My overall impression of the exhibit was a bit intimidating. Being able to take a glimpse back in time made me view my own life as a tiny spec in the universe. A lot of the pieces portrayed the pain that came with the Civil War and others showed the patriotic side, which I enjoyed. The atmosphere of the exhibit was a bit serious. I felt like the emotions that were supposed to be portrayed were the feelings of the soldiers, some of the cool old school technology that was used, the families that were left behind feelings' and of course the feeling of being proud to fight for your country. This exhibit let the public in a little more personally into this time period in America. I felt like their purpose was to either educate us of the real and raw events through artifacts or if they simply wished to help us understand the impact that this specific war had on our country, something that many people might be dismissive about. In a lot of artifacts I saw many different photos of Abraham Lincoln. In a sense, he was the hero of the Civil War and this was proved by the many times he was portrayed around the exhibit.
One particular artifact that caught my attention was the civil war portrait lockets from the 1860s. There were a whole bunch of brass and gold plated lockets filled with photos of loved ones that were in the war. Apparently these lockets were worn by family or wives in hope that their loved ones would return or were used for comfit that the solider would always be with them no matter what. Another artifact that I seen was a side drum made from wood calfskin rope from 1864. This drum had a stencil of an eagle and it belonged to the Union army. It was used for many things such as the call for battle, the call for wake up, for chores and even to let them know when to sleep. Musicians that were actually in the army were not used for battle and boys as young as then enlisted as musicians in the army. The last artifact that I encountered was a portrait of Abraham Lincoln entitled Mourning Corsage with Portrait of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Vendors created mourning corsages with silk black ribbons that also feature small photos of the deceased president. This was another reason that assured me that Lincoln was loved for what he accomplished before and during the Civil War. He was seen as a hero in many American eyes.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Blog Assignment Number Four
Revision of Blog Assignment Number Two
Growing up in the United States school system, I learned about the slavery that existed here in the past. The key facts that we learned growing up were how many slaves were uneducated, they did not know how to read or write. Also, how a slave was a slave for life. They did hard labor until the day they died. Slaves did very tedious tasks such as picking cotton and were treated as pieces of property because after all, thats what they really were. So you can imagine to my surprise when I learned of the slavery that existed in Latin America. In the book Slave and Citizen, what was considered slavery in my mind, was shifted completely. Slaves were able to have real professions ranging from a doctor to even becoming president. This allows us to infer that slaves were given better opportunities then of those in the United States. If they were given the opportunity to have a career, then that means that education was an option for them. Not only was having a career possible, but a slave in Brazil was able to negotiate with their masters about buying their freedom. An option like that that was never available to slaves in the United States. Being enlightened about the different type of slavery that existed in another part of the world makes me feel ignorant. Because I was only taught about one specific type of slavery, I was not aware that different treatment for slaves existed. It makes me wonder what exactly makes it socially acceptable for these slaves to have these type of opportunities? At the end of the day, they are still a piece of property to their owners, no matter which way you look at it. They biggest difference is that they are actually treated like human beings and very lucky to be treated like so. It's mind boggling.
Growing up in the United States school system, I learned about the slavery that existed here in the past. The key facts that we learned growing up were how many slaves were uneducated, they did not know how to read or write. Also, how a slave was a slave for life. They did hard labor until the day they died. Slaves did very tedious tasks such as picking cotton and were treated as pieces of property because after all, thats what they really were. So you can imagine to my surprise when I learned of the slavery that existed in Latin America. In the book Slave and Citizen, what was considered slavery in my mind, was shifted completely. Slaves were able to have real professions ranging from a doctor to even becoming president. This allows us to infer that slaves were given better opportunities then of those in the United States. If they were given the opportunity to have a career, then that means that education was an option for them. Not only was having a career possible, but a slave in Brazil was able to negotiate with their masters about buying their freedom. An option like that that was never available to slaves in the United States. Being enlightened about the different type of slavery that existed in another part of the world makes me feel ignorant. Because I was only taught about one specific type of slavery, I was not aware that different treatment for slaves existed. It makes me wonder what exactly makes it socially acceptable for these slaves to have these type of opportunities? At the end of the day, they are still a piece of property to their owners, no matter which way you look at it. They biggest difference is that they are actually treated like human beings and very lucky to be treated like so. It's mind boggling.
Blog Assignment Number Three
This week in class we read the short and unfortunate story called The Lynching of Jube Benson. In this story a faithful black servant to a white family is wrongfully accused of a crime he didn't commit. Jube Benson is accused of murdering his boss' daughter, Annie, whom he had cared and looked after for dearly. The only piece of evidence that they linked to Jube was the fact that Annie's last word was the word black when she was found. With a snippet of evidence and no trial given, Jube was lynched for the death of little Annie. Shortly after, it was discovered that Jube was innocent and a man by the name of Tom Skinner was the real murderer. The real meaning depicted behind this story is the aspect of racial profiling. It just shows us that although Jube was a loyal servant to the family he worked for, he was still wrongly blamed for something for horrid because at the end of the day he was a black man and racism was at an all time high in this time period ,especially during slavery. The racial violence that Dunbar tries to get across to his audience through this story is the sad example of what happened to many blacks due to their complexion and what still occurs till this day. For example, the injustice that happened to a young man named Trayvon Martin not too long ago. A young African American 17 year old boy was shot in the chest because he looked suspect, according to his shooter. Apparently wearing a hood and being of a darker complexion fits the description of looking suspect. That type of racial profiling isn't a thing of the past, but something that we are still familiar with today and it's really disappointing that people still have this mindset.
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