The Great Debate by Nicole Avery

Freedom vs. Equality during Reconstruction

nicole_m_avery — 2015-07-15 00:27:46 UTC

After the Civil War, African-Americans were technically free thanks fo the 13th Amendment. However, they were not equal to white Americans- not by a long stretch. As Howard Zinn explained, freedmen and freedwomen experienced "emancipation without freedom." Their rights were restricted by the Jim Crow laws and their economic welfare hampered by restrictive sharecropping contracts.

" Any person...who shall rent any part of any such building to a negro person or a negro family when such building is already in whole or in part in occupancy by a white person or white family, or vice versa when the building is in occupancy by a negro person or negro family, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five ($25.00) "

--Source: Louisiana Jim Crow laws from www.ferris.edu

Unity vs. Diversity during westward expansion

nicole_m_avery — 2015-07-15 00:28:12 UTC

During the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s, America expanded westward into the Louisiana Territory and Mexican Cession. Politicians like Polk hoped to populate the continent with white Americans. They also wanted to Christiainize and bring American technology/values to the Native Americans in these areas. Meanwhile, the Indians themselves struggled to hold onto their traditions and ways of life.

Public Wealth vs. Common Wealth in the colonial era

nicole_m_avery — 2015-07-15 00:28:21 UTC

Men came to the Jamestown colony seeking to better their own personal circumstances and to enhance the wealth of the Virginia Company, a joint-stock company. Most of these men were second-born sons, meaning that they couldn't inherit land in England due to primogeniture. The Jamestown colony offered them a place to make a living (or personal wealth). Meanwhile, during the "starving time" winter, colonists had to band together under martial law to survivie, and their food sources remained communal.

Law vs. Ethics during WW II

nicole_m_avery — 2015-07-15 00:28:36 UTC

During WW II, the US government, through an executive order by President Roosevelt, interned

thousands of Japanese-Americans in camps throughout the west. Even though it was technically

legal to imprision the Japanese (as confirmed by the Supreme Court in Korematsu v US), it was

most cetainly not the morally correct thing to do!

nicole_m_avery — 2015-07-17 20:42:56 UTC

Private Wealth vs. Common Wealth during the 1960s

nicole_m_avery — 2015-07-17 20:58:25 UTC

During the 1960s, President Johnson and Congress passed a number of laws that made up the "Great Society" legislation. These laws took away the private wealth of certain individuals in order to provide for the common wealth of the nation. For instance, workers were levied taxes in order to provide health care for the poor and aged.