EOTO Presentations reaction post

 

Historical artwork portraying a city in America during the 19th century. 

Our class recently presented on different events that shaped the fight against slavery and for equal rights in 19th-century America. Together, they tell a story of resistance, backlash, and the slow, painful march toward civil war.

One of the earliest turning points was the Amistad uprising, led by Joseph Cinqué, a group of Africans who seized their slave ship rather than accept bondage. Their case reached the Supreme Court, where former president John Quincy Adams argued for their freedom and won, giving the abolitionist movement a powerful symbol of resistance.

 Fighting on a ship during the Amistad uprising 

Organized abolitionism grew through groups like the American Anti-Slavery Society, which used speeches, newspapers, and petitions to demand immediate emancipation. Frederick Douglass became one of its most influential voices, helping push slavery into the national spotlight despite fierce opposition.

Literature played its own role. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, written partly in response to the Fugitive Slave Act, became a massive bestseller that energized the North and was banned in parts of the South, deepening the sectional divide.

Reform wasn't limited to slavery. In 1848, roughly 300 people gathered at the Seneca Falls Convention, where attendees passed eleven resolutions on women's rights, including the contentious demand for suffrage.

After the war, education became a tool of empowerment. Booker T. Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute in 1881 with just 30 students and no building, emphasizing vocational skills; it endures today as Tuskegee University.

Tensions also turned violent. Years of bloodshed in "Bleeding Kansas" and the harsh Fugitive Slave Act, which compelled ordinary citizens to help capture escapees, set the stage for John Brown's 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, an armed attempt to spark a slave uprising that ended in his capture and execution.

These tensions finally erupted after Lincoln's 1860 election, when Southern states seceded and formed the Confederacy. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter, officially starting the Civil War.

Taken together, these presentations show how individual acts of courage and resistance built toward the larger reckoning of the Civil War.

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AI DISCLOSURE: AI was used in a limited way to only organize my notes that I took in class while listening and watching other student's presentations. Claude AI was used to put my information into the form of a blog post - while also providing reliable sources to find more information on the topic. In the prompt I included phrases like "use my notes", "add reliable sources" and "form an organized post" for the best possible outcome. 

Town Hall Speech

The Appeal I Could Not Take Back

Black and White Photograph of Lydia Maria Child reading a novel. 

My name is Lydia Maria Child. I earned my bread by my pen before most people believed a woman could. I wrote novels, I founded the first children's magazine this country had ever seen, and I wrote a housekeeping guide for women who kept no servants and had little money to spare. By 1830 I was, by the standards of the day, a success. You can read more about that early career at the David Ruggles Center.

Then, in 1833, I published a book against slavery, and I lost nearly all of it.

What the Appeal Cost Me

The book was called An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, and I spent three years reading and thinking before I wrote a word of it. I knew precisely what I risked. Within a year, my children's magazine had lost its subscribers and I resigned. My other books went out of print. The parlors of Boston that had welcomed me were closed to me.

Novel written by Lydia Maria Child

The National Abolition Hall of Fame has documented just how completely I was cast out by people I had once called friends. I opened that book with a plea to my reader: "I beseech you not to throw down this volume as soon as you have glanced at the title."

I ask the same of anyone reading this now. The full text survives at the Library of Congress for anyone who wishes to judge it firsthand.

An American Sin, not a Southern One

I have never let the North console itself. Our ships carried the trade. Our mills spin the cotton grown by enslaved hands.

A man who profits from a crime he did not personally commit still profits from a crime, and I said so plainly, which is a large part of why I was punished for saying it.

I am often told that patience is wiser than immediate emancipation — that the institution will wither on its own, given time. It has not withered in two hundred years, and every year of patience is somebody's entire lifetime.

I am told, too, that the enslaved must first be prepared for freedom. But you cannot teach a man to swim by keeping him from the water. Freedom is the only school in which freedom is learned. Nor will I accept the argument that enslavers deserve compensation for their loss. One does not pay a thief to return what was never rightfully his.

Portrait of Lydia Maria Child

What Bondage Does to the Free

Slavery does not only wound the enslaved, it corrupts the household that holds the whip. Absolute power over another human being is a poison that no one drinks and remains untouched by it. And it breaks the one thing nearly everyone claims to hold sacred: the family.

A mother is sold away from her children between one morning and the next.

A marriage between two enslaved people has no standing in law, because the law does not recognize that a piece of property can marry. I ask any reader to sit with that for the length of a single breath before claiming neutrality is possible.

What I Still Ask

I lost my livelihood and my friendships for this cause, and I have never once regretted the choice — only that I did not make it sooner.

I do not ask anyone to be brave. I ask only for honesty, first in private, about what is already known to be true, and then the courage to say it aloud, in public, where it costs something.

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AI DISCLOSURE: Claude AI was used to build and form this presentation/blog post. Terms like "I am a college student participating in a town hall presentation" and "Please include reliable sources" were included in the prompt. This writer went through and checked, changed and revised all information above. 

America in 1830: A positive outlook (Mock Trial)

                                                                                    Brittanica
Artwork of a speech during the abolitionist movement in 1830.

In 1830, America was a young, growing nation. It was expanding socially and geographically. This America was a country that was heading in a positive direction. Although, it was still a nation with roots deeply tied to slavery. Millions of enslaved people remained in bondage, and the institution continued to expand across the South. 

Yet beneath that dark reality, something important was beginning to happen. Opposition to slavery was becoming more organized, more visible, and more determined. This is how what we now know as the Abolitionist movement arose. 

One of the most significant events of the year took place in Philadelphia. From September 15 to 24, free Black leaders gathered at Mother Bethel AME Church for the First National Negro Convention, the meeting that launched what historians now call the Colored Conventions Movement. Decades before the Civil War, Black Americans were already creating national networks to discuss civil rights, education, economic opportunity, and strategies for confronting racial oppression.

The convention was remarkable because it was led by Black Americans themselves. Figures such as Richard Allen, an American clergyman, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, helped encourage a generation of activists who refused to accept slavery and discrimination as unchangeable facts of life. Their work laid the groundwork for future abolitionist organizing and political activism. 

Artwork of Abolitionist Movement

At the same time, the country was experiencing the Second Great Awakening, a religious revival that inspired many Americans to take action against social problems. The movement encouraged people to believe that society could improve, a belief that helped fuel reform efforts across the country. Many future abolitionists first encountered anti-slavery ideas through these religious networks.

The growing spread of newspapers, pamphlets, and churches also allowed reformers to share their message more widely than ever before. This is the beginning of Americans choosing action over silence. 

Even though we started to see change and self-reflection in American citizens, America had not solved its greatest moral failure in 1830; but the year offered a glimpse of a different future. 

Across convention halls, churches, and Black communities, Americans were beginning to organize, speak out, and challenge slavery in ways that would help transform the nation in the decades ahead. 

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AI DISCLOSURE: AI was used to help form and shape this blog post. This post was read and corrected as needed, with information input by this writer. AI did not complete the assignment for this student but was only used as an academic tool for further academic achievement.  

Eight Values of Free Expression

 

 

                                                                                                The Claremont Independent 
Women and men carrying a "FREE SPEECH" banner during a free-speech movement 

              Freedom of Expression: Why is it important? 

As I read through the Eight Values of Free Expression given to us in class, I realized how big of a part these values are in my everyday life. 

Thinking about each one, they are all very important but there was just one that sticks out the most to me: individual self fulfilment. 

In America, we live in a place where you should feel free to be who you want and believe what you want. The first amendment allows us to be free in our own identity no matter what others may feel or think. The freedom of expression allows nonviolent speech and protesting solely for the value of self-fulfillment.  

This value is so important because we come from a country where we are not limited to certain norms and expectations from our government. It reminds us that nobody; no matter what power they have, they cannot take away or change who we truly are.  Many great leaders, today and in history, have achieved their goals and pursued their dreams by believing in themselves and being true to who they are. 

Self-fulfillment in today's society

We see people participating in self-actualization every day in our normal lives.  

Personal growth and finding identity have become a very large part of today's world and social media is a huge factor. 

Social media has allowed people to exercise their first amendment right to thousands if not millions of people online, which only allows the search and need for fulfillment to grow larger. 

Read in the article linked above, in our modern time we have plenty of resources that meet our physical needs and naturally that has shifted our focus towards our mental needs and challenges. 

Obviously social media is always the main topic when it comes to modern day conversation about freedom of speech. We often find a lot of inspiration for our own wants and needs from other people creating personas online. Social media can be positive for someone's personal growth and self-fulfillment, but it can also be negative. 

It is easy for people to compare themselves to others online and they probably are not even seeing an accurate representation of that individual's life. 

Where do we see self-actualization in history?

The famous tragedy, Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles, is one of the greatest examples of the self-fulfilling prophecy. This tells us that the search for self-actualizations dates back even all the way to 429 BCE.  

The self-fulfilling prophecy has had a huge part in the way people have gone about finding their sense of self. 

Similar to modern day, the self-fulfilling prophecy represents a process through someone having a false expectation of another person that eventually leads to another person acting in similar ways or confirming those actions. 

This represents how a lot of individual's go about finding self-actualization in history and modern day. 

This comes back to our first amendment right to our freedom of expression because self-fulfilling prophecies lead people to a like-minded induvial who may have similar beliefs and expressions.    

Our first amendment was put into place to allow these individuals to assemble and share their beliefs with others. 

Why I personally connect with Self-fulfillment

I chose to write about this value because I believe America would not be what is today without the diversity in opinions, good and bad. If we lived in a world where everyone was the same and believed in the same things - there would never be any change. 

We learn from others who are different from us, they carry new perspectives and ideals for us to learn and carry on to the next induvial. 

I personally enjoy hearing from others with a differing opinion then myself, sometimes it can help me see the world from a different view. It teaches me respect for what another person chooses to believe and the standards they may hold themselves to.

I know, because of our freedom to express, that even if someone may have an opinion, I strongly disagree with, that they still have the same right as me and anyone else in our country to express what they believe. 

BIBLE TEAM CHALLENGE

How is the Bible against slavery?

The Bible has been interpreted in many different ways by all different kinds of people. Slavery is one topic where interpretations split hard: some say the Bible supported it, others say it condemned it. Both sides have arguments, and depending on who you ask, you'll probably get a different answer.

Those who argue the Bible opposes slavery point to specific verses and simple moral logic. Exodus 21:16 says: "Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death." That's a direct condemnation of kidnapping and selling a person — the core mechanics of slavery. Deuteronomy 24:7 backs this up: "If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die."

If the Bible did support slavery, that raises real questions about the morality of the religion itself. Galatians 5:1 says: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." The Bible's position is that true freedom comes through Christ alone — and that God doesn't condone oppression like slavery. Slavery being common and accepted at the time doesn't mean God accepted it or wanted his followers to.

How does the Bible support slavery?

Some people believe the Bible supports slavery because it never directly says slavery is wrong or that it should be ended. Instead, the Bible gives rules about slavery and how slaves should be treated. Leviticus 25:44-46, for example, says Israelites could buy slaves from other nations and pass them down to their children as property. Exodus 21 also lays out rules for servants, including how long they were supposed to work and how masters were supposed to treat them. Since the Bible regulates slavery rather than banning it, some believe it was seen as a normal part of life at the time.

The New Testament also has verses telling slaves to obey their masters. Ephesians 6:5 tells slaves to obey their masters and treat them with respect. First Peter 2:18 tells servants to obey their masters, even harsh or unfair ones. First Timothy 6:1 tells slaves to respect their masters as well. Because these verses focus more on obedience than on ending slavery, critics argue the Bible appears to allow it. These same verses were used by some in the 1800s to argue that Christianity supported slavery.

In the end, there are arguments for either opinion, and we may never know the true interpretation just based on different articles we read in the Bible. The Bible is a complex piece of literature we must form our own interpretation and opinion on, while Slavery is also a very complex and deeply rooted issue in our history.

AI DISCLOSURE: Ai was used in a limited way to only help format and check the writing for any misspellings and grammar mistakes. Ai was not tasked to change or rewrite any information written above. Everything you read above was written by students and only students. Some sources found above were given by AI and checked for legitimacy.

Supreme Court Video Reflection

In class we watched a informative video about the supreme court. I went into this video not very sure on what to expect, considering I did not know much about the supreme court. In the end, I came out thinking differently about nine people I'd never really thought or learned about before. This video was able to help enlighten me on the workings of our supreme court.   

Every year, the Supreme Court faces thousands of petitions. Most never make it past the front door — this process has a name, certiorari, the Court's way of choosing which cases are worth its time and which ones are not. 

The justices are appointed by the president to make extremely important decisions; this decision is not taken lightly; these justices are chosen by their popular sentiment and then left to serve — on average — 16 years. Some may even serve double that. Getting the seat, one line from the video put it, is "akin to being struck by lightning." 

What struck me most, though, was the weight of history. These justices are interpreting a 200-year-old document. "We the People" once meant a small, narrow group. Today it means all of us — every kind of person you can imagine. That gap between then and now is enormous, and I found myself wondering how anyone bridges it.

The video described this challenge as trying to walk through fresh concrete with an open mind — hard, maybe even impossible, once precedent hardens.

Two cases came up as bookends. Marbury v. Madison, under John Marshall, established the Court's power. Dred Scott, by contrast, was called the Court's greatest self-inflicted wound.

I was surprised to learn how transparent the process actually is — "people simply thinking," out loud, no secrets. Oral arguments are where the passion and the law collide. Opinion writing, though, is the real grind — the most time-consuming part of the job. 

One phrase stuck with me: the Constitution is a "spoken contract," and protecting it means protecting even the unpopular.

It left me with an uncomfortable thought — we can overrule the Court, and foreign corporations could one day influence presidential elections. Whether that message should worry us is still sinking in. 

AI DISCLOSURE: Ai was used in a limited way in this assignment. I took ample notes while watching a 20-minute video about the U.S Supreme Court. I then personalized those notes by adding my point of view, for example, things I found surprising or interesting about what I learned. I then used Claude AI to help me clean up the text for grammar spelling and punctuation. I also asked the tool to help me shape it into the form of a blog post. I then edited the text, added links, and added images and captions. 

Here is the link to the video I watched: Supreme Court Video