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The Thirteen Original Colonies were colonies on the east coast of the United States that were the first settlements of the British in the U.S. These colonies sparked the creation of the United States as a whole.

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The Trail of Tears was brutal for Native Americans. Over 16000 people marched for over 1200 miles. During this time many have passed away while marching. In 1838 Cherokee Indians faced famine, disease and exhaustion while being forced to leave.

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Remember and commemorate the survival of the Cherokee people, forcefully removed from their homelands in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee to live in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. They traveled by foot, horse, wagon, or steamboat in 1838-1839. Read More

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Trail Of Tears National Historic Trail (U.S. National Park Service)

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Remember and commemorate the survival of the Cherokee people, forcefully removed from their homelands in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee to live in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. They traveled by foot, horse, wagon, or steamboat in 1838-1839.

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The Bill of Rights is the first 10 amendments of the constitution which gives United States citizen their rights in the U.S. The Bill of Rights was signed on 1791.

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A 3-minute guide to the Bill of Rights - Belinda Stutzman

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The Constitution is the origin of the laws that we have in place in the United States. It gives the United States citizens their right that they have in the United States. The Constitution was written in 1787.

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The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution

The Preamble outlines the Constitution's purpose and guiding principles. It reads:

The Bill of Rights were 10 amendments guaranteeing basic individual protections, such as freedom of speech and religion, that became part of the Constitution in 1791. To date, there are 27 constitutional amendments.

Articles of Confederation

America's first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, was ratified in 1781, a time when the nation was a loose confederation of states, each operating like independent countries. The national government was comprised of a single legislature, the Congress of the Confederation; there was no president or judicial branch.

The Articles of Confederation gave Congress the power to govern foreign affairs, conduct war and regulate currency; however, in reality these powers were sharply limited because Congress had no authority to enforce its requests to the states for money or troops.

Did you know? George Washington was initially reluctant to attend the Constitutional Convention. Although he saw the need for a stronger national government, he was busy managing his estate at Mount Vernon, suffering from rheumatism and worried that the convention wouldn't be successful in achieving its goals.

Soon after America won its independence from Great Britain with its 1783 victory in the American Revolution, it became increasingly evident that the young republic needed a stronger central government in order to remain stable.

In 1786, Alexander Hamilton, a lawyer and politician from New York, called for a constitutional convention to discuss the matter. The Confederation Congress, which in February 1787 endorsed the idea, invited all 13 states to send delegates to a meeting in Philadelphia.

Forming a More Perfect Union

On May 25, 1787, the Constitutional Convention opened in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence had been adopted 11 years earlier. There were 55 delegates in attendance, representing all 13 states except Rhode Island, which refused to send representatives because it did not want a powerful central government interfering in its economic business. George Washington, who'd become a national hero after leading the Continental Army to victory during the American Revolution, was selected as president of the convention by unanimous vote.

The delegates (who also became known as the "framers" of the Constitution) were a well-educated group that included merchants, farmers, bankers and lawyers. Many had served in the Continental Army, colonial legislatures or the Continental Congress (known as the Congress of the Confederation as of 1781). In terms of religious affiliation, most were Protestants. Eight delegates were signers of the Declaration of Independence, while six had signed the Articles of Confederation.

At age 81, Pennsylvania's Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) was the oldest delegate, while the majority of the delegates were in their 30s and 40s. Political leaders not in attendance at the convention included Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and John Adams (1735-1826), who were serving as U.S. ambassadors in Europe. John Jay (1745-1829), Samuel Adams (1722-1803) and John Hancock (1737-93) were also absent from the convention. Virginia's Patrick Henry (1736-99) was chosen to be a delegate but refused to attend the convention because he didn't want to give the central government more power, fearing it would endanger the rights of states and individuals.

Reporters and other visitors were barred from the convention sessions, which were held in secret to avoid outside pressures. However, Virginia's James Madison (1751-1836) kept a detailed account of what transpired behind closed doors. (In 1837, Madison's widow Dolley sold some of his papers, including his notes from the convention debates, to the federal government for $30,000.)

Debating the Constitution

The delegates had been tasked by Congress with amending the Articles of Confederation; however, they soon began deliberating proposals for an entirely new form of government. After intensive debate, which continued throughout the summer of 1787 and at times threatened to derail the proceedings, they developed a plan that established three branches of national government-executive, legislative and judicial. A system of checks and balances was put into place so that no single branch would have too much authority. The specific powers and responsibilities of each branch were also laid out.

Among the more contentious issues was the question of state representation in the national legislature. Delegates from larger states wanted population to determine how many representatives a state could send to Congress, while small states called for equal representation. The issue was resolved by the Connecticut Compromise, which proposed a bicameral legislature with proportional representation of the states in the lower house ( House of Representatives) and equal representation in the upper house (Senate).

Another controversial topic was slavery. Although some northern states had already started to outlaw the practice, they went along with the southern states' insistence that slavery was an issue for individual states to decide and should be kept out of the Constitution. Many northern delegates believed that without agreeing to this, the South wouldn't join the Union. For the purposes of taxation and determining how many representatives a state could send to Congress, it was decided that enslaved people would be counted as three-fifths of a person. Additionally, it was agreed that Congress wouldn't be allowed to prohibit the slave trade before 1808, and states were required to return fugitive enslaved people to their owners.

Ratifying the Constitution

By September 1787, the convention's five-member Committee of Style (Hamilton, Madison, William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut, Gouverneur Morris of New York, Rufus King of Massachusetts) had drafted the final text of the Constitution, which consisted of some 4,200 words. On September 17, George Washington was the first to sign the document. Of the 55 delegates, a total of 39 signed; some had already left Philadelphia, and three-George Mason (1725-92) and Edmund Randolph (1753-1813) of Virginia, and Elbridge Gerry (1744-1813) of Massachusetts-refused to approve the document. In order for the Constitution to become law, it then had to be ratified by nine of the 13 states.

James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, with assistance from John Jay, wrote a series of essays to persuade people to ratify the Constitution. The 85 essays, known collectively as "The Federalist" (or "The Federalist Papers"), detailed how the new government would work, and were published under the pseudonym Publius (Latin for "public") in newspapers across the states starting in the fall of 1787. (People who supported the Constitution became known as Federalists, while those opposed it because they thought it gave too much power to the national government were called Anti-Federalists.)

Beginning on December 7, 1787, five states- Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut-ratified the Constitution in quick succession. However, other states, especially Massachusetts, opposed the document, as it failed to reserve un-delegated powers to the states and lacked constitutional protection of basic political rights, such as freedom of speech, religion and the press.

In February 1788, a compromise was reached under which Massachusetts and other states would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would be immediately proposed. The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. George Washington was inaugurated as America's first president on April 30, 1789. In June of that same year, Virginia ratified the Constitution, and New York followed in July. On February 2, 1790, the U.S. Supreme Court held its first session, marking the date when the government was fully operative.

Rhode Island, the last holdout of the original 13 states, finally ratified the Constitution on May 29, 1790.

The Bill of Rights

In 1789, Madison, then a member of the newly established U.S. House of Representatives, introduced 19 amendments to the Constitution. On September 25, 1789, Congress adopted 12 of the amendments and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, were ratified and became part of the Constitution on December 10, 1791. The Bill of Rights guarantees individuals certain basic protections as citizens, including freedom of speech, religion and the press; the right to bear and keep arms; the right to peaceably assemble; protection from unreasonable search and seizure; and the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury. For his contributions to the drafting of the Constitution, as well as its ratification, Madison became known as "Father of the Constitution."

To date, there have been thousands of proposed amendments to the Constitution. However, only 17 amendments have been ratified in addition to the Bill of Rights because the process isn't easy-after a proposed amendment makes it through Congress, it must be ratified by three-fourths of the states. The most recent amendment to the Constitution, Article XXVII, which deals with congressional pay raises, was proposed in 1789 and ratified in 1992.

The Constitution Today

In the more than 200 years since the Constitution was created, America has stretched across an entire continent and its population and economy have expanded more than the document's framers likely ever could have envisioned. Through all the changes, the Constitution has endured and adapted.

The framers knew it wasn't a perfect document. However, as Benjamin Franklin said on the closing day of the convention in 1787: "I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such, because I think a central government is necessary for us... I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain may be able to make a better Constitution." Today, the original Constitution is on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Constitution Day is observed on September 17, to commemorate the date the document was signed.

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U.S. Constitution: Articles, Ratifying & Summary

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The Preamble outlines the Constitution's purpose and guiding principles. It reads: The Bill of Rights were 10 amendments guaranteeing basic individual protections, such as freedom of speech and religion, that became part of the Constitution in 1791. To date, there are 27 constitutional amendments.

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Thomas Jefferson is important to the History world due to his impact on the USA by implementing the declaration of Independence.

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Immigration has been around for a long time. People from all over the world that are not United States citizens come to chase "The American Dream."

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The uprising of computers and technology systems is changing the world. Impacting everything in the world providing more jobs, and goods.

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With the main focus of slavery on the horizon the Civil War was a fight over the morality of slavery on the United States.

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Black Lives Matter is an current Peace Movement. Their mission is to bring peace to the world. Stopping the discrimination, racial profiling, and to bring equal rights for everyone.

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The war between The Central Powers and The Allied Powers lasted 4 years. The war was sparked by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.

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Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Tensions had been brewing throughout Europe-especially in the troubled Balkan region of southeast Europe-for years before World War I actually broke out.

A number of alliances involving European powers, the Ottoman Empire, Russia and other parties had existed for years, but political instability in the Balkans (particularly Bosnia, Serbia and Herzegovina) threatened to destroy these agreements.

The spark that ignited World War I was struck in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand -heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire-was shot to death along with his wife, Sophie, by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914. Princip and other nationalists were struggling to end Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand set off a rapidly escalating chain of events: Austria-Hungary, like many countries around the world, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the question of Serbian nationalism once and for all.

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Because mighty Russia supported Serbia, Austria-Hungary waited to declare war until its leaders received assurance from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause. Austro-Hungarian leaders feared that a Russian intervention would involve Russia's ally, France, and possibly Great Britain as well.

On July 5, Kaiser Wilhelm secretly pledged his support, giving Austria-Hungary a so-called carte blanche, or "blank check" assurance of Germany's backing in the case of war. The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary then sent an ultimatum to Serbia, with such harsh terms as to make it almost impossible to accept.

World War I Begins

Convinced that Austria-Hungary was readying for war, the Serbian government ordered the Serbian army to mobilize and appealed to Russia for assistance. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe's great powers quickly collapsed.

Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun.

The Western Front

According to an aggressive military strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan (named for its mastermind, German Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen), Germany began fighting World War I on two fronts, invading France through neutral Belgium in the west and confronting Russia in the east.

On August 4, 1914, German troops crossed the border into Belgium. In the first battle of World War I, the Germans assaulted the heavily fortified city of Liege, using the most powerful weapons in their arsenal-enormous siege cannons-to capture the city by August 15. The Germans left death and destruction in their wake as they advanced through Belgium toward France, shooting civilians and executing a Belgian priest they had accused of inciting civilian resistance.

First Battle of the Marne

In the First Battle of the Marne, fought from September 6-9, 1914, French and British forces confronted the invading German army, which had by then penetrated deep into northeastern France, within 30 miles of Paris. The Allied troops checked the German advance and mounted a successful counterattack, driving the Germans back to the north of the Aisne River.

The defeat meant the end of German plans for a quick victory in France. Both sides dug into trenches, and the Western Front was the setting for a hellish war of attrition that would last more than three years.

Particularly long and costly battles in this campaign were fought at Verdun (February-December 1916) and the Battle of the Somme (July-November 1916). German and French troops suffered close to a million casualties in the Battle of Verdun alone.

World War I Books and Art

The bloodshed on the battlefields of the Western Front, and the difficulties its soldiers had for years after the fighting had ended, inspired such works of art as " All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque and " In Flanders Fields"by Canadian doctor Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. In the latter poem, McCrae writes from the perspective of the fallen soldiers:

Published in 1915, the poem inspired the use of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance.

Visual artists like Otto Dix of Germany and British painters Wyndham Lewis, Paul Nash and David Bomberg used their firsthand experience as soldiers in World War I to create their art, capturing the anguish of trench warfare and exploring the themes of technology, violence and landscapes decimated by war.

The Eastern Front

On the Eastern Front of World War I, Russian forces invaded the German-held regions of East Prussia and Poland but were stopped short by German and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August 1914.

Despite that victory, Russia's assault forced Germany to move two corps from the Western Front to the Eastern, contributing to the German loss in the Battle of the Marne.

Combined with the fierce Allied resistance in France, the ability of Russia's huge war machine to mobilize relatively quickly in the east ensured a longer, more grueling conflict instead of the quick victory Germany had hoped to win under the Schlieffen Plan.

Russian Revolution

From 1914 to 1916, Russia's army mounted several offensives on World War I's Eastern Front but was unable to break through German lines.

Defeat on the battlefield, combined with economic instability and the scarcity of food and other essentials, led to mounting discontent among the bulk of Russia's population, especially the poverty-stricken workers and peasants. This increased hostility was directed toward the imperial regime of Czar Nicholas II and his unpopular German-born wife, Alexandra.

Russia's simmering instability exploded in the Russian Revolution of 1917, spearheaded by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks, which ended czarist rule and brought a halt to Russian participation in World War I.

Russia reached an armistice with the Central Powers in early December 1917, freeing German troops to face the remaining Allies on the Western Front.

America Enters World War I

At the outbreak of fighting in 1914, the United States remained on the sidelines of World War I, adopting the policy of neutrality favored by President Woodrow Wilson while continuing to engage in commerce and shipping with European countries on both sides of the conflict.

Neutrality, however, it was increasingly difficult to maintain in the face of Germany's unchecked submarine aggression against neutral ships, including those carrying passengers. In 1915, Germany declared the waters surrounding the British Isles to be a war zone, and German U-boats sunk several commercial and passenger vessels, including some U.S. ships.

Widespread protest over the sinking by U-boat of the British ocean liner Lusitania-traveling from New York to Liverpool, England with hundreds of American passengers onboard-in May 1915 helped turn the tide of American public opinion against Germany. In February 1917, Congress passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war.

Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant ships the following month, and on April 2 Woodrow Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany.

Gallipoli Campaign

With World War I having effectively settled into a stalemate in Europe, the Allies attempted to score a victory against the Ottoman Empire, which entered the conflict on the side of the Central Powers in late 1914.

After a failed attack on the Dardanelles (the strait linking the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean Sea), Allied forces led by Britain launched a large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915. The invasion also proved a dismal failure, and in January 1916 Allied forces staged a full retreat from the shores of the peninsula after suffering 250,000 casualties.

Did you know? The young Winston Churchill, then first lord of the British Admiralty, resigned his command after the failed Gallipoli campaign in 1916, accepting a commission with an infantry battalion in France.

British-led forces also combated the Ottoman Turks in Egypt and Mesopotamia, while in northern Italy, Austrian and Italian troops faced off in a series of 12 battles along the Isonzo River, located at the border between the two nations.

Battle of the Isonzo

The First Battle of the Isonzo took place in the late spring of 1915, soon after Italy's entrance into the war on the Allied side. In the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, also known as the Battle of Caporetto (October 1917), German reinforcements helped Austria-Hungary win a decisive victory.

After Caporetto, Italy's allies jumped in to offer increased assistance. British and French-and later, American-troops arrived in the region, and the Allies began to take back the Italian Front.

World War I at Sea

In the years before World War I, the superiority of Britain's Royal Navy was unchallenged by any other nation's fleet, but the Imperial German Navy had made substantial strides in closing the gap between the two naval powers. Germany's strength on the high seas was also aided by its lethal fleet of U-boat submarines.

After the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, in which the British mounted a surprise attack on German ships in the North Sea, the German navy chose not to confront Britain's mighty Royal Navy in a major battle for more than a year, preferring to rest the bulk of its naval strategy on its U-boats.

The biggest naval engagement of World War I, the Battle of Jutland (May 1916) left British naval superiority on the North Sea intact, and Germany would make no further attempts to break an Allied naval blockade for the remainder of the war.

World War I Planes

World War I was the first major conflict to harness the power of planes. Though not as impactful as the British Royal Navy or Germany's U-boats, the use of planes in World War I presaged their later, pivotal role in military conflicts around the globe.

At the dawn of World War I, aviation was a relatively new field; the Wright brothers took their first sustained flight just eleven years before, in 1903. Aircraft were initially used primarily for reconnaissance missions. During the First Battle of the Marne, information passed from pilots allowed the allies to exploit weak spots in the German lines, helping the Allies to push Germany out of France.

The first machine guns were successfully mounted on planes in June of 1912 in the United States, but were imperfect; if timed incorrectly, a bullet could easily destroy the propeller of the plane it came from. The Morane-Saulnier L, a French plane, provided a solution: The propeller was armored with deflector wedges that prevented bullets from hitting it. The Morane-Saulnier Type L was used by the French, the British Royal Flying Corps (part of the Army), the British Royal Navy Air Service and the Imperial Russian Air Service. The British Bristol Type 22 was another popular model used for both reconnaissance work and as a fighter plane.

Dutch inventor Anthony Fokker improved upon the French deflector system in 1915. His "interrupter" synchronized the firing of the guns with the plane's propeller to avoid collisions. Though his most popular plane during WWI was the single-seat Fokker Eindecker, Fokker created over 40 kinds of airplanes for the Germans.

The Allies debuted the Handley-Page HP O/400, the first two-engine bomber, in 1915. As aerial technology progressed, long-range heavy bombers like Germany's Gotha G.V. (first introduced in 1917) were used to strike cities like London. Their speed and maneuverability proved to be far deadlier than Germany's earlier Zeppelin raids.

By the war's end, the Allies were producing five times more aircraft than the Germans. On April 1, 1918, the British created the Royal Air Force, or RAF, the first air force to be a separate military branch independent from the navy or army.

Second Battle of the Marne

With Germany able to build up its strength on the Western Front after the armistice with Russia, Allied troops struggled to hold off another German offensive until promised reinforcements from the United States were able to arrive.

On July 15, 1918, German troops launched what would become the last German offensive of the war, attacking French forces (joined by 85,000 American troops as well as some of the British Expeditionary Force) in the Second Battle of the Marne. The Allies successfully pushed back the German offensive and launched their own counteroffensive just three days later.

After suffering massive casualties, Germany was forced to call off a planned offensive further north, in the Flanders region stretching between France and Belgium, which was envisioned as Germany's best hope of victory.

The Second Battle of the Marne turned the tide of war decisively towards the Allies, who were able to regain much of France and Belgium in the months that followed.

The Harlem Hellfighters and Other All-Black Regiments

By the time World War I began, there were four all-Black regiments in the U.S. military: the 24th and 25th Infantry and the 9th and 10th Cavalry. All four regiments comprised of celebrated soldiers who fought in the Spanish-American War and American-Indian Wars, and served in the American territories. But they were not deployed for overseas combat in World War I.

Blacks serving alongside white soldiers on the front lines in Europe was inconceivable to the U.S. military. Instead, the first African American troops sent overseas served in segregated labor battalions, restricted to menial roles in the Army and Navy, and shutout of the Marines, entirely. Their duties mostly included unloading ships, transporting materials from train depots, bases and ports, digging trenches, cooking and maintenance, removing barbed wire and inoperable equipment, and burying soldiers.

Facing criticism from the Black community and civil rights organizations for its quotas and treatment of African American soldiers in the war effort, the military formed two Black combat units in 1917, the 92nd and 93rd Divisions. Trained separately and inadequately in the United States, the divisions fared differently in the war. The 92nd faced criticism for their performance in the Meuse-Argonne campaign in September 1918. The 93rd Division, however, had more success.

With dwindling armies, France asked America for reinforcements, and General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, sent regiments in the 93 Division to over, since France had experience fighting alongside Black soldiers from their Senegalese French Colonial army. The 93 Division's 369 regiment, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters, fought so gallantly, with a total of 191 days on the front lines, longer than any AEF regiment, that France awarded them the Croix de Guerre for their heroism. More than 350,000 African American soldiers would serve in World War I in various capacities.

Toward Armistice

By the fall of 1918, the Central Powers were unraveling on all fronts.

Despite the Turkish victory at Gallipoli, later defeats by invading forces and an Arab revolt that destroyed the Ottoman economy and devastated its land, and the Turks signed a treaty with the Allies in late October 1918.

Austria-Hungary, dissolving from within due to growing nationalist movements among its diverse population, reached an armistice on November 4. Facing dwindling resources on the battlefield, discontent on the homefront and the surrender of its allies, Germany was finally forced to seek an armistice on November 11, 1918, ending World War I.

Treaty of Versailles

At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Allied leaders stated their desire to build a post-war world that would safeguard itself against future conflicts of such a devastating scale.

Some hopeful participants had even begun calling World War I "the War to End All Wars." But the Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919, would not achieve that lofty goal.

Saddled with war guilt, heavy reparations and denied entrance into the League of Nations, Germany felt tricked into signing the treaty, having believed any peace would be a "peace without victory," as put forward by President Wilson in his famous Fourteen Points speech of January 1918.

As the years passed, hatred of the Versailles treaty and its authors settled into a smoldering resentment in Germany that would, two decades later, be counted among the causes of World War II.

World War I Casualties

World War I took the lives of more than 9 million soldiers; 21 million more were wounded. Civilian casualties numbered close to 10 million. The two nations most affected were Germany and France, each of which sent some 80 percent of their male populations between the ages of 15 and 49 into battle.

The political disruption surrounding World War I also contributed to the fall of four venerable imperial dynasties: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Turkey.

Legacy of World War I

World War I brought about massive social upheaval, as millions of women entered the workforce to replace men who went to war and those who never came back. The first global war also helped to spread one of the world's deadliest global pandemics, the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people.

World War I has also been referred to as "the first modern war." Many of the technologies now associated with military conflict-machine guns, tanks, aerial combat and radio communications-were introduced on a massive scale during World War I.

The severe effects that chemical weapons such as mustard gas and phosgene had on soldiers and civilians during World War I galvanized public and military attitudes against their continued use. The Geneva Convention agreements, signed in 1925, restricted the use of chemical and biological agents in warfare and remain in effect today.

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World War I: Summary, Causes & Facts | HISTORY

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World War I began in 1914, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and lasted until 1918. During the conflict, Germany, Austria‑Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers).

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Peace Movement is so important due to being linked to most social movements, to end wars, and stop violence. 

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Before 1920 women were not allowed to vote. Woman's Suffrage was a long fight that was finally won giving women the right to vote.

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Women's Rights Movement Begins

The campaign for women's suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820s and '30s, most states had extended the franchise to all white men, regardless of how much money or property they had.

At the same time, all sorts of reform groups were proliferating across the United States- temperance leagues, religious movements, moral-reform societies, anti- slavery organizations-and in many of these, women played a prominent role.

Meanwhile, many American women were beginning to chafe against what historians have called the "Cult of True Womanhood": that is, the idea that the only "true" woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family.

Put together, all of these contributed to a new way of thinking about what it meant to be a woman and a citizen of the United States.

Seneca Falls Convention

In 1848, a group of abolitionist activists-mostly women, but some men-gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to discuss the problem of women's rights. They were invited there by the reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.

Most of the delegates to the Seneca Falls Convention agreed: American women were autonomous individuals who deserved their own political identities.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident," proclaimed the Declaration of Sentiments that the delegates produced, "that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

What this meant, among other things, was that they believed women should have the right to vote.

Civil Rights and Women's Rights During the Civil War

During the 1850s, the women's rights movement gathered steam, but lost momentum when the Civil War began. Almost immediately after the war ended, the 14th Amendment and the 15th Amendment to the Constitution raised familiar questions of suffrage and citizenship.

The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, extends the Constitution's protection to all citizens-and defines "citizens" as "male"; the 15th, ratified in 1870, guarantees Black men the right to vote.

Some women's suffrage advocates believed that this was their chance to push lawmakers for truly universal suffrage. As a result, they refused to support the 15th Amendment and even allied with racist Southerners who argued that white women's votes could be used to neutralize those cast by African Americans.

In 1869, a new group called the National Woman Suffrage Association was founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. They began to fight for a universal-suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Others argued that it was unfair to endanger Black enfranchisement by tying it to the markedly less popular campaign for female suffrage. This pro-15th-Amendment faction formed a group called the American Woman Suffrage Association and fought for the franchise on a state-by-state basis.

Gallery: The Progressive Campaign for Suffrage

This animosity eventually faded, and in 1890 the two groups merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the organization's first president.

By then, the suffragists' approach had changed. Instead of arguing that women deserved the same rights and responsibilities as men because women and men were "created equal," the new generation of activists argued that women deserved the vote because they were different from men.

They could make their domesticity into a political virtue, using the franchise to create a purer, more moral "maternal commonwealth."

This argument served many political agendas: Temperance advocates, for instance, wanted women to have the vote because they thought it would mobilize an enormous voting bloc on behalf of their cause, and many middle-class white people were swayed once again by the argument that the enfranchisement of white women would "ensure immediate and durable white supremacy, honestly attained."

Did you know? In 1923, the National Woman's Party proposed an amendment to the Constitution that prohibited all discrimination on the basis of sex. The so-called Equal Rights Amendment has never been ratified.

Winning the Vote at Last

Starting in 1910, some states in the West began to extend the vote to women for the first time in almost 20 years. Idaho and Utah had given women the right to vote at the end of the 19th century.

Still, southern and eastern states resisted. In 1916, NAWSA president Carrie Chapman Catt unveiled what she called a "Winning Plan" to get the vote at last: a blitz campaign that mobilized state and local suffrage organizations all over the country, with a special focus on those recalcitrant regions.

Meanwhile, a splinter group called the National Woman's Party founded by Alice Paul focused on more radical, militant tactics-hunger strikes and White House pickets, for instance-aimed at winning dramatic publicity for their cause.

World War I slowed the suffragists' campaign but helped them advance their argument nonetheless: Women's work on behalf of the war effort, activists pointed out, proved that they were just as patriotic and deserving of citizenship as men.

Finally, on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. And on November 2 of that year, more than 8 million women across the United States voted in elections for the first time.

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Women's Suffrage - The U.S. Movement, Leaders & 19th Amendment

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The women's suffrage movement was a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States. On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all American women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

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Taking place in the 1930's, The Great Depression was one of the worst economic crashes of history. Begining with the stock market crash and followed by the dust bowl.

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The Great Depression: Crash Course US History #33

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The Great Depression was one of the most worst times in America. It was the biggest economic fail lasting over ten years.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States. Roosevelt was the president though one of the darkest times in the United States, the Great Depression. He gave people the faith to be able to get past the Great Depression.

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Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Born in 1882 at Hyde Park, New York-now a national historic site-he attended Harvard University and Columbia Law School. On St. Patrick's Day, 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt.

Following the example of his fifth cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt, whom he greatly admired, Franklin D. Roosevelt entered public service through politics, but as a Democrat. He won election to the New York Senate in 1910. President Wilson appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and he was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1920.

In the summer of 1921, when he was 39, disaster hit-he was stricken with poliomyelitis. Demonstrating indomitable courage, he fought to regain the use of his legs, particularly through swimming. At the 1924 Democratic Convention he dramatically appeared on crutches to nominate Alfred E. Smith as "the Happy Warrior." In 1928 Roosevelt became Governor of New York.

He was elected President in November 1932, to the first of four terms. By March there were 13,000,000 unemployed, and almost every bank was closed. In his first "hundred days," he proposed, and Congress enacted, a sweeping program to bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and to those in danger of losing farms and homes, and reform, especially through the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

By 1935 the Nation had achieved some measure of recovery, but businessmen and bankers were turning more and more against Roosevelt's New Deal program. They feared his experiments, were appalled because he had taken the Nation off the gold standard and allowed deficits in the budget, and disliked the concessions to labor. Roosevelt responded with a new program of reform: Social Security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public utilities, and an enormous work relief program for the unemployed.

In 1936 he was re-elected by a top-heavy margin. Feeling he was armed with a popular mandate, he sought legislation to enlarge the Supreme Court, which had been invalidating key New Deal measures. Roosevelt lost the Supreme Court battle, but a revolution in constitutional law took place. Thereafter the Government could legally regulate the economy.

Roosevelt had pledged the United States to the "good neighbor" policy, transforming the Monroe Doctrine from a unilateral American manifesto into arrangements for mutual action against aggressors. He also sought through neutrality legislation to keep the United States out of the war in Europe, yet at the same time to strengthen nations threatened or attacked. When France fell and England came under siege in 1940, he began to send Great Britain all possible aid short of actual military involvement.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt directed organization of the Nation's manpower and resources for global war.

Feeling that the future peace of the world would depend upon relations between the United States and Russia, he devoted much thought to the planning of a United Nations, in which, he hoped, international difficulties could be settled.

As the war drew to a close, Roosevelt's health deteriorated, and on April 12, 1945, while at Warm Springs, Georgia, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

For more information about President Roosevelt, please visit Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum

Learn more about Franklin D. Roosevelt's spouse, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

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Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression as our 32nd President (1933-1945), Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves.

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Fredrick Douglas was born to a black slave and an unknown white man. Douglas encountered hardships through his life such as being beaten everyday while being on a farm. To learn to read and write and be an activist for black people.

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Development of Computers and Information Systems

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Development of Computers and Information Systems

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The Development of Computers and Information Systems is a turning point in history where the way we process and gather information became easier. The information was better past along and is easily accessible.

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Now that we have explored the different components of information systems, we need to turn our attention to the role that information systems play in an organization. So far we have looked at what the components of an information system are, but what do these components actually do for an organization? From our definitions above, we see that these components collect, store, organize, and distribute data throughout the organization. In fact, we might say that one of the roles of information systems is to take data and turn it into information, and then transform that into organizational knowledge. As technology has developed, this role has evolved into the backbone of the organization. To get a full appreciation of the role information systems play, we will review how they have changed over the years.

THE MAINFRAME ERA

From the late 1950s through the 1960s, computers were seen as a way to more efficiently do calculations. These first business computers were room-sized monsters, with several refrigerator-sized machines linked together. The primary work of these devices was to organize and store large volumes of information that were tedious to manage by hand. Only large businesses, universities, and government agencies could afford them, and they took a crew of specialized personnel and specialized facilities to maintain. These devices served dozens to hundreds of users at a time through a process called time-sharing. Typical functions included scientific calculations and accounting, under the broader umbrella of "data processing."

In the late 1960s, the Manufacturing Resources Planning (MRP) systems were introduced. This software, running on a mainframe computer, gave companies the ability to manage the manufacturing process, making it more efficient. From tracking inventory to creating bills of materials to scheduling production, the MRP systems (and later the MRP II systems) gave more businesses a reason to want to integrate computing into their processes. IBM became the dominant mainframe company. Nicknamed "Big Blue," the company became synonymous with business computing. Continued improvement in software and the availability of cheaper hardware eventually brought mainframe computers (and their little sibling, the minicomputer) into most large businesses.

THE PC REVOLUTION

In 1975, the first microcomputer was announced on the cover of Popular Mechanics: the Altair 8800. Its immediate popularity sparked the imagination of entrepreneurs everywhere, and there were quickly dozens of companies making these "personal computers." Though at first just a niche product for computer hobbyists, improvements in usability and the availability of practical software led to growing sales. The most prominent of these early personal computer makers was a little company known as Apple Computer, headed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, with the hugely successful "Apple II." Not wanting to be left out of the revolution, in 1981 IBM (teaming with a little company called Microsoft for their operating-system software) hurriedly released their own version of the personal computer, simply called the "PC." Businesses, who had used IBM mainframes for years to run their businesses, finally had the permission they needed to bring personal computers into their companies, and the IBM PC took off. The IBM PC was named Time magazine's "Man of the Year" for 1982.

Because of the IBM PC's open architecture, it was easy for other companies to copy, or "clone" it. During the 1980s, many new computer companies sprang up, offering less expensive versions of the PC. This drove prices down and spurred innovation. Microsoft developed its Windows operating system and made the PC even easier to use. Common uses for the PC during this period included word processing, spreadsheets, and databases. These early PCs were not connected to any sort of network; for the most part they stood alone as islands of innovation within the larger organization.

CLIENT-SERVER

In the mid-1980s, businesses began to see the need to connect their computers together as a way to collaborate and share resources. This networking architecture was referred to as "client-server" because users would log in to the local area network (LAN) from their PC (the "client") by connecting to a powerful computer called a "server," which would then grant them rights to different resources on the network (such as shared file areas and a printer). Software companies began developing applications that allowed multiple users to access the same data at the same time. This evolved into software applications for communicating, with the first real popular use of electronic mail appearing at this time.

This networking and data sharing all stayed within the confines of each business, for the most part. While there was sharing of electronic data between companies, this was a very specialized function. Computers were now seen as tools to collaborate internally, within an organization. In fact, these networks of computers were becoming so powerful that they were replacing many of the functions previously performed by the larger mainframe computers at a fraction of the cost. It was during this era that the first Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems were developed and run on the client-server architecture. An ERP system is a software application with a centralized database that can be used to run a company's entire business. With separate modules for accounting, finance, inventory, human resources, and many, many more, ERP systems, with Germany's SAP leading the way, represented the state of the art in information systems integration. We will discuss ERP systems as part of the chapter on process (chapter 9).

THE WORLD WIDE WEB AND E-COMMERCE

First invented in 1969, the Internet was confined to use by universities, government agencies, and researchers for many years. Its rather arcane commands and user applications made it unsuitable for mainstream use in business. One exception to this was the ability to expand electronic mail outside the confines of a single organization. While the first e-mail messages on the Internet were sent in the early 1970s, companies who wanted to expand their LAN-based e-mail started hooking up to the Internet in the 1980s. Companies began connecting their internal networks to the Internet in order to allow communication between their employees and employees at other companies. It was with these early Internet connections that the computer truly began to evolve from a computational device to a communications device.

In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee developed a simpler way for researchers to share information over the network at CERN laboratories, a concept he called the World Wide Web. This invention became the launching point of the growth of the Internet as a way for businesses to share information about themselves. As web browsers and Internet connections became the norm, companies rushed to grab domain names and create websites.

In 1991, the National Science Foundation, which governed how the Internet was used, lifted restrictions on its commercial use. The year 1994 saw the establishment of both eBay and Amazon.com, two true pioneers in the use of the new digital marketplace. A mad rush of investment in Internet-based businesses led to the dot-com boom through the late 1990s, and then the dot-com bust in 2000. While much can be learned from the speculation and crazy economic theories espoused during that bubble, one important outcome for businesses was that thousands of miles of Internet connections were laid around the world during that time. The world became truly "wired" heading into the new millennium, ushering in the era of globalization, which we will discuss in chapter 11.

As it became more expected for companies to be connected to the Internet, the digital world also became a more dangerous place. Computer viruses and worms, once slowly propagated through the sharing of computer disks, could now grow with tremendous speed via the Internet. Software written for a disconnected world found it very difficult to defend against these sorts of threats. A whole new industry of computer and Internet security arose. We will study information security in chapter 6.

WEB 2.0

As the world recovered from the dot-com bust, the use of technology in business continued to evolve at a frantic pace. Websites became interactive; instead of just visiting a site to find out about a business and purchase its products, customers wanted to be able to customize their experience and interact with the business. This new type of interactive website, where you did not have to know how to create a web page or do any programming in order to put information online, became known as web 2.0. Web 2.0 is exemplified by blogging, social networking, and interactive comments being available on many websites. This new web-2.0 world, in which online interaction became expected, had a big impact on many businesses and even whole industries. Some industries, such as bookstores, found themselves relegated to a niche status. Others, such as video rental chains and travel agencies, simply began going out of business as they were replaced by online technologies. This process of technology replacing a middleman in a transaction is called disintermediation.

As the world became more connected, new questions arose. Should access to the Internet be considered a right? Can I copy a song that I downloaded from the Internet? How can I keep information that I have put on a website private? What information is acceptable to collect from children? Technology moved so fast that policymakers did not have enough time to enact appropriate laws, making for a Wild West-type atmosphere. Ethical issues surrounding information systems will be covered in chapter 12.

THE POST-PC WORLD

After thirty years as the primary computing device used in most businesses, sales of the PC are now beginning to decline as sales of tablets and smartphones are taking off. Just as the mainframe before it, the PC will continue to play a key role in business, but will no longer be the primary way that people interact and do business. The limited storage and processing power of these devices is being offset by a move to "cloud" computing, which allows for storage, sharing, and backup of information on a massive scale. This will require new rounds of thinking and innovation on the part of businesses as technology continues to advance.

CAN INFORMATION SYSTEMS BRING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE?

It has always been the assumption that the implementation of information systems will, in and of itself, bring a business competitive advantage. After all, if installing one computer to manage inventory can make a company more efficient, won't installing several computers to handle even more of the business continue to improve it?

In 2003, Nicholas Carr wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review that questioned this assumption. The article, entitled "IT Doesn't Matter," raised the idea that information technology has become just a commodity. Instead of viewing technology as an investment that will make a company stand out, it should be seen as something like electricity: It should be managed to reduce costs, ensure that it is always running, and be as risk-free as possible.

As you might imagine, this article was both hailed and scorned. Can IT bring a competitive advantage? It sure did for Walmart (see sidebar). We will discuss this topic further in chapter 7.

WALMART USES INFORMATION SYSTEMS TO BECOME THE WORLD'S LEADING RETAILER

Walmart is the world's largest retailer, earning $15.2 billion on sales of $443.9 billion in the fiscal year that ended on January 31, 2012. Walmart currently serves over 200 million customers every week, worldwide. Walmart's rise to prominence is due in no small part to their use of information systems.

One of the keys to this success was the implementation of Retail Link, a supply-chain management system. This system, unique when initially implemented in the mid-1980s, allowed Walmart's suppliers to directly access the inventory levels and sales information of their products at any of Walmart's more than ten thousand stores. Using Retail Link, suppliers can analyze how well their products are selling at one or more Walmart stores, with a range of reporting options. Further, Walmart requires the suppliers to use Retail Link to manage their own inventory levels. If a supplier feels that their products are selling out too quickly, they can use Retail Link to petition Walmart to raise the levels of inventory for their products. This has essentially allowed Walmart to "hire" thousands of product managers, all of whom have a vested interest in the products they are managing. This revolutionary approach to managing inventory has allowed Walmart to continue to drive prices down and respond to market forces quickly.

Today, Walmart continues to innovate with information technology. Using its tremendous market presence, any technology that Walmart requires its suppliers to implement immediately becomes a business standard.

SUMMARY

In this chapter, you have been introduced to the concept of information systems. We have reviewed several definitions, with a focus on the components of information systems: technology, people, and process. We have reviewed how the business use of information systems has evolved over the years, from the use of large mainframe computers for number crunching, through the introduction of the PC and networks, all the way to the era of mobile computing. During each of these phases, new innovations in software and technology allowed businesses to integrate technology more deeply.

We are now to a point where every company is using information systems and asking the question: Does it bring a competitive advantage? In the end, that is really what this book is about. Every businessperson should understand what an information system is and how it can be used to bring a competitive advantage. And that is the task we have before us.

Study Questions

1. What are the five components that make up an information system?

2. What are three examples of information system hardware?

3. Microsoft Windows is an example of which component of information systems?

4. What is application software?

5. What roles do people play in information systems?

6. What is the definition of a process?

7. What was invented first, the personal computer or the Internet (ARPANET)?

8. In what year were restrictions on commercial use of the Internet first lifted? When were eBay and Amazon founded?

9. What does it mean to say we are in a "post-PC world"?

10. What is Carr's main argument about information technology?

Exercises

1. Suppose that you had to explain to a member of your family or one of your closest friends the concept of an information system. How would you define it? Write a one-paragraph description in your own words that you feel would best describe an information system to your friends or family.

2. Of the five primary components of an information system (hardware, software, data, people, process), which do you think is the most important to the success of a business organization? Write a one-paragraph answer to this question that includes an example from your personal experience to support your answer.

3. We all interact with various information systems every day: at the grocery store, at work, at school, even in our cars (at least some of us). Make a list of the different information systems you interact with every day. See if you can identify the technologies, people, and processes involved in making these systems work.

4. Do you agree that we are in a post-PC stage in the evolution of information systems? Some people argue that we will always need the personal computer, but that it will not be the primary device used for manipulating information. Others think that a whole new era of mobile and biological computing is coming. Do some original research and make your prediction about what business computing will look like in the next generation.

5. The Walmart case study introduced you to how that company used information systems to become the world's leading retailer. Walmart has continued to innovate and is still looked to as a leader in the use of technology. Do some original research and write a one-page report detailing a new technology that Walmart has recently implemented or is pioneering.

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Now that we have explored the different components of information systems, we need to turn our attention to the role that information systems play in an organization. So far we have looked at what the components of an information system are, but what do these components actually do for an organization?

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One of the most important Supreme Court Case. This case lead to the separate but equal doctrine. Plessy took a white train to Louisiana and claimed to be mixed with white. Refusing to leave the train he was arrested and jailed.

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Plessy v. Ferguson: Background and Context

After the Compromise of 1877 led to the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, Democrats consolidated control of state legislatures throughout the region, effectively marking the end of Reconstruction.

Southern Black people saw the promise of equality under the law embodied by the 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment and 15th Amendment to the Constitution receding quickly, and a return to disenfranchisement and other disadvantages as white supremacy reasserted itself across the South.

As historian C. Vann Woodward pointed out in a 1964 article about Plessy v. Ferguson, white and Black Southerners mixed relatively freely until the 1880s, when state legislatures passed the first laws requiring railroads to provide separate cars for "Negro" or "colored" passengers.

Florida became the first state to mandate segregated railroad cars in 1887, followed in quick succession by Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana and other states by the end of the century.

Black Resistance to Segregation

As Southern Black people witnessed with horror the dawn of the Jim Crow era, members of the Black community in New Orleans decided to mount a resistance.

At the heart of the case that became Plessy v. Ferguson was a law passed in Louisiana in 1890 "providing for separate railway carriages for the white and colored races." It stipulated that all passenger railways had to provide these separate cars, which should be equal in facilities.

Homer Adolph Plessy, who agreed to be the plaintiff in the case aimed at testing the law's constitutionality, was of mixed race; he described himself as "seven-eighths Caucasian and one-eighth African blood."

On June 7, 1892, Plessy bought a ticket on a train from New Orleans bound for Covington, Louisiana, and took a vacant seat in a whites-only car. After refusing to leave the car at the conductor's insistence, he was arrested and jailed.

Convicted by a New Orleans court of violating the 1890 law, Plessy filed a petition against the presiding judge, Hon. John H. Ferguson, claiming that the law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Supreme Court Ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson

Over the next few years, segregation and Black disenfranchisement picked up pace in the South, and was more than tolerated by the North. Congress defeated a bill that would have given federal protection to elections in 1892, and nullified a number of Reconstruction laws on the books.

Then, on May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court delivered its verdict in Plessy v. Ferguson. In declaring separate-but-equal facilities constitutional on intrastate railroads, the Court ruled that the protections of 14th Amendment applied only to political and civil rights (like voting and jury service), not "social rights" (sitting in the railroad car of your choice).

In its ruling, the Court denied that segregated railroad cars for Black people were necessarily inferior. "We consider the underlying fallacy of [Plessy's] argument," Justice Henry Brown wrote, "to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it."

John Marshall Harlan's Dissent

Alone in the minority was Justice John Marshall Harlan, a former slaveholder from Kentucky. Harlan had opposed emancipation and civil rights for freed slaves during the Reconstruction era-but changed his position due to his outrage over the actions of white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

Harlan argued in his dissent that segregation ran counter to the constitutional principle of equality under the law: "The arbitrary separation of citizens on the basis of race while they are on a public highway is a badge of servitude wholly inconsistent with the civil freedom and the equality before the law established by the Constitution," he wrote. "It cannot be justified upon any legal grounds."

Plessy v. Ferguson Significance

The Plessy v. Ferguson verdict enshrined the doctrine of "separate but equal" as a constitutional justification for segregation, ensuring the survival of the Jim Crow South for the next half-century.

Intrastate railroads were among many segregated public facilities the verdict sanctioned; others included buses, hotels, theaters, swimming pools and schools. By the time of the 1899 case Cummings v. Board of Education, even Harlan appeared to agree that segregated public schools did not violate the Constitution.

It would not be until the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, at the dawn of the civil rights movement, that the majority of the Supreme Court would essentially concur with Harlan's opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson..

Writing the majority opinion in that 1954 case, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that "the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place" in public education, calling segregated schools "inherently unequal," and declaring that the plaintiffs in the Brown case were being "deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment."

Sources

C. Vann Woodward, " Plessy v. Ferguson: The Birth of Jim Crow," American Heritage (Volume 15, Issue 3: April 1964).
Landmark Cases: Plessy v. Ferguson, PBS: The Supreme Court - The First Hundred Years.
Louis Menand, "Brown v. Board of Education and the Limits of Law," The New Yorker (February 12, 2001).
Today in History - May 18: Plessy v. Ferguson, Library of Congress.

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Plessy v. Ferguson: Separate But Equal Doctrine | HISTORY

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Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.

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Urbanization is the population shift from rural to urban areas. The process by which towns and cities are formed and become larger as more people begin living and working in central areas. Most times this leads to more developing of commercial, and residential properties.

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This video depicts the slavery of black women. Black slave women consisted of taking care of the slave owners families, house, and even had to breast feed some of their slave owner children.

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Women's Experience Under Slavery: Crash Course Black American History #11

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Each colony had something to contribute from their religious beliefs of Anglican Baptist, Quakers, Catholics, Puritans and more to their trade influences which could be ship building, tobacco, sugar, rum exports, or agriculture.

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Slaves were not allowed to follow their cultural beliefs but they kept some of their culture without the knowledge of their masters, such as poisoning those they despise as in their culture back home.

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The institution of slavery usually tried to deny its victims their native cultural identity. Torn out of their own cultural milieus, they were expected to abandon their heritage and to adopt at least part of their enslavers' culture. Nonetheless, studies have shown that there were aspects of slave culture that differed from the master culture. Some of these have been interpreted as a form of resistance to oppression, while other aspects were clearly survivals of a native culture in the new society. Most of what is known about this topic comes from the circum-Caribbean world, but analogous developments may have occurred wherever alien slaves were concentrated in numbers sufficient to prevent their complete absorption by the host slave-owning or slave society. Thus slave culture was probably very different on large plantations from what it was on small farms or in urban households, where slave culture (and especially Creole slave culture) could hardly have avoided being very similar to the master culture. Slave cultures grew up within the perimeters of the masters' monopoly of power but separate from the masters' institutions.

Religion, which performed the multiple function of explanation, prediction, control, and communion, seems to have been a particularly fruitful area for the creation of slave culture. Africans perceived all misfortunes, including enslavement, as the result of sorcery, and their religious practices and beliefs, which were often millennial, were formulated as a way of coping with it. Myalism was the first religious movement to appeal to all ethnic groups in Jamaica, Vodou in Haiti was the product of African culture slightly refashioned on that island, and syncretic Afro-Christian religions and rituals appeared nearly everywhere throughout the New World. Slave religions usually had a supreme being and a host of lesser spirits brought from Africa, borrowed from the Amerindians, and created in response to local conditions. There were no firm boundaries between the secular and the sacred, which infused all things and activities. At least initially African slaves universally believed that posthumously they would return to their lands and rejoin their friends.

Black slaves preserved some of their culture in the New World. African medicine was practiced in America by slaves. The poisoning of masters and other hated individuals was a particularly African method of coping with evil. Throughout the circum-Caribbean world slaves and free Blacks had electoral procedures, adapted from West African customs, to choose governors, sheriffs, and judges to maintain order among themselves. Objects of material culture, such as rugs, mats, baskets, thatched roofs, and walking canes, were modeled on African examples. Nevertheless, relatively few African social practices or plastic arts survived in the New World. On the other hand, Afro-American music and dance are known to have many African roots, and they differed dramatically from the practices of the European master culture; the use of drum and banjo were especially significant. Songs and spirituals borrowed their strong call-and-response patterns from the West African style. Furthermore, slaves created tales to amuse themselves, and the African element is most evident in animal tales; the tar-baby story is among the best known of the genre. Afro-American stories and songs often featured the devil, who was a demon and a trickster, terrifying, a friend in need, and a source of mirth.

Slave culture also developed beliefs and customs that were at odds with those of the master culture. One such belief was that what the masters called theft was something else; thus stealing from the master was not theft at all but merely a process of channeling his property from one use to another, as in taking his corn and feeding it to his pigs. Polygamous domestic arrangements were a further aspect of slave culture brought from Africa. Yet another aspect of slave culture, especially prevalent in the Caribbean, involved the market. Slaves there were often required to provide their own food, which they raised on provision grounds. If they had any surplus, they were permitted by their owners to sell it in the market. As a result, slaves developed an autonomy and an individualism that contrasted starkly with the rigid control of the work gang system and the putative stifling control of slave law.

Learn More in these related Britannica articles:

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slavery - slavery - Slave culture: The institution of slavery usually tried to deny its victims their native cultural identity. Torn out of their own cultural milieus, they were expected to abandon their heritage and to adopt at least part of their enslavers' culture.

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Abraham Lincoln led the United States to end slavery starting with the Emancipation Proclamation and to give African American right, but Lincoln was not totally against slavery.

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This movement (1954-1968) had participants such as Dr. King, Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges and others to obtain equal rights, end segregation and stop legal discrimination of mainly African Americans men, women and children.

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The after reconstruction, racial segregation laws (1877-1965) were deemed in the south which were to be separate but equal, but were in fact not at all equal.

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Skip to Main Content

It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results.

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LibGuides: American History: The Civil War and Reconstruction: Amendments, Acts and Codes of Reconstruction

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Skip to Main Content It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results.

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Leader of the Underground Railroad Harriet Tubman helped more than 300 slaves escape, she was a spy, a soldier and a nurse in the Civil War.

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MLA - Michals, Debra. "Harriet Tubman." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2015. Date accessed.

Chicago - Michals, Debra. "Harriet Tubman." National Women's History Museum. 2015. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/harriet-tubman.

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Known as the "Moses of her people," Harriet Tubman was enslaved, escaped, and helped others gain their freedom as a "conductor" of the Underground Railroad. Discover more about her on womenshistory.org.

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The Emancipation Proclamation had three parts that would free all slaves indefinitely.

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The Emancipation Proclamation: The Civil War in Four Minutes

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The women's movement open the doors for women to have the right to vote, obtain equal right, equal protection and take part in politics.

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The Women’s Rights Movement, 1848–1917 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives

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The fight for women’s suffrage in the United States began with the women’s rights movement in the mid-nineteenth century. This reform effort encompassed a broad spectrum of goals before its leaders decided to focus first on securing the vote for women. Women’s suffrage leaders, however, disagreed ov…

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The 13th Amendment abolished institutional slavery and any practices thereof in the United States, which meant freedom for those who were enslaved.

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The colonies wanted to separate from the British and its control and the Declaration of Independence states why it was important to do so.

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As enslaved people, Dred and Harriet Scott, sued for their freedom in 1846 eventually resulting in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on March 6, 1857, that said enslaved people were regarded as someone’s property, not U.S. citizens; therefore, they could not sue in a federal court and that African Americans were not U.S. citizens and never would be.

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Today's post comes from Anna Lewis, social media intern in the Education and Public Programs division, based on the DocsTeach activity created by Joel Walker, education specialist at the National Archives at Atlanta.
In our newest activity on DocsTeach.org-our online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives-students will learn how rights for African-Americans changed quickly from the Dred Scott decision to the Civil Rights Act of 1875. From Dred Scott to the Civil Rights Act of 1875: Eighteen Years of Change challenges students to examine primary sources relating to the historical events that led to this shift and explain the relationships between them.

In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott decision that African-Americans were not citizens of the United States. Yet within 18 years, Black Americans would not only have citizenship, but would be guaranteed the right to vote and equal access to transportation, housing, and other facilities by the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Although many of these rights would be lost through the rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1883, when the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was found unconstitutional, and in 1896, when the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling established the "separate but equal" doctrine, these gains made in the 1860s and 1870s were foundational to the Civil Rights progress of the 20th century.

We suggest teaching with this activity toward the end of a Civil War and Reconstruction unit. Students should know the basic timeline of events from just before the Civil War through just before the end of Reconstruction. Students in grades 10-12 can work individually or in small groups. Approximate time needed is 30 minutes. Find the activity and teaching instructions in the DocsTeach Activities section under era: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877),or directly at http://docsteach.org/activities/8773/detail. Students can access the activity directly at http://docsteach.org/activities/8773.

To begin, ask students to recall the Dred Scott Decision of 1857 and its conclusion: that African-Americans were not citizens and that the Federal Government could not prevent slavery from being taken into the territories. Then have them consider the rights the Federal Government granted African-Americans by 1875: citizenship, the right to vote, equal access to public facilities.

Direct students to the online activity to identify and examine the primary sources, and then explain the connection between each document and the next in the appropriate connecting text box. The connection may be cause-and-effect, or maybe just sequential.

The activity will encourage classroom discussion about the reactions to these changes in civil rights for African-Americans. The quick pace was not well-received by many in the country. In 1883, the U.S. Supreme Court found the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional. And by the 1890s, many Southern states had either re-written or changed their state constitutions with unique ways to deny African-Americans the right to vote.

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New Teaching Activity: From Dred Scott to the Civil Rights Act of 1875

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Today's post comes from Anna Lewis, social media intern in the Education and Public Programs division, based on the DocsTeach activity created by Joel Walker, education specialist at the National Archives at Atlanta.

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Farm equipment invented by Cyrus McCormick in 1831 allowing fields of grain, specifically wheat, to be harvested quicker and with less labor than using scythes and sickles making the Midwest known as the breadbasket region because the crop yields could now be traded, not just used for food.

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Pagoda built during the Tang Dynasty in China

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China’s contribution as a classical civilization

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China’s contribution as a classical civilization

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China is considered a classical civilization because of its large and enduring influence it has had on many people with four global inventions including papermaking, printing, gunpowder and the compass that were spread from China to America through Europe in the 16th century during the Tang Dynasty.

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The acquisition of Texas from Mexico made it the 28th state in 1845, but it also led to the Mexican American War from 1846-1848.

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Quickly following Texan independence, the United States admitted Texas into the republic as a slave state.

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Designed to have a weak central government (only one branch, the Congress) and a very strong state government it was approved on November 15, 1777, as the first constitution among the 13 original colonies.

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In his attempt to govern the 13 colonies and impose taxes to benefit the British government, this King of Britain refused to surrender the colonies, ignoring their pleas for help, causing the Revolutionary War to last almost 8 years and a contributor to the Boston Tea Party.

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Characteristics of Indigenous peoples in North America

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Characteristics of Indigenous peoples in North America

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The first people living in America are considered indigenous to North America, meaning they were born in America before the Europeans arrived; having their own culture, clothing, housing, food, transportation, games, sports, pottery, dyes, and tools which were contingent on what they had available in their area.

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Native American History for Kids | An insightful look into the history of the Native Americans

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Under the presidency of Andrew Jackson, Congress passed this law on May 28, 1830, allowing the president authority to take land away from the Native American Indians and force them to move west of the Mississippi River.

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A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875

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American Memory | Search All Collections | Collection Finder | Learning Page

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Considered to be a social movement beginning as early as 1814, the peace movement seeks to have world peace by ending wars and reducing violence in the world.

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Robert D. Benford, Frank O. TaylorIV, in Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, & Conflict (Second Edition) , 2008

Cycles of Peace Movements

Peace movements around the world have experienced cycles of mobilization. Associated with these cycles have been fluctuations in the amount of attention peace movements devote toward negative peace versus positive peace. During times of international tensions and war, peace movements tend to grow. Not surprisingly, wartime yields a disproportionate focus on the task at hand - stopping organized violent responses of the rival nations toward one another. Yet even during wars, some wings of a peace movement's focus extend beyond ending the current hostilities toward building more permanent amicable relations among societies.

Regardless of their focus, wartime peace activists are often vulnerable to accusations on the home-front that, at the very least, they are undermining the war effort by lowering the morale of their nation's soldiers. Sometimes peace activists are accused of aiding and abetting the 'enemy'. Hence, during popular wars the number of regular participants in peace movements may decrease as the amount of peace movement activities paradoxically increases.

Once a war ends, peace activism tends to shift toward prevention. With the horrors of war fresh on people's minds, peace activists advocating working toward positive peace are briefly granted greater legitimacy. However, even during 'peacetime', many peace movements tend to concentrate on the weapons of destruction rather than on the political and economic arrangements that are conducive to war. Whether their goal is terminating a weapon system (negative peace) or eliminating the causes of war (positive peace), opponents often accuse peacetime activists of being idealists, well-meaning but naive.

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URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123739858001276

Early Peace Efforts

Peace movements are undoubtedly among the major societal forces that have characterized the twentieth century. Their roots, however, can be traced back to the early nineteenth century. The first attempts to create an organized effort to promote peace emerged in the Anglo-Saxon world, in particular in Britain and the U.S. For example, the New York Peace Society and the Massachusetts Peace Society were founded in 1815, while the London Peace Society was created only 1 year later, in 1816. This early peace reformism, however, has little to do with the peace movements of the mid- and late twentieth century. It is more a matter of movements of ideas led by a small number of intellectual elites, rather than popular movements involving thousands of middle-class citizens. We can thus talk of pacifism more than peace movements.

Some prominent pacifist associations were founded in the following decades in most Western countries, both nationally, such as for example, the American Peace Society (1928), and internationally, such as for example, the Ligue internationale et permanente de la paix (Paris, 1863) and the Ligue international de la paix et de la liberté (Geneva, 1867). As their names often suggest, many of these associations worked in the frame of an internationalist approach to peace, that is, based on the assumption that the latter could be reached only through a dialog across national actors and governments. Other transnational associations emerged from wartime pacifism, such as the British and US Quaker service committees (by 1917), the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (1919), and the International War Resister League (1921). Although many efforts by peace movements have later focused on influencing national governments and public opinions, such an internationalist approach remains alive within the movement until nowadays, and has in fact found new vigor with the rise of the global justice movement in the 2000s.

An important feature of early efforts to fight war and promote peace consists in the strong religious background of peace associations. Often such associations were created that have a strong religious background, in particular of the Christian religion. More generally speaking, often national peace movements divide in two main orientations: a Christian (either Catholic, Protestant, or both) orientation and a leftist (either Socialist, Communist, or both) orientation. The relative strength and importance of each stream depends among other on the cleavage structure in each specific country. Other streams have emerged later on, in particular with the rise of the new social movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

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URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080970868960215

'Peace Movements' may be used in two ways. On the one hand, a peace movement is a specific coalition, or purposeful grouping, of peace organizations that, together with elements of the public, seek to remove a threat of war or to create institutions and cultures that obviate recourse to violence. On the other, it is the organizational infrastructure to do so. Usage is usually clarified by context. Peace organization constituencies (supporting members and friends) are people with shared commitment to common values and traditions, like religious nonresistance (the conscientious, absolute, individual rejection of war), or to a program such as world federalism. Such groups form coalitions in order to enlist public support in response to salient issues. If the issue is war or a specific war threat, peace coalitions take the form of antiwar movements. In nearly 200 years of organized peace effort, specific peace movements have affected national policies, international institutions, and popular attitudes. Taken as a whole, they can be viewed as a single, evolving, and increasingly transnational social movement. Its conceptualization is a result of interaction between its historical experience and the formal analyses of war, peace, and social movements. The conceptualization of peace movements has resulted from the dialectical interaction of movement self-reflection on its own experience and subsequent scholarly analysis. The small peace societies begun in 1815 proselytized for attitudinal changes that would obviate warfare. Their memberships broadened, and American and British peace advocates (active members of peace societies) even solicited support on the European continent. By 1899 there were about 100 linked societies, among which some were well funded. The largely elitist leadership constituted a kind of peace establishment. They defined themselves by programs such as international arbitration and by a common bias for internationalism-the view that the destructiveness of war could be avoided by stressing mutual interests, breaking down barriers, and building up international law. Such generalized peace advocacy was christened 'pacifism' (note shift of meaning, next sentence) at the turn of the century. That conviction was shaken in World War I, as peace advocates were repressed, and 'pacifism' was narrowed to mean individual nonresistance. At the same time, though, some internationalists recognized the importance of constraints on national sovereignty and of professional international problem solvers: this shift may be called 'liberal internationalism.' Moreover, the movement was revitalized by the addition of a reform-minded leadership that was activist, linking peace and social justice, in the modern sense of positive peace (most fully articulated by Johan Galtung, this refers to peace as the positive attribute of just, mutual relationships rather than the mere absence of warfare). Thus redefined, peace movements came to be understood as social change agents. In the next two decades, peace advocates, especially in England and America, organized strong campaigns to influence national policy through the politics of pressure groups. In the 1920s they were divided by conflicting priorities, however, and in the mid-1930s they aligned in rival coalitions for and against collective security-the formation of large-scale military alliances to forestall aggression. By this time, formal analysis of peace movements began among a few historians, and their work defined the movement itself along its own lines of organization and programs-in the political context at the time of writing. During World War II a fresh peace coalition was coalesced around the vision of a United Nations Organization, and it was extended to the control of atomic weapons and even world federalism (a vision of world government in which power is broadly distributed). This incipient peace movement was checked by the Cold War until nuclear testing provided a salient issue for a worldwide coalition that mobilized large numbers of people and affected public policy. Following the Test Ban Treaty of 1963, many peace advocates turned to other issues, most dramatically the US war in Vietnam, until a hardening of the Cold War and another nuclear weapons threat occasioned a massive coalition that crossed national borders but was also divided by national priorities. About the same time, there were international movement campaigns against US intervention in Central America, apartheid in South Africa, and on other issues. Scholarly study of peace movements flowered in the 1970s among historians and sociologists alike, and the literature was extended into the 1990s. Not only were movement stories filled out, they were newly conceptualized in many respects, notably by a common thrust on peace reform as a social movement-a coalitions of organizations, plus significant elements of the general public, for program and policy goals. Beyond their records as organizations, their successes and failures in achieving their goals, peace movements have been integral elements of the policy-forming and social change process in their societies. One new thrust characteristic of both history and sociology was to analyze peace advocacy in terms of resource mobilization-the terms on which organizations could form coalitions and mobilize public support. In the 1990s both historians and sociologists applied resource mobilization analysis to major peace coalitions. Some scholars took the next step, treating international coalition for peace as one of many transnational social movements (international coalitions of social movements in several countries) in a dynamic, global network. Peace movements, tentatively early in the twentieth century but sometimes quite vigorously in the latter half, have become an integral part of the policy-forming and social change process in an increasingly integrated world.

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The history of peace movements started with peace societies in the USA and in England between 1814 and 1816. France and Switzerland followed in 1821 and 1830 respectively with the majority of European countries only after 1850. In the nineteenth century, pacifist motivation sprang either from a Christian position or from a rationalistic impetus thus expressing the emancipatory drive of the bourgeoisie society. Contemporary continental European peace movements regarded those wars fought for national unity to be legitimate. The last two decades of the century saw the uprising of new organizations whose demands for arbitration and disarmament reflected the overall crisis of the international system in the age of imperialism. As World War I rendered pacifist efforts illusionary the balance shifted towards radical demands like conscientious objection. New peace movements evolving in the interwar years were socially less homogenous in structure. Two positions coexisted, i.e., a radical one in favor of conscientious objection and mass strike, and a moderate one opting for the support of the League of Nations and its essential transformation into an instrument to secure peace. Dealing with dictatorial regimes peace movements in their massive support of appeasement policy proved again to be ineffective. After World War II the nuclear threat produced pacifist mass movements embedded in the 'new' social movements.

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Distinctive forms of protest

Women in the peace movement have been inspired in their development of NVDA, perhaps because it is a much easier tool for them to use. The security forces tend to be male and find female protestors both less threatening and more embarrassing than male ones. Thus, the Gandhian image of men lining up to have their skills split open by baton-wielding police, and bandaged up by their attendant women folk, has been replaced by security forces helplessly chasing women dressed up as teddy bears having picnics on bomb silos while their men folk make sandwiches. Women have proved effective not only in poking fun at the apparatus of the state, but also in showing its limits and fragility, entering high-security areas almost at their pleasure. They have partly achieved this through the development of nonhierarchical forms of cooperation and communication, so that, for example, it was impossible for the authorities to disrupt or stop the actions against the nuclear base at Greenham Common by arresting leaders or seizing means of communication. There were no leaders, and communication was done by networking. The women moved in all areas of society and could not be isolated, as was vividly demonstrated by the appearance of cards at one of the Queen's Garden Parties proclaiming "Greenham Women are Everywhere."

Because women were behaving politically in what are usually considered private places (laundromats can be political forums, for example), their activities tended to be unnoticed. This is a pattern of political resistance that has been used in many anticolonial movements, as well as movements in Eastern Europe opposing the hegemony of the Soviet Union, and demonstrates Gandhi's perception that the official organs of the state only survive with the cooperative tolerance of their citizens. Feminists have sought to demonstrate the dependence of the state on women's cooperation, and that regardless of their exclusion from public positions, this dependency gives women power.

Women's Peace Camps founded in the 1980s to protest against the acceleration of the nuclear arms race reflected the richness and ambiguity of both the peace movement and the feminist traditions. There was no single commitment or ideal that all had to subscribe to (as, for example, with the Peace Pledge Union). Rather, they provided a forum where people with a more or less agreed-upon core of values came together to discuss and protest. These values included a rejection of violence, a skeptical attitude toward the state, a rejection of domination, including the dominance of men over women, of class, of race, a rejection of neocolonialism and a sympathy with the oppressed wherever they struggled, and an openness to experimenting with new forms of political action. The camps reflected the range of the peace movement.

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URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978012373932200212X

Contemporary Peace Movements

The postwar revitalization of peace movements was shadowed by splits between the one-issue antinuclear movements that were more concerned with political effectiveness than with a way of life, and the older organizations working for social transformation. Strikes, demonstrations and vigils, transcontinental peace walks, protest ships sailing in forbidden waters, all helped lead to the declaration of nuclear weapons-free zones in Latin America and the South Pacific, and a partial test-ban treaty, but weapons production, testing, and deployment by the major powers went steadily on.

As peace movements became more sophisticated in terms of political effectiveness, they became more specialized, and the links between peace movements and peaceful lifeways are harder to find, although the relevance of movement activities for peace culture continues. For example, the interdisciplinary peace research movement that began in the early 1960s soon expanded its work beyond disarmament studies to economic conversion, alternative development, alternative defense, and ecological security, thus linking alternative security policy with grassroots alternative lifeways movements. Zone of Peace studies helped conceptualize specific social spaces for nonviolent lifeways.

Occupationally based peace organizations helped give specific content to general peace movement activity. The 1988-89 Peace Resource Book listed 22 such organizations in the United States, at least half linked to transnational organizations with sections in a number of countries. The list includes associations for architects, business executives, computer professionals, educators, high-tech professionals, physicians, lawyers, media professionals, veterans, nurses, parliamentarians, performing artists, psychologists, social scientists, writers, and publishers. The fruits for peace culture include architects designing peace parks, educators designing conflict resolution curriculae for schools, physicians and nurses reconceptualizing health and illness, and artists offering drama, music, poetry, and art that express the peacemaking dimension of human experience.

Then there are the scientists' organizations addressing basic issues of the health of the planet and the hazards of nuclear and other weapons developments. They include groups such as the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, founded in 1965 to focus the world scientific community on possibilities of disarmament; the Union of Concerned Scientists founded in 1969, and the Commission established by the International Council of Scientific Unions in the 1970s to investigate nuclear hazards. These communities have helped develop an international consensus on the need for nonviolent dispute settlement and more attention to the natural environment of an endangered planet - key elements for a macrolevel culture of peace. As powerful voices in the international community, listened to by national governments and the United Nations, they are laying the groundwork for current and future shifts in state security behavior.

Most, if not all, of the 200 international peace organizations listed in the 1997 Housman's Peace Diary have consultative status at the United Nations and work with various United Nations bodies including Regional Disarmament Centers - there is one on each continent - and at times with special programs on regional conflicts, with the UN University based in Tokyo. Many of them will be working with UNESCO's new Culture of Peace Program, helping war victims regain personhood, helping former soldiers and guerillas - many of them children - learn new occupational skills, new habits of caring and cooperation, and community-building skills, as well as skills of rebuilding destroyed soils and forests. Other projects involve creating new school programs for war-traumatized children and new support systems for war-traumatized women, often rape victims. Like all the groups mentioned in this section, they are helping to lay the groundwork for an emerging culture of peace.

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Peace Movements

In the nineteenth century, a wide variety of national and international peace movements arose to condemn war either on religious grounds or as an anachronism long overdue for abolition by human progress. In the United States, the work of organizations such as the New England Non-Resistance Society and the League for Universal Brotherhood helped pave the way for the Hague Court in 1899, the first international tribunal and a forerunner to the League of Nations, founded after World War I, and the United Nations, founded after World War II. Many such movements continue their work today around the world, arguing that war, especially given the destructive potential of modern weapons (nuclear, biological and chemical), presents a form of violence which humanity as a whole must learn to overcome in order to survive. Albert Einstein, in an exchange of letters with Sigmund Freud at the inception of the nuclear era, argued that because of such weapons, humanity must evolve to a new level of civilization. Activists such as Dr. Helen Caldicott, the leader of Physicians for Social Responsibility, have pursued this cause.

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Peace Movements and the Critique of the Nuclear Arms Race

Gorbachev's efforts were aided by the emergence in the 1980s of a massive peace movement in Western Europe and the US, which opposed a new generation of highly accurate, so-called 'first strike' nuclear weapons that were being introduced by the MICs of both superpowers as well as new strategic doctrines that claimed nuclear wars could be fought and 'won'. In generating some of the largest political demonstrations of the post-World War II period in the West, the peace movements of the 1980s created an unprecedented crisis of legitimacy for the MIC by calling into question its claim to be the provider of stability and security through nuclear deterrence based on increasingly 'modernized' nuclear weapon systems.

The peace movement developed sophisticated critiques of both the technology and the politics of the nuclear arms race. Widely read works by Thompson and others opposed the technological momentum of the arms race and sought to radically democratize nuclear politics, in part by exposing the gulf that separated the awesome destructive capacities of nuclear technologies or 'hardware' from the comparatively infantile 'science' of deterrence and nuclear strategy that was based on unproven assumptions about human behavior and decision making.

Many peace movement leaders were women, including Helen Caldecott of Physicians for Social Responsibility and Randall Forsberg, author of a 'nuclear freeze' proposal that was passed by voters in many states in the US. In this period a 'gender gap' opened in US voting patterns with significantly fewer women than men voting for candidates who supported the renewed arms race and MIC. Authors such as Enloe and Cohn subjected the masculine character and gender consequences of the MIC and nuclear weapons laboratories to important feminist critiques. Additionally, a number of prominent scientists and military officers, including Freeman Dyson and Lord Zuckerman, 'defected' from the MIC and published widely read critiques of the new nuclear weapon systems and doctrines.

The first Reagan administration responded to this crisis with the announcement of a SDI or Star Wars program in 1983. While the rhetorical shift from 'offensive', horribly destructive nuclear weapons to a 'defensive' system attracted a certain degree of public support, the SDI effort in turn became the subject of bitter controversy, especially in the scientific and technical communities. Critics of SDI pointed to its unprecedented costs and dangers. Many pointed out that such a system would have great offensive capabilities and would violate the US-Soviet Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Others saw it as a way for nuclear weapons labs and the MIC to develop new projects as the prospects of anything new in offensive weapons were running out. 'Star Wars' represented an increasingly parasitic arms race where now offensive and defensive weapon systems could race each other in a never-ending spiral. Many military officers and strategists were also wary as SDI technology developed by an adversary would threaten the very foundation of US nuclear deterrence.

Finally, critics such as Zuckerman pointed to the technological arrogance: the most complex weapon system ever proposed, with command and control relying on execution of trillions of lines of software code and much of its hardware deployed in space - a system and software that could never be operationally tested in advance - would have to perform flawlessly on its first use to defend against nuclear attack. Despite a 15-year, $50 billion research and prototype development effort from 1983 to the late 1990s, the SDI failed to inaugurate a second long wave of MIC-led expansion comparable to the earlier nuclear arms race.

Instead, the legitimation crisis of the 1980s revealed the Cold War technological era coming to an end. The nuclear arms race had become exhausted, both technologically and in its scientific-ideological legitimations, that is, theories of nuclear strategy that tried to justify departures from basic nuclear deterrence. The deconstruction of the scientific and technical aura of the nuclear arms race by the peace movement was a central development here. The peace movement undermined what had previously been a central political and social function of the MIC: to unite publics and blocs behind a symbolic sense of military-provided security and to claim to be the leading edge of scientific-technological, and hence economic, modernity.

By the end of the decade the US and the Soviet Union had concluded or were negotiating a series of historic nuclear arms control treaties, and the Soviet Union had relinquished its military and political claims over the Warsaw Pact nations of Eastern Europe, paving the way for a series of relatively peaceful transitions in those societies. In 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War was over. What were left were large MICs, with their huge nuclear arsenals, without a purpose.

In the Soviet case, the end of the Cold War and diminution of the arms race represented a systemic crisis; what continued justification was there for a national structure dominated by the MIC in light of the end of the Cold War and deepening economic crisis? Within a few years the Soviet Union had disintegrated into 13 independent republics and its MIC, inherited mostly by Russia, was a hollowed-out shell of its Cold War peak.

In the case of the United States, the end of the Cold War was accompanied by public discussion of the possibility of a historic 'peace dividend', entailing a major demobilization of military forces (as in the aftermath of previous wars) and reorientation of economic and scientific resources to civilian ends. But a full-scale re-evaluation of the MIC dominance of US governmental priorities and resources was diverted by the first major international crisis of the 1990s: the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War.

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4 Social Movements and the Media

A number of scholars have noted that social movements have often successfully brought new issues onto the public agenda. Thomas Rochon's (1998 ) analysis of the peace movement in various Western countries fits in this tradition, as does the work of Douglas McAdam ( 1988), whose study of the Mississippi Freedom Summer documented the success of civil rights activists in putting the issue of racial equality on the national political agenda during the mid-1960s.

Studies of the media agenda have been legion, largely following from the early work of Max McCombs and Donald Shaw (1972); for a review of this literature, see Rogers and Dearing (1988). Bernard Cohen (1963) noted famously that while the media cannot tell the public what to think, they can have a great impact on what the public think about. Within political science, several authors have picked up on the issue of media effects on public opinion (Iyengar 1991, Iyengar and Kinder 1987). James Stimson (1991) noted the changes in a broadly measured national mood based on public opinion surveys; John Kingdon (1984) also put considerable emphasis on the national mood in his study of agenda setting in government. As policymakers consider what issues to spend their time on, Kingdon (1984) noted they often make reference to the idea of a national mood.

Studies of the political agenda have been remarkable in political science for their integrative character: rather than focusing on any particular institution of government, scholars have traced the sources of agenda setting in the public, in the roles of interest groups and social movements, by noting the roles of policy entrepreneurs, and by looking at the government in very broad terms. Of course this does not mean that political leaders play an insignificant role. From the work of Richard Neustadt (1960) onwards students of the US Presidency have noted the need for presidents to focus their energy on a few issues (see Light 1982; for a similar study of congressional leadership see Bader 1996). Studies of the Supreme Court have noted the extremely tight control that the Court maintains over its agenda, as well as the characteristics of the cases that it is most likely to take. The Court, of course, is unusual among political institutions in that its agenda is reactive rather than proactive. Congress or the President can reach out to discuss whatever issues appeal to them; the Court can only choose from the issues that are presented for its decision (see Perry 1984, Caldeira and Wright 1988).

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URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080430767010925

Social Movements and the Media

A number of scholars have noted that social movements have often successfully brought new issues onto the public agenda. Thomas Rochon's (1998) analysis of the peace movement in various Western countries fits in this tradition, as does the work of Douglas McAdam (1988), whose study of the Mississippi Freedom Summer documented the success of civil rights activists in putting the issue of racial equality on the national political agenda during the mid-1960s.

Studies of the media agenda have been legion, largely following from the early work of Max McCombs and Donald Shaw (1972); for a review of this literature, see Rogers and Dearing (1988). Bernard Cohen (1963) noted famously that while the media cannot tell the public what to think, they can have a great impact on what the public think about. Within political science, several authors have picked up on the issue of media effects on public opinion (Iyengar, 1991; Iyengar and Kinder, 1987). James Stimson (1991) noted the changes in a broadly measured national mood based on public opinion surveys; John Kingdon (1984) also put considerable emphasis on the national mood in his study of agenda setting in government. As policymakers consider what issues to spend their time on, Kingdon (1984) noted they often make reference to the idea of a national mood.

Studies of the political agenda have been remarkable in political science for their integrative character: rather than focusing on any particular institution of government, scholars have traced the sources of agenda setting in the public, in the roles of interest groups and social movements, by noting the roles of policy entrepreneurs, and by looking at the government in very broad terms. Of course this does not mean that political leaders play an insignificant role. From the work of Richard Neustadt (1960) onwards students of the US Presidency have noted the need for presidents to focus their energy on a few issues (see Light, 1982; for a similar study of congressional leadership see Bader, 1996). Studies of the Supreme Court have noted the extremely tight control that the Court maintains over its agenda, as well as the characteristics of the cases that it is most likely to take. The Court, of course, is unusual among political institutions in that its agenda is reactive rather than proactive. Congress or the President can reach out to discuss whatever issues appeal to them; the Court can only choose from the issues that are presented for its decision (see Perry, 1984; Caldeira and Wright, 1988).

Read full chapter

URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080970868930034

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Robert D. Benford, Frank O. TaylorIV, in Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, & Conflict (Second Edition) , 2008 Peace movements around the world have experienced cycles of mobilization. Associated with these cycles have been fluctuations in the amount of attention peace movements devote toward negative peace versus positive peace.

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After almost a century of protests by women, on August 26, 1920, under the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, the 19th Amendment was a turning point in American history when the federal and state governments were no longer allowed to refuse U.S. citizens the right to vote based on a person’s sex, specifically women.

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Women's Suffrage

During America's early history, women were denied some of the basic rights enjoyed by male citizens.

For example, married women couldn't own property and had no legal claim to any money they might earn, and no female had the right to vote. Women were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, not politics.

The campaign for women's suffrage was a small but growing movement in the decades before the Civil War. Starting in the 1820s, various reform groups proliferated across the U.S. including temperance leagues, the abolitionist movement and religious groups. Women played a prominent role in a number of them.

Meanwhile, many American women were resisting the notion that the ideal woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family. Combined, these factors contributed to a new way of thinking about what it meant to be a woman and a citizen in the United States.

Seneca Falls Convention

It was not until 1848 that the movement for women's rights began to organize at the national level.

In July of that year, reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York (where Stanton lived). More than 300 people-mostly women, but also some men-attended, including former African-American slave and activist Frederick Douglass.

In addition to their belief that women should be afforded better opportunities for education and employment, most of the delegates at the Seneca Falls Convention agreed that American women were autonomous individuals who deserved their own political identities.

Declaration of Sentiments

A group of delegates led by Stanton produced a "Declaration of Sentiments" document, modeled after the Declaration of Independence, which stated: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

What this meant, among other things, was that the delegates believed women should have the right to vote.

Following the convention, the idea of voting rights for women was mocked in the press and some delegates withdrew their support for the Declaration of Sentiments. Nonetheless, Stanton and Mott persisted-they went on to spearhead additional women's rights conferences and they were eventually joined in their advocacy work by Susan B. Anthony and other activists.

National Suffrage Groups Established

With the onset of the Civil War, the suffrage movement lost some momentum, as many women turned their attention to assisting in efforts related to the conflict between the states.

After the war, women's suffrage endured another setback, when the women's rights movement found itself divided over the issue of voting rights for Black men. Stanton and some other suffrage leaders objected to the proposed 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would give Black men the right to vote, but failed to extend the same privilege to American women of any skin color.

In 1869, Stanton and Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) with their eyes on a federal constitutional amendment that would grant women the right to vote.

That same year, abolitionists Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell founded the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA); the group's leaders supported the 15th Amendment and feared it would not pass if it included voting rights for women. ( The 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870.)

The AWSA believed women's enfranchisement could best be gained through amendments to individual state constitutions. Despite the divisions between the two organizations, there was a victory for voting rights in 1869 when the Wyoming Territory granted all-female residents age 21 and older the right to vote. (When Wyoming was admitted to the Union in 1890, women's suffrage remained part of the state constitution.)

By 1878, the NWSA and the collective suffrage movement had gathered enough influence to lobby the U.S. Congress for a constitutional amendment. Congress responded by forming committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate to study and debate the issue. However, when the proposal finally reached the Senate floor in 1886, it was defeated.

In 1890, the NWSA and the AWSA merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The new organization's strategy was to lobby for women's voting rights on a state-by-state basis. Within six years, Colorado, Utah and Idaho adopted amendments to their state constitutions granting women the right to vote. In 1900, with Stanton and Anthony advancing in age, Carrie Chapman Catt stepped up to lead NAWSA.

Black Women in the Suffrage Movement

During debate over the 15th Amendment, white suffragist leaders like Stanton and Anthony had argued fiercely against Black men getting the vote before white women. Such a stance led to a break with their abolitionist allies, like Douglass, and ignored the distinct viewpoints and goals of Black women, led by prominent activists like Sojourner Truth and Frances E.W. Harper, fighting alongside them for the right to vote.

As the fight for voting rights continued, Black women in the suffrage movement continued to experience discrimination from white suffragists who wanted to distance their fight for voting rights from the question of race.

Pushed out of national suffrage organizations, Black suffragists founded their own groups, including the National Association of Colored Women Clubs (NACWC), founded in 1896 by a group of women including Harper, Mary Church Terrell and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. They fought hard for the passage of the 19th Amendment, seeing the women's right to vote as a crucial tool to winning legal protections for Black women (as well as Black men) against continued repression and violence.

State-level Successes for Voting Rights

The turn of the 20th century brought renewed momentum to the women's suffrage cause. Although the deaths of Stanton in 1902 and Anthony in 1906 appeared to be setbacks, the NASWA under the leadership of Catt achieved rolling successes for women's enfranchisement at state levels.

Between 1910 and 1918, the Alaska Territory, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington extended voting rights to women.

Also during this time, through the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women (later, the Women's Political Union), Stanton's daughter Harriot Stanton Blatch introduced parades, pickets and marches as means of calling attention to the cause. These tactics succeeded in raising awareness and led to unrest in Washington, D.C.

Did you know? Wyoming, the first state to grant voting rights to women, was also the first state to elect a female governor. Nellie Tayloe Ross (1876-1977) was elected governor of the Equality State-Wyoming's official nickname-in 1924. And from 1933 to 1953, she served as the first woman director of the U.S. Mint.

Protest and Progress

On the eve of the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson in 1913, protesters thronged a massive suffrage parade in the nation's capital, and hundreds of women were injured. That same year, Alice Paul founded the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, which later became the National Woman's Party.

The organization staged numerous demonstrations and regularly picketed the White House, among other militant tactics. As a result of these actions, some group members were arrested and served jail time.

In 1918, President Wilson switched his stand on women's voting rights from objection to support through the influence of Catt, who had a less-combative style than Paul. Wilson also tied the proposed suffrage amendment to America's involvement in World War I and the increased role women had played in the war efforts.

When the amendment came up for vote, Wilson addressed the Senate in favor of suffrage. As reported in The New York Times on October 1, 1918, Wilson said, "I regard the extension of suffrage to women as vitally essential to the successful prosecution of the great war of humanity in which we are engaged."

However, despite Wilson's newfound support, the amendment proposal failed in the Senate by two votes. Another year passed before Congress took up the measure again.

The Final Struggle For Passage

On May 21, 1919, U.S. Representative James R. Mann, a Republican from Illinois and chairman of the Suffrage Committee, proposed the House resolution to approve the Susan Anthony Amendment granting women the right to vote. The measure passed the House 304 to 89-a full 42 votes above the required two-thirds majority.

Two weeks later, on June 4, 1919, the U.S. Senate passed the 19th Amendment by two votes over its two-thirds required majority, 56-25. The amendment was then sent to the states for ratification.

Within six days of the ratification cycle, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin each ratified the amendment. Kansas, New York and Ohio followed on June 16, 1919. By March of the following year, a total of 35 states had approved the amendment, just shy of the three-fourths required for ratification.

Southern states were adamantly opposed to the amendment, however, and seven of them-Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia-had already rejected it before Tennessee's vote on August 18, 1920. It was up to Tennessee to tip the scale for woman suffrage.

The outlook appeared bleak, given the outcomes in other Southern states and given the position of Tennessee's state legislators in their 48-48 tie. The state's decision came down to 23-year-old Representative Harry T. Burn, a Republican from McMinn County, to cast the deciding vote.

Although Burn opposed the amendment, his mother convinced him to approve it. Mrs. Burn reportedly wrote to her son: "Don't forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the 'rat' in ratification."

With Burn's vote, the 19th Amendment was fully ratified.

When Did Women Get the Right to Vote?

On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment was certified by U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby, and women finally achieved the long-sought right to vote throughout the United States.

On November 2 of that same year, more than 8 million women across the U.S. voted in elections for the first time.

It took over 60 years for the remaining 12 states to ratify the 19th Amendment. Mississippi was the last to do so, on March 22, 1984.

What Is the 19 Amendment?

The 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote, and reads:

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

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19th Amendment - Definition, Passage & Summary

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The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 guaranteed women the right to vote. Learn how suffragists fought for the cause and hear a summary of amendment in this brief video.

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The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, passed during the Reconstruction era, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States - including former enslaved people - and guaranteed all citizens "equal protection of the laws."

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Educational Videos for Students (Cartoons on Bullying, Leadership & More)

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What is the 14th Amendment? (U.S. Government) The 14th Amendment & Black History

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Patented by Eli Whitney in 1794, the cotton gin was a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber - the subsequent mass production of the cotton gin allowed cotton to become a major export of the United States and Southern states saw this profitibility as justification for maintaining and expanding slavery.

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As Eli Whitney left New England and headed South in 1792, he had no idea that he would patent a machine that would profoundly alter the course of American history. While in the South, Whitney quickly learned that Southern plantation owners were eager for a way to make cotton growing profitable. Whitney knew that if he could invent such a machine, he could apply to the federal government for a patent. Read more... Primary Sources Links go to DocsTeach, the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives.

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Renowned abolitionist and devote Christian, Harriet Beecher Stowe is perhaps best known for her book 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', with it's anti-slavery sentiment, Stowe saw her tale as a call to arms for Northerners to defy the Fugitive Slave Act.

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MLA - Michals, Debra. "Harriet Beecher Stowe." National Women's History Museum, 2017. Date accessed.

Chicago - Michals, Debra "Harriet Beecher Stowe." National Women's History Museum. 2017. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/harriet-beecher-stowe.

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Abolitionist author, Harriet Beecher Stowe rose to fame in 1851 with the publication of her best-selling book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which highlighted the evils of slavery, angered the slaveholding South.

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One of the most famous Presidential speeches in US History, the Gettysburg Address was delivered by President Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, PA and referred to a 'new birth of freedom'.

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The Trail of Tears refers to the forced removal and displacement of Native Americans from their native lands by the United States Government between 1830 - 1850, as part of Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act.

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The term “Trail of Tears” refers to the difficult journeys that the Five Tribes took during their forced removal from the southeast during the 1830s and 1840s. The Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole were all marched out of their ancestral lands to Indian Territory, or present Oklahoma. Although the removal of American Indians began long before the nineteenth century, the Trail of Tears is mostly associated with the forced removals that took place after the 1830 Indian Removal Act.

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As part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, the Social Security Act was signed into law to serve as a federal safety net for elderly, unemployed, and disadvantaged American citizens.

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Early Social Assistance in America

Economic security has always been a major issue in an unstable, unequal world with an aging population. Societies throughout history have tackled the issue in various ways, but the disadvantaged relied mostly on charity from the wealthy or from family and friends.

In the early 17th century, England established "poor laws," acknowledging the government's responsibility to care for its less-fortunate citizens.

The Pilgrims brought these laws with them to the New World. Eventually, colonial governments created new laws to care for the poor and destitute, deeming which citizens were worthy or unworthy of different types of assistance. Poorhouses or outdoor relief (where people were given monetary or other assistance to keep them out of a poorhouse) were common means of public assistance.

By the mid-19th century, conditions in poorhouses were often deplorable. Yet thanks to deteriorating economic conditions they were also packed to the rafters, and local governments struggled to keep up with the overwhelming need.

Early Forms of Social Security

A large segment of American citizens received an early form of social security decades before President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act of 1935.

Starting in 1862, hundreds of thousands of veterans disabled in the Civil War and their widows and orphans could apply for a government pension for veterans. In 1890, the law was amended to include any disabled Civil War veteran, regardless of how the disability occurred. In 1906, the law was amended again to include old age as a criterion.

Company pension plans came on the scene in 1882 when the Alfred Dolge Company created a pension fund for its employees. A handful of companies followed suit, but few employees received even a nickel. Most of the companies went out of business before the pensions could be distributed, or the pensions were never dispersed.

Industrial Revolution in America

According to the Social Security Administration, four changes beginning in the late 19th century helped abolish the economic security policies of the time: the Industrial Revolution, America's urbanization, the vanishing extended family and a longer life expectancy.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, many people were farmers and managed to support themselves during hard times, and extended family often lived together on family farms and cared for one another as they aged or struggled.

The Industrial Revolution, however, enticed people to flock to cities for jobs that were often threatened by layoffs and recession, leaving many without a way to support themselves if they lost their job. The urbanization of American also found many people leaving their extended family behind to fend for themselves.

As sanitary and general conditions in America improved, the life expectancy of its citizens did, too. When more and more people grew older, many were unable to work or became sick and required care.

Impact of The Great Depression

The Great Depression left millions of people unemployed and struggling to put food on the table. It struck the elderly especially hard and many states passed legislation to protect their elder citizens.

But most elder-assistance programs of the time were a dismal failure. They were underfunded, poorly run and, in some cases, flat out ignored by officials. Those seniors who received assistance only got about 65 cents a day.

As the depression raged on, government officials and frustrated private citizens alike moved to find ways to help struggling Americans and introduced plans to increase economic security. Most ideas were basically federal or state financed pension plans. Some included all citizens while others included only the elderly.

None of the plans became law; however, many had huge followings and initiated spirited dialogue about how to care for the disadvantaged and the elderly.

Roosevelt's Radical Idea: Social Security

Until Franklin D. Roosevelt became president, most social assistance plans in America were dependent on the government, charities and private citizens doling out money to people in need.

Roosevelt, however, borrowed a page from Europe's economic security rulebook and took a different approach. He proposed a program in which people contributed to their own future economic security by contributing a portion of their work income through payroll tax deductions.

Basically, the current working generation would pay into the program and finance the retired generation's monthly allowance.

Social Security Benefits

In June 1934, President Roosevelt created the Committee on Economic Security (CES) and tasked them with creating an economic security bill. Led by the first woman to hold a U.S. cabinet post, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, the CES drafted the Social Security Act aimed at giving people economic security throughout their lives.

The bill included:

an old-age pension program

unemployment insurance funded by employers

health insurance for people in financial distress

financial assistance for widows with children

financial assistance for disabled individuals

After much debate, Congress passed the Social Security Act to provide benefits to retirees based on their earnings history and on August 14, 1935, Roosevelt signed it into law. This firmly placed the burden of economic security for American citizens on the federal government's shoulders.

Social Security Cards

After signing the Social Security Act, President Roosevelt established a three-person board to administer the program with the goal of starting payroll tax deductions for enrollees by January 1, 1937. It was a daunting task, but by November 1936 registration for the program began.

Not everyone could participate, though. Self-employed professionals, field hands and domestic workers were excluded.

To become eligible, workers completed an application at their local post office and received a national identity card with a unique, nine-digit identification number. Within eight days of rolling out the program, over one million workers had Social Security numbers.

Four months later, almost 26 million had enrolled despite most projected payouts being below poverty level. The Social Security card was-and still is-used to track workers earnings and benefits.

Social Security Act Amendments

Many amendments have been passed to the original Social Security Act. For instance, originally, monthly payouts of old-age benefits were slated to start on January 1, 1942. Eligible people who turned 65 prior to that date received a lump sum payment.

On August 10, 1939, an amendment passed to move up the start date to receive monthly benefits to January 1, 1940. Another amendment extended eligibility to dependents and survivors of retired workers.

In the 1950s, amendments were made which extended Social Security eligibility to domestic and farm workers, non-farm self-employed professionals and some federal employees. It also offered voluntary coverage to some state and federal employees, hundreds of thousands of nonprofit employees and workers in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

In addition, benefits were increased for millions of beneficiaries and a new contribution schedule established.

Medicare: Medical Insurance For Social Security Recipients

In 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved legislation to allow Social Security benefits for disabled workers and their dependents.

The Social Security Amendments of 1965 provided medical insurance to Social Security beneficiaries age 65 and older. This new "Medicare" program also offered people 65 and older the chance to purchase supplemental medical insurance.

In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon signed legislation to provide an automatic cost of living allowance each year to offset the cost of inflation. Prior to the new law, annual increases required Congressional approval.

Efforts to Keep Social Security Solvent

By 1977, it was clear Social Security was in financial peril. An amendment was passed changing the benefit qualification formula for people born after 1917. Other amendments were also passed including increasing the payroll tax and slightly decreasing benefits to help cut costs, leaving some beneficiaries with less money during difficult economic times.

These efforts didn't prevent the program from facing a serious financial crisis in the 1980s, however, and President Ronald Reagan created a commission to examine how to keep Social Security in the black. In 1983, he signed legislation that gradually increased the retirement age to 67, taxed Social Security benefits and provided Social Security benefits to federal workers.

After taking office in 2001, President George W. Bush appointed another Social Security Commission with its top priority being Social Security reform. No revolutionary changes were made to keep the program solvent long-term. Still, the Bush administration extended disability benefits and food stamps to qualified immigrants and their children, eliminated wage credits for the military and expanded Medicare prescription drug coverage.

President Obama 's administration temporarily reduced the Social Security tax rate from 6.2 to 4.2 percent in 2011 and 2012. The move helped ease financial strain on American workers but did little to stop the risk of Social Security going into future debt.

The Future of Social Security

The Social Security Act has provided Americans with much-needed financial help when they need it most. For many of America's most vulnerable, it's the only source of income they have.

Still, despite attempts to keep it solvent, the Social Security program faces a major long-term shortfall. The retirement age to receive full benefits continues to increase and many beneficiaries are claiming benefits much later in life to receive maximum payouts, often at age 70.

As partisan politicians continue to debate the problem each year, the Social Security Administration-which is now an independent government agency-works behind the scenes to keep Social Security intact. Administering the program is a monumental and always-changing task.

Each year, the Social Security Administration rolls out changes to the program. In 2018, they announced a two percent cost-of-living adjustment, a taxable earnings increase, an earnings limit increase for beneficiaries who still work and a slight increase in disability payments.

Despite the program's pitfalls, most Americans want Social Security to continue and consider it a retirement lifeline, according to a National Academy of Social Insurance survey. And eighty-one percent of them are willing to pay more taxes to ensure it. Whether politicians are listening and can come up with a viable solution remains to be seen.

Sources

5 Facts About Social Security. Pew Research Center.
5 Social Security Changes to Expect in 2018. Investopedia.
Administering Social Security: Challenges Yesterday and Today. Social Security Office of Retirement and Disability.
Frances Perkins: The Force Behind Social Security. Roosevelt Institute.
Historical Background and Development of Social Security. Social Security Administration.
How FDR Created Social Security. AARP.
Key Dates in the History of Social Security. National Academy of Social Insurance.
Poor Relief in Early America. VCU Libraries Social Welfare History Project.
Social Security Turns 80: Past, Present and Future. National Academy of Social Insurance.

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Economic security has always been a major issue in an unstable, unequal world with an aging population. Societies throughout history have tackled the issue in various ways, but the disadvantaged relied mostly on charity from the wealthy or from family and friends.

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John Brown, commonly referred to as a radical abolitionist, gained notoriety for his violent opposition to slavery in Kansas, eventually leading a failed attempt at a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry which led to his execution prior to the start of the American Civil War.

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Born in Torrington, Connecticut, John Brown belonged to a devout family with extreme anti-slavery views. He married twice and fathered twenty children. The expanding family moved with Brown throughout his travels, residing in Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York.

Brown failed at several business ventures before declaring bankruptcy in 1842. Still, he was able to support the abolitionist cause by becoming a conductor on the Underground Railroad and by establishing the League of Gileadites, an organization established to help runaway slaves escape to Canada. In 1849, Brown moved to the free black farming community of North Elba, New York.

At the age of 55, Brown moved with his sons to Kansas Territory. In response to the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas, John Brown led a small band of men to Pottawatomie Creek on May 24, 1856. The men dragged five unarmed men and boys, believed to be slavery proponents, from their homes and brutally murdered them. Afterwards, Brown raided Missouri - freeing eleven slaves and killing the slave owner.

Following the events in Kansas, Brown spent two and a half years traveling throughout New England, raising money to bring his anti-slavery war to the South. In 1859, John Brown, under the alias Isaac Smith, rented the Kennedy Farmhouse, four miles north of Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). At the farm Brown trained his 21 man army and planned their capture of the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Part of the plan included providing slaves in the area with weapons of pikes and rifles. Brown believed that these armed slaves would then join his army and free even more slaves as they fanned southward along the Appalachian Mountains. If the plan worked it would strike terror in the hearts of slave owners.

On October 16, 1859, John Brown and his men raided the Federal Arsenal. Unfortunately for Brown, nothing went as planned. Slaves living in the area did not join the raid, local militia and the United States Marines, under Robert E. Lee, put down the raid, and most of John Brown's men were either killed or captured, including two of his sons. Ironically, the first man killed during the raid was Hayward Shepherd, a free black man working with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Despite being seriously wounded, Brown was tried quickly and found guilty of murder, inciting slave insurrection, and treason against the state of Virginia.

Upon hearing his sentence, Brown said,

"...if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments--I submit; so let it be done!"

Brown told the court that he had hoped to carry out his plans "without the snapping of a gun on either side." But Brown's vision of ending slavery was marred by the deaths of innocent civilians - both in Kansas and at Harpers Ferry. The nation was divided over his actions. Many abolitionists called him a hero. Slaveholders called him a base villain. People on both sides of the fence denounced Brown's use of violence.

John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859. Before he died, Brown issued these final, seemingly prophetic words in a note he handed to his jailer:

"Charlestown, Va, 2nd, December, 1859

I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with Blood. I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be done."

Within one year, the first Southern state would secede from the Union.

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Born in Torrington, Connecticut, John Brown belonged to a devout family with extreme anti-slavery views. He married twice and fathered twenty children. The expanding family moved with Brown throughout his travels, residing in Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York. Brown failed at several business ventures before declaring bankruptcy in 1842.

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The abolitionist movement was the social and political movement to end slavery in the United States.

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The practice of slavery is one of humankind's most deeply rooted institutions. Anthropologists find evidence of it in nearly every continent and culture dating back to ancient times and even the Neolithic period of human development. In Europe, the first significant efforts to ban human trafficking and abolish forced labor emerged in the 18th century.

Enslaved Africans supplied the free labor that helped the British Empire prosper for much of the 18th century. The practice took hold in the English colonies in North America, too. Before, during, and after the United States Revolutionary War, several of the original 13 British colonies abolished slavery. The agricultural-based plantation economy of Southern colonies like Virginia and the Carolinas required a large labor force, which was met via enslaving people of African descent.

In the New England states, many Americans viewed slavery as a shameful legacy with no place in modern society. The abolitionist movement emerged in states like New York and Massachusetts. The leaders of the movement copied some of their strategies from British activists who had turned public opinion against the slave trade and slavery.

In 1833, the same year Britain outlawed slavery, the American Anti-Slavery Society was established. It came under the leadership of William Lloyd Garrison, a Boston journalist and social reformer. From the early 1830s until the end of the Civil War in 1865, Garrison was the abolitionists' most dedicated campaigner. His newspaper, the Liberator, was notorious. It was limited in circulation but was still the focus of intense public debate. Its pages featured firsthand accounts of the horrors of slavery in the South and exposed, for many, the inhumane treatment of enslaved people on U.S. soil. Garrison was a close ally of Frederick Douglass, who escaped his enslavement and whose 1845 autobiography became a bestseller.

Abolitionists were a divided group. On one side were advocates like Garrison, who called for an immediate end to slavery. If that were impossible, it was thought, then the North and South should part ways. Moderates believed that slavery should be phased out gradually, in order to ensure the economy of the Southern states would not collapse. On the more extreme side were figures like John Brown, who believed an armed rebellion of enslaved people in the South was the quickest route to end human bondage in the United States.

Harriet Tubman was like Douglass, she too had escaped enslavement and became a prominent abolitionist. She was active in the Underground Railroad, the clandestine network of safe houses and abolitionists that helped escapees reach freedom in the North. In the late 1850s, she assisted Brown in his planning for the disastrous raid on a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

The threat of an armed revolt alarmed Americans on both sides of the debate over slavery. In the 1860 presidential election, voters chose Republican Party candidate Abraham Lincoln. The senator from Illinois opposed slavery but was cautious about supporting the abolitionists. Thirty-nine days after Lincoln's inauguration, the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, which marked the onset of the U.S. Civil War. Five years later the war ended and the ratification of the 13th Amendment formally ended slavery in December 1865.

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The practice of slavery is one of humankind's most deeply rooted institutions. Anthropologists find evidence of it in nearly every continent and culture dating back to ancient times and even the Neolithic period of human development. In Europe, the first significant efforts to ban human trafficking and abolish forced labor emerged in the 18th century.

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In the wake of the Louisiana Purchase, President Jefferson tasked Meriwether Lewis and William Clark with exploring the newly purchased land, aided by Native American guide Sacagawea, the westward expedition took two years.

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On a gloomy December afternoon in 1803, a boat crept along the banks of the Mississippi River and landed at the mouth of the Wood River in what is now the state of Illinois. A group of men climbed out and began to set up camp under a dark canopy of oak trees. Suddenly a violent storm moved in, pelting the area with snow and hail.

The men didn't turn back though. Instead, they hunkered down and spent the next five months here preparing for the trip they were about to embark on,in which poor weather would be one of the many dangers they'd face.

Among these men were Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, co-leaders of an expedition tasked with exploring land that the United States had recently acquired. Their trip would turn into an epic 8,000-mile-long trek-and the first big step in the United States' westward expansion.

LET'S MAKE A DEAL

When Thomas Jefferson became the third president of the United States in 1801, the country basically stopped at the Mississippi River. France controlled much of the land to the west of this waterway.

President Jefferson wanted to acquire the Port of New Orleans, in what is now the state of Louisiana, from the French. Its prime location made it a key spot for trade. In 1803, Jefferson made what's known as one of the greatest real estate deals in history: the Louisiana Purchase.

After negotiations, France agreed to sell the entire city of New Orleans, which included the port, to the United States for $10 million; they threw in the rest of the territory they owned for an additional $5 million. The agreement-which gave the United States approximately 828,000 square miles of land-almost doubled the size of the nearly 30-year-old nation.

The United States only paid about three cents an acre for the land, which stretched from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west and from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to the Canadian border in the north. Spain still owned much of the southwestern part of what's now the United States, stretching from the area that would become Texas to present-day California.

Purchasing this enormous amount of land was one thing, but exploring it was another. Jefferson wanted to plan an expedition to investigate the territory. He called the proposed mission the Voyage of Discovery and began assembling a team of explorers called the Corps (KOR) of Discovery. The president chose Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark to lead the expedition. Lewis, President Jefferson's personal secretary, was an officer in the United States Army and spoke several Native American languages. Lewis recommended Clark-a retired officer who had served alongside him in the Army-as the expedition's co-leader.

WAY OUT WEST

In the spring of 1804, Lewis, Clark, and dozens of other men left St. Louis, Missouri, by boat. They traveled westward through what is now Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

In November they reached Knife River Village in present-day North Dakota. There they met a young Shoshone Native American woman called Sacagawea (Sa-kuh-juh-WEE-uh) and her fur-trader husband, Toussaint Charbonneau (Too-SAHNT SHAR-bon-oh). The couple joined the expedition as interpreters, translating the language of the local tribes for Lewis and Clark's men.

Sacagawea didn't just serve as an interpreter during the trip, however. She helped Lewis and Clark's men obtain essential supplies and horses, identified edible plants and herbs, and prevented hostile relations with other tribes simply by being with the group-all while carrying her newborn baby on her back.

After meeting Sacagawea and her husband, the Corps traveled west from North Dakota, 15 to 20 miles a day on foot and by boat, toward the mountains. Day after day, the exhausted, freezing team braved rough rivers and perilous peaks, getting by on very little food. They wouldn't see the Pacific Ocean until November 1805-over a year after they first left Missouri.

COMING HOME

After a long winter waiting out the bad weather, the Corps was able to start making their way back east in March 1806. After returning Sacagawea and her husband to North Dakota, the remainder of the Corps arrived back in Missouri in late September, more than two years after they started their expedition.

Lewis and Clark's team mapped uncharted land, rivers, and mountains. They brought back journals filled with details about Native American tribes and scientific notes about plants and animals they'd never seen before. They also brought back stories-tales that made other Americans dream about heading west.

Many Americans did more than dream. The great westward expansion was about to begin.

Text adapted from The Journals of Lewis and Clark; The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today; and Sacagawea

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How Lewis and Clark-along with a Native American guide, Sacagawea-explored the newly expanded United States

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A renowned politician, inventor, prolific writer, and Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and served as a diplomat in France during the American Revolution.

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Benjamin Franklin

Of all the representatives sent abroad to secure aid from friendly nations, no one has equaled Benjamin Franklin in ability, tact, common sense, diplomacy, and international reputation.

He began as a printer, became a publisher, founded papers, served as editor and reporter, and also printed an almanac known as "Poor Richard's Almanac" which is indeed historical. His wise sayings and maxims show an unusual common sense philosophy.

He established in Philadelphia better plans of transportation and also aided throughout Pennsylvania and improved communication. He helped save property from destruction and aided insurance plans against fire.

As an inventor, his accomplishments were unusual. He also aided in changing our standards of life by the invention of the Franklin Stove and started the pioneer work to harness electricity to be an agent for the benefit of mankind. In Philadelphia, he also founded one of the great universities of the world. In government, he made contributions in developing unity and democracy in our colonies, and he also served for many years as official colonial agent in London for Pennsylvania. He pointed out for a long time to the British Government that taxation without representation was a principle upon which America stood firmly.

When Franklin went to France in the early part of the Revolution as the official diplomat and ambassador of the thirteen colonies, he came as a man of maturity, brilliance, ability, and as a world statesman. Upon his arrival in Paris, there was no other statesman or philosopher who could equal him in his ability and accomplishments. His presence in Paris annoyed the British minister and staff. Franklin enjoyed the situation. The years he remained in Paris were unusually fruitful ones for America and helping to work out the future destiny of the United States of America. In the early 1950's the United States published ten volumes of the United States Foreign Affairs during the Revolution, and the major part of the ten volumes covers the work of Franklin.

The colonies indeed needed help of every description--men, money, equipment, ships, and all things to fight a successful war. The long years of enmity between France and Britain opened the way for the leadership of Franklin. And he was not only the man to exploit it, but also the reason for the acceptance of thirteen states as a recognized nation in the world of nations.

During his long career of service, we shall never know how many men sought commissions in the Revolution. But this much we do know--that Franklin was never deceived, as he never held out any hope for a commission unless the applicant had the ability in his chosen field. One of the men aided very early was John Paul Jones; and as an Admiral in the little American Navy composed of two ships under his command, he took those two ships and sailed into English waters for a fight. In a terrific battle, two proud English ships surrendered; and they were brought into French waters as American prizes.

When the United States flag, the red, white, and blue, became the official flag of the country in June, 1777, the French Navy saluted it as the first of all nations.

Another important selection was Baron Von Steuben who came to be an important leader at Valley Forge during the tragic winter of 1777-1778 in the reorganization of the Continental Army. Franklin wrote Washington a long personal letter about Steuben. When his services were accepted by Congress, he showed that he was thoroughly dependable; and his military ability and leadership were likewise shown in the reorganization of the Army in the days ahead. His devotion to Washington and earnestness to his new country constitute fine commendation of Franklin's aid.

In the final stages of the war, after long weeks of hard campaigning, Cornwallis was bottled up in Yorktown, Virginia. Lafayette, who had done so much for the American cause out of his own private fortune and by his persistence to his own government for men, equipment, and ships, always backed up the entire procedure of Franklin.

As the conditions became ripe and favorable, then Washington and his Continentals came down from the North and by rapid marches joined the French soldiers under Rochembeau; and the last great battle of the war entered its final phase. DeGrasse, Commander of the French fleet, kept reinforcements away; and the armies, under the supreme command of Washington, in a series of successful attacks upon the British forces led to the final conclusion and surrender of Cornwallis in October, 1782.

There were times during the long residence of Franklin in Paris when events were pleasant and joyful instead of war planning and persuading the French officials to be more generous in their gifts to America. There were meetings of scholars, writers, and scientists in which Franklin was invariably the center of attraction. The plainness of his dress, the simplicity of his personality, and his tact, agreeableness, and responsiveness were always appreciated; and there was nothing haughty about him. Under all conditions, he was a friend of man, a world benefactor, and the representative of a cause which appealed to people all over the world--a living exponent of American democracy. He had a wonderful story to tell of the conquest of a continent by a people through thrift, endurance, sacrifice and grit. He was always a welcomed guest at the Royal receptions, and the king and queen appreciated his ready wit.

When the war was over, the great problem remained to conclude the peace. The French politicians determined to make the American alliance turn in every way to their own advantage. When the news of the glorious alliance was made in early Spring, May 1778, which brought so much cheer and new faith to the officers and men alike, just as the new life of Spring was bringing green grass and bursting buds to the naked trees of Valley Forge, which was symbolical of the improved conditions of the American soldiers as they had suffered on the bleak hills of Valley Forge during the tragic winter.

Now the war was over and there were those in power who thought they could use Franklin, the American alliance and the United States to their own advantage. The French politicians were opposed to a separate peace treaty for the United States, but they proposed to have a treaty in which American independence and sovereignty would be tied directly to the French treaty. And then they could hold the United States under their own direction.

Franklin knew French politicians too well, and he resolved such conditions should not result. Franklin was courageous, bold and had a definite sense of vision plans in diplomacy. consequently, he met the leaders of the British commission and secured a separate treaty with them. He secured just what he wanted for his country; namely, the absolute independence of the United States, recognition of it as a distinctive government, and at the same time the exact boundaries of the United States were generally established. Some of the American members were fearful lest all plans should be ruined, but not so Franklin.

The French commission was furious and spoke unkindly to Franklin. Again undaunted, he met them and convinced them they could not hold the United States to their own plans; and thus he succeeded.

In conclusion, with excerpts of four important Franklin letters as follows:

"We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
-In the Continental Congress just before signing the Declaration of Independence, 1776.

"It is a common observation here (Paris) that our cause is the cause of all mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own."
-Letter to Samuel Cooper, 1777

"Thus the great and hazardous enterprise we have been engaged in is, God be praised, happily completed***. A few years of peace will improve, will restore and increase our strength; but our future will depend on our union and our virtue***. Let us, therefore, beware of being lulled into a dangerous security; and of being both enervated and impoverished by luxury; of being weakened by internal contentions and divisions***."
-Letter to Charles Thomson, from Paris, 1784,
just after signing the Peace Treaty

"Our Constitution is in actual operation; everything appears to promise that it will last; but nothing in this world is certain but death and taxes."
-Letter to M. Leroy, 1789.

Excerpted from a summary of an address delivered in the Washington Memorial Chapel on February 22, 1956 by Charles William Heathcote, Ph.D.

Courtesy National Center for the American Revolution/Valley Forge Historical Society

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Benjamin Franklin Of all the representatives sent abroad to secure aid from friendly nations, no one has equaled Benjamin Franklin in ability, tact, common sense, diplomacy, and international reputation. He began as a printer, became a publisher, founded papers, served as editor and reporter, and also printed an almanac known as "Poor Richard's Almanac" which is indeed historical.