Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 23

Philosophy - Essay Example These tactics forced the slaves to adopt survival tactics of living, reinforcing the beliefs of white people that menial labor was all the slaves were capable of – higher thought was clearly beyond the capacity of their more primitive brains. Making the situation even worse, this societal attitude was successful in convincing many of the slaves that these assumptions were correct. Proving that this was not the case, though, was Frederick Douglass. An escaped slave from Maryland, he was the first black man to appear on a presidential ticket in America. Douglass told the world his story revealing in the process how literacy changed him deeply to transform him from a masterless slave to a freethinking human being. These ideas are also revealed in his early narrative Frederick Douglass: Life of an American Slave. Although his exact birth date is unknown, Douglass believed he was born sometime in February of 1818. He died on February 20, 1895. Today’s common perception is that slavery, at least the brutal form of it, was confined mostly in the south on the big plantations yet Douglass witnessed many brutal beatings on his master’s Maryland farm where he lived for his first seven years. As a child, he was often required to endure cold and hunger because the master kept most of the slave-generated products, including food and fuel, for his own comfort and well-being. Normally a very traumatic event for a child, when 7-year-old Douglass’ mother died, he felt almost no grief. â€Å"Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of [my mother’s] death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger† (Ch. 1). The important lesson Douglass tries to conv ey in these early chapters is how the slave is created from birth. He is separated from his family to destroy any natural human feelings of

The Major Cause (s) of the Panic of 1837 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Major Cause (s) of the Panic of 1837 - Essay Example There was a short recovery in 1838 but the recession continued for around seven years. Businesses failed, banks collapsed, prices went down, and many people lost their jobs (Benson, et al. 73). The crisis was brought by the duration of economic expansion which was around 1834 to 1836. The prices of cotton, land, and slaves went up in these years. This boom had a lot of causes, domestically and internationally. Due to the strange factors of international trade at this period, a lot of silver came into the United States from China and Mexico. Tariffs on imports and land sales were producing considerable federal revenues. Through profitable cotton exports and state-backed bonds marketing in British money markets, US got substantial capital investment from Britain. These bonds facilitated transportation projects in US. The British loans were accessible through Anglo-American banking houses, helped in the United States ‘expansion westward, industrial expansion, infrastructure development, and economic development (Tindall,et al.67). 1n 1836, it was discovered that monetary reserves in England banks had reduced sharply recently possibly due to insufficient wheat harvests which compelled them import a lot of its food. Consequently, they decided to gradually increase interest rates to 5 from 3 percent. This was done so as to attract specie given the fact that money always goes to where it generates greatest returns. The 1830s open economy, was characterized by free trade and trade barriers that were weak, hegemonic power monetary policies (Great Britain), were transmitted to the global economic system, including U.S. Major Banks in America were forced to increase interest rates as a result of Bank of England doing the same(Skrabec, Quentin R.  193). Interest rates were raised by New York banks and lending was scaled back, the effects were harmful. Given the