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Showing posts from October, 2020

Brown V. Board

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Today we had a group hold a mock trial fighting the case of Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka. This trial occurred in Kansas during the year of 1954. One side fought the segregation of the schools, while the other group fought to end segregation in schools. The students used different ways to fight their point whether it was through religion, ethics, or morals.  This case started in 1951, when a school in Topeka Kansas, refused to let African American Oliver Brown into the academic building. She was then forced to take a bus to a school much further away, to a segregated school district for Black children only. The Brown family and 12 others were in the same situation. They decided to create a class action lawsuit in the U.S. federal court versus the Topeka Board of education. The court decided that the segregation of the children was unconstitutional and the segregation in the school district would stop. This overruled another popular case Plessy V. Fergusson, which called for...

Lincoln and Anti-Slavery

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  Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. Abraham Lincoln is probably known as one of the biggest Anti-Slavery advocates in the 1860’s. There is however, a little bit of a common misunderstanding held by everyone. Lincoln was not considered an abolitionist. Abe was on that believed that slavery was morally wrong and should not be allowed. But one thing stood in his way and that was the constitution. The founding fathers when writing the constitution did not mention slavery once and beat around the bush of the idea.  Lincoln did similar actions while addressing the issue. In a three hour speech in Peoria, Illinois, Lincoln addressed his moral, legal, and economic opposition to slavery. He later admitted he did not know how to deal with the system during the current political system. Abolitionists on the other hand had a plan and were ready to complete it. They believed it should immediately be abolished and all slaves should be free. They unlike Lincoln did...

State V. Mann

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  Today in class we covered the historical Supreme Court case of State V. Mann. One group of students fought for the state of North Carolina and a slave named Lydia, while the other side fought on the side of slave owner John Mann. The trial was fought through different viewpoints like economics, religion, ethics, history, norms, laws, as well as many other points. In 1829, Elizabeth Jones owned a slave that went by the name of Lydia. Lydia was then sent to fellow slave owner John Mann in Chowan County to work. She was getting beat and whipped by Mann and she felt like she had enough of it. She decided to try to run from Mann. Mann decided to shoot Lydia in the back with a gun. Mann was then fined by the state of North Carolina $10. Mann believed he should not have to pay this fine since she is only a slave. He took it to court and in the end won the case. Mann was given his money back by the state. The conclusion of the case stated that slave owners hold all power over slaves as t...