First Semester Summary

First Semester Summary Analysis
Jackson Pearson
          

When this semester of US History Started, I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know what I was going to learn and I did not know if I would be interested in the stuff were going to be taught about. As the first quarter started I learned many things about the history of the United States. How the United States dealt with slavery, and how specifically the south dealt with slavery, was profoundly interesting to me. The brutality intrigued me the most because I had no idea how inhuman the southern whites were to the blacks until we learned about it. Out of the sections we studied in the first semester, the section “Age of the City” was my least favorite of them all. Although it is an important time period in American History I simply did not find anything about it that I thought was that eye opening or particularly interesting. Out of the whole section the only thing that appealed at all to me was the railroad strikes, and how the other strikes happened, I do find it beneficial to have learned about the United States’ economy through this time period because it is good to know how our economy got to where it is today. In ten years I will have forgotten a lot of the specific details from first semester of US History, however I feel as if I will remember the section that we studied the Native Americans. I think it is important to know who was hear before we come to this continent and what happened to all of the Indians that were here. The issue that I see that keeps occurring in American History is the how the government deals with poverty. Even when the economy was booming the poor had horrible working conditions and were not making very much money at all, they lived in small rooms that they were crammed into because that’s all that they could afford. Even today the poor has multiple families living in the same home and the government has still not been able to find a solution to poverty that works. After learning about all of the events in US history from 1865 to 1920, I have decided the name of this period of time should be called the “Booming Period”. It should be named this because over this period the US went from a decently small economic country to a country that has a working economic system, and a flourishing middle class. Based on what we learned, the economy in the US went from (in today’s terms) a Razor flip phone to an IPhone 6+. It had improved dramatically, kind of like a boom. Hence the “Booming Period”. In the earlier part of this time period you would have seen buildings that were only a few stories tall and stared in awe, but at the end of this period a 30 story building was something that could be seen in the cities with skyscrapers. 

Letter back to my Home Counry

Jackson Pearson

Blog Post

12/2/14

Dear Ana,

            It’s been a hard first year here in America. Not only is it hard to be away from you but the long hours have made me very tired and weak. It is by no means hard to find work here but coming from a background with no education means I have not many job choices besides working at the steel mill. Chicago is a very impressive city, nothing like our hometown in Germany. The City has tall buildings that I have never seen before and they are called “skyscrapers”.

            At the steel mill it is easy to get through the long 13 hour days when I have fellow Germans there to help me get through it. After we leave the steel mill, I go with a few of my German friends to the bar where we meet up with many more Germans. The neat thing that I have come to discover is that this country’s largest cities are composed of mostly foreigners. This makes it easy for people that are in my exact situation to get along pretty well.

            As my first year comes to an end, I would like to say that I want to be an American, I encourage you to hurry up and come to live here in Chicago with me. I had no idea that the process of assimilation would be something that I would grow to like! I want to leave my old heritage behind and become more of an American. I am glad to say that as a German it is easy to fit in with the crowds; it would have been horrible if I was from Asia or Mexico… I cannot wait to see you!

Sincerely, Marvin

P.S. - I included a picture of the skyscraper that I see from my bedroom in this letter                                                                                  

                                                       

Thinking About Success

Factors for Success
Luck, Opportunity, Skill, and Hard work are all very important when dealing with the topic of success. When given the assignment to rank these 4 key factors of success in rank of which makes a person the most successful, I was faced with three questions. Question one: Which factor has given me the most success in my life? Question two: Which factor has given significant public figures the most success? Question three: What Factor out of the four would you be the most successful without? After thinking about these questions I came to the conclusion that they fall in this order of importance: Hard Work, Skill, Opportunity and then luck. Any person can go without luck if they work hard enough or have prepared themselves for whats ahead. Hard work has gotten me to where I am today; in sports, school and in my social life. Many people have to work very hard most of their lives to develop their skills, but when looking at the most influential people of today's world it is almost as if they were given their skills at birth. Whether the person is an actor, the president, or a professional athlete, it looks as if they were blessed with a skill and hard work was not hardly needed. For an ordinary person I believe that hard work will cause give them more success than the other three options.

This picture illustrates a man hard at work.

Influence of Horses on the Plains Indians

          

          Jackson Pearson

         October 28, 2014

          Horses have been used by people all over the world for almost everything. They have been used to plow fields, transport goods, and carry a warriors in combat. The Native Americans used horses greatly in all these ways. Horses, almost instantly, had a huge impact on Native American Culture. The greatest effect the introduction of the horse to Native Americans is that it transformed the Native American culture almost completely. The Indians connected spiritually and culturally to these new creatures.

            The Indian culture did not have a currency so there was an abundance of trading. The horse changed trade greatly because now the horse could be traded for an American’s weapon or for another Indian’s food. The horse was a sign of wealth. Oppose to today were each person’s wealth is determined by how much money they have, Indian’s wealth was determined by how many things they possessed which largely includes how many horses they have in their care. As you can assume, each horse an Indian owns buts a financial burden on them, making only the more successful Indians capable of owning many horses. This impact may seem slim but the introduction of the horse to Indians also introduced many new things. In a sense the horse was a catalyst for an evolutionary period in the Indian culture.

            Spiritually Indians connected with horses very easily. Often an Indian would take great pride in their horse, decorating it and grooming it often to look good. Many Indians names had horses from a young age because as they grew older they grew closer to their horse making the spiritual bond that they had even greater. An Indian uses their horse for everything; they used them for hunting, fighting, farming, or just to ride into town. As an Indian spent more and more time with their horse, they grew very close spiritually as well. Even though horses impacted the Indian culture very greatly; horses had an impact in other areas as well.

            Horses helped an Indian get from their home to the river in lightning fast speeds compared to the speed before. They completely changed how Indians transverse. The horse was to the Indians as a car was to the 20^th century. They made things very easy to carry as well. They could carry over 200 pounds over a few miles in a quarter the time as before and not be nearly as tired when they finished. Horses were used largely for travel, but also they were used for war. Indians would ride on Horses with a bow or with a spear and become very deadly. They could travel around a battle field very fast and be in control of all their movements; the Europeans that brought the horses to the new world had no idea later on that the Indians would use horses against them in war.

            Horses had many effects on the Indians, some lasted forever and some only briefly had an effect. The effects that the horse had on transportation and warfare only showed for a brief time in history, but the effects that it had on the Indian culture will endure forever. Horses will continue to carry on bonds with today’s Indians and with people all over the world. Horses are used largely in today’s era for recreation, farming purposes and create bonds everywhere. 

Indian Chief relaxing on his horse

How the Plains Indians used horses to hunt buffalo

How the Indians used the horses in war



Indians riding on their horses

Some Indians gathered together on their horses

Works Cited

National Geographic- Background    

The national geographic article provided a great deal of understanding in basically everything that I needed to know about the influence of horses and Indians. This article really didn’t lack anything and I used this source through the majority of my paper.

Indians.org- Wild Horses

This article was extremely helpful. It helped me grasp a better understanding of the spiritual role that horses had in the Indian culture. I used this article in a large part of my paper.

nebraskastudies.org- before and during the horses

All the facts I found in this article I found in the others, it was a good source in the fact that it helped me know that the facts from the other sources were correct.

www.jstor.org- where did Indians get horses

The first thing I learned about the influence that the horse had on the Indians was that horses did not exist to them until they were brought from overseas. This article helped me know where they came from exactly. I did not really use this source in my paper but it was very brief and interesting.

www.comanchelanguage.org- The Comanche and his Horse

This article was alright. It wasn’t very organized and it took time to read. The majority of the facts found from this source were found in all the other sources.

www.thefurtrapper.com

I didn’t find a need in using this source for anything but backing my research up. It was an interesting article but I didn’t use it in my paper for anything but knowing that my facts were correct

Jackson Pearson

September 12, 2014

Mrs. Lawson

USH Essay

Movies as a Teaching Material is not Bogus

            Although it is quite unusual to have watch two movies by mid-quarter, my previous history teacher used movies as a way of showing the feelings and the atmosphere of a historical period. For instance, she showed us the movie Glory and the movie 12 Years a Slave to portray the events that occurred during the time of slavery. Glory and 12 Years a Slave helped us learn about slavery by showing us how the slaves were treated, how the owners had sympathy, and how slaves had empathy toward each other. The movies both conveyed the same feelings that people had for slaves, both movies had close to the same ideas about how slavery was treated and handled.

            The Historical movies that my teacher showed us in class had completely different plot, Glory, based on slavery during the Civil War, 12 Years a Slave, based on a kidnapped slave placed in a cotton field. Both these films are accurate with the situation in history they are depicting but some of the parts of the movies are over-dramatized to keep the audience paying attention. However, contrary to the movie Glory, Col. Robert Shaw was not so willing to be Col. Even though there was some things in the movie that were either not true or overdramatized, I learned a lot because I was more interested in watching a movie oppose to taking notes. Also, because it was a movie I was capable of seeing the harshness that the slaves went through at what the slaves had to endure to become free. If I had not seen these movies I would have studied slavery like I had years before and I would not have had my eyes opened to the horrific things that I had no idea even occurred. Typically, (as a teenage boy) It takes a lot to encourage me to do research on a movie, or anything really, and after this movie I did research because I was inclined to do so after I saw these movies. I do feel though that if these movies had not been as interestingly directed and acted out as it was then I would not have been even half as interested. Which leads me to the question that all directors must ask themselves while writing.

            How much fact versus how much story? If they put more facts in the movie then the movie will be boring, but if they include too much story then the movie will have some false facts in it. It is a very hard thing as a director to make a movie that has lots of facts and also keep the story interesting. In both Glory and 12 Years a Slave the amounts of story and the amount of facts is balanced in my opinion perfectly so the story is interesting but also educational. The directors of these films are very good at taking a very saddening story of slavery and turning it into a story that gives hope to the people who watch it and inspiration to the people who are able to empathize with the film.

            In the films empathy is a huge factor. The black people in both films understand what the other is feeling when they are beaten, or when they are treated like crap while they are risking their lives just like all the white people. Being able to see the empathy in these films helps us as the viewer to stay interested and hooked to the story which allows them to include many facts and in the end making for a great movie.

            I hope that you (as my new history teacher) has been persuaded, by my facts, to show our class some movies. We will benefit from them and learn a lot from them as I have already in my previous class. Although your fellow teachers and friends may disapprove you can be glad to know that in the end the students have learned more and will get better ACT and SAT grades in the future.

Sources, Film Research- Glory &12 Years a Slave

IMDB-12 Years a Slave Homepage

IMBD- Glory Homepage

12 Years a Slave-Box Office Mojo

Glory- Box Office Mojo

IMDB- Glory Reviews

IMDb- 12 Years a Slave Reviews