John Doty's Expository Essay

In “Lost in America” by Douglas McGray, he writes about the need to improve the foreign language policies in schools across America and for students to gain knowledge about counties outside of America in the magazine, Foreign Policy. The author’s intentions are not to attack Americas educational system but to persuade the readers about the problems of the educational system used in America today. He wants the readers to realize that there is a change that needs to take place in the classrooms across America. He does this effectively by using the rhetorical choices antidotes, formal diction, and tone. His audience is geared towards American readers interested on political and cultural issues. I don’t think it’s geared towards students because,

Slavery and indentured servitude was the backbone of the Virginia economy. Slaves were considered an investment in the planter’s business and a necessity for success. The treatment of slaves was much the same as owning a piece of property or equipment. Slaves were not viewed as fellow human beings, quite the opposite they were of lesser status. Slaves and indentured servants grew tired of their treatment and responded with acts of rebellion. One such act was for the slaves and servants to run away. Indentured servants and slaves both made the incredibly brave decision to risk fleeing and capture in the hope of finding a free and better life, as opposed to continue living in their oppressed conditions. Runaway slave advertisements became

Everyone can feel, just like you and I, but there's one important question that lingers through the air. Should we really be accepting of other people?

During the eight-hundred mile trek many children and spouses were separated from their families. About one-third of the original Cherokee they collected died in the holding camps and between the trek from the Southeast section of the Union to Indian Territory. "In the words of a British officer, ‘They are like the Devil's pig, they will neither lead nor drive'" (Woodward Preface).They would have to learn a new way of life and adjust. They lost their Negro slaves, and their possessions (Bruchac 35).

The slave narratives also gave Northerners a glimpse into the life of slave communities: the love between family members, the respect for elders, the bonds between friends. They described an enduring, truly African American culture, which was expressed through music, folktales, and religion. Then, as now, the narratives of ex-slaves provided the world with the closest look at the lives of enslaved African American men, women and children. (in incheiere)

Fugitive Slave Law: Allowed people to go up North and recapture any black person to return to their “owner” even

In conjunction, the literature on black families during slavery provides a wealth of data on the way in which consanguine kin assisted each other with child rearing, in life crisis events such as birth and death, in work groups, in efforts to obtain freedom, and so on. Relationships within these groups were governed by principles and values stemming from their African background. Respect for elders and mutual cooperation among kinsmen are noted in all discussions of black families during slavery. Also, the willingness to assume responsibility for relatives and children beyond the conjugal family and

Although freemen were legally free and no longer slaves, they had certain laws that counteracted the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. While reading the article of “Former Slaves Seek to Reunite Their Families” many former slaves never seen their family since after being separated and sold. Some trials freemen faced after emancipation meant having no source of income and being separated from family members, never being able to see them again. In one of the ads, a husband is looking for his wife who was taken away from him while he was performing duties of a servant. He has no contact only that she was claimed property of Nicholas Wilkins. These ads are heartbreaking knowing that family members who were slaves are free, but have no source to

The connection between a mother’s death and the death of a stranger evokes an understanding from the reader that Douglass was allowed very different values of family than many people today. Although Douglass was separated from the family closest to him, there was a small period in which he was separated from viewing the cruel violence surrounding him. Douglass lived with his grandmother when he was young, her filling in the role of the “old woman” that young children were placed with, as quoted above. He mentions that he had been “out of the way of the bloody scenes that often occurred on the plantation” until he witessed a master beating his aunt (13). Slaves in the 1930s during the Great Depression were interviewed by the Federal Writers’ Project, and many had very strong opinions about their families being separated. John W. Fields, a slave in Kentucky, described the process of drawing names from a hat to determine his new master, saying, “I can’t describe the heartbreak and horror of that separation. I was only six years old…”. Another slave of Kentucky, John Rudd, describes his view on selling family by, “If’n you wants to know what unhappiness means… jess’n you stand on the Slave Block and hear the

Jourdon Anderson a former slave who was freed from a Tennessee plantation, responded to Colonel P.H. Anderson his former master letter wanting him to return to his estate was eloquently written as he expresses his feeling, thoughts and memory. One would think that a slave who is assumed illiterate and having no formal education would not be able to pen such a letter.

“My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant—before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age…I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life; and each of these times was very short in duration, and at night.”

Most slaves lost contact with their family members when they were captured to be sold and shipped off to somewhere the families had no idea of. Slaves in the North would try their best to keep in contact with their aunts, uncles, and children, but unfortunately for the most

interviews of people who have or know people who have experienced historical events of the past. For this essay, I chose to take an oral history of the civil rights movement and the great migration. Preserving the memories of the individuals that lived during these historical events allows for many things in addressing the silence of African American experiences within U.S. History. First, memories and recollections taken from oral histories may differ from the perspectives of those who have appear on historical records or may be completely absent from any other documentations. Also, because cameras and video cameras were not as easily accessible as they are today, the majority of history is documented from peoples’ memories through letters, diaries, and oral history interviews. In addition, taking an oral history allows me to ask specific questions towards what I am are interested in documenting about the civil rights movement and the great migration. Lastly, oral histories are somewhat viewed as a “revisionist” to the study of both the civil rights movement and the great migration because it takes firsthand accounts of those participating on campaigns and protests and also of those were watching from afar and allows readers to understand each individual part of what made the movement as a whole.

One of the most remarkable stories is the one of John Norman. He was a deputy chief of the New York City fire department. He was asleep whenever the first tower of the World Trade Center was hit. He had turned off the ringer on his phone because he was on vacation from work. His plan that day was to sleep in. He was completely unaware of what was going on outside. Then his answering machine got an "all call" message from the department. Still he didn't know what fully was going on so he turned on the television. He said, “As I’m just about to turn off the TV and head for the door, the south tower collapses. I thought it was a bomb." It took him and hour and a half just to get to the city and where he needed to be. He was put in shock whenever

Once a slave acculturated himself to his “new home,” he found himself unable to re-establish his family ties. Even if a slave was lucky enough to find a significant other, often times they were separated by sale, as can be seen in the account of Laura Spicer and her lost love. Moreover, couples often found their children sold off to other masters never to be seen or heard from again, at ages as young as eight years old. Therefore, a slave’s life was full of perpetual uncertainty, and fear of abandonment and neglect. Their bonds of love were never enough to out-weigh the voice of