Connector: Harriet Beecher Stowe "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

"Uncle Tom's Cabin is an anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe.  The main ideas of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is to show examples of the life and struggles of an African American during slavery.  It also shows the cruel aspects of slavery and how white slave owners treated and traded them like a totally different species of humans.  After this book was written and published it is said that these issues sparked the American Revolutionary War.   

Above is a short video of Uncle Tom's Cabin with pictures of slaves and how they were beaten and mistreated.

After reading Uncle Tom's Cabin it really made me think of other texts and movies.  The first movie series that came to mind was "Spartacus: Blood and Sand".  I thought of this movie series because of the different similarities that Uncle Tom's Cabin shared with it.  They both show how having the thought of someone being taken from you can feel and how it may affect you.  In "Spartacus" him and his wife have been captured and seperated only to be forced into slavery.  For Spartacus to gain his freedom back he must fight as a "Gladiator" or die trying.  The same theme applies in Uncle Tom's Cabin.  When Eliza finds out that her son could be traded to another slave owner and that she would never see him again she does the unthinkable.  She runs away knowing that they may go through many obstacles in their journey, but just like Spartacus she is fighting for her freedom.

Below is a video of the trailer for Spartacus: Blood and Sand.



After doing a little research I also found a cartoon that was made for "Uncle Tom's Cabin".  It shows an evil slave master who is auctioning his slaves but the slave owners only want the youngest one.  It is a replica of the story because they scream the name Eliza which means they are coming for her child and just like in the book when she finds out that they want her son she runs away.  As you will see in the video I've posted below, they chase after Eliza and her son just as they do in the book.  

 

Many say that when Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote this book it began the start of the American Civil War which in the end abolished slavery.  But why is it that even in today's society slavery still lives.  If you have been looking at the news then maybe you have heard about the short film Kony 2012.  This film tells us about the war in Uganda that many of us didn't even know existed.  It shows us how the issues are represented in our culture today because Joseph Kony (the man who started the war) orders the abduction of children to become either slaves to his army, or either child-sex slaves.  Just like in Uncle Tom's Cabin people are running for their lives in search of freedom from being enslaved.  It is saddening to know that even though slavery is abolished in America, these people still have to live in fear of becoming slaves and losing their family.

Below are two videos of Kony 2012: One with the story of one of the victims due to the war, and another of the whole Kony 2012 video.



In the end Uncle Tom's Cabin really did give an in depth description about the different issues and struggles that slaves had to endure back then.  Being able to connect the story to these different films and cartoons really shows what an impact it has made in history.  This book should really be used in Early American Literature and now because not only does it give a good description of how the life of a slave was then but it also shows similarities in how slavery is still alive and how it is represented in other countries today!

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To be great is to be misunderstood."
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, poet, and he led the Transcendentalist movement during the 19th century.  He is also well known for his famous quotes that he would state in his essays.  While reading his essays i became quite fond of Emerson and his quotes.  One of my favorite quotes was "To be great is to be misunderstood."  This quote really sparked in my mind and the first person that I could think about who is the most understood person in our society today is this man below.....

Lebron "King" James

When I read that quote by Emerson Lebron James was the first thing that popped in my head. When you were younger who did most kids who played basketball say they wanted to be like?  Michael Jordan right!  Now you hear more kids saying they want to be "GREAT" like Kobe Bryant or who else?  You guessed it, Lebron James!  Okay so now that most kids think of Lebron as someone to look up to then why is it that every time you turn your t.v. to Sportscenter there is always a video or someone saying something bad about him. 

There are more videos than these that i have posted, but why is it that one minute people call him "Great" and the next minute their criticising him for not winning one basketball game.  This is a great example for Emerson's quote because Lebron is the greatest basketball player right now and is the most misunderstood.  He gets blamed for everything that doesn't go right with the Miami Heat.  If they lose a game he gets blamed for the loss, if he gets injured they'll claim that he's faking an injury, and they even had the nerve to go after his mom and get involved in his personal life.  http://www.tmz.com/2010/05/17/lebron-james-delonte-west-mom-sex-scandal-cavaliers-cease-and-desist/ All of the negativity and he is still the greatest basketball player in the game right now.  He says all the time that all he wants to do is play basketball and win games, but I guess Emerson's quote is right after all.  "To be great is to be misunderstood"

Do music artists share the same characteristics of Poe?

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, short story writer, and one of the best known critics of all time. Many people know him for his writings such as Annabell Lee, The Fall of the House of Usher, and A Tell-Tale Heart. Poe’s thrilling tales examining the depths of the human mind earned him much fame during his lifetime and after his death. http://www.online-literature.com/poe/ Everyone also knows him for inspiring other authors, but not many people know that he also inspired music artists.


One of the artists that Poe has inspired is Eminem. In his lyrics he is somewhat similar to Poe because he explains his life experiences in a wild and deranged way. http://www.artistdirect.com/entertainment-news/article/top-ten-artists-influenced-by-edgar-allan-poe/9255931Edgar's poems have encouraged Eminem to write creative lyrics in a way that explains his life and major points in his life that made him the way that he is today. For example, Eminem's "97 Bonnie & Clyde" can be compared to Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" because they both portray the image of revenge and murder.

Below is Eminem's "97 Bonnie & Clyde. If you listen to the lyrics he explains the events that have happened during his life just like Poe did in his poems.

Someone else that Poe inspired and could compare to are the Beatles. Yes; even the Beatles were inspired by Poe's work. U could tell that they were inspired by him because he is on their album cover of the famous album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." He is in the top middle on the album cover which is dispalayed at the top of the paragraph. They also showed that they were inspired by Poe because they used his name in their song "I am the Walrus." The famous line states, "Man you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe." http://www.houseofusher.net/songs.html

Below is the song "I am the Walrus" with the lyrics also. If you fast forward to the 3:04 mark you can see where it shows the famous line with Poe's name in it.

What affect did Washington Irving have on the naming of the New York knicks?

The late Washington Irving was an early 19th century biographer, essayist, and author.  Many people remember him for his two most famous writings "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." When you first opened this blog I bet that you thought that you would be reading some sort of summarizing of romanticism or something about who inspired Irving to write these stories. While doing some searching and reading up on Mr. Irving, I learned that one of his writings helped form the name of what we now know them as the "New York Knicks." You may be asking yourself, "Well how did he manage to do this?" Well let me tell you!

In 1809 Irving"s first book was called, "A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty." At the end of the story Irving uses the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker. Later on the book introduced the name "Knickerbocker" to tell if someone was from New York. http://www.nykfp.com/history/knickname.php In the late 19th and early 20th century, New York's symbol was a "Knickerbocker which is the picture displayed at the beginning of the blog.


In 1845 the world got its first dosage of the word "Knickerbocker" when the Manhattan baseball team called themselves the "New York Knickerbockers." Years later in 1938 the term "Knickerbocker" had been used all around New York from Jacob Ruppert's Knickerbocker Beer to other things like plays such as the Broadway musical Knickerbocker Holiday. http://www.nba.com/knicks/history/whatsaknickerbocker.html In the summer of 1946 the NBA granted the city of New York its own basketball team. It was aid that the legendary Ned Irish mad the final decision to name the team the "Knickerbockers." The late Fred Podesta said that they each put a name in a hat to determine the name of the team and most of them came out Knickerbockers.

All of this goes to show that Washington Irving not only had an impact on what people thought of New Yorker's back then, but also on what we now know as the famous New York Knicks. Sorry that I couldn't find any videos related to the subject!

What was the North Star?

Everyone knows Frederick Douglass for being a famous orator and also for his famous writings, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. People very seldom talk about his famous newspaper the North Star. This newspaper contained alot of material on Douglas's analysis on the Constitution and many other conflicts that were going on at the time.



Many people may ask, "How did Douglass come about publishing the North Star." On October 27, 1847 he wrote a letter to a fellow abolitionist Amy explaining his plan to publish his newspaper. The letter stated, "My Dear Amy, I have finally decided on publishing the North Star in Rochester and to make that city my future home." http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=2524  Douglass moved to downtown Rochester, New York where he was to start printing his weekly newspaper. The first copy of the North Star was printed on December 3, 1847. The North Star had a slogan that said, "Right is of no Sex--Truth is of no Color--God is the father of us all, and we are all Brethren." http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr085.html The slogan was to tell people the meaning of the newspaper which was to cover his analysis on the Constitution, women's suffrage, and emancipation.

The North Star was sent to over 4,000 readers in the United Sates, Europe, and West Indies. In June of 1851 the paper merged with the Liberty Party Paper of Syracuse, New York. When the two papers combined they changed the name of the North Star to Frederick Douglass' Paper. http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/douglass.html Even though those numbers sound good for that time period, that was not enough subscribers to help support the financial status of the newspaper. The paper kept publishing for another 10 years until it was forced to close because of its financial status.

This video shows a reading of one of the articles in the North Star.

Were there other people who could relate to Rowlandson's captivity narrative?

Mary Rowlandson's "Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson" has been acknowledged as one of the first best selling captivity narratives in American literature.  http://college.cengage.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pages/colonial/rowlandson_ma.html  Her novel tells her story of being held captive by the Wompanog Indian tribe during King Philip's War.  Her story helped revolutionize American literature by using the genre of a captivity narrative.  Many people think that Rowlandson is the only author that had been captured by and Indian tried, but little do they know about a Reverend names John Williams. 



U all may be asking yourselves, "Who is John Wiliams?"  John Williams was a New England Puritan who was well known for writing "The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion".  He was also uncle to the famous John Edwards.  "The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion" was a narrative written by Williams to show people how his life was being held captive during the Raid on Deerfield in 1704.  http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24758  He was inspired to write his captive narrative because of Rowlandson's "Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson". 

He was also inspired to "Survive" because of Rowlandson's narrative.  During the invading of Deerfield Williams two children and his negro slave was killed.  http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/gen/deerfild.html  While held captive Williams was forced to convert to Catholicism, but ignored the rules.  Another thing Williams had in common with Rowlandson was that they both survived being held captive. Both of their narratives also helped focus on their religions and captivity experiences.  These two authors helped give readers a better understanding of not only how life wast as a Puritan, but also how life was being held captive during the colonial times.

How did the Age of Enlightenment have an affect on Thomas Paine?

"Common Sense" was written by the famous Thomas Paine.  The pamphlet was published January 10, 1776.  The pamphlet was written to challenge the authority of the British government and promote Independence for America.  "Common Sense" was based on believing that people should have the right to choose their own government, as well as being able to revolt against it. Paine felt that the government did not represent the people properly, nor did it promote their overall happiness.  http://www.bookrags.com/research/common-sense-thomas-paine-1776-ltsw/

The pamphlet was strongly based on the time period called the Age of Enlightenment.  The Age of Enlightenment was a period when people became more aware of things such as sciences and intellectual interchange.  They also became opposed to superstition. This time period also influenced Thomas Paine by encouraging him to inform people that the traditional way that the government ran things was not right and that they should do something about it. http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/1700-1800-Age-of-Enlightenment.html  People like Isaac Newton, John Locke, and Pierre Bayle enlightened Thomas Paine to think and write in the sense that he did with the "Common Sense".

Another reason why the Age of Enlightenment is so crucial with Thomas Paine is because, it helped with the solidify the growth of the democratic party.  http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/score_lessons/growth_of_democratic/  Also during this time period, people started to examine the way that rulers governed and felt that they should examine their own government to see if it was being ran the proper way.  For example, at the time there was only one main ruler who contained all the power and held control over everything.  Paine thought the opposite and pushed for power to be separated and balance so that their own government wouldn't become corrupt. 

The Age of Enlightenment did not only lead to Thomas Paine's "Common Sense", but it also encouraged different people in different countries to start speaking up for their rights.  In my eyes, without this time period we wouldn't have had leaders such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. , Rosa Parks, and many other leaders who helped revolutionize the way we think and act now and for the future.