Today in class we read worksheets on John Brown. John Brown was an abolitionist that wanted to take control of the arsenal at Harper's Ferry in Virginia. He was warned against this course of action by Frederick Douglass, and in the end, ten of his men were killed, seven were captured, and five escaped. John Brown himself was sentenced to hanging.

Goal: So I figured out the days I have track and dance I stretch. All the others, not so much.

The past two days in class we focused on the Dred Scott case. Dred Scott was a slave that was trying to sue his masters for his freedom. Unfortunately, he had bad-timing, and if he had addressed the case at an earlier date, he probably would have won. Today in class, we focused on Abraham vs. Stephen Douglas in the Senate race. Abraham was one of the first Republicans, that strongly opposed slavery. Stephen Douglas believed it should be up to the state to allow or abolish it.

My goal: Yeah so my goal isn't going very well. I occasionally do it, but there just aren't enough hours in the day.

The past two days in class we have been talking about the Missouri Compromise. The compromise gave the Senate equal power between slave states and free states. However, it gave far more land to the free North than it did to the slave South.

My goal is not going well. However, I have been trying to every other day.

The past two days in class, we focused on slavery and how slaves escaped their horrendous predicament. In the early stages of slavery, slaves worked on plantations that farmed cotton, tobacco, rice and other crops. However, when the cotton gin was introduced, the plantation owners focused their attention on cotton, as they could produce more at a time thus making the production more profitable and making the slave owners wealthier. Today we learner about the emancipation, or freeing, of slaves. Most slaves wanted freedom from thei masters, and some, in order to obtain this freedom, ran away. While some did it independently, others relied on the Underground Railroad, which was a system that transported slaves from the south to the free north. Along the trail, there were many stops where black slaves could stay on their journey. These houes were owned by abolitionists, people that wanted to end slavery.


My goal is not going so well. I often find myself feeling that sleep is more important.

The past two days in class we have been talking about slavery. Yesterday, we focused on two actual accounts of slavery; one being from a slave girl, and the other from Olaudah Equiano. The account of the girl is much nicer than Olaudah's story. The girl was a slave, but her master was kind, and her father was in relation to her. He knew where she was, and how she was doing. Olaudah was a child soldier, and then take onto a slave ship and later sold as a slave. He was treated very poorly; he was beaten, forced to eat, and chained together with other slaves. He could not escape for fear of surviving and having a far worse punishment than death. Today in class, we focused on supporters and opponents of slavery. The supporters were both government officials from the south that had some degree of education. The opponents of slavery were poor, not formally educated, and did not hold government positions. They were from middle-east to northern states.

My goal is to stretch at least once a day.