Semester I Speech

 Semester I Speech 

            The study of history is the way that humans are able to evolve and learn from past mistakes. 

Without the knowledge of history, we would not know where we came from, how our country came 

to be, or even what our countries original purpose was. By learning the history of our country, we 

can know the principle of America, and the ideology that shaped it into the current day.

            This year I was pleasantly surprised to learn of how successful our country was during the Industrial Revolution. I had no idea how much work and progress was made in America during that time period. I did not know of the great amount of progress and innovations that occurred during this time. I learned that many of history’s richest men came about from this time period, many of whom were given great opportunity to build on the growing economic businesses simply because of time period they were born in. We learned that railroads and oil were two big aspects that brought great wealth and opportunity to these men. I enjoyed learning about this time because it was interesting to learn how successful our country was and how much our country grew during this time.

            A subject that I was not as keen to learn about was slavery. This is a topic that brings lots of grief and cruelty to our eyes. Slavery is such a harsh topic to learn about, but without learning of it we would not know how our country grew, and which mistakes we have learned from. Watching the two historical films really brought the reality of slavery to my eyes, and showed how horrible it was.

            Since there is so much knowledge to learn about from American history, there is only so much that we will remember ten years from now. Ten years from now I think that I will remember most about the Reconstruction period. This is because in my opinion this is the period that shaped our country’s foundation, and it also interest me how our country rebuilt itself from actual rubble.  I enjoyed the project where in groups; we discussed what we would do if we were in the South’s position after the war, and what we would do next. This project was interesting to me because I expected our answers to be more differentiated than what they actually decided, but surprisingly we were close to what they thought. I think that the way the North and South came back together as one country will always show effect on America, and there will always be some proof of this, whether it be the political opinion differentially, or the societal culture.

            History is made so that we do not continue making past mistakes, unfortunately we still remake mistakes from the past. An example of this is the gap between the rich and the poor, and discrimination against the poor. During the Era of the City, the void between the wealthy and poverish was much more extreme. Although the gap is much smaller nowadays, there is still a space in between the two. Discrimination against the poor is also less extreme, but still present. Today some of the wealthy put themselves on a higher pedestal than the poor, viewing them as lazy, undeserving of better living, and below others.

            If I could name the time of 1865 to 1920, I would call it the “Era of Re-growth.” I chose this name because when I look back on everything that we have learned, most of it deals with the growth and rebuilding of America. We learned about slavery, the West and Reconstruction, the Industrial Revolution, and lastly we learned about the Age of the City. All of these time periods marked a growth and extreme change in our country.  

Thinking of Success

1.     Opportunity

2.    Hard work

3.    Skill

4.    Luck

These four components of success are all essential to accomplish something. Without opportunity, you will not have anything to accomplish. Without hard work, you will not do well doing the thing you want to accomplish. Without skill, you will not be able to do the job well. One component however is not essential to success, in my mind. Luck, is something that will help someone on his or her road to success, but without it a person can still be successful. For example, a lazy person could be lucky and be provided with an incredible opportunity, and then become successful because of luck. However an extremely hard working person could simply not be lucky, and still reach success because of their hard work, and determination. Success depends on the person, and how much they put in for success. 

Exploring Business/Clothing Industry

In the two articles I read, I learned about three different clothing companies; Zara's, Uniqlo, and H&M. These three companies are the leading companies in the clothing industry. They are known for fast, and trendy production. It was interesting to learn about such well-known international clothing companies.

            Zara’s is known for their fast production of clothes, and their ability to rotate the merchandise throughout their many store locations. This allows them to change to their customers’ needs, and wants. They can predict patterns and future trends, with this ability. Uniqlo is well known for their basic designs that fit to a bigger customer percentage. They create clothing that many people can appeal to, increasing their buyer rate. H&M has a combination of both Zara’s and Uniqlo’s patterns; fast clothing production, and clothes that appeal to a larger number of customers. With this combination, H&M is able to sell more clothes, to more people.

Ch.18 Test Blog Post

Dear loved ones, 

After arriving in America, my life has been turned upside down. While riding on the boats here, I did not know what to expect. I worried that it would be terrible, and I would not know how to start my life. Luckily there were others with my same worries and it helped to know that I was not alone. Most everyone that was on the boat with me came for the same reasons; better work, and a better life.

When we arrived in New York, the amount of people that I saw was unbelievable. I had no idea so many people could fit in the same place. When we got out most of us did not have the slightest idea of what to do next. We did not know where to eat, where or how to get a job, or even where we were going to stay. After walking around aimlessly for a while I noticed that some people were asking the natives. I walked up to someone and explained that I was an immigrant and I did not know where to go for anything. The response was not what I was expecting, the man was very rude and walked away saying things underneath his breath. Some people seemed to be fine with giving help, and others were completely opposed to even speaking to us. 

After awhile I met some people that spoke the same language as me. This made it a lot easier to communicate. Now we all live in the same neighborhood. We share the same native customs, which makes it a little easier to live in such an estranged place. There are also theaters and newspapers in our language, which makes us feel more accepted. I love that we can celebrate our own culture, but at the same time I want to experience the American lifestyle. At my job, my boss requires us to learn English. This helps with communication, but it is extremely hard. We are learning it quickly, but I struggle with it. It helps with the cultural divide, and makes things easier.

I wish you all could come to see it. It’s amazing here, but I miss everyone so much back home. I hope that everyone’s doing okay, and tell everyone that I love them. I will write you soon.

Love,

            Ryan Sanford

Railroad Propaganda

The Effect of Propaganda and Advertising

Ryan Sanford

Advertisement has a lot of influence on people. It can drastically change one's opinion on a subject, or it can reinforce their thoughts. Advertisement and propaganda is a visual method that can show the public a companies thoughts, arguments, and ideas. It is used to provoke the public, and also to create a reaction. Propaganda was used heavily for the Western railroads. Western railroad companies used propaganda to encourage tourism, jump-start the railroad business, and also to increase immigrant construction employment.

Before railroads were beginning to be constructed, the distance between the countries Northern, Southern, and Western regions made it very difficult to communicate and travel. The railways connected the regions in more ways than one. They allowed easier trade, and economic dependency lessened. The easier travel improved agriculture, mining, and lumber industries. The North did not have to depend on the southern rivers for transportation of goods. This lead to solidifying relationship between the North and the West. Even though the railroads increased the ability to travel and communicate through the far distance, there was still disconnected from the West to the rest of the country. Propaganda was used to promote tourism from the North and South to the West. Posters were used to portray the West as a positive, dreamlike land where everyone wished to come.

As more tourism came to the West, more business came with it. The more people that came, the more use of the railroads were needed, resulting in better business for the companies. The railroad business took off as people came to the West. People did not only come to tour the West, but people also came to start new lives. The railways were a great opportunity for people coming to the West without jobs. A large group of people that used the railways to their advantage was immigrants wanting to migrate west. Companies used advertising to promote immigration because more people that came meant more workers, and business for the companies.

Companies, to promote immigration employment, primarily used propaganda. Immigrants came from all over to migrate west, but two main groups of immigrants that came to work on the railways were the Chinese and Irish. Companies used the propaganda to reach out to the immigrants in particular because they were the ideal workers for the companies. This was because they were easily accessible, hard workers, and very poor. The large numbers of immigrants made it easy for the companies to find workers, and because they did not have a lot of money, the workers appreciated the small amounts of money that they received.

The promotion of tourism, boost in business, and increase in immigrant employment are all affects of propaganda in the west.  Without propaganda, the western railways would not have had enough business to survive, or enough builders to construct it. Propaganda was a vital accessory to the Western railroads.

Anti Railroad Propaganda

Annotation : This source was mainly used for a basic overview of the railways. It gave me the information on how the railroads brought the states together, and how they improved the trade and dependency for the north, south, and western states. 

Railway Advertising

Annotation: I used this source to find examples of propaganda and advertising for the western railroads. This gave me an idea of what the posters looked like, and how the companies would try to sway the publics outlook on the railroads.

Pennsylvania Railroad Propaganda

Annotation: This source was used only for an example of propaganda. This source particularly showed the variety of how the posters would look. 

The Great Rival

Annotation: This source provided an example of propaganda for the railroads. It also gave information on "The Great Rival." The Great Rival was a debate between Henry Villard, advertising the Northern Pacific Railroad, and Rufus Hatch, advertising Yellowstone Park to American and European investors. 

California Propaganda 

Annotation: This source gave information on the immigration and it went into deeper detail of the immigrant workers. It explained how Chinese and Irish workers were needed for the construction of the railroad.

Other Sources: 

Continental Railroad Present Day Comparison - BBC News

Annotation: This source contained a video that talked about how President Obama was planning on building more railroads. They said how the Chinese would be involved in the building and financing of the railroads again, and I thought this compared the past and present of the railroads well, because it shows how involved the Chinese have stayed. 

Central Pacific Railroad Workers - PBS

Annotation: This source had more information on the use of propaganda to help with the increase in immigrant workers. 

USH Film Essay

Film Essay

History is a vast subject, that at times can be extremely difficult to portray. Since history is in the past, the challenge of experiencing the events becomes present. How can I know what the people were feeling? One common method that many history teachers use to help their students learn is through movies. Some argue that movies cannot properly portray the historical events, but I disagree. Movies give the viewers an indirect experience of the past events, that can then develop great analytical skills, and the ability to empathize with the historical figures.

Two great examples of movies that are able to show the viewer the effects of slavery in the United States are Glory and Twelve Years a Slave. The two movies portray almost two completely different experiences of slavery, but both portray them well.

Glory gives off the sense of overcoming discrimination, and the theme of coming together for a bigger cause. This film was more uplifting, and it showed me the more positive aspect of slavery. Glory tells the story of the 54th regiment in the Civil War. This is a great story, and it is widely known throughout United States history. This is a story that has been discussed and argued over for years. With the familiarity of the story in the nation’s mind, it was known to the director, Edward Zwick, that his film was to be critiqued heavily; In an interview Zwick was asked why he made the movie, he answered, “I did it because I felt it need to be told (...)” (MIT University).

The historical accuracy, and representation of this story has been looked at under a microscope, and no flaw has been unseen. Even though there are some misrepresentation in the film, like the fact that the actual regiment did not include runaway slaves, but that it was made up of well-educated, freed black men. This historical inaccuracy was intentional. Zwick wanted to show the adversity of overcoming discrimination, and how much freedom meant to the men. In the movie the men are made aware that if found by the enemy, while fighting for the Union, they were to be killed on the spot along with their general commander. This falsity layers on more emotions, and gives the viewer a more personal inside view on slavery. I feel like in history we tend to focus more on the negative side of slavery, for us to “learn from our mistakes,” but in this film I was shown how people were to come together for bigger ideas. Another film that portrayed American slavery, but almost in a completely opposite feeling, was Twelve Years A Slave.

Twelve Years A Slave is movie based upon a true story of Solomon Northup. The movie is about a Northern freed black man that is kidnapped, and sent into Southern slavery. It is an unbelievable story that is almost too awful to be true. Unlike Glory, Twelve Years A Slave focuses on all of the harsh hardships of the slaves, and how brutal they were to be treated. It shows how irrelevant it could be for a slave to try to escape slavery, because no matter how hard they tried, the result would almost inclusively be that they stayed in slavery.

Because the film was also based on a true story McQueen, the director, was given the difficult task of staying true to the story, while creating a film that would move the viewers in a way that would leave them with more understanding of slavery. Like Glory, there are some historical facts that are not completely true in the movie, but these are only small details that are changed to give a deeper emotion. For example, in the film one of the female character, Patsey, come to Solomon’s character and begs him to kill her. In Solomon Northup’s autobiography, it is actually the master’s wife that asks Solomon to kill Patsey, but by changing this small detail, it shows how desperate and miserable slavery was, and how many slaves got to a point that living in slavery was worse than living at all.

I can say that while watching the movie I cringed throughout the whole thing; watching the character being beaten was almost too cruel for me to watch. The film tugged at my heart in an awful way. I could not even imagine having to go through what the slaves were put through. A teacher may argue that a student could learn just as well by reading about the slaves’ experiences in a textbook, but that cannot be more false. Even though I hated watching the pain and suffering that the characters went through in the film, I would not have the deeper understanding that I now have. I felt as if I was experiencing it with them, and that is something a textbook cannot give.

These two movies gave me two different insights into slavery, one showing the uplifting, overcoming of discrimination together, and the other showing the horrific brutality that was put upon slaves. The movies were completely different, but both had the same effect that gave me a deeper understanding and knowledge. The movie allowed me to feel with the characters, indirectly experience the stories, and empathize further with American slavery.