American+Policies+Visual.gif

Freedom from Above or Below

This lesson was about slavery during the Civil War and how the slaves gained their freedom. The essential questions were: "Who 'gave' freedom to fellow Americans? Did freedom come from above or below? To what extent were Abraham Lincoln's actions influenced by the actions of enslaved Americans?" To answer these questions, we had to learn what "freedom from above" and "freedom from below" meant. "Freedom from above" is when people of a higher social class grant freedom to a lower class. "Freedom from below" is when people of a lower social class help each other
First we looked at the two images below and discussed which one was showing freedom from above and which was showing freedom from below. The statue shows freedom from below because it The picture of Lincoln and the slaves shows freedom from above because it shows Lincoln, president at the time, granting the slaves their freedom.

 

The thing about this, however, is Lincoln did not wish to free the slaves for the sake of the war. While he did not agree with slavery personally, he would not let his personal views obstruct him from doing what was needed to end the war. As he said in a reply to an open letter from Horace Greely, "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it..." Therefore, the slaves were going to have to help each other in order to gain their freedom, if it wasn't President Lincoln's first priority.
In the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln says, "And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgement of mankind..." We see here that while Lincoln himself believes freeing the slaves and letting them join the army is "an act of justice", he says it is needed by "military necessity". He is doing what he needs to for the country and not what he believes in.
Slaves needed to get the attention of Lincoln by making nuisances of themselves. Their only chance of getting their freedom despite what the war brought was joining as one. As a unified group helping each other, they were able to achieve their goals and free themselves, gaining their freedom "from below".

Economy vs. Ethics

This lesson was about Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, two leaders in the production of steel and oil. Though they were successful businessmen, their practices were questionable. Many wondered whether they were actually robber barons. The essential question for this lesson was: "How did the actions of monopolistic leaders, such as Carnegie and Rockefeller, affect the common worker?"

"Forty-Millionaire Carnegie in his Great Double Role"

The Saturday Globe, 9 July 1892; David P. Damares

This lesson was done differently from previous lessons. We as a class were given the materials to learn and had to come up with an essential question to answer in this blog post ourselves. It was challenging and took teamwork and good communication, but we were able to do it. We split into groups and each group got a category to pay the most attention to, since we are going to use notes from these last few lessons to create the questions for our final exam. The categories were main ideas, key people, key terms, and important events. My group had main ideas. Then we were given some short ABC-CLIO videos, which we watched as a class and took notes on in a google doc that was shared with everyone. Next we read short biographies on John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Then we watched a video on Carnegie's homestead strike. Finally we read through a short lesson containing primary and secondary sources on the men's contributions and hindrances to society or, more importantly, to their workers.

With these resources, we were able to discover how Carnegie and Rockefeller affected their workers' lives. These men were considered "robber barons": they helped the economy, but they were unfair. Rockefeller, for example, bought out all of his competition so he could dominate the oil field. Carnegie took advantage of the depression to get products for low prices. While the men were known for their philanthropy, they were disliked for their practices. They affected their workers through their monopolies because they created shifts in power and took advantage.