Rights and Resistance

- Human Rights
- Born with them. Cant be taken away
- Existence, food, water

- Natural Rights
- Born with them, cant be taken away
- Free will/independence

- Civil Rights
- Induced through laws/society, can be reduced

What are rights?

- Human Rights “are not just a doctrine formulated in documents; they rest on a
disposition toward other people, a set of convictions about what people are like an they
know right and wrong in a secular world.”

- Natural rights “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights” – Declaration of
Independence

- Civil rights “The legitimate goal is for every American to receive exact and even and
equal justice regardless of his race or his color.” – Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the
United States (1963-1969)

How did colonists understand their rights?

- The Seven Years War
- The Enlightenment
- The First Great Awakening

The Enlightenment
At this same moment, the European Enlightenment is coming to full bloom, establishing new
ways of thinking about being a human in the world and one’s relationship to authority. Four main
elements of the Enlightenment were:

- Rationalism - claimed that humans could understand the world through their mental
faculty of Reason
 - Empiricism - knowledge comes through experience and interaction with the world

- Progress - the human capacity for progress was believed to be unlimited

- Cosmopolitanism - a view of oneself as a citizen of the world, and of leaving behind

“provincial”, closed-minded views (hint: traditional religion)

The First Great Awakening

- Before the great awakening people were losing interest in religion because of the
enlightenment.
- “Revival of a religious feeling in the colonies”

Division - multiple new religious groups appeared especially because of the rejection of central
religious authorities

Shared Cultural Experience - People throughout the colonies were members of different
denominations, but they all had somehow experienced the fervor of the Awakening and were
affected by the focus on the importance of the individual

Individualism - The Awakening’s focus on individual experience reinforced the colonists’

experience of self-sufficiency in economics and politics and made individualism a spiritual virtue

Douglass and Stanton

- Every state when the US became independent practiced slavery
- Even the people that found slavery to be wrong enslaved people
- Anne Bingham was an advocate for women's rights since the constitutional convention
refused to discuss it at all

Abolitionists: Completely against slavery, doesn’t find it right at all

- Underground Railroad
- 1793 fugitive slave law
- Harriet Tubman, led 300 freedom seekers to the north

The Compromise of 1850

- 1848, the u.s nearly doubles in territory after the U.S-Mexico war
- The compromise of 1850
- California was admitted to be free
1. Why was literacy, reading, and writing so important to
Douglass’s life?
Being able to read let him see the world in a new way. He held
meetings to teach other slaves how to read as well. Be able to share
his story

2. What roles did Anna Murray Douglass play in this story?

Helped douglass escape to freedom in the first place, also took the
burden of supporting their family before douglass’ career took off.

3. Who were the two newspapermen/ abolitionists with

whom Douglass worked? What were the names of the
newspapers?
William Lloyd Garrison
Book- The Liberator
Martin Delany
Liberationist newspaper- The North Star

4. From the last video and this video, what were the two
reactions Douglass had to the Dred Scott decision?
Inhumane. Fired douglass up to be more determined
5. How did Douglass influence President Abraham Lincoln?
Pushed him to prioritize letting black men work in the war to show
how much they do care for the U.S
Emancipation Proclamation
- Shifted the dynamics of the war
Throughout much of his speech, Douglass use a rhetorical strategy
called apophasis: talking about a subject by denying that he plans to
talk about it. Why?
He says in one of the paragraphs that “Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and
stained with pollution is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employments for my time and
strength than such arguments would imply.”, he says he has better uses of his time than talking
about the corrupt system. It’s not as much value to him to want to talk about it like the act of
slavery might be.

What is the meaning and significance of the Fourth of July, from the
slave’s point of view?
Its described as “being a day that reveals more than all the other days in the year, the gross
injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim”, it is much different as to how the
americans view the 4th of july since we have and still do see it as a celebration.

Why is slavery a violation of the principles of the Declaration of

Independence, according to Douglass, and why does he call the
Founders “statesmen, patriots and heroes”?
Since the declaration of independence wants all men to be made equal, slavery contradicts that
wholly since slavery is not letting those people to be equal to how white people live. Or not
having the same freedom.

Does Douglass believe that the United States Constitution is a

pro-slavery or an anti-slavery document?
He states that theres a “presentation of a single pro-slavery cause in it” and that all the
principles and purposes are hostile to the existence of slavery.

Second Reconstruction (or whatever)

- 1792: Eli whitney invents the cotton gin
- Cotton foes from a local crop to a global industry
- Spread across the south
- Expansion of slavery; enslaved population increased from 70,000 in 1787 to 4 million on
the eve of the civil war
- Americas largest export by 1860
What is Reconstruction?
- Truly begins in 1863, with the Emancipation Proclamation
- Its a plan to restore Southern States to the Union
- An experiment in interracial democracy
- Fundamentally revised the Constitution with the addition of the 13th, 14th and 15th
amendments
- Created the freedmen's bureau and passed the reconstruction acts
- The reconstruction acts established military rule over southern states to enforce new
laws and until new governments could be formed
- Ends in 1877 with the repeal of many of these acts

Conflicts during Reconstruction

- Radical Republicans
- 1865, Lincoln was assassinated
- President Andrew Johnson, wanted to re-incorporate the South back into the union on
lenient terms.
- Former confederates
- Newly Freed People

Jim Crow

- When was this case? Who were the parties involved?

- Sep 1st, 1891 was when it was started, was brought to court in 1892.
- Homer Plessy and Ferguson
- How did the case get brought to the Supreme Court?
- Homer Plessy boarded the “white” car and got arrested, which had it be brought to
court.
- What was the court’s ruling, especially regarding the protections of the Reconstruction
amendments?
- They ruled a denial against plessys’ argument with the Reconstruction
amendments.
- What were the long term effects?
- Nothing would really change till 1954
- What were some of the challenges faced by the Women's Suffrage Movement?
- Racial and ethnic discrimination.

- How did the American Civil War impact the Women's Suffrage Movement?

- Because of the Civil War, the Women's Suffrage Movement had to be put aside and
was less prioritized after.

- What role did World War I play in advancing the Women's Suffrage Movement?

- The movement was once again put to the side however women saw this as an
opportunity to prove that they can vote.

- Who were some of the leaders in the Women's Suffrage Movement?

- Harriot Stanton Blatch, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Alice Paul

- Who were some African American suffragists?

- Mary McCleod Bethune

- What impact did the passage of the 19th Amendment have on African American women?

- The 19th amendment stated that women could vote but implied that only white women
could, so the African American women were still left out.

- When did African Americans secure the right to vote?

- The civil rights movement in 1950/1960 that they could finally vote

- What was the main argument used against African Americans who wanted to vote after the
passage of the 19th Amendment?

- other state legislatures still went out of their way to continue disenfranchising African
Americans by introducing more unnecessary hurdles.
A. How does Dr. King characterize direct action? What are his arguments for its necessity?
What environment does he hope to create through nonviolent protest? How will the creation of
such an environment aid in the acknowledgement of the rights of black Americans?

- Dr. King is able to characterize direct action as a necessary method that can instigate
social change when other ways of change (negotiations) can fail. It exposes injustices
that demand urgent attention. Through the non-violent protests that they did, Dr. King
hopes to create understanding and reconciliation. In a way that they can have more
meaningful conversations about race. He hopes for the rights of Black Americans to be
seen as equal citizens to the white Americans.

B. Malcolm X claimed “There’s no such thing as a nonviolent revolution.” Compare this

statement with Dr. King’s acknowledgment that “it is a historical fact that privileged groups
seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.” What kinds of violence can result from nonviolent
tactics? To what extent does King acknowledge this? Does King believe in nonviolent
revolution?

- Malcom X’s claim contrasts with Dr. Kings claim that privileged groups don’t often give
up their privileges. King supports non-violent methods since violent methods can lead
and cause worse issues. He still recognizes that non-violent protests can still insight
violent reactions from the oppressors. Malcom X believes that the change they want
requires direct confrontation, which can/may involve violence.