The Springs Chronicles

Today we are gathered to determine whether or not the fine of $5 for shooting a slave is just or unjust. The fact that we are even gathered here today to discuss this is outrageous. You, John Mann, are seriously going to stand there and complain about a $5 fine for shooting someone? What about the girl you shot? Do you even care that you shot her? That she could have died? Her name is Lydia. Lydia is a slave, but she is still a human being. She breathes like us, talks like us, walks like us, yet we still sit here and debate that she should be considered property? You should be ashamed of yourself, Mr. Mann, for not even thinking about Lydia’s well being. Lydia ran away because you were beating her. Then you shot her for running from you. She has suffered her entire life due to the abomination of slavery, and yet here you stand, demanding that you do not need to pay the $5 fine. You should be paying even more money for partaking in slavery and for hurting a person for no just reason....

Out of all of the EOTO's, I thought the most interesting event was Bleeding Kansas and Bleeding Sumner. Bleeding Kansas was caused because of the clashes between pro and anti slavery activists due to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. I did not know that there were two capitals during this time. One capital was Lecompton. This was the pro slavery capital. Topeka was the anti slavery capital. Bleeding Kansas What's interesting to me is the idea of popular sovereignty. I think that on an objective level, popular sovereignty was the correct concept to apply when deciding if slavery should be legal in a state or not. However, the objectively best solution is not always the best solution when used. Popular sovereignty caused riots and deaths of US citizens. Splitting the states into a slave and free state without letting the people decide would have been the best solution in hindsight. It is just interesting to me because I feel that many times the best solution on paper is not the be...

Outside of John Brown, who was my Town Hall character, I thought the most interesting person was Thomas Jefferson.  Thomas Jefferson had this war inside his own head over whether or not slavery should stay legal in the United States. I did not know any of Thomas Jefferson's views on slavery prior to this Town Hall.  Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the United States What I find interesting is that Jefferson knew slavery was morally wrong, but he supported it for other motives. I learned that he believed abolishing slavery would cause whites and blacks to split off in to two separate countries. He was partially correct, because after the Civil War, whites and blacks were separated due to segregation laws, but these laws were because of white people, not because of both sides hating one another.  Jefferson also believed that slavery was so embedded in to the country's economy that abolishing it would cause an economic collapse in the North and South. He was once ...

After the Civil War ended in 1865, the South was in shambles. Their cities and surrounding land had been scorched and pillaged. Their economy was in turmoil. There was tension among whites and newly freed slaves, causing fear among whites, resulting in the creation of organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan. To add to the melting pot of chaos, the Radical Republicans had control of the Presidency and the House, leading to a strict monitoring of the South. With all of this built up stress, the southern population had to do something to release it. This is why the first chance they had to, they made a statement. Charleston, South Carolina after the Civil War In 1876, the presidential race was nearing the end. The race was between republican nominee Rutherford B. Hayes of Delaware and democrat Samuel J. Tilden of New York. To give background on what was occurring during this time, Reconstruction was slowly becoming less and less popular. Failed policies of the Grant administration left the...