fandomhigh | US History (Wednesday, February 22, 7th period)

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US History (Wednesday, February 22, 7th period)

Josh smiled as the US History class came into the room.

"Today we talk about the War of 1812 and the Industrial Revolution." He raised an eyebrow. "That's right. About seventy years of history in an hour. Prepare to take notes." He looked down at his papers. "And you will have your midterm exam next Wednesday, so now is definitely the time to start panicking if you have no idea what's going on."

He raised his eyebrows. "Okay. War of 1812. Napoleon was doing his 'trying to conquer all of Europe' thing, and the British were fighting him. Both sides were capturing American ships and taking American sailors as prisoners. This made us, as you might guess, not so happy. We also wanted the Western lands that were still controlled by the British." He shrugged. "This shouldn't be news but sometimes we're not nice people. So in 1812 we declared war against England and invaded Canada. Unfortunately for us, the war in Europe ended and the British could reallocate troops and pretty much kicked our butts. The British came into Washington DC and burnt down the White House. The Canadians, for whatever reason, are inordinately proud of having done this. Then they marched towards Baltimore." Josh looked around the classroom. "But got stopped at Fort McHenry. Despite being bombed for 25 hours, the Americans wouldn't budge. There's a song about it that should be pretty familiar to you all. Rockets red glare and all? Ringing any bells?"

Josh looked back down at his notes. "The War of 1812 also gave us the stories of Old Ironsides, the USS Constitution, which took on the world-renowned British Navy and walked away. Cannonballs kept bouncing off the sides of the Constitution because of the way it had been built." Josh shrugged. "I'm not a shipbuilder, so I'm just going to move on. There were various other historical events happening, and a couple other presidents, including Monroe and Jackson, who did historical things in a historical way. But I'm getting past the Civil War, so we're moving on."

He cleared his throat. "Sorry. So England was having an industrial revolution. At the end of the 18th Century, to make a shirt you'd have start from scratch, possibly by growing the cotton or the wool or the polyester or whatever, and spin into to yarn and then knit yourself a sweater. Everything was done by hand, took forever, and was horribly expensive. Then, you know, industry! The cotton from the South was sent to England which had learned how to spin it into cloth using machines that they wouldn't share with us. Though American ingenuity--in this case, by a guy named Samuel Slater lying about his knowledge of how to make a cotton spinning machine moving to New England and becoming rich, rich, rich--and Eli Whitney making a machine that would get rid of the seeds in cotton--the cotton gin--, we managed to both move the United States from a self-sufficient farm economy to a capitalist market economy and perpetuate slavery for another hundred years." He raised an eyebrow. "The rule of unintended consequences. If you could grow cotton you could get rich. To grow cotton you needed people to pick it. To make the most money, not paying those people would be best."

He looked back down at his notes. "The industrial revolution also led to rifles with interchangable parts, canals, steamboats, railroads, and improved roads. This is all helping to expand the country westward into the lands that Jefferson bought from the French. Which was, you know, news to Indians who lived there."

He turned to the board and pointed at the words he he written there. "For your homework, choose from following three topics: the Monroe Doctrine, the Trail of Tears or child labor in the early 1800s and give me a hundred words on one of them."

[OOC: slow play like woah.]

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...

Lilly signs in.

Blair signs in

Piper signs in.

Lana signs in.

Shep signs in.

Jake signs in.

Cally signs in, yee-ha.

Veronica signs in.

Quinn signs in.

Chloe signs in.

...

Lilly's trying to visualize ~~Josh in his underwear, which is easier this week than last, thank you promo monkeys!~~ the contents of Josh's lecture.

Veronica tosses a note on Lilly's desk.

Wanna go for coffee after class?

She's hoping that if she and Lilly are out in public, Lilly won't ask too many embarrassing questions about her date with Logan.

Veronica is very intelligent, kind, and good looking. And also delusional.

Lilly shakes her head yes, and then gives Veronica a "duh, of course" look.

Lana pays attention to the lecture. Mostly. But she seems a tad distracted. A little bit in she scribbles a note and passes it to Shep when the professor isn't looking.

Hey, I keep meaning to ask you if you'll come ~~away with me for a weekend~~ to Smallville with me me and some of the others from the WHSG club. It will be a fun excuse to get off campus for a while. Plus, you know, pool and hot tub with no deans around to blow the mood. ;)

pool and hot tub? Count me in! Uh... when?

Haven't decided yet. So far it will be you and me, Angel, Callisto, Xander, and maybe Maia. I figure we can get together and figure out a good time for all of us.

And I'm glad you're going to come. :)

Oh boy, you, me and Maia in a pool again... will we get busted for skinny dipping in your podunk little town?

It's in Lex's mansion. No one will need to know. ;)

And my room/suite there has its own hot tub, so...

Jake clutches his coffee and attempts to look alive.

Quinn's taking a quiz in Waif, but she is listening.

She also mostly scores A's. Huh.

Trail of Tears, Monroe Doctrine, Child Labor. Weren't the 1800s fun?

In the 1800s, children totally were allowed to work in factories and stuff in America. Now I guess we only let them make our sneakers in Bangladesh?

Right, anyway...

Children as young as six years old during the industrial revolution worked hard hours for little or no pay. Children sometimes worked up to 19 hours a day, with a one-hour total break. This was a little bit on the extreme, but it was not common for children who worked in factories to work 12-14 hours with the same minimal breaks. Not only were these children subject to long hours, but also, they were in horrible conditions. Large, heavy, and dangerous equipment was very common for children to be using or working near. Many accidents occurred injuring or killing children on the job. Not until the Factory Act of 1833 did things improve. Children were paid only a fraction of what an adult would get, and sometimes factory owners would get away with paying them nothing. Orphans were the ones subject to this slave-like labor. The factory owners justified their absence of payroll by saying that they gave the orphans food, shelter, and clothing, all of which were far below par. The children who did get paid were paid very little.

The Monroe Doctrine, expressed in 1823, proclaimed the United States' opinion that European powers should no longer colonize the Americas or interfere with the affairs of sovereign nations located in the Americas, such as the United States, Mexico, and others. In return, the United States planned to stay neutral in wars between European powers and in wars between a European power and its colonies. However, if these latter type of wars were to occur in the Americas, the U.S. would view such action as hostile toward itself.

The doctrine was issued by President James Monroe during his seventh annual State of the Union address to Congress. It was met first with doubt, then with enthusiasm. This was a defining moment in the foreign policy of the United States.

Soldiers began rounding up Cherokees in Georgia on 26 May 1838; ten days later operations began in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama. About 17,000 Cherokees — along with approximately 2,000 black slaves owned by wealthy Cherokees — were removed at gunpoint from their homes over three weeks and gathered together in camps, often with only the clothes on their backs.
The camps were plagued by dysentery and other illnesses, which led to many deaths. After three groups had been sent on the trail, a group of Cherokees petitioned General Scott for a delay until cooler weather made the journey less hazardous. This was granted, and meanwhile Chief Ross, finally accepting defeat, managed to have the remainder of the removal turned over to the supervision of the Cherokee Council. The number of people who died as a result of the Trail of Tears has been variously estimated. The official government count at the time was 424 deaths; an American doctor who traveled with one party estimated 2,000 deaths in the camps and 2,000 on the trail; his total of 4,000 deaths remains the most cited figure.

Child labor sucked like a Hoover. Only he didn't come onto the scene until later.

Kids didn't go to school, worked for crap wages and were frequently working in unsafe conditions. After a fire in a sewing shop where many small children were killed because they were *locked in* the government actually had to think about how this was a Very Bad Thing and do something about it.

Because the kids couldn't go to school they had a hell of a time getting themselves prepared for anything better in life, which created a whole segment of the population who were illiterate, poor and frequently ill or injured.

Short version... if you think school sucks, it could be a lot worse.

The Monroe Doctrine, expressed in 1823, proclaimed the United States' opinion that European powers should no longer colonize the Americas or interfere with the affairs of sovereign nations located in the Americas. In return, the United States planned to stay neutral in wars between European powers or wars with their colonies.

The doctrine was issued by President James Monroe and his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams during his seventh annual State of the Union address to Congress. It was met first with doubt, then with enthusiasm. This was a defining moment in the foreign policy of the United States.

Cally totally blows off this assignment. Because Anders' slacker side is starting to rub off on her.

The trail of tears was a trail made of tears. That is to say, it was actually a construction of a pathway, or in specific words, as trail, that was constructed out of the salty water people leak when they cry, or tears. Perhaps this term is a metaphor, but perhaps it is not. But the trail was very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very bad.

As a component of foreign policy, the Monroe Doctrine has had considerable effect and has had strong support in the U.S., in part because it promoted U.S. interests. The doctrine has served other American nations too, particularly because it asserts their right to independence. Because the doctrine as originally formulated made no clear distinction between the interests of the U.S. and those of its neighbors, however, the U.S. has used it to justify intervention in the internal affairs of other American nations. Given growing U.S. anxiety about the unstable politics of Latin American countries, intervention has been especially prevalent and controversial in the 20th century.

There was child labor in the 1800's, which is totally unfair because kids should be doing kid things like shopping and playing video games and selling lemonade or whatever kids do these days. And working sucks. Seriously. My parents keep making me gets jobs, and the first time I lost a boa constrictor when I should have been playing with the puppies, and the second time there was this whole thing, and that's a story for Tyra's show anyway. Though Luke's isn't bad though I don't know if that's like a kid job or not. Just working in general is bad and kids shouldn't have to do it.

...

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US History (Wednesday, February 22, 7th period)

Sign in (History, February 22)

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During the lecture

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Homework (February 22)

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After class

OOC