Trial/EOTO2 Post

Fifteenth Amendment Parade

Reconstruction: The Good, the Bad, and the Heartbreaking

Our EOTO trial in class was basically a crash course in how complicated Reconstruction really was. On one side, there was real progress. On the other, a whole lot of backlash.

Let’s start with the wins. The 13th Amendment (1865) abolished slavery nationwide and freed about 4 million people. The 14th (1868) gave birthright citizenship and equal protection, which overturned the Dred Scott decision. Then the 15th (1870) said you couldn’t be denied the vote because of race. That’s a huge amount of change in just a few years. 

Hiram Revels

Black Americans also started stepping into political power. Hiram Revels became the first Black member of Congress, serving as a senator from Mississippi, and Joseph Rainey became the first Black U.S. representative, representing South Carolina. About 2,000 Black officeholders served during this era, and many pushed for public schools. Education became a symbol of freedom, and HBCUs like Howard, Fisk, and Hampton Institute were founded. Tuskegee got started too, thanks to Lewis Adams pushing for a school for Black students. And years later, the Niagara Movement and the National Negro Committee laid the groundwork for the NAACP. 

One promise that didn’t last was “40 acres and a mule.” Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15 was meant to give families land for independence, but it was only a temporary wartime measure.

Now for the rough part. Lincoln’s assassination was a massive setback, since Andrew Johnson took over and constantly clashed with Congress. Then came the Black Codes, starting in Mississippi in 1865 and spreading across nearly every southern state by 1866. They did allow some rights, like marrying, owning property, and suing in court, but those came with strings attached. The KKK also formed in late 1865 in Tennessee as a social club for former Confederate soldiers, but by 1868 it had turned into a terrorist group. Voter suppression grew right alongside it, even with the Enforcement Acts trying to protect voters from intimidation.

Compromise of 1877 Political Cartoon

The final blow was the Compromise of 1877. After the disputed Hayes vs. Tilden election, federal troops were pulled out of the South, and the protections that had been holding things together went with them. The Wilmington Massacre of 1898 shows exactly what that looked like in practice. Wilmington had a thriving Black community with Black officeholders and business owners, and a fusion alliance between Republicans and Populists. White supremacists organized, carried out a violent coup, and overthrew the biracial government, forcing Mayor Silas Wright to resign. 

The big takeaway is that Reconstruction showed what was possible when the country committed to equality, and what happened when it stopped.

AI Disclosure: AI was used extensively in this assignment. I took ample notes on the trial and my classmates' presentations. I then put these notes into a concise and bulleted format. Then, I used Claude AI to help me draft a reflection on my research and then clean up the text for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I also asked the tool to help me shape it into the form of a blog post. I then edited the text, added links, and added images and captions.

Reconstruction Video Reflection

Burning Richmond, VA

Reconstruction Video Reflection

The first hour of PBS's Reconstruction: America After the Civil War, viewed in my Talking About Freedom course, challenged my assumption that slavery's end in 1865 marked the end of the struggle. Hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr., the documentary demonstrates that emancipation was merely the beginning of a contested, volatile effort to define what freedom would truly mean. 

A pivotal early moment occurred in Savannah in January 1865, when General William T. Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton met with Black leaders. Reverend Garrison Frazier articulated their vision of freedom: land, education, and independence from white control. Days later, Sherman issued Special Field Order 15, which granted freed families forty acres along the Atlantic coast and gave rise to the phrase "forty acres and a mule." The federal government had, in effect, made a promise. 

Special Field Order 15

That promise was short-lived. After Abraham Lincoln's assassination, President Andrew Johnson reversed the policy, restoring confiscated land to its former owners and declaring Reconstruction complete by the end of 1865. For freed families, the loss was devastating.

Importantly, the documentary presents Black Americans as active participants rather than passive recipients of change. Their service in the Union army fostered pride and strengthened their claim to citizenship, and they worked to build schools, churches, and communities of their own.

Resistance, however, arrived swiftly. Beginning in the autumn of 1865, Southern leaders enacted Black Codes designed to restrict Black labor and mobility. In May 1866, a white mob in Memphis killed forty-six African Americans and destroyed homes, schools, and churches. Congress responded with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and eventually assumed control of Reconstruction, yet the pattern was evident: each advance provoked violent opposition. 

Memphis Massacre

The central lesson is that freedom is more than a legal status; it depends on access to land, political power, and physical safety. PBS describes Reconstruction as a second American Revolution, and this episode makes clear why the era deserves far greater attention in how we understand our national history.

AI Disclosure: AI was used extensively in this assignment. I took ample notes about the video we watched on Reconstruction. I then put these notes into a concise and bulleted format. Then, I used Claude AI to help me draft a reflection on my research and then clean up the text for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I also asked the tool to help me shape it into the form of a blog post. I then edited the text, added links, and added images and captions.

 

Mass meeting endorsing the call for secession, Charleston, SC.

The Secession Movement

Background and Causes

The secession movement emerged from decades of escalating tension between Northern and Southern states, centered primarily on the institution of slavery and its expansion into new territories. As the United States grew westward, the question of whether new states would permit slavery became increasingly volatile. Compromises like the Missouri Compromise (1820), the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) attempted to balance the interests of free and slave states but ultimately deepened sectional divisions rather than resolving them.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act was particularly consequential because it introduced the concept of "popular sovereignty," allowing settlers in new territories to vote on whether to permit slavery. This led to violent conflict in "Bleeding Kansas," where pro- and anti-slavery settlers clashed. The Dred Scott decision of 1857, in which the Supreme Court ruled that Black Americans could not be citizens and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories, further inflamed Northern opposition to the institution's expansion.

The Immediate Trigger

The election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 served as the immediate catalyst for secession. Though Lincoln did not campaign on abolishing slavery where it already existed, his Republican Party opposed its expansion into new territories, and many Southern leaders viewed his election as an existential threat to their economic and social order, which was deeply dependent on enslaved labor.

South Carolina was the first state to secede, doing so on December 20, 1860, less than six weeks after Lincoln's election. By February 1861, six more states—Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas—had followed. These seven states formed the Confederate States of America in February 1861, adopting a constitution and electing Jefferson Davis as president. After the attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861 and Lincoln's subsequent call for troops to suppress the rebellion, four more states—Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina—seceded, bringing the Confederacy to eleven states.

Justifications Offered by Secessionists 

Confederate States of America.

It's worth noting for your presentation that secession ordinances and declarations of causes, particularly those issued by South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas, explicitly cited the preservation of slavery as a central motivation. Mississippi's declaration stated that its position was "thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery." This is an important primary-source point, since some later historical narratives (the "Lost Cause" framing) attempted to recast secession primarily as a dispute over states' rights or federal overreach, downplaying slavery's centrality. Most contemporary historians view this reframing as a post-war revisionist narrative rather than an accurate reflection of secessionists' own stated reasoning.

Constitutional and Legal Arguments

Secessionists argued that the Union was a voluntary compact among sovereign states, and that any state retained the right to withdraw if it believed the federal government had violated that compact. This theory drew on earlier states' rights arguments, including John C. Calhoun's nullification doctrine from the 1830s. The Lincoln administration and most Northerners rejected this interpretation, viewing the Union as perpetual and secession as illegal rebellion rather than a legitimate constitutional act.

The Path to War

The crisis came to a head at Fort Sumter, a federal fort in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Confederate forces demanded the fort's surrender, and when Union commander Robert Anderson refused, Confederate artillery opened fire on April 12, 1861. The fort surrendered the next day. This attack transformed a political crisis into an armed conflict, and Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteer troops pushed the remaining reluctant slave states to choose sides, with four joining the Confederacy and four border states (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri) remaining in the Union despite permitting slavery.

Consequences 

Bombardment of Fort Sumter.

The secession movement led directly to four years of civil war (1861-1865), the deadliest conflict in American history, with an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 deaths. It ultimately resulted in the abolition of slavery through the Thirteenth Amendment, the preservation of the Union, and a fundamental reordering of the relationship between federal and state governments. The war also left lasting scars, including the Reconstruction era's unfinished promises regarding civil rights and racial equality, which would shape American history for generations afterward.

AI Disclosure: AI was used extensively in this assignment. I took ample notes about my research topic, the Secession Movement, in class. I then put these notes into a concise and bulleted format. Then, I used Claude AI to help me draft a reflection on my research and then clean up the text for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I also asked the tool to help me shape it into the form of a blog post. I then edited the text, added links, and added images and captions. 

 

EOTO Trial Reflection

 

An Old Trial, circa 1808

Trial Reflection Notes

Property or Person? What State v. Mann Made Me Think About

In my Talking About Freedom class, we recently ran a mock trial based on State v. Mann. Each of us took notes on what the other sides argued, and I came away with a lot to think about. The arguments were unsettling to hear, and they show how people once justified the unjustifiable.

The Case

John Mann shot a woman named Lydia in the back. She was enslaved, and Mann was hiring her from her owner at the time. Lydia had been upset and, after committing what was described as a small offense, ran away to escape her punishment. Mann shot her as she fled.

He was fined five dollars. Mann appealed even that, insisting the state had no business punishing him.

The Defense: Lydia as Property

The defense started from a chilling premise: Lydia was property, and an owner can treat property however he pleases. They argued that Mann had the same authority over Lidia that her owner would have had, because a person who hires a slave holds the owner's power during that time. In their view, Lydia was subject to his punishment, and he did nothing wrong.

They also leaned on religion, arguing that slavery was consistent with Christian teachings and even promoted in the Bible. They claimed enslaved people were better off under their "masters" than they would be on their own. They also argued that master authority was necessary for society to run properly, which meant that questioning it threatened the whole social order.

The Prosecution: Lidia as a Human Being

State v. Mann

The prosecution's argument was simple. Lydia was a human being and deserved to be treated as one. Even if the law called her a slave, the Bible and her basic rights as a person still protected her. They also pointed out that in every form of slavery throughout history, enslaved people were still protected from certain kinds of assault under law. Even the most brutal systems drew some line.

They also spoke to what slavery took from people: freedom, education, and the chance to develop their talents and skills. Being denied those things was itself a harm.

Where Abolitionists Fit In

Something else stuck with me. Early abolitionists challenged slavery heavily, and they believed everyday Americans could make a difference. That idea feels connected to this case. The prosecution's argument that a person is a person no matter what the law says is the kind of moral challenge abolitionists were pushing on the public.

What I Took Away

The most disturbing part was how calm the defense's reasoning sounded. It didn't rely on anger or hatred. It relied on logic that treated a human life as a piece of property and called that order and stability. It also drew on religion and on the claim that enslaved people were better off, which made cruelty sound like kindness.

Hearing both sides in one room made it clear how much depends on a single question: Is this a person or a possession? Once someone is defined as property, nearly anything can be justified. That is why the prosecution's insistence on Lydia's humanity mattered so much.

AI Disclosure: AI was used extensively in this assignment. I took ample notes about the trial we had in class. I then put these notes into a concise and bulleted format. Then, I used Claude AI to help me draft a reflection and then clean up the text for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I also asked the tool to help me shape it into the form of a blog post. I then edited the text, added links, and added images and captions. 

Eight Values Blog Post

 

Insperity

Promoting Innovation

Among all of the Eight Values of Free Expression, I believe that Promoting Innovation has been and will be the most important factor in developing the United States as a nation. Innovation can come in various forms, from something as simple as creating a new flavor of OREO to creating a new rocket for NASA to take to the moon. Since the birth of the U.S., innovation has paved the way for so many unique ideas and systems, and society as we know it today would be drastically different had we not taken risks in modernization over the last 250 years.

Early Days

Not long after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the new founders of America wasted no time developing various aspects of society. Inventions like the cotton gin and the telegraph were vital to the early-stage development of American culture. These inventions provided a foundation to show that America could thrive and develop on its own, and had the goal of growing each and every year exponentially. Then came the development of canals and railroads, which changed the course of transportation and the distance that people had to cover in this new country. From there, places that fostered the growth of the mind were established, as institutions for science and universities started to become a main component of society.

Industrialization

New York Times

The industrialization boom hit America fast and hard. From the development of railroads and textile mills to the production of steel and oil companies, there was no stopping the innovation and development once it hit the ground running in the USA. Innovation was always the key form of development for society, and the U.S. took full advantage of this concept when trying to become a world power.

Wars

It was no secret that if a country develops as rapidly as the U.S. did in a compressed time period of about 150 years, there was going to be war. The U.S. had built itself up enough to become a world power, and while it still wanted to expand and grow internally, it also knew that it had the power and respect to be a main contributor to world wars. Although the U.S. participated in World War 1, it wasn't really until the attack on Pearl Harbor that the U.S. got its foot in the door. This attack sparked outrage across the nation and prompted the U.S. to not just join, but become a crucial part of the victory in WWII. This not only put the U.S. on the global map, but also led to the globalization of its society and cultural norms

Transition to Present Day

Time

WWII was a launching pad for what the U.S. is known for today, both internally and externally. The Cold War followed next, and the development of technology for the space race and other wartime activities prompted a focus on technology in the nation that is still ever-growing today. From airplanes to cars and computers and phones, the last 50 years in America have seen an astounding amount of growth that has essentially separated the U.S. from every other country. In today's age, America has a diverse society with people who possess all different skill sets. Some are experts in politics and government, while some are gifted athletically, and some are smart financially. The U.S. has so many different parts of society that have all come together over the last 250 years to create a force to be reckoned with.

Why Innovation?

Overall, innovation has always been a driving force behind the development of society in America. Without the various elements of society that have resulted from innovation, the U.S. would not still be a nation today. From the early beginnings when a few founding fathers decided to create a new country, to the present day, where 340 million people coexist under one nation, America has and will thrive off of innovation for years to come.

The Frederick Douglass Game

 

John Jay Portrait

"Prayers to Heaven for Liberty Will Be Impious": John Jay Speaks

I am John Jay of New York — first Chief Justice of the United States, a writer of the Federalist, Governor of my state, and, from 1785 until I took the bench in 1789, president of the New-York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves. I helped build the Constitution that men now hold up as slavery's shield. I ask you to hear me out, because I know what was in that room, and I know what was in my own heart when I signed my name to the American cause.

What I Wrote When No One Was Listening

In September of 1780 I sat in Spain, begging a monarch for money to fund our revolution, and I wrote home to my friend Egbert Benson about the only thing I could not stop turning over: "Till America comes into this Measure, her Prayers to Heaven for Liberty will be impious. This is a strong Expression, but it is just."

I meant every word of it then and I mean it now. Impious. Not impolitic. Not unfortunate. Blasphemous. A nation on its knees asking God for freedom while its hand is clamped over another man's mouth is not praying — it is performing. Five years later I put it to Dr. Richard Price more plainly: that men should pray and fight for their own freedom and yet keep others in slavery is inconsistent, unjust, and perhaps impious. And to Richard Lushington: to contend for our own liberty and deny that blessing to others involves an inconsistency not to be excused.

Not to be excused. Hear that, gentlemen who quote me at your dinner tables. 

My Own Hands Were Not Clean

Gradual Abolition Act

I will not stand here and pretend to a purity I never possessed. I owned men, and I defended it this way: I purchase slaves and manumit them at proper ages, when their faithful services have afforded a reasonable retribution. Read that sentence again and notice what it does. It makes a man pay for his own freedom in advance, in labor, to the very person who had no right to take it. Yet I wrote into Benoit's manumission paper that the children of men are by nature equally free and cannot without injustice be held in slavery. I knew the principle. I applied it on my own schedule.

So when the abolitionist in this hall says gradualism is a comfortable bed for a guilty conscience, he is describing me. I do not deny the charge. I offer it as testimony. If a man who saw the wrong that clearly still moved that slowly, what shall we say of a nation that has now had seventy years and grown only more defiant?

The Constitution Is Not a Tomb

They tell you the Constitution settles it. I was there. We wrote a frame of government, not a scripture, and we built into it the means of its own amendment because we knew we were fallible men working under the pressure of the hour. In 1799 I signed New York's Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, because law is a thing that can be changed by men who decide to change it.

So do not hide behind my generation. We failed to finish it. That work now falls to you, and there is no clause anywhere that excuses you from it.

AI DISCLOSURE: AI was used extensively in this assignment. I did ample research across multiple sources about the figure I chose, John Jay. I then personalized this research by adding my point of view, for example, things I found surprising or interesting about what I learned. I then used Claude AI to help me draft a script and then clean up the text for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I also asked the tool to help me shape it into the form of a blog post. I then edited the text, added links, and added images and captions. 

Bible Team Challenge

Slavery in the Bible

    In my Talking About Freedom class, we were asked to write a blog post with a partner about whether or not slavery was accepted or condemned in the bible. Below, you can read the research that states where the bible argues for and against slavery. Two points of view in the same fascinating book.

Argument for Slavery:

    Slavery is either permitted or tolerated in many passages throughout the Bible. It is no secret that most, if not every society throughout history, has accepted slavery at some point in its timeline. For centuries, slavery was viewed as the most efficient form of cheap labor that gave slave owners both money and control. 

    Even in the bible, the use of slavery is permitted in various passages. In the Old Testament, Leviticus 25:44-46 allows Israelites to acquire slaves from surrounding nations. Deuteronomy 15 also discusses releasing Hebrew servants after a certain period of service. Pro-slavery thinkers argued that God regulated slavery instead of outright denouncing it, meaning it could not have been sinful. These verses and passages don’t specifically outlaw slavery, but instead detail regulations for owning slaves. 

    Other verses, however, flat-out accept the practice. In the New Testament, verses such as Ephesians 6:5 and 1 Peter 2:18 explicitly instruct slaves to obey their masters. It is argued that if slaves were directly addressed and instructed to obey their masters, then slavery must have been acceptable within Christianity. 

Slavery in the Bible

Argument Against Slavery:

    Slavery has existed in nearly every society throughout history, and religious traditions have often been used to justify it. Yet a closer reading of the Bible reveals passages in both testaments that speak directly against the practice.

    In Exodus 21:16, the law states plainly: "Anyone who kidnaps a person and sells them, or is caught holding them, must be put to death." Kidnapping and selling a person is treated not as a regulated practice, but as a capital crime.

    Deuteronomy 23:15–16 addresses a person who has escaped bondage, instructing: "You shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you." The escapee "shall dwell with you, in your midst... wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him," This is shown as protection rather than a mandate to return them to captivity.

    In the New Testament, 1 Timothy 1:8–10 affirms that "the law is good if one uses it properly," then lists those the law exists for: lawbreakers, murderers, and others acting contrary to sound doctrine among them, "slave traders." The book of Philemon has often been read as pointing toward a broader shift, away from ownership and toward brotherhood.

    Together, these passages form a pattern, not an exception: a consistent stance against slavery within the biblical record.

Reflection:

    The Bible is a fascinating book, which was written over a long period of time from various different perspectives. As a result of this, the practice of slavery is both debated and accepted throughout the book, making the issue of slavery that much more polarizing.

AI DISCLOSURE: AI was used in a limited way in this assignment. I did ample research across multiple sources about slavery throughout the Bible. I then personalized this research by adding my point of view, for example, things I found surprising or interesting about what I learned. I then used Claude AI to help me clean up the text for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I also asked the tool to help me shape it into the form of a blog post. I then edited the text, added links, and added images and captions.