"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, AND that has made all the difference" The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

DREAMING IN ENGLISH. Are you dreaming in English yet?

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Here you might find resources to help you navigate the muddy waters of English. The humble aim of this blog is just to keep you in touch with different types of English and different aspects of the English culture , to increase your curiosity about English through many different fields.

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sábado, 13 de diciembre de 2014

AMERICAN REALISM: HUCKLEBERRY FINN and his anti-slavery ideas.

Samuel Clemens, better known by his pen name of MARK TWAIN, grew up in the Mississippi River frontier town of Hannibal, Missouri and this influenced him a lot in his way of thinking and his literary production.

ERNEST HEMINGHWAY´S famous statement that all of American Literature comes from one great book, Twain´s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, indicates this author´s towering place in the tradition.


As we move to the middle of the 19th-century American writers begin to forget about Romanticism because their historical background suggested them different things. Industrialization played an important role in this change and we can say that by 1865 we have the beginning of the Realist movement. There was a need for a literature that reflected their own lives at that time. Their real lives because there was a great social shift. That´s why we have writers that showed us real characters who often spoke in a way that reflected their own region, class, gender and age.



The most well known example is HUCK.  Twain's masterpiece, which appeared in 1884, is set in the Mississippi River village of St. Petersburg. It has inspired countless literary interpretations. Clearly, the novel is a story of death, rebirth, and initiation.

In "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Mark Twain uses satire to mock many different aspects of the modern world. Throughout his trip down the Mississippi, and even prior to leaving St. Petersburg, Huck encounters a variety of people and situations that are designed to scoff at the American people. 
The book was writeen shortly afterwards the Civil War, in which slavery was one of the key issues. Twain´s father had slaves throughout his childhood but Mark himself didn´t believe that slavery was right. In the book, Twain mocks slavery and makes a strong statement about the way people treated slaves. He critisizes for example how hypocritical a "good Christian woman" can be when it comes to owning slaves as property ( Miss Watson), etc.


In the presentations you have below you can learn some characteristics of AMERICAN REALISM and the writer MARK TWAIN. Read them and take the main ideas to discuss in class.


https://www.humbleisd.net/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=74127&dataid=163307&FileName=American-Regionalism-Realism-and-Naturalism-Revised.ppt

  In class we will be reading several extracts so that you can see some style aspects, and some of the ideas you have learnt in these days. Here you have  an animation with the summary of the book. 





SLAVERY is a key issue in American History. Let´s watch this video to understand why? and understand what led to the Civil War.  After watching it make a summary with the most important ideas. Try to get information about: life in the South, reasons to have slaves, runaway slaves and destinations ( names of poeple that contributed to abolitionism), the underground railroad.


60 comentarios:

Unknown dijo...

Hi, I'm Santiago Pérez Hernando from 4ºC, in case of misunderstanding and this is the summary about the slavery video:

Between 1619 and 1865 in South USA slavery was something normal. Slaves worked in plantations (for example cotton's plantations). The cotton was then sold to the north that sold it back as clothes to slaves of the South. Thanks to that, the north created a huge economy based on industry while the south didn't as they invested all their capital in slavery, so little money was invested in industry.
The south was mainly rural, as its economy was based on plantations worked by slaves (one third of the 40 million of slaves of USA lived here). Its inhabitants used slaves as a way to measure the social status of somebody, because of that poor people ,like yeomen, used to rent slaves so they could access that social status and some legal status as well. That people even believed that slavery wasn't evil with most of the founding fathers ,for example Jefferson, that thought that self-preservation and justice were in different scales. John C. Calhuon (secretary from the State, secretary of war and Vice President) said that slaves benefited from the slave-owner, as they obtained food and clothes from their owners that also took care of the elder slaves in 1837.
Slaves were forced to work the slave-owners lands and they were dehumanized by their owners, for example Bob was hit by his owner even if he didn't do anything wrong. If they rebelled against them, the law (as it is said in Louisiana's law) would punish them. Their working days were limited by the time that they took to do their tasks, but their work conditions changed between the plantations. The main function that dehumanization was to increase the productivity through making slaves thought that they weren't humans so they wouldn't ask for rights, but they resist through making families (what slave-owners accepted) , although the family could got separated as they could be sold individually.
For slaves religion was very important. In fact, the "Exodus"'s stories (David, Daniel or Moses) influenced them & they finally rebelled against the owners. Because preachers were the ones that read the "Bible", they were the leaders of those revolutions.
Some slaves decided to fled away, so they used to fled to the North (Mainly Canada, as there the slavery was abolished some decades before USA did). One example of a slave that had escaped is Joseph Taper, but other salves that had escaped went back to help their friends and families to fled away through the underground railroad (engine drivers that helped slaves to fled away in their trains) like Harriet Tubman, that went back to Maryland twenty times. Nowadays, experts think that about 1000 slaves escaped.
The ones that didn't fled away rebelled against their owners. For example, Bob, the slave that I have mentioned before. He finally killed his master. In 1811 a group of salves of New Orleans seized cane knives and pistols until the militia stopped them. In 1826 Denmark Vessey may have organized himself to destroy Charleston, South Carolina, but it is not sure as the trial was unfair. He was executed with 34 slaves. In 1831 Turner (a preacher) with 80 slaves murdered most of the inhabitants of the farms of Virginia, but the males survived because they were in North Carolina. These last rebellion caused the loss of some rights of the salve (such as preaching or reading).
To sum up, slavery occurred in southern USA and the slaves fled away and resisted the dehumanization through creating families, pretending to not know what masters were saying or through rebelling using weapons.

Have a good afternoon.

Note: As I don't know how to make italic letters, the "Exodus" and the "Bible" are writen with inverted commas.

Anónimo dijo...

Hi, I am Alejandro Herrera from 4ºC, I am going to write about slavery.
I will began saying that the life in the south was difficult because you have to work in bad fields all the day during a lot of hours with some times any result and this was very disgusting for the workers and their families.
Because of this reason the slavery increase, having slaves in your lands is an advantage because they produce more and they make you not to work, also is good for you because you didn´t pay to them because in exchange of working soo many time you gave to them a place to live and food to ate.
The slaves that logically they weren´t stupid they began to run away to Canada. Why? because is the only place in America that they weren´t persecuted or sold like animals, and they could be free, we have a clear example about the place they go in"Huckleberry Finn" that the slave and the child go to Canada because there they could be free.
They runaway because they were treated very badly and the couldn´t continue with that situation and because of that they began running away for example throught the forest at night or they hide in the plantations...this revelions and runaways began when the salves read the bible and this says all the people are equal and they didn´t had to be treated like that. The main person that contributes to "abolotionism"(a movement to end with slavery) was jhon C. Calhoun and he said that the different races are not to make bad to each other, they were made to make good and to be "friends".
And finally the "underground railroad" were like routes were the slaves had a very difficult trip to have the liberty and freedom most of them they finally got to arrive Canada. In the video we can observed the story of a slave called Harriet Tubman that scaped from Philadelphia at age of 29, she made about 20 trips to Maryland to help friends and relatives to make the journey throught the underground railroad.
I thought you will like me coment.

Unknown dijo...
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
Unknown dijo...

Hello I'm Alicia Escudero Coronado from 4ºC
Slavery was a very dramatic and important issue which took place in America from 1619 to 1865.
During the period of the Industrial Revolution there were some growing differences between North and South America. The North used the cotton cultivated in the south (about 3/4 of the total production) in order to become industrialised.
Meanwhile, the South, which was mostly a rural area, with a huge importance of agriculture, concentrated on their agricultural plantations. Therefore they the possibility of developing industry or technological innovations was almost impossible.
The main reason why people in the South continued with these cruel methods, was it's profitability, as they could own slaves, which would produce a great profit, in exchange of providing them food, a place to live and in the best of the cases a little amount of money.
As a result about 1/3 of the south’s total population was formed by slaves.
Despite the hard conditions these slaves used to suffer, Americans started to believe that slavery benefited both: the owners, but also the slaves, so finally it was just seen as something common, or like a kind of cultural aspect.
Slaves weren´t happy about their situations this lead to the appearance of some leaders which promoted slave's uprisings.
This finally resulted into some attempts to escape, by going to northern states or even hiding in the woods in order to escape temporally. The most famous case was the one of Harriet Tubnam, who run to Philadelphia. Then she tried to help other slaves to move towards the north on Underground Railroads.

Unknown dijo...


Hi, my name is Irene Quintero from 4ºC, and now I'm going to write about the video I've just seen.

One third of American total slavery of the age, was in the South. Slaves worked in plantations, the majority in cotton plantations. They produce cotton and then they sold them to the North. This cotton was transformed into clothes in the North. The South was used to do the hard work ("primary sector") and the North made more modern and industrialiazed works ("secondary sector"). Living in the south and being a slave was awful, there was really little indistralization and also little technology. We can also found yeomen farmer, these people lived in the South,they were self-sufficient, they raised their own food so they didn't contribute to the economy.

For almost every white person of the age, slavery was good. They thought that not to keep the black people in slavery would upset the natural order of things. The slaves suffered and tolerated a lot of abusive behaviour. So there were several people that tried to runaway from this awful lives: Joseph Taper, "Bob" and Harried Tubman are some examples.

Harried Tubman scaped to Canada looking for freedom. He made a lot of journeys to the South to helped his family and friends to scape. They scaped through the underground railroads, wich were difficult roads to go to Canada.

There were some people that contributed to the abolision of this racism for example Jhon C. Calhoun who thought that blacks and whites should be friends. Thaks to many other people as he, we live nowadays in a society with less racism than in that ages. But we have to still fighting for equality.

Unknown dijo...

Hello I am Lorena García Faura from 4ºC and I will write about slavery, which lasted from 1619 to 1865 and it was very important for America because it even led to a Civil War.
In the South, the economy was based on slavery. As slaves worked in horrible conditions in plantations especially cotton, the south was agricultural and rural. Moreover, these plantations will also have an effect in the northern economy because the products obtained from the south will be exported to the north and, in the case of the cotton, it was brought back to the south in order to sell the cotton as textiles to the working slaves, what led to the Industrialization of the north. This didn’t happen in the south because as the economy was hugely based on slavery, industry and technological innovations were considered less important.
People had five slaves or less and some of them were rented, as did the yeoman farmers which were poor and could not afford buying more. The main reason why slaves were owned is because their owners benefitted from this since they acquired both legal and social status due to this racist system.
Many of the founders believed that slavery was a “necessary evil” since it was very important and bad at the same time and Jefferson said that justice and self-preservation were in different scales. Against this, a new ideology emerged, in which people believed that in the southern economy, slaves were benefitted because they were given food and clothes. For example, this ideology was maintained also in 1837 by John C. Calhoun.
Religion was also very important and both slaves and their owners read the Bible but normally they read different passages what lead to some uprisings against slavery. A slave which managed to escape to the north and to Canada was called Joseph Taper but it was only one of the thousand slaves that escaped in that year. Another slave that managed to escape was Harriet Tubman, who escaped to Philadelphia using the Underground Railroad (a system in which roads helped fugitive slaves to reach their freedom). She also came back to help some of her friends and relatives.
The most important rebellions of the 19th century were: Gabriel’s rebellion in 1800, the rebellion of 1811 in New Orleans, the rebellion of 1822 in South Carolina by Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner’s in 1831.

Sofía Valiente dijo...

Hello, I'm Sofía Valiente from 4ºC.

Life in the South of North America was quite harsh, as the most prominent effects of the slave-based economy took place there. This economy was mainly based on agriculture (only 10% of USA's manufactured goods were produced there), especially in the production of cotton, which was highly profitable and ensured the North's wealth and industrialisation. Most of the capital was spent on purchasing slaves, who were people that were treated as valuable property , worked the land and lived in terrible conditions, so this made the technical innovation- and therefore the possibility of winning the Civil War- impossible. Slavery dominated the South both economically and culturally, 1/3 of the total population were slaves.

Not all white people owned slaves, and if they did they would usually own no more than five. Most couldn't afford it, for this reason they were rented. For example, yeoman farmers who lived self-sufficiently, purchased little industrial goods, worked the poorest land and were poor themselves, supported slavery for ¨aspirational¨ reasons and inherent racism. Besides, it gave the poorest whites legal and social status. Southerners began to think that slavery wasn't just a necessary evil as intellectuals thought, but that slaves actually benefited from slavery because they were given food, clothes, the elders were taken care of...They believed the disappearance of slavery would upset the natural order of things.

In this context, the best way for slaves to resist opression was to run away. It is calculated that approximately 1,000 slaves escaped each year to Northern states, where slavery had been abolished or to Canada, where abolitionism took place decades earlier than in the US though most slaves escaped temporarilly by hiding out in the woods or swamps and later return. Some notable characters who escaped to the North were Joseph Taper and a woman named Harriet Tubman. She escaped to Philadelphia when she was 29 and throughout her life she helped friends and relatives from Maryland to complete their journey to the North by using the Underground Railroad.

Unknown dijo...
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Unknown dijo...

Hello, I´m Ismael Arroyo Herrerías from 4ºC
I am going to write a summary with the important facts of the video about slavery.

It lasted from 1619 to 1865 and finally it generated the civil war. At that time, economy of South America was based on cotton which was sold to an industralized north. The slaves worked in agriculture (mostly in cotton plantations) in horrible working conditions and a lot of hours per day. By 1860 there were 4 million slaves on US and in the south they were 1/3 of the population. Some people own 5 or less slaves, the rest of the people can´t afford them but they supported the slavery because the racism and aspirational reasons.Southerners began to think that slavery wasn't necessarily evil as the intellectuals thought, because slaves actually benefited from slavery because they were given food, clothes,etc. They also think the disappearance of slavery would upset the natural order of things.

Some slaves escaped to Canada because there it had been abolished slavery, so they went there searching for freedom. They escaped through the underground railroad, wich were
secret places(like stations) where people help them escape to Canada. Some examples of famous slaves tha escaped are Joseph Taper and Harriet Tubman.Some people like Jhon C. Calhoun help to the abolition of slavery.

leti dijo...

Hello I'm Leticia Rubio from 4C

By the 19th century, the south of United States wasn't industrialized at all, its only economic source was cotton that, by that time, was the most important comodity in the world, so the people who lived in this area decided to take advantage of this.The production of cotton meant becoming rich and having a high lifestyle so, to accelerate the production of cotton, slaves were used to work on plantations. Cotton was produced on the South and then, it was sent to the North where it was transformed into clothes.

Although not everyone could afford buying a slave, they still supported this practice. Such as yeoman farmers that lived self-sufficienly, worked the poorest land and had a standar of life much worse than the people who could afford slaves.
Slaves worked under terrible conditions and didn't receive any salary. People even thought slavery benefited slaves and they tried to justify what they were doing through biblical passsages. But what the americans pretended in reality, was to deshumanize slaves. This means they will make them believe they do not deserve rights.

To escape from this deshumanization, slaves formed families that were often separated because of the sell of a member of the family. However, they still opossed by learning to read by themselves. Later, they started to run away from their masters even if in some cases it was only temporally (they usually went to the North where slavery was prohibited or to Canada, where slavery abolition was declared much earlier than in America). Joseph Taper and Harriet Tubman were some of the people who could run away to the North. Harriet Tubman escaped to Philadelphia and during her live, she made about twenty trips back to Maryland to help other slaves to escape. She was very important for the development of the underground railway which was a clandestine network used to help slaves get freedom.

Joserra dijo...

Hello, I'm Jose R. Rojo from 4ºC.
Slavery is one of the most tragic and important events in US history, as it, for example, caused a civil war and lots of suffering, and can still be felt, although very weakly. Slavery in the United States lasted for 246 years, from 1619 to 1865. It was specially noticiable in the Southern states, such as Alabama or Texas, where huge plantations produced cotton in massive and very profitable quantities. This southern states maintained slavery for a long time, while the Northern ones gradually prohibited it. This slave based economy stopped the South from achieving the technological and industrial development of the North, as the simply did not need it.
When the country was still very young, the ideological divisions of people regarding slavery began to be noticed, as lots of Southern landowners thought slavery was actually good for the slave, suported by religion, for example. Slaves were treated like private property, with extreme brutality in order to dehumaniza slaves and keep them from protesting. Many slaves did not learn to read or write, also to prevent rebellions, which, however, still might happen.
Appart from this sporadic rebellions, which sometimes were violence and the killing of slavers, slaves also scaped from their owners, usually to Canada, which did not allow slavery. In addition, boicots or savotage was carried out as a form of resistance. After lots of years of harsh conditions and fighting, the slaves finally gained their freedom in the late 19th century.

Esther dijo...
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
Esther dijo...

Hi, I'm Esther del Sastre López from 4C and I'm going to talk about the video.

Most slaves lived in South America, which is an agricultural economy. Black slaves were treated as if they were property, not people. Plantation owners used cruel laws and punishments to make slaves work hard. Some overseers whipped and even killed workers. Many slaves died young because of this bad treatment, others ran away. They formed close communities or families. Many adopted Christianity. However, most slaves lived on small farms in the backcountry, away from schools and towns. Their children only learned to read and write if their parents taught them. Cotton textiles (worked in gangs, under the control of an overseer or another slave) were one of the first industrially produced products and also the most important commodity. The effects on slave-based economy were seen in the South.

Whites didn't want to do work and they likely didn't want to pay for it. It's easy! The majority of the whites wanted to own slaves (no more than five) because it's better to have someone who work for your beneficts and without any pay. But I have to say that there were some others whites that didn't want slavery. For example, Jhon C. Calhoun (1837) said that the relation in slave holding states between the two is instead of an evil, a good.

The mystery document shows that slaves resisted their opression by running away. The primary reason was to gain freedom from permanent servitude. Joseph Taper escaped slavery for good by running away to Northern free states or Canada. The most famous slave that escaped from slavery was Harriet Tubman. The most succesfull slave rebellion was Nat Turner's (1831). Some slaves were catched and executed, others not. Virginia wanted to make slavery worse. By the 1830s slavery had grown. Slaves fought back.

The Underground Railroad helped fugitive slaves escape to the North and to Canada, was not run by any single organization or person. Rather, it consisted of many individuals (many whites but predominently black) who knew only of the local efforts to aid fugitives and not of the overall operation. The South lost around 1,000 of slaves. The first and more difficult step was to escape from the slaveholder, then they would travel lots of milles. Finally, while they waited, a message would be sent to the next station to alert its stationmaster. For example, Harriet Tubman, who made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom.

Unknown dijo...
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
Carlos Limón dijo...

Hi, I am Carlos Limón from 4°C.

Slavery is one of the most important topics in U.S. cultural and economic history when taking into account that in 1860 1/3 of the south population were slaves.

Slavery lasted around 250 years (from 1619 to 1865) and was a key factor in the development of the economic differences between the north and the south of the U.S., as slaves worked mainly in cotton plantations in the south (that produced 3/4 of the world's cotton) from which the northern companies bought the cotton and later on, when it was processed, it was sold back to the south and used, for example, to dress the slaves. This process led to an industrialisation of the north at the expense of rural, agricultural southern areas, whose industry was just 10% of the country's.

In spite of the fact that slavery played a key role in economic affairs, its influence in social issues and American culture is much higher.
Slavery was normal for almost everybody at the time and owner justified themselves using biblical passages, Greek or Roman examples or outright racism (black people are inferior to white people), and,astoundingly, owners.people even said that slavery benefited slaves because they were fed, they were given clothes and a place to shelter by their owners, who, in an attempt to dehumanise their slaves, established intimidation, brutality and extreme working conditions by making the gangs (groups) of slaves work under the control of tyrant overseers that used whips in an arbitrary way.

But slaves resisted the opression and, taking the ideas of the "Exodus" (e.g.: Moses), that were spread by the preachers (slaves that knew how to read and write), formed families (although 1/3 of them (in Virginia) were broken up by sale, run away (to the north of the U.S.(like Harriet Tumban) and to Canada), organised armed rebellions (such as Nat Turner's) or sabotaged the plantations by slowing down or by not wanting to understand the instructions.

Fortunately, slavery was abolished after the Civil War (1885) in the whole country, but racism hasn't ended yet, it is our duty to end with it

Unknown dijo...

Hi everyone, I'm Miguel Prats from 4ºC and I'm going to elaborate a summary about the main ideas shown in the video:

Slavery in the United States was the result of several years of economic, cultural and political interests. This demeaning social idea was settled in the south of the US, whose proposal was to force the black class to work under the command of white and rich people. Citizenship from the northern part used to bet on industrialization while the southern part used to bet on agricultural sectors like cotton plantations or sugar cane plantations. Slaves were treated as miserable and destitute people, they were also manage like simple objects who were obliged to work and serve. One third of the southern population were slaves, so this meant that there were a huge difference between the slavery class and the normal class.

Due to the high costs of the slaves, not everyone could afford to have a few of them. Only wealthy families were supposed to have a group of slaves because they weren’t a bargain. This wealthy families started to see slavery as a normal behaviour. At that time, intellectuals thought that slavery was a necessary evil, but a few years later, most of the slaveries were starting to think about an idea to benefit from that issue. Slaves could get food and a place to live thanks to the owners maintenance, but not for a long time...

Slaves were worn out of being living in that poor and extreme conditions, so they decided to leave the country running away. Hundreds of slaves run away from the country. Nowadays, we can know the case of Joseph Taper or Harriet Tubman who escaped to the north in search of a life filled with both economic and political equalities. This people were two of the hundreds of cases we actually know. Plenty of them escaped throughout underground railroads. These rails let them to escape from their owners without any type of problems. Furthermore, some slaves returned to the south for helping and assisting other slavery groups which were against their superiors.

Naty Martin dijo...


Good morning , I'm Natividad Martin Fernandez from 4ºC and I am going to make a summary with the main ideas that have been represented on the video abou slavery.

Slavery in America began when the first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Virginia,to work in the production of crops . Slavery was practiced throughout the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries and slaves were the ones who made the economy at that time stand up basically.
In the mid-19th century, America’s expansion would provoke a great debate over slavery that would tear the nation apart in American Civil War . Though the victory freed the nation’s 4 million slaves, the legacy of slavery continued to influence American history.They had no legal means of protesting the way they were treated. Southerners feared open rebellion but this was rare. However, slaves would pretend illness, organize slowdowns, sabotage farm machinery, and sometimes commit arson or murder. Running away, usually for short periods of time, was common.

The outbreak of the Civil War forever changed the future of the American nation. The war began as a struggle to preserve the Union, not a struggle to free the slaves, but many in the North and South felt that the conflict would ultimately decide both issues. Most slaves lived on large farms or small plantations. Slave owners made their slaves completely dependent on them, and a system of restrictive codes governed life among slaves. They were prohibited from learning to read and write, and their behavior and movement was restricted. Many masters took sexual liberties with slave women while rebellious slaves were brutally punished. A movement to abolish slavery in America gained strength in the northern United States,

Free blacks and other people of the North who were against slavery had begun helping fugitive slaves escape from southern plantations to the North. This practice, known as the Underground Railroad.

Unknown dijo...

Hi, I am Helena Bermejo Sanchez of 4ºC and this is my summary about the video of slavery:
Slavery is one of the most important facts that occurred in America. In that period of history the currently USA was divided in two, the northern part that was the industrialized part and the southern part that was in witch there were slavery.
In the 19th century the cotton was one of the most important products in the world and it was produced by slaves in the south part of the US. In 1860 slaves were the third part of the total population in the south part of the US.
In those times there were people who think that slaves benefit of being slaves because their “owners” took care of them. Slaves were treaty with so a huge brutality hitting them with cowhides until they were bleeding and they were also dehumanized.
They do that to slaves because the wanted that slaves don´t think that they are human. But it doesn´t make sense because slaves resisted the dehumanization forming families.
Owners tried that their slaves read the bible but them were more interested in the Exodus so them were forbidden to read and write.
So most of slaves try to escape from that live running to the north of US or to Canada by the Underground Railroad .
At the beginning of the 19th there were three main rebellions the first one in 1800 (Gabriel´s rebellion), the second one in 1811 (to New Orleans) and the third one in 1822 (Denmark Vesey). But the most important rebellion was Nat Turner´s in August 1831.
Man is as God intended he should be. That is, all are born free and equal. Joseph Taper.

Unknown dijo...

Hello, i'm Carla Moreno Pousada from 4ºC and this is my composition based on the video:

Slavery was one of the most depressing and tragic event that ever happened in the US history. This event lasted since 1619 to 1865, which was a lot of time. Cotton became one of the first industrially produced products of the time, and the ¾ of the world’s cotton came from South America.
The people of the north wanted to take as much benefit as they could from this to become richer and powerful. In the North was were the cloth were made with cotton and in the South was where the huge plantations of cotton were located so it remained largely cultural and rural

The slaves that worked on these plantations were so efficient and profitable that machinery and technological innovations in the South didn’t advance too much having consequences in the future civil war. Slavery, became very important socially and economically speaking having 4 million of slaves in the US by 1860 (1/3 of the total population).

It started appearing different ideologies between people having persons like Jefferson telling that slavery was not a necessary evil and that it could be political equality and white solidarity with slaves, and people that thought and said that slavery benefited the slave justifying themselves by religious passages from the Bible.
Slaves were considered by them as inferior specie until the point that the slaves themselves thought that they were inferior to white American people. They were treated as material property being sold and exploited. They worked from sunrise to sunset without almost resting and with not salary at all.

Although slaves were prohibited to know to read, some of them learned and became preachers, and two of the most important rebellions’ of slaves were lead by these preachers. At the beginning of the 19 century during 35 years, 4 of the most important rebellions of slaves took place: in 1800, the Gabriel’s rebellion took place and two more in 1811 and 1822; but the most successful slave rebellion was Nat Turner’s one were a group of nearly 80 slaves joined and went through Virginia farms killing the whit people, mostly women and children.
Also slaves resisted their oppression by running away to the North like Joseph Taper, forming families and getting marriage, reducing their productivity in the working fields and pretending not to understand the instructions of their master.
Also, people like Harriest Tubman, made what was called “Underground Railroad”, running away to the north but returning back to help friends and relatives to escape from the South.

Finally slavery finished in 1885, a little bit later that the civil war, making the tree planted by black slaves to gave fruits watered with effort until now a days.

Unknown dijo...
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
Unknown dijo...

Hi,I am Adrián Sánchez from 4ºC and this is my slavery summary:

By the 19th century,cotton textile was one of the first industrially produced products and the most important in world trade. 3/4 of the world`s cotton came from the South part of America.

In the North, slaves were sold as very valuable property and they sold cloth to the South where they gave it to the slaves. On the South, they were very little industrialized because they lived by agriculture.

Slavery and the conflicts between the North and the South were two causes that made the Civil War inevitable.

Everyone thought that slavery was good and very profitable so masters hired slaveholders to hit the slaves brutally because they thought that they were not humans as them. Most of the slaves got married and then,have children so,only one parent was necessary and the other one was sold.

It was estimated that 1,000 slaves escaped every year by running away northwards or to Canada. One of the most famous people that run away was Harriet Tubman, she escaped to Philadelphia but, she also made lots of journeys back to the South to help his family and friends to go to the North by railroad.

Nat Turner was the leader of the most succesful slave rebellion in 1831. He was a preacher and with a group of about 80 slaves, killed the inhabitants of Virginia. Finally, Turner and 17 slaves were executed. After that, Virginia made a law that forbidden slaves to preach and to teach.

Slavery ended in 1885 and thanks to many people nowadays, we hopefully lived in a less racist society.

Unknown dijo...

Hello, I´m Diego Racero Arias from 4ºC and this is my summary of the video:

Slavery was a dramatic but also very important fact in US. It lasted almost 250 years (1619-1865) and it led to a civil war.

Economy in the south was bases on agriculture especially cotton.There were very little space to tecnological advances as this rural economy was so profitable. One third of the population in the south was made up by slaves.Economy in the north was based on industrialization. Cotton was one of the most important industrialized products and 3/4 of the world´s cotton came from American South.Cotton helped the north to industrialize very fast.

Americans thouth that slavery was not only good for them, also for slaves because they received some basic needs. This thougths were justified with biblical passages and with examples of Greek and Roman society which led to racism.

Slaves usually worked in very poor conditions and were treated as property. In order to slavery to fuction, slaves had to be dehumanized. Slaves tried to fight by dehumanization by creating families but some marriages were separated when some slaves were sold. Also they tended to focus on the stories of the exodus or biblical heroes to try to fight against not being considered humans.Some slaves runned away from plantations to free states or even to Canada like Joseph Taper. The most important example is Harriet Tubman who escaped to Philadelphia at the age of 29 years. But the most dramatic form of resistance to slavery was actual armed rebellion which led to a civil war which slaves won. The most succesful rebellion was Turner´s in 1831.

Unknown dijo...

Hi, I´m Sara Peñas Serrano from 4ºC.

In the 19th century, 1/3 of the south america population was formed by slaves. Slaves lived in very harsh condititions, the majority of them worked in agriculture plantations, primarily in cotton production, until the end of the day. They were treated as property and with crueltly by their masters, although white people in the south didn´t own slaves at all or they will just rent them, in order to work harder or just to assure that they will work better. Slaves created families and the ones who were just married without children were separated and sold.

White people though that slavery wasn´t evil, they though it was positive because their masters fed tem and took care of them... They also justified it with biblical passages and with examples of the Greeks and Romans arguing that black people were inherently inferior to white and if they don´t keep them in slavery would upset the natural order of things.

Due to the salvery, many slaves run away to the Northern free states, hid temporarily out in the woods or just escaped to Canada, as Joshep Taper did. There was also a notable women called Harriet Tubman who escaped to Philadelphia at the age of 29 and over the course of her life she made about twenty trips back to Maryland to help friends and relatives make the journey north on the Underground Railroad.

As a conclusion, it is important to emphasize that slaves did resist their oppression usually by forms of resistance because sometimes rising up would not have made life better for them or for their families.

Emilio Pérez dijo...

Hello, I'm Emilio Pérez del Río, from 4ºC, and I'm going to write about slavery.

Slavery is a very important event in the recent history of the United States of America, as a big portion of the economy of the country in the 19th century depended on slave-related activities. The cotton produced in the plantations in the South was made into clothes in the Northern, more industrialized part of the country, and these were then sent back to the South. In addition, American cotton represented 3/4 of the 19th century world's cotton production.

The South part of the country was less industrialized than the North, and its economy depended mostly on agriculture. This is because slave-based agriculture was very profitable, as slaves had no salaries nor a fixed maximum number of working hours.

However, contrary to what somo people argue, life for slaves has very hard. Violence was very common in their lives, as they were often hit to increase their efficiency and to stop them from revolting. In addition, slave owners also tried to convince them that they were not humans by prohibiting marriages outside plantations and by trying to remove religion, as these gave them a sense of independence.

As a consequence of this, a lot of slaves tried to become free. Some of them escaped to Canada, where slavery was not allowed, while others escaped to the woods or swamps, but returned to their plantations some days later. Another common way of becoming free was the underground railroad, a network of houses and other hiding places which helped slaves escape to Canada. Harriet Tubman used this system to help a lot of black people become free. Others tried to organise armed rebellions against their masters, like, for example, Nat Turner, a preacher who organised a rebellion in Virigia in 1831.

Despite the general racism that existed in America, some white people, called abolotionists, wanted to ban slavery, like Thomas Jefferson.

Unknown dijo...

Hi, I'm Adela Muñoz Gil from 4ºC.

Slavery in the 19th century was hugely important to America, as it lasted from 1619 to 1865 and finally leading to a Civil War.

It is thought that the slaves’ economy in the South was separate from the market revolution, but thanks to the South cotton plantations the North was able to industrialize and sell their transformed products. Slaves were considered very valuable property.

The South was mainly based on agriculture and rural areas. As there was very little industry there wasn’t enough money for technological innovations as railroads. Slavery dominated the south and they made up 1/3 of the total population. The “yeomen” farmers lived in the South and worked the poorest land but were self-sufficient, so they didn’t contribute to the economy.

They largely supported slavery for the ideas of white solidarity; they saw it as a necessary evil. They believed that justice and self-preservation weren’t in the same side, it opposed the American ideas and it made the war inevitable. Some Southerners began to think slavery wasn’t just a necessary evil and said slaves benefited from slavery, that the institution was good for the social order. You could own slaves for little money by providing them bed and food.

Slaveholders wouldn’t think of their slaves as humans, and so slaves wouldn’t think of themselves as human. But it did not worked because slaves formed families as a refuge. Some people who opposed slavery as a good thing and escaped from it to the North, Canada were Joseph Taper, Harriet Tubman, “Bob”, a group from New Orleans and Nat Turner.

The slaves run away to the North by underground railroads, very difficult roads to have liberty and freedom to get to Canada. Some of them as Harriet Tubman helped their relatives to escape to Maryland.

Slaves made a great change in the thoughts for slavery. They caused a CIvil War but it was justified and helped the population to live in better conditions.

Enrique Carmen dijo...

Hello I´m Andrés Martín Clemente from 4ºC, and this is my summary of the video about slavery:

Since 1619, slavery in USA lasted for more tan 200 years, until 1865.

Northern economy was growing and developing thanks to the cotton coming from the South (3/4 of the world´s cotton came from the American South). This product was extracted most of the time by slaves.
But certianly, the most prominent effects of the slaved-society economy were seen in the South.

The South was agricultural and rural, as the most of the capital was being plowed into the purchase of slaves, there was no space for innovating. Around 1/3 of the population of the South were slaves. The slaves that were contrated to work in cotton in exchange of food and a place for sleeping were the so called “Yeoman farmers”. For their patrons slavery was a “neccessary evil”, they even said that slaves beneficted from slavery as they had food and were protected by their owners when they got older. Some patrons, in order to don´t been questioned, based their opinions on biblical passages, saying that black people were inherently inferior.

Most of the slaves worked in terrible conditions for long periods of time, often treated with brutal whippings to make them keep working. A second objective was deshumanazing slaves.
Despite these tortures some slaves resisted to their deshumanization by forming families, but 1/3 of slave marriages was broken up by sale.

Some slaves, as Joseph Taper, escaped to Canada or Northern free states. Actually some slaves ran away temporarily, hiding out in the woods.
The most famous runaway was the one of Harriet Tubman, who scaped to Philadelphia at the age of 29, but he did about 20 trips back to help friends. These trips were done by crossing the Underground Railroad.

But the most dramatic form of resistance was the armed rebellion. In fact these rebellions were rare. The most succesful armed rebellion was Nat Turner´s in August 1831.

In the end all these rebellions made a more estrict slavery system, but don´t be confused, rebelling themselves.

Unknown dijo...

Hello, I'm Alejandro Cuadron from 4ºC and today I'm going to talk about the insanity slave American society which lasted from 1619 to 1865, 246 days of slavery for black people.
All began with the comerce stablished by European countries, which used to explote native people for producing local goods. However, as they wanted bigger and bigger profits, they had bought people in Africa and transported them into North America. Due to those people were used like properties because they though they were just that, properties, so slaves would work all day without resting in cotton fields, rice fields... for very little or no money.

This "new" slave society was really profitable, so the products elaborated in the south of U.S. went to the north, thus the north could industrialice. Anyhow, the south couldn't develop, due to the high profit it used to generate and didn't need to industrialice for obtaining money.
Although this system of slavery seems a new inovation, it wasn't. In deed in the books and pasages of the bible which they used to use for coerce people were from all time ago, also those books includes great philosophers like Aristoteles, who said black people were inferior to white people.

Exploiting black people wasn't bad, in deed their oversees gave them food, a house, clothes... At least that was what white people used to think about those practices, in fact John C. Calhoun who had been vicepresident and secretary of army said "Ihope that in the present state of civilization where two races of diferent origin, and distinguished by colour, also by other physical differences as well as intellectual, one brought toguether the relation no existing in the slave holding states between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good. So patrons began feeling as benevolents. However, slavery was kind of different with the things white people used to think, in fact it was coerced labour that relied up on intimidation, brutality and dehumanization.

On the other hand, slaves instead of keeping calm and accept dehumanization, they practiced several measures like creating families, read religious books, although they couldn't read or write some of them became preachers and tried to convince other slaves for unfolding against their patrons, and surprisinly they did, not just one o two times, but several times. Anyhow, it was reasonable there were almost four million slaves in 1860 and one third of them were in the south of U.S. Going back to the unfoldings the white people noticed they were lefting so much rights to the black people (at least that was what they though) so as a result the slavery laws became more and more repressive. However, the black people continued fighting against them becoming families and scaping out of the country ass Harriet Jubman did, other went to the north and them came back to help their families getting out of the south this practice was called "Underground Railroad"

As a result of all the fights taken by the black people and a civil war ocured in 1885 black people now are free and equal among white people, although racism is still present in lots of places around U.S.


Unknown dijo...

Hi, I'm Alejandro Serrano and I'm going to comment the video about slavery.

Slave was a very important and at the same time tragic event that happened in the United States. It laster from 1619 to 1865.
Cotton started to be industrialized and the most of it came from South America.

Northern Americans were getting rich and started to buy slaves as if they were valuable objects. South Americans had some cotton plantations in which they made clothes. Those clothes were given to the Northern Americans.
Technology didn't advance much as the slaves were more profitable that machines. That's when the slavery grew up to one third of the population of the United States, 4 million people.

Jefferson said that slavery was evil and that there should be equality and solidarity towards slaves. Also, Americans and even the slaves themselves, considered the slaves inferior to Americans, who exploited them by working whole days.
Slaves were also forbidden to learn to read. Still, there were two slaves who leaded some important rebellions. Gabriel leaded two of them. Nat Turner joint a group of 80 slaves and killed white people, but mostly women and children through Virginia.

Some other slaves ran away to the north like Joseph Taper.
An Underground Railroad meant to run away to the north but later coming back to help friends and the family to escape from the South. Harriet Tubman did this to help people from Maryland.

Slavery finished in 1885 after the civil war.

Miguel García dijo...

Hello I'm Miguel García from 4ºC and I am going to talk about slavery in the US.

One of the major issues that caused the Civil War in the US was slavery, which was said by people in the south to be good for social world and economy.

Between 1619 and 1865 northern USA was one of the most important clothes producer in the world and southern USA provided them all the raw materials(cotton),which led to a great industrialization of the north.
In the other side, the south was still rural and based on agriculture because it was so profitable that they didn't need to focus on industry or more advanced technology.It was so profitable because 4 million black slaves were working for their white masters in plantations.They had to work for almost all the day in harsh conditions, many times punished by their masters and treated as a property not as humans.

Racism was a normal way of thinking at that time because even politicians said that slaves were naturally inferior and that slavery was good for slaves too as they were given "food", "a place to live" and clothes.They jusitified this insanity with some extracts fom the Bible and roman and greek cultures.

Slaves needed to do something to change the way they were living so they started to look for solutions to solve this issue.
Firstly, they made families inside the plantation so that their masters respected them a bit more.But this partially worked as one third of slave couples were separated due to the sold of one of them.
So they focused on religion and some black preachers led to the internal fight of black independence against their masters.Nat Turner(a preacher)made the most important rebellion, killing many white people. But this only led to more strict laws in the plantations.
Some finally scaped by running away to the North and the others rose up working less or worse which finally ended in a civil war between the north and the south which was affortunately won by the north and slavery was partialy abolished.

Unknown dijo...

Hello I am Alba Rubio from 4ºC and in this writing I’m going to talk about slavery in the US and some characteristics.

Cotton became one of the most important products in the world in the 19th century. A large amount of this cotton came from the American South. This meant that this part of the country would stay agricultural and rural for the development of this material while the north became rich. Furthermore a large population growth, mainly slaves worked in this area in harsh and extreme conditions due to their masters.

In the south people were not at rich as in the north, however, this didn’t stop white people from having some slaves. Most times they couldn’t own even one because of how poor they were, so they rented them. Racism was so strong in these ages that slaves were a normal thing and even the poorest one had enough social status to rent one. These people tried to dehumanize them to avoid having problems even though they did nothing to deserve this. This way slaves wouldn’t think as humans themselves.

Although slaves had to suffer all this, they fought for their rights. Some of them run away from their slavery to Northern free states or to Canada were slavery had finished. However, one of the most important slave who accomplished their goals was Harriett Tubman. She escaped from Philadelphia when she was 29, during her life she made loads of trips to Maryland to help her friends and relatives escaped through the so called Underground Railroad.

All in all more rebellions took place but this only made it worse. Finally they made their freedom possible as we know it today.

Unknown dijo...

Hi, I´m Andrea de Celis and I´m going to talk about the slavery video I´ve just seen.

During the 19th century people in south America, used black people as slaves to work form them in their and, without any payment most of the time and in the worst conditions.

They didn´t wanted to work as hard as they should do o have big amounts of money, so having slaves was a solution for that, they will just do the minority of work and get all the money. They also believes that black people were not humans and they could not have any privileges, the couldn´t talk to them and neither could learn how to read.

Some slaves couldn´t tolerate how they were treated and ran away from the south to the north or to the west. Canadians abolish slavery before than Americans did, Joseph Taper escaped from slavery by running away to the north (Free states or Canada). And more slaves started too. More or less 1,000 a year.

Harriet Tubman was one of the most famous ones who escaped to Philadelphia. Then, some years after, he returned to help people to escape by the Underground Railroad.

Some slaves formed an armed rebellion (Nat Turner´s) and killed women and kids so after that they were executed, but they struck terror.

Years after war started and slavery supposedly finished at least been legal.

Unknown dijo...

Hello, I am Laura Martínez from 4th D and I’ve write about slavery.

Slavery began in 1619 and it was a very important factor in the development of America and it led to a civil war.

Economy in the south was based principally on agriculture, slaves used to work in the poorest lands so they couldn’t produce enough products to get benefits. These products were sold to the north and there they transformed it into clothes (in case of cotton) for slaves in the south. This led the north to industrialize but not the south as it was hugely based on slavery and they didn’t pay attention to technological advances or industrialization.

Slavery was so popular that they began to rent black slaves as a symbol of superiority; people used to rented them in order to rise in the social class scale.

Slavery was considered good and bad at the same time and people said it was a “necessary evil” and that justice and self-preservation weren’t linked. At the same time, people believed slaves were benefited as they get food and clothes for free.

Everybody in that time, black and white people read the bible and had strong beliefs in religion but all classes didn’t read the same pages so this led to several revolts and tried to escape to Canada as there slavery was abolished and some people help them in secret places to reach freedom.

One of the most famous slaves was Joseph Taper and John C. Calhoun made abolition of slavery possible in America.

MarioVicenteAlbertos dijo...

Life in the south of America was very rural and agricultural-based. In this part of the country, slavery was hugely practiced, specially in huge plantations like cotton or rice ones. The economy in this states was slave-based and the working conditions for them were incredibly brutal, until the point of misstreating them by wipping them, for exmaple. They worked sun up to sun down with no breaks. Slaves were considered a very valuable property, as it usually meant an increase on legal and social status, what in that times, was one of the most importnat things to take into account. Slaveries were very profitable for their owners, and they dare even to say that slaves benefitted form slavery because they were given something to eat and some clothes to wear. Some of the most important slaves, known because of their attempts of scaping were Richard Allen, Joseph Taper or Harriet Tubman. This last one was indeed very important as he helped lots of slaves scaping by the underground railroad with him.

Unknown dijo...

Hello, I’m Raquel Marín from 4ºD and I am going to write about American slavery and the characteristics shown in the video.
In the 19th century, at the south of America, having slaves was something pretty normal. As cotton and rice crops were cultivated there, the wealthy families and some farmers used slaves to harvest the crops. However, most farmers were poor, so they couldn’t afford a slave. Despite this fact, these people supported slavery completely.
The farmers who owned or rented the slaves often hit them and mistreated them. Also, they tried to dehumanize them by treating them as animals. The slaves were beginning to feel as animals or worse, and the only thing that they could do to show that they were humans was to have families, as any normal person.
There were some slave preachers, who often tried to rise up against the white men and their oppression by killing their owners, although they were all executed. Apart from them, there were a lot of runaway slaves such as Joseph Taper or Harriet Tubman, who did around 20 journeys to the South to help other slaves to escape.
Finally, all these issues with the black people led to a war between North and South.

Unknown dijo...

Hello, I´m Silvia Alvarez from 4ºD

Between the years 1619 and 1865 slavery was common throughout the USA, especially in the south. The cotton was cultivated in the south while in the north they turned it into clothes.

The slave-based agriculture made the south remain rural and with an agricultural economy. In this period of time 1/3 of the population in the south were slaves.

People said slaves were the ones who got benefit from slavery and saw this practice as an evil necessity.

Slaves worked long hours and almost always without pay. They were dehumanize and treated as objects. Most of the times they tried to escape to the northern states or Canada; but some of them just hid temporally in the woods or the swamps.

Harriet Tubman is an example of a slave that could escape to Philadelphia. She made trips to Maryland to help other slaves to escape to the north on the Underground Railroad.

The most successful slave rebellion was lead by Nat Turner. He went with a group of eighty slaves through Southampton County Virginia killing the inhabitants. This revolt caused even harder laws for slaves.

They resisted to this practice by creating families, slowing down the production and with rebellions. This resistance ended with a civil war between north and south.

Unknown dijo...

Hello, I’m Sandra Campos from 4ºD.

Slavery in America happened from 1619 to 1865. Almost 1200 years which led to the American Civil War between the North and the South territories of the country.

The South was characterized by the cotton plantings where black slaves worked in. Cotton was the most important material in the 19th century because cotton textile was one of the first industrialized products in this century. While the North was an industrialized and developed territory, the South was based on agriculture, which made it a rural territory.

White men believed that slaves benefited from slavery. This beliefs were justified by the Bible and other sources. Slavery relied upon intimidation, brutality and dehumanization in order for it to work, making slaves submissive. But they found resistance in two sources: family and faith. Most of them married and even created a family, and others became preachers, giving faith to the rest of the slaves.

Slaves resisted their oppression by running away to the north of the continent. One example of this runaway slaves is Harriet Tubman, who ran away to Philadelphia, but came back to help her family and friends to scape to the north.

By contrast, armed rebellions like Nat Turner’s one happened at the beginning of the 19th century. He decided to go town by town killing all the inhabitants of them with a group of slaves. After making the South afraid of them, they were captured and executed. The threatened citizens of the South responded to this rebellion with extreme laws which made slave’s work and lives even harsher.

But slaves found ways of “hurting” white men not only with arms but by slow working or pretending not to understand them.

Although this slavery era finished, this country has still suffered from racism until nowadays, as people living there have different points of view of this issue.

Unknown dijo...

Hello I am Marta Manzano from 4ºD.
During the 19 th century in South America, black people used to be slaves and worked cultivating their own land (cotton and rice plantations). But they didn't get any beneficts, and also they worked in very bad conditions.
Slaves worked for some rich families and farmers, they didn't have any rights, and there wasn´t any equality between black and white people.
Black slaves showed the rest of the people that they were humans by making families.
The most known slave was Harriet Tubman, because she helped a lot of slaves to scape.

Unknown dijo...

Hello I'm Adrián Baissero from 4ºC and I will talk about slavery.

Slavery was a very common issue in America from 1619 to 1865. Most of them worked in plantations in the south. They cultivated mostly cotton that they sold to to north to make slave´s cloths that were sold back to the south.


In 1860 there were 40 millions of slaves that were one third of the total population of the south. Most of them were forbiden to read and write. The usually worked 12 hours each day and thay were paid very little or not paid at all.


Many white people like John C. Calhoun said that slaves benefited from slavery. They said that because slaves owner gave them food and clothes. This was not true because slaves did things like breaking tools, pretend not understanding thir master or worked slow in order to riun thier master. Experts say that more or less 1000 slaves attampted to escape but only a few succeded.


Some slaves rebelled their masters, for example Nat Turner´s case. He and a group of slaves decided to go to many towns and started killing people with weapons. After that thay were captured and executed.


In Africa one third of families were separated because the husband had been sold. Slaves fought a lot and finnally won in 1865 when slavery period "ended". I write ended in inverted commas because still nowadays in some places there are slaves.

Unknown dijo...

Hello, I'm Violeta Muñoz from 4ºC.

Slavery in America played an important role, even led to a civil war that lasted from 1619 to 1865.

Slavery was significant to the North, as the South was the one who manufactured the cotton, and without it the North would not have been able to industrialized so quickly.

Southern intellectuals support the idea of slavery because they saw it a necessary evil. They believed that justice and conservation could not mix and this idea make inevitable the Civil War. Even there were some Southerners that thought that slaves benefited from slavery, as their masters fed them, dressed them and took care of them. Some of these Southerners, like John C. Calhoun, sustained that blacks were inferior to whites and take them out of slavery would produce an alteration in the natural order of things.

Slavery was based on intimidation, brutality and dehumanization. These slaves were forced to obey their masters and were not always paid. Certain slaves worked in good condition and others did not. If the slaves disobeyed their masters were paid lashes, and if they did, too, as happened to Bob.

All this brutality and dehumanization caused the slaves to reveal. There were several rebellions, but the one that caused more impact was the one led by Turner, a preacher. They were 80 slaves that went on killing people from Virginia, and that spread terror in white people. In response, Virginia did slavery to become worse.

Finally, the slaves repressed the oppression and won the war.

Unknown dijo...

Hello I am David Viejo from 4ºD and I am going to describe the main topics about slavery.
Slavery time lasted from 1619-1865 there were two types slavery, the one in the north and the one in the south.
Firstly, slavery in the south was based on agriculture, were the ones that cultivate the cotton and also the ones that had the worst working conditions, moreover these slaves were so profitable due to all the economy in the south that was based on them and other sectors like industry did not develop.
Secondly, slavery in the north was based on manufactures that change the cotton into clothes ,these ones have better working conditions .In addition these slaves were considered a very valuable property
Thirdly, in this period appeared some men that gave their opinion about the slaves, John C Calhoun, he said “relationships between white people and slaves were good” (positive) and Bennet H, he said “marriages between slaves create them a sense of independence”(negative)
Finally, due to this working conditions 1000 slaves runaway mainly to the north or Canada where they could be free and some others hide into woods or into shamps.The most important runaways were made by Harriet Tubman, Gabriel(1800),group of slaves(1811),Denmark Vessey(1822) and Nat Turner’s(1831)

Unknown dijo...

Hi I'm Mave Barrios from 4ºD.

Years before the American civil war had started, the South part of America was rich in cotton and other crops.

Without the South, the North wouldn't have been so successful. But to work that land, people needed slaves, and what is better than using black people to work the land? The society of that time thought that black people were inferior and they were born to be slaves.

For years, families were separated because the members of it were sold to different houses, where they were forced to work and do other stuff.


Also, as John Green said, rich people from that time tought that slaves benefited from slavery because although they did all the work, their owners were the ones who dressed them and feed them so in the end, that was taking advantage of them.


Finally, this number of events that happened led America to a civil war between the north and the south. Besides, this war almost got to abolish slavery, as the south part lost everything. But before it was finished, some black slaves began to rebel against their masters, for example, Nat Turner. Other very important case we could talk about is Harriet Tubman's case because she helped a lot of slaves to escape to other places like Canada.

In conclusion, maybe the civil war was something America needed although it took everything that the south had, but we have to think that at least slavery finished and nowadays racism does not affect as much as it used to.

Rocio :) dijo...
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
Rocio :) dijo...

Hi I'm Rocío Martínez.

The slaves at that time worked on the plantations , producing cotton and then they sold it to people that lived in the North. the people who lived in the South worked in the primary sector, living there being a slave was very bad, because there was few actuallity and it was all very traditional and common.Despite the bad conditions in which the slaves lived , as they were mistreated and forced to live in an undesirable way , white people only saw benefits from it.They thougth it was a good way of jusitifing what they do with some extracts from the Bible. So several of them tried to flee this way of life , they were ( among others): Joseph Taper , Bob and Harried Tubman
Thanks to many people who helped to end this difference was between races, today we do not see much racism as it had at the time.

Unknown dijo...

Hello, I am Alicia García-Viana.
There were a lot of slaves livingig in South America. Americans used to have slaves and they formed 1/3 of the population(4 million). They usually used to have slaves for cotton production. In cotton plantations they worked in gangs, usually under the control of an overseer or a driver who was another kind of slave. There was many brutality with them.
The mystery document shows one of the primaty ways that slaves resisted their oppression by running away. Joseph Taper escaped slavery for good by running away to Northern free states, but others ran away temporarily,hiding out in the woods and eventually returning. Most of the slaves went to other countries or destinations and were executed.

TRYTHENCOMPLAIN dijo...

Hello I'm Daniel Chaves from 4ºD and i'm going to write about slavery.

Slavery started in the year 1619 and last until 1865 it was very important because before this it led to a civil war. With all of the industrial revolution one of the fisrt industrializes products in America was the cotton.


The most of the slaves were located in the South America most of them worked in agriculture they had very bad conditions to work.


The people with money started trading with slaves from the South and many of families after had forming they were separated because they were sold to other people and had to abandoned their families.


The ones in the North said that the slaves benefit of slavery and that was crazy but their argument was that they had clothes they had food but their conditions were very bad. So this conditions led many slaves run away like 1000 were the slaves that escaped aproximetly.


In South America 1/3 of the total population were slaves and all those conditions led to the rebellion of the slaves. The ones who supported the trade of the slaves made slavery worst but slaves did resist their oppression.


Finally, thanks to the rise up of slaves it broke the Civil War between North and South America and the slaves won and made their country independient this means that slaves reaffirmed their humanity and if they wouldn't rise up would not have made life better for them or for their families.

Unknown dijo...

Hi, i´m Elena Guerrer from 4ºD.
Slavery was an important event that passed during the 19th century in the South of America, ending with a Civil War.

The South was where slaves worked and make possible to the North the industralization and trade of products. This slaves worked specially in cotton plantations with not good working conditions. Cotton was sold to the North who make clothes with them, they were the ones that could afford technological innovations.

Yeoman farmers were the ''owners'' of slaves who mantained them but exploited them at the same time. also white people owned this slaves or even rented them because of the poor they were. This incredibly things were justify with things that appeared on the Bible.

Slaves were so exploted by white people that they even weren´t considered human beings. This situation brought them to tried to leave America looking for freedom as in Canada, where slavery ended.

Important slaves that run to this country were Harriet Tubman and Joseph Taper (few of them), this people opposed this wild way of living and helped everyone leaving the situation. They scaped by railroads, where some of them died as Tubman or they just return to their live few days ,later.

Finally people as Josheph Taper abolished this not consider crimes for making the nowadays America not sucha a big equality differences.

Unknown dijo...

Hello I am Jose Alberto from 4ºD and I am going to describe the video of slavery .

Slaves were used along the 19 century ,from 1619-1865 and this lead toa civil war .Slaves were forced to work for rich people in very bad conditions .

There were two types of slavery the one in the south that was the worst were salves worked in worst conditions and worked on agriculture ,collecting cotton ,and the one in the north were slaves worked in better conditions in factories manufacturing cotton and making clthes .

In this period some people gave their opion about slavery ,like John C Calhoum that said "relationships between white people and slaves were good"and Benett H said "marriages between slaves créate them a sense of Independence".

finally 1000 slaves scaped to the north to be free and the more inportant runaways were made by Harriet Tubman ,Gabriel and Nat turners.

Unknown dijo...

Hello, I am Marcos Girón from 4ºD and I am going to talk about some aspects about the video I´ve seen.
Life in the south was quite "undeveloped". The part of the United States that was more developed was the North, that bought cotton to the south because in the north slavery was ilegal.
Cotton was one of the most important parts of economy (and bases of slavery) due to the huge plantations in the south and the trade they could do with it. But at the end these differences between the north and the south, and others that I will tell later, led to the Civil War.
In the south all the people with enough money to have slaves, had them. Most of them had 5 slaves or less. In fact, the slaves constituted one third of the population of that area.
White people had slaves as a symbol of wealthy, and that is the reason why not all the people could have them. They even thought that they weren´t doing anything bad to the slaves, but in fact they treated them as animals.
Black slaves were hit, and as I´ve said, treated as animals. Because of this some of them tried to escape, encouraged by their preachers and by Exodus´ Bible´s stories, to the north (E.g. Canada), where they didn´t need to be fugitives. They used, for example, the underground railroad, secret routes where they could be safe, to arrive to their destiny.
The slaves started to rise up and although most of them weren´t succesfull there are some known rebellions:
-Gabriel´s rebellion was supose to take place in 1800; the same year it was discovered.
-In 1811 a group of slaves rose up with weapons until they were stopped.
-In 1822 a slave called Denmark Vesey rose up. Finally he was executed.
-In 1831 took place the most important rebellion, when a group of slaves with a preacher rose up killing white people of the area (most of them women and children).
Slaves succeeded in their fight against opression.

Unknown dijo...

Hello,I am Sandra Orozco from 4° D and I'm going to talk about Slavery.
Slavery was an important event that occurs from 1619 to 1865, it was one of the causes of the civil war.
Most of the slaves were located in the South, they made up 1/3 of the total population. They usually work in cotton plantations with not good condition, they sold it to the North were cloths were made.
Slaves became to rich families and also to farmers, the didn't have rights and neither equalities. They were treated with intimidation, brutality and dehumanization. They think that slavery was justified by the Bible. They also thought that slaves must be thankful because their masters takes care of them.
So, slaves were not consider humans also the abolished them write and read. They put up with the oppression, when they couldn't stayed more there, they run to Canada or to the West trying to be as far as they could of this life.
The most important slave that scaped was Harriet Tubman, when she runs, she come back to her village to help her relatives and her friends. She was very brave and also kind, because if you have this life the last thing you would do is giving help to other people. Some of the slaves that scaped return back few days later.
Finally, thanks to people who helped to end with this big difference, we didn't see as much racisim as in that period was.

Unknown dijo...

Hello I'm Katherine Castillo Cueva from 4ºD.

Slavery was a very dramatic and important issue which took place in South America from 1619 to 1865 and finally it generated a civil war.

In the Industrial Revolution there were some differences of growing between North and South America. Economy of South America was based on cotton which were solded to the North, and there was transformed into clothes.
The slaves that work in agriculture worked in very bad conditions. But they didn´t take so serious, because they have food, some place to sleep, and sometimes money...
As a result about 1/3 of the South’s total population was formed by slaves.
This take Americans believe that slavery was good for them and for the slaves, so it was a kind of cultural aspect.
Slaves weren't happy, so they tried to escape to northern states.
There was an especial case of Harriet Tubman, who escape to Philadelphia and she tried to help other slaves to move toward the north on Underground Railroads, but were difficult roads to go to Canada.
Jhon C. Calhoun contribute to the abolition of racism, thanks to many people as he we live in a society with less racism.

Andy García dijo...
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Andy García dijo...

Hi am Andy Garcia from 4D and I am goin g to talk about slavery in U.S.
Slavery was used in Southern part of U.S ,basicaly because the cotton plantations were there , so the financial markets and industries were in the Northern part of U.S ,thats why some raw materials like cotton were sent to Northern for becoming clothes that later will be sold to the Southern U.S . So that make Northern part richer than the Soutern.Slaves were so common that they formed 1/3 of the total population of U.S in 1860 , (like 4 million black slaves).SLaves were used as a way of knowing the social status of a person, for example , the yeoman, that used to rent slaves to get some social benefits of having slaves because they were the poorest social class.Many people thought that it was a neccesary evil .Jefferson once wrote that self preservation and justice weren´t in the same scale, this was really opposed to the "American idea" and made the civil war inevitable.This ideas were so concoluted , that even some Southerns argued that it wasn´t a neccesary evil ,for instance , they argued that slaves benefit from slavery .Because masters feed them and cloth them , so they continued arguing that this was good for the social institution .One of the best-known proponents of this view was Jhon C.Calhoun , who said that having this differences between black and white people were good.He become the secretary of war , the Vice-president and the secretary of state.Arguing that black people ewere inferior.This was a legal sytem were black people were discrimitaded and intimidated , where they got to work with little payments from sun-rise to night time. One example of this brutality and cruelty ,was when one "master" wanted to punished his slave for not making anything,this proved the intentional brutality.ONe of the slaves form of revindication was to form families and creating a feeling of independence , but 1/3 of families were separated by the sold of a parent.This made preachers big leaders , because they knew how to read and write (every black person was forbidden of learnig reading and writting).Some black people run away to Northern places , and the others were resisting the opresion of the masters.Harriet Tubman escaped from philadelphia , making trips visiting her relatives.This opresion resistance made slaves to revel for reaffirm their rights , this refusing of the "white" ideas made the civil war inevitable , where the slaves fought for their rights , and in the end they won .

Unknown dijo...

Hello I´m Natalia Cañizares from 4ºD
Slavery in America began in 1619 and it lasted until 1865 and led to a civil war.

During this period America was economically divided. The South was based on a rural and agricultural economy, without any technological innovation and where the slave-based agriculture was very profitable. While the North was becoming more industrialized thanks to the manufacture of raw materials such as cotton.

In the South, slaves were considered property and most of them worked in agricultural plantations without any pay. They lived in a racist system based on oppression, brutality, dehumanization and cruelty; where the owners justified their acts through biblical passages and believed in dehumanization as a way of keeping the natural order.

Slaves resisted their dehumanization, forming families, which was a source of dignity and shelter. In order to scape from these harsh conditions they would run away to the North, like Harriet tubman did. She escaped and came back to help other people making the journey on the underground railroad. In addition slaves led several uprisings like Nat turner´s one, who marched from farm to farm killing all the people. But they also used other ways against oppression such as intentional work slowdowns and sabotaging or pretending not to understand instructions.

Unknown dijo...

Hello I´m Gonzalo Moreno from 4ºD,
What I have understand about the video was that slavery lasted 1,200 years and this ended with a cicil war. Also that slaves didn´t get any beneffit of what they do but they have a house and food. Also that they formesd families to reivindicate that they are humans and they made lots of revellions, but that rebellions didn´t make any good for them because when they do them they get worst conditions of work. There were many slaves that escape to the north because there they can be free, the most important one was Harried Tubman that came back several times to help other black people to escape.

Ángela Rodríguez Leal dijo...

Hello I am Angela Rodriguez Leal from 4ºD and I'm going to talk about American slavery that the video says.

This began in 1619, when North America took the most part of the south because there were a lot of cotton plants that were picked up for the industrialization that took place during this period. If there wasn't cotton, the north wouldn't industrialize so fast because cotton was the first and the most important textile for trading and for working to.

Apart of cotton, the north took black people as slaves. Thery were sold or rented to other people who needed them to work although this had to separate slaves from their families. But being a slave wasn't so bad for them in certain aspects because their owners had to take care of them, and it benefited them.

With this issue about the slavery, racism was presented. People thought black people were inferior than white people. Slaves were forced to obey their owners because, otherwise, they hit and whipped them. Labor conditions were bad or worse, depending on where did they work.

Masters wanted their slaves to learn parts of the Bible that talked about being happy in bondage. Some slaves became slave preachers. This made them want to escape from slavery, but the majority were exucuted.
Because of this disaster about slavery, the Civil War began between the north and the south. As the Civil War ended, slavery ended too in 1865.

Anónimo dijo...

Hi I’m Raquel Calderón from 4ºD and I’m going to make a summary of the video were John Green talks about slavery.
When people talk about slavery they thought that it couldn’t be as bad as they said, but they are wrong. It is even worst. Slavery was very important for Americans and it lasted from 1619 to1865.
The economy in the south has been separate from the Market revolution but this is not the most important fact. Slaves work in plantation, like for example of cotton and thanks to that cotton coming from the south; the north could be able to create a huge economy based on industry. The southern part couldn’t make that because they invest most of their money in slaves.
Most of the south was rural so they work in the primary sector, they don´t have any technology so they have to make all the work by hand, so we can said that their lives were awful. In the other hand we have the northern part, which was modern and industrialized; mainly they work in the secondary sector.
1/3 of the total populations in the south were slaves and the yeomen farmer were self-sufficient and they produce their own food so they don’t contribute to economy. For white people having slaves working for them was good, so the slaves have to tolerate a lot of bad behavior coming from white people and also they don’t receive money. But one day some people want to avoid that and runaway from those lives like John C. Calhoun, Joseph Taper, "Bob" and Harried Tubman.
John C. Calhoun want to stop racism by making black people and with people friends and Harried Tubman scape to Canada looking for freedom and he came back to help his friends. They scape throughout railroads

mario dijo...

I´m Mario Toro from 4ºD and what i understand about this video is:
Between 1619 and 1865 in South USA slavery was something normal. 1/3 of the population in U.S was slaves and most of them were black people. White people think that slavery was essential for produce in their land more food than means more money. The majority of the slaves worked in cotton farms because it was very difficult to planted.
Slaves were forced to work the slave-owners lands and they were dehumanized by their owners, for example Bob was hit by his owner even if he didn't do anything wrong.
If in this time the slavery did not change it a can be a war.
Some slaves escaped to Canada because there it had been abolished slavery, so they went there searching for freedom. They escaped through the underground railroad, wich were secret places where people help them escape to Canada.
Nowadays in some places there are slaves and it shoudn´t be like that.

Unknown dijo...

Hi, im Byron Bogas and im talking about the slavery in US;

Slavery began with the abition of powerful people in the cotton industry. They needed cheap labour costs in order to have a more profit. As time passed by, people found new ways to use black people. White people from the US started to buy them as house-workers, coockers, cleaners, etc.

In the south these ideas about black-people being inferior towars white people, spread successfully.
On the other hand, in the north equality between races won, and black-people were had almost the same rights as white people, almost all of them.
As black people realized that in the north they could achieve freedom, they started to run away to the north or to Canada.
In Huckleberry Finn the main issue is the importance of freedom for black people. They helped each other, but white people couldn´t; if a white person had seen a runnaway slave the had the obligation to communicate it to the authorities. However, Huck, an outlaw teenager decides to help Jim, a runnaway slave. Althoug he wanted to help him, he had doubts about if that was the right thing to do or not. From now on Huck began to understand that black people were as humans as he was, it was difficult for him because he grew in a lie that held black people as inferior.

Finally Jim is free, this is what i think that made the book so controversial and why it was censured, as time passed by and equality succededin society, "The adventures of Huckleberry Finn" became an inspiration for all the people in order to achieve peace and love between people of diferent color of skin, because that all about a just a diferent color...

Unknown dijo...

I'm Patricia Lázaro from 4ºD.
Slavary in South America began in 1619 and it ended up in 1865. It was a process in which the negro was deshumanized as they were considered an inferior race. They were forced to work too many hours in the worst conditions. These conditions included wipping and being used as property.
This exploitation made North America very rich and industrialized and kept the South with a rural economy.
Consequently, slaves started to rebell. At first slightly and individually and later on, commonly though this was unsuccessful. The revolts were usually led by preachers who tought people the beliefs of an equal society.
All this differences and religious-based racisim led to a civil war betweern North and South America which slaves finally won.

Unknown dijo...
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