Different Routes to Racial Equality

This pyramid does not necessarily show
size, just the ranking of each race.

This pie chart shows the sizes
of the races in 1800s Latin America.

    Our previous lesson about the Haitian revolution has brought us to a new topic, the revolutions of Latin America. In class, we got into three groups and each was provided with articles on Gran Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil. We were asked to make a timeline, and then intermingle with people from other groups and summarize what happened during the revolts of those countries. A common theme throughout this lesson was race and how that effected certain groups on the social pyramid. To the left you can see the pyramid and to the right a pie chart of these races. The Penisulares had the highest rank, they were fully Spanish and from Europe. They had the highest ranking jobs like being a priest or in the government. Next was the Creoles, they were of Spanish blood but born in  Latin America. These people made up about 23% of the population and had jobs in the government, church, or trade. Mestizos had Spanish and Indianan blood; these people were usually shopkeepers or small farmers. Mulattoes made up about 8% of the population and were half black, half Spanish; these people could buy their freedom. Indians made up 50% of the population; they lived in Latin America before the Spanish arrived. By law, they were forced to work as laborers in mines or small farms. The last 11% of the population was made up of slaves, who were considered property and could be bought and sold.
   As a class we noticed there was two commonalities between the three revolts. One being that each country wanted independence from European rule, and the other being that people in power usually didn't stay in power long. We also noticed two difference; the Brazilian revolt was not as violent was the other two, and the  Gran Colombian revolt resulted in multiple independent countries, where the others resulted in one. These three revolutions were all different routes to independence, but they all united different races. In Gran Colombia, the leader Simon Bolivar was creole, but he united everyone who wasn't enslaved to fight against the Spanish for their independence. In Brazil, Pedro became a leader and only let the people who were born in Portugal have high power in the government. The people of Brazil, all races, were dissatisfied with his ways of ruling and he fled back to Portugal. In Mexico a priest, Father Miguel, launched a revolution, one of the reasons was for racial equality. This united all races, because they all wanted more rights.





































  In Florida, a couple years ago an unarmed, black, teenager named Trayvon Martin was shot by a Hispanic policeman, George Zimmerman. One the day Trayvon was fatally shot, he went to visit his fathers fiancee. Other policemen showed up at the scene two minutes after the shooting. Later, Zimmerman was taken into custody and questioned for five hours. The policeman was released because he claimed he was protecting himself. The police were prohibited by law from making an arrest; the police chief also said that Zimmerman had a right to defend himself with a lethal force. Trayvon was just causally walking, not doing anything suspicious and his life was taken for that. Clearly Zimmerman was making a judgement from the color of Trayvon's skin. There have been many revolts to help the issues of racial equality, like the Latin American revolutions, but racism is still an issue in our world today.

Remembering Toussaint Louverture

    Martin Luther king Jr. is remembered for having courage, being tough, and standing up for African American rights. Toussaint L'Ouverture should be remembered like King because they had similar qualities as a leader. Louverture was a military commander and the ruler of Saint Dominique, but his passion for liberating slaves is what he should be remembered for most. 
   It is important to remember Toussaint as a liberator of slaves because the majority of his actions revolved around it. He joined the slaved revolt in 1797 and helped lead it to success. Later, he stops his troops from revolting because Robespierre abolished slavery. He writes a letter French Directory and says " We have known how to confront danger to our liberty, and we will know how to confront death to preserve it." (Doc B) This is is a threat to France; it says how if the French try to force slavery upon Saint Domingue, they wont go down without a fight. Further proving Louverture is a liberator of slaves, he signs the Saint Domingue constitution in 1801 which states "There cannot exist slaves in this         territory, servitude is therefore forever abolished. All men are born, live and die free and french" (Doc C) This article gets straight to the point, it clearly states that slavery will never exist in Saint Domingue. Toussaint Louverture should be remembered as a liberator of slaves because all of his future actions revolve around his passion for gaining rights for slaves.
   Another way to look back on Louverture is as a military commander. Before he became a military commander he served as a doctor along with commanding a small detachment of slaves. Later in 1792, he became a military commander and taught his troops both guerrilla tactics and the European style of war. This was an intelligent idea because when the French came over, they were used to fighting in cities (shoulder to shoulder). Guerrilla style is blending in with the surroundings; it's a quick attack and quick retreat. The French would be caught off guard, giving the people of Saint Domingue an advantage. Also, when the French came to the port city of Semana to enslave people, he burnt down all the plantations. The French arrived to the land, and it looked less appealing to invade because there was no resources; the French had to move to the center of the island, where the people of Saint Domingue were ready to attack. This just shows how smart he was as a military leader. On October 29,1801 a revolt happened on a northern plain and white plantation owners were murdered. This happened because the newly freed slaves were sick of doing the same work as before (working in feilds) , even though they were considered free and not slaves. His nephew Hyacinthe Morse, led this revolt; Toussaint was enraged and later sentenced him to death. He made the followers of the revolt to commit suicide to scare others on Saint Domingue. Toussaint's superior knowledge, his humanity, generosity, and courage, made him gain the confidence if whom he had under his command (Doc F). It was no secret that Toussaint Louverture was a strategic and strong military leader, therefore he should be remembered as one.
   Aside from liberating slaves and being a military leader, Toussaint Louverture was also a ruler of Saint Dominique. He wasn't known as the best ruler, but he truly cared about his people and the laws they were required to follow. In the Saint Domingue constitution it states "He is entrusted in the direction thereof for the remainder of his glorious life" (Doc C). This statement means Louverture has the power to rule the rest of his life. He could of easily turned Saint Domingue into a dictatorship but the people trusted him, and they knew he would do the best for them. These people needed a strict leader as well. Once the slaves gained rights and became free he knew they would be less motivated to work on the plantations. Due to this, he made strict laws to enforce labor in the fields. He wrote "Any individual...tending to incite sedition [actions against the authority of nation] shall be brought before a court martial [military court] and be punished in conformity with the law" (Doc D). Toussaint is saying that if a plantation worker choose to not work or go to a different plantation, they would be sent to jail. He also writes "Any manger or driver of a plantation upon which a foreign cultivator [field worker of another plantation] shall have taken refuge shall denounce him to the captain or commander of the section within 24 hours under penalty of one week in prison"(Doc D).  If a plantation owner knew there was workers from other farms on his property and did not report them within 24 hours, he would be sent to jail for a week. Although these laws were strict, Saint Domingue needed a ruler like Louverture to keep the people in line, so it is important to remember Louverture as a trusted leader.
  Toussaint Louverture had a very eventful life with all the accomplishments he made, but he should mostly be remembered as a liberator of slaves. He was a great ruler and a smart military leader, but all the actions he made was traced back to freeing slaves. He put in all his effort to ensure slavery would be abolished forever for the people of Saint Domingue. He even threatened the French Directory and said his troops would fight to the death if it meant slavery would not be reinstated. He proved that him and his actions should be respected. He was unfortunately departed to France and died there. But, he would have died happy knowing that the Saint Dominicans gained their independence. Therefore, we should Toussaint Louverture as a liberator of slaves.

Doc B: Toussaint Louverture “Letter to the French Directory, November 1797.”
Doc C: The Saint Domingue Constitution. Signed but Toussaint Louverture in July 1801.
Doc D: Toussaint Louverture "Proclamation, 25 November 1801."
Doc F:  William Wells Brown, “A Description of Toussaint Louverture,” from The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements, 2nd edition, 1863. Engraving of Toussaint Louverture, 1802.

Failing is Not Always Failure

           

   This weeks essential question was "Were the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 really failures as many historians have concluded?". After the congress of Vienna, many liberals and nationalist revolted because the government was not giving them what they wanted. However, most of revolts were not as successful as they wanted them to be.We were introduced to this topic by our activator, which was a map with a quote from Alexis de Tocqueville. He said "We are sleeping on a volcano. Do you not see that the Earth trembles anew? A wind of revolution blows, the storm is on the horizon." As a class we tried to figure out this metaphor; we came to the conclusion it meant that liberals and nationalists are the volcano, and the conservatives are sleeping on top, meaning that the liberals and nationalists have slowly been getting angered and will revolt. After, the class was separated into groups we had to research one out of five topics (Deciembrist revolt, France 1830, France 1848, Frankfort assembly 1848, or 1848 Hungary). We had to find the date,goals,opponent, outcome, and reasons for success/failure. Later we created survey monkeys with questions based on the documents we read. Then we were asked to place our revolt on a scale of total success to complete failure.

    The revolution of France in 1848 was both a success and failure. It started of during the 1840s when the people began to get angry that Louis Philippe was king. Socialists ended private ownership to property and not everyone had a say in the government. At the end of the decade there was a recession, along with a horrible harvest which caused huge amounts of unemployment. During the February days, the people of Paris put up barricades throughout the city. Louis Philippe then stepped down from the thrown, and a second republic was formed by a group of radicals, socialist, and liberals. These three groups has very different ideas, but they agreed to put up workshops to give employment to the city. By June, upper and middle class people saw these workshops as a waste of money, and shut them down. This angered the workers and the peasants; the bourgeois liberals took a stand and about 1,500 people were killed before the government stepped in. After, the National assembly wanted to restore order and make a constitution which included a president, a one house legislature, and the right for all men to vote. The nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, Louis Napoleon won the election by a landslide. The people of France had high hopes that he would be as good as his beloved uncle. He made it clear he wanted to help with social issues, like the poor. He manged to abuse his power and declared himself emperor, ending the second republic which was what the people wanted. Napoleon the third later made  foreign adventures that brought down his empire and ended French leadership in Europe. In short, the people got what they wanted by getting rid of Louis Philippe and creating a second republic, but they gave Napoleon III power, which destroyed all their hard work from the months of February through June. My group share this information through Our survey monkey   and it helped our classmates get a better understanding of the Revolt in 1848.

These pictures are screenshots from our survey monkey that were created in class.

  

    To me there was only one great failure, which was the Decembrist revolt, the other five were not as severe but also not successful. The Decembrists were liberals and hoped Tsar Alexander would make a constitutional monarchy, end serfdom, and give Russia a constitution. Alexander abused his power and treated the lower classes miserably. Alexander ended up giving Poland a constitution but not Russia. This angered the people of Russia because they thought they were better than Poland. Another revolt was France in 1830, this was due to Charles X because he was a strong believer in absolutism. The french threw up barricades which lead Charles X to flee to England. Louis Philippe was then king, who the people liked at the time because he owed his thrown to the people. Also, the revolt i previously mentioned (France 1848) was good for a period of time, but then went down hill. The decembrist was the only revolt where there was never a positive outcome for anyone. Therefore historians were correct that none of the revolts were complete successes, but historians were wrong to classify each revolt as a complete failure.