Blog 3- proposal

I would be writing about the role of  Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement during the 1950's and 60's.
     My questions: How did He become involved? Who inspired him? How did people respond to his peaceful response? What was hid influence on the people as well as politicians and law makers? What did his death do to promote equality?
(http://www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-king-jr-9365086)

I would be writing about the role Upton Sinclair had with his book The Jungle and what it did to improve factories and work conditions during the early 1900's.
       My questions: How did the public respond to this novel? Was there other things before that were promoting the fixing of factories and this was the final string, or was this the first eye opener? What improvements were made after this novel was published?

I would be writing about the transcontinental railroad and the people who were involved to get that started during the 1860's.
       My Questions: How important was this railroad to the economy? Who opposed it and who was for it? Who laid the tracks? Was it controversial? How did the bill get passed to make this railroad?
(http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/themed_collections/subtopic2b.html)

Secondary and Primary

           The letter written by Charles White is a good source to look at the cultural biases of the time and a good source to look at the events of the Harpers Ferry raid.

From looking at the primary source and other historical information that backs up this information, I believe this source is one that accurately describes the situation at hand. Historians have a pretty good idea of how the raid was started, which was also present in the letter from Mr. White. It tells of the time they arrived, which was about eleven the night before to prepare for the actual attack. This man, like many others, was startled when the attack started. He spoke of being quickly open up by a friend who explained the attack had already started. By cross referring this with the secondary source, it seems that many people were still at home or just waking up when the raid started so were not completely aware of the situation.

            The secondary source talks some of different perspectives of people living at that time. First, you have the slave holder who thinks of blacks as property as well as the majority in the South. The secondary source talks of white northerners who also look at black people as a lower sort of people yet wanting slavery to be outlawed. What the primary source did not talk of was the long term effects the raid had on America and the abolitionist movement. In the chapter The Madness of John Brown, the authors speak of how this raid “was to the Civil War what the Boston Massacre had been to the American Revolution: an incendiary event. (James, 149)” This raid, although an unsuccessful immediate impact, the raid aroused passions, made people suspicious of the opinions of both the North and the South, and made differences between the abolitionist and pro

slavery people.

            I believe my interpretation of the primary source being a good source because it is backed up by secondary sources who talk about the events of the raid as well as immediate and long-term effects that incorporate cultural opinions. 

Secondary Source- John Brown

As I read the primary source of the letter sent form Charles White to his brother in-law, many speculations arose of the position he was writing the letter from. I wondered what Mr. White’s biases were against both the slave’s desire to escape and join Mr. Brown and his disgust for Mr. Brown. In the letter, Charles used strong words against John Brown such as “When the villains ran,” and “his [Brown’s] devilish design.” These strong opinions lead me to realize the biases the author has and take that into consideration when interpreting. My knowledge of this primary source before I read it was very limited. I knew of the John Brown Raid, but this was really my first introduction to a primary source.

            For my secondary source, I used a chapter in the book After The Fact: The Art of Historical Detection  by James Davidson and Mark Lytle. This chapter is titled The Madness of John Brown which indicates from the start that John Brown was possibly insane. In this chapter, the authors present many different reasons of why John Brown started this raid. The chapter raises this question: “Was John Brown a heroic martyr- a white man in a racist society willing to lay down his life on behalf of slaves? Or was he a madman whose taste for wanton violence propelled the nation toward avoidance tragedy (p.148)?”

            Reading this chapter, I found that John Brown’s men had been staying in a barn outside of Harpers Ferry for two months hiding out and planning some sort of raid. The group was made up of five black men and sixteen whites who includes three of Brown’s sons

. Brown’s plan was to capture Harpers Ferry and have surrounding countryside slaves to join the conquest and move down south freeing slaves along the way. As the primary source also said, the raid was not planned very well for the most part unsuccessful.

John Brown's last attempt to win the raid
while hiding in the engine house. 

            The attack began with two men cutting telephone lines and running through the town while others seized guns from the armory and hostages.  The morning was full of chaos as Brown and his men light the sky with gunshots and people scurrying around town to find protection. This, however, was short lived. By noon the militia who were present and armed farmers had the people of the raid cornered in an engine house. Thirty-six hours after the first shot on Harpers Ferry, John Brown’s raid to end slavery had ended.

Source: 

Davidson, James West, and Mark H. Lytle. "The Madness of John Brown." After the Fact: The Art of                 Historical Detection. 6th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 148-69. Print.