Harriet Beecher Stowe Town Hall Meeting

Hi all, I am Harriet Beecher Stowe, I am an abolitionist author. The book Uncle Tom's Cabin I wrote and it was one of the biggest and highest seller books. My book talked about the evils of slavery, angered slave holding in the south, and also inspired pro slavery throughout the works of the insitution of slavery. 

I forgot to mention , I was born on June 14,1811 in Litchfield Connecticut. Also, was the  seventh child of the one and only congregational minister, Lyman Beecher and Roxan Foote Beecher. I had multiple siblings of fame as well. My sister Catherine and Henry Ward Beecher, a famous preacher and reformer. I faced a very hard time when I was only five years old when mom died, which caused my father to remarry and my sister Catherine had the biggest influence on my life.

My education began while I was eight years old at Litchfield Female Academy. I then furthered my education in 1824, at Catherine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary, this allowed me to be able to go to school with males. This was very new for me because I never knew what it was like to go to school with any other gender since I only went to an all girl school prior. My writing became so great while attending this school, I had the opportunity to produce many essays for the school in general as well. After this part of advancing my education I then became a teacher at the Hartford Female Seminary.

In 1849, was the turning point of my life. Unfortunately my son died in a cholera epidemic that also killed three thousand other people that also live in my area. This was so hard and heartbreaking for me and something that was unbelievable to watch. The tragedy that occured in my life caused great empathy on other enslaved mothers who had their children away and sold away from them. 

A year later in 1850 the Fugitive Slave Act which was a passage that legally allowed Northerners to return runaway slaves had a huge impact on my life. This was when I started to write my book that I mentioned before Uncle Tom's Cabin . I wrote this book to not obey the Fugitive Slave act. My book then inspired so many people. Uncle Tom's Cabin was released March 1852 and sold three hundred thousand copies. I was even able to have this book be performed on stage for people to see. My book truly impacted so many people as well as their views during such a hard time. 

As much as I thought my book was a success, many people thought my thoughts and views were inaccurate. As a result of this I published, The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin which were multiple documents to back up my statements and information I shared in my book. Former slaves,  Frederick Douglass and Josiah Henderson helped by giving me exact information from their experience to use in my book.

My book became such a success and I reached so much fame. Therefore I used all my fame to get a petition to end skavery. I toured many different places nationally to speak about my book and donated to the antislavery cause. 

All in all, during the civil war I did become one of the most powerful and influential writers. Many people recognized me for my work and my book that affected so many different people. To conclude I moved to Hartford Connecticut, I helped at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, and helped create the  Hartford Art School, which would be an addition to the University of Hartford. I am so forever grateful to have the impact on all the peoples lives I do and be able to stand up for what I believe in.

Eight Values of Free Expression

 The eight values of free expression  consist of discovery of truth, participation in self government, stable change, individual self fulfillment,  check on government power, promote tolerance, promote innovation, and protect dissent. These values help the government run more efficiently. 

The first value of free expression is discovery of truth. This is known as the marketplace of ideas and was founded by Milton. Discovery of truth basically states that when truth and falsehood are allowed to freely grapple, the truth will then win out.  Grappling allows the truth to become even stronger and bigger. John Milton also argued against requiring a license to print and punish. He was an English poet and served as a civil servant for the commonwealth of England. This was the man who was the founder of this value.

Discovery of truth is then followed by the second value, participation in self government. Alexander Meiklejohn was the one who freed speech and was the one who was the relation to self government. Alexander believes that citizens can not make wise and informed choices if sanidades don't have the ability to properly communicate positions. He was a philosopher and an education reformer, free speech advocate, and the president of Amherst college. Meiklejohn believes that his purpose of the first amendment is to keep the citizens and electorates informed.

The third value is stable change which is also known as the safety value. Benedict spinoza was the founder of this value.  His theory was that angry and alienated citizens are allowed to speak their mind causing people to be less likely to resort to violence. Spinoza was best known for his ethics. His ethical vision was unfolding out of a menitstia metaphysics in which god and nature are both identified. 

Individual self fulfillment also known as the Self Actualization was the fourth value. C. Edwin Baker was the founder of this value. He was in charge of human liberty and freedom of speech. Freedom of speech allowed many individuals to express themselves in different ways and have others hear about what they truly believed in. Many were able to create their own identity and find new kindred spirits. 

The fifth value was Check on governmental power. This value was also known as the watchdog rule. Vince Blasi was the founder of this value, while his beliefs were for the checking function of the first amendment. Watergate, Irabgate, Clintongate and all other gates were able to demonstrate the freedom of the press to allow citizens to learn about the abuse of power. Vince, along with the whole press were a part of the checks and balances system which allowed the government to restrain the abuse of power. 

Next, was the Promote tolerance value. This was founded by Lee Bollinger. He was a part of the tolerant society as well as the Freedom of Speech and the Extremist Speech. This value argued that the freedom of speech was found hateful or upsetting, this then allowed us to be taught how to become more tolerant in others as well as our own aspects of life. A more tolerant society is a better society. Now, the first amendment protects hate speech due to all the valuable lessons society has learned.

The Seventh value was Promote Innovation. Jack Balkin was the founder of the seventh value and was for  living originalism. This became a community in which free speech is valued and protected. The community then became more energized, creativite , and interesting due to citizens actively fulfilling themselves in many diverse ways.

The final value was to  Protect Dissent. Steve Shiffrin believed in dissent, injustice and the meanings of America. He felt that the system is not supposed to be one of mob rule. The first amendment protects minority views. This allows you to have a strongly protected right to disagree with the government and everyone else. 

 

These values really helped shape our government to be the way that it is today. The government because of these values runs more smoothly and is very beneficial to all. 

Bible Team Challenge (Darla Zisa and Keliese Demetrius

 From the first century up until the civil war, the Bible was often used as a tool to justify slavery. Saint Augustine thought that slavery was inevitable, he believed it was the consequence of sin and the Fall of Man. The Ten Commandments mention slavery twice, which can be interpreted as God’s acceptance.

The Christian Faith condemned the use of slaves for many reasons. Genesis 21:9-10 states, “Abraham, the ‘father of faith,’ and all the patriarchs held slaves without God’s disapproval.” This goes to show that the followers of the faith held slaves regardless if it went against the word of God. People felt that slavery “stood as an insitution of God”. Christians were very passionate for slavery and used slaves to point out that Jesus would never speak against it. On the other hand, many like to claim that Christians felt very passionate about the abolition movement. Regardless of the number of Christians who condonded slavery, the numbe rof christians who condemed it was still very apparent. During this time period, Christians statements and feelings speaking out against slavery increased. Whereas many slave owners had a feeling of immense power. Slave Owners were aware that the experience of a slave (positive or negative) was their responsibility.

As Christians often used the bible in a way to justify the slavery and the act of owning them, there were also instances were Christians felt the bible spoke out aggainst it. Not every Christian was in favor of slavery, the conflict was very spilt and even on both sides. The main issue was the interpretation of the bible to condemn or condone slavery was often contradictory and hypocritical. 

Blog Post #1

 The Supreme Court being the most powerful judicial body in the world does all their work in private settings.  They are also very independent and have such an impact on our government. Not only do they work with the law, they help out many humans when a problem arises. The presidents also shape the court due to all of their nominations. The confirmation process is so intense, once all the ballots are in the public, they don't have the ability to influence the decision anymore. 

Being a part of the court is very serious. Sometimes it takes members years to be able to get comfortable and adjust to the big responsibility they have. It takes awhile for the government to realize how much power the court actually has. John Marshall was chief justice and automatically earned public respect by all.

The Supreme Court lost a lot of respect during the time when they said blacks are not citizens. Now, this would cause a lot of problems due to how unfair that statement is.  This was then  resolved because of the civil war. At the end of the day, all the people apart from the judicial body want the same things. 

The Supreme Court Hourse

The Judicial body wants to be constitutional, and they all support one another faiths and ideas.  The Supreme Court gets over a hundred different cases every week and seven thousand a year. These cases mostly state that the lower court ruling was not right. The court only accepts very few of these. 

The justices also meet weekly to discuss which cases they will accept.  This shows how serious the court takes this. Justices don't deal with just any issue, these issues are the issues the public brings to them. Each side of the court only has thirty minutes each to state their case. This is called Oral argument. There are also three arguments: the argument you plan to give, the argument to give, and the argument you wish you gave.

After a few days of the argument, the justices come together and discuss the argument to pick a case. One of the justices on the majority side then has to write an opinion on the case.  The Supreme Court would not be as powerful as they are today without the American people.