Gone With The Wind

 

Gone with the wind was an award-winning and groundbreaking movie often known as one of the best-known films of all time. Gone with the wind tells a story of love, betrayal, and perseverance all during the civil war era. However, this story is so intriguing because it is told from the perspective of a white southerner, some could even consider it southern propaganda. The southern men are excited to go to war, the Yankees are evil and weak, and romance prevails despite being amid war. Yet through the eyes of Scarlett O’Hara, it seems we get a pretty close depiction of a women's role during the war.

Scarlett O’Hara is the main character of the film and much of what we see is from her perspective. While most of the movie is told through the white southerner, I found it surprising that scarlet’s character arc was realistic for most women during this time. In the beginning, we see that Scarlet is willfully ignorant of the war and things going on around her because, during this time most women were expected to not little to nothing about the war and deemed more attractive the less, they knew about it.

However, Scarlet is still her own person, she makes decisions in her best interest despite whether society deems them acceptable or not. For example, Scarlet dancing despite being in mourning was looked down upon by society, but she did it because she wanted to. Similar to how women began to explore their individuality and push society's boundaries with the majority of the men going off to fight in the war.

Finally, toward the end of the movie, we quickly start to see Scarlet become more diligent and involved in the war despite wanting to go back to her old life. We see her working in a hospital, delivering a baby, and traveling back home amid war. Scarlet was of course not 100% accurate to all women during the civil war but her story arc is loosely similar to many women during the war. Things like working in a hospital was realistic for many women during that time, women were heavily involved in the war, and some went even as far as becoming a soldier. They had to learn how to become the head of the house and many other tasks since their husbands were either dead or fighting in the war. While many people like myself did not enjoy Scarlet as a character it’s important to notice that her charter arc was realistic for both women in the north and the south.

Additional Links

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gone-with-the-Wind-film-by-Fleming

https://daily.jstor.org/the-dangers-of-gone-with-the-winds-romantic-vision-of-the-old-south/

https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1993/spring/women-in-the-civil-war-1.html

https://ahec.armywarcollege.edu/exhibits/CivilWarImagery/Civil_War_Women.cfm

 

Town Hall Reflection

 

During the town hall meeting, I had the opportunity of listening to arguments of proslavery and anti-slavery. While I had the privilege of arguing anti-slavery through the voice of Susan B Anthony, I was also able to listen to the perspective of pro-slavery thinkers. Even though I didn’t agree with their point I found it interesting how their opinion varied on pro-slavery.

The Improvement of slavery

During the town hall meeting I noticed a few pro-slavery thinkers had acknowledged negative aspects of slavery, but still saw it was necessary for America’s economy. For example, James Thornwell mentions in his speech that slaves should be allowed the right to stay with their families and not be separated, however in the same speech he mentions how the bible defines the relationship between slaves and men. A big supporter of the improvement of slavery was Thomas Jefferson. In his opinion, Jefferson firmly believed that blacks are inferior making slavery justifiable, but slavery can still be improved. Jefferson believed using older slaves on the farm and younger slaves in the housing could drastically increase the output of work completed by slaves.

(Thomas Jefferson)

Slavery is a Right

Another point that I heard being used by a lot of pro-slavery thinkers was that slavery is a right that can not be stripped away from them. This point was a big part of John Locke’s speech, he argued in the constitution every man has a right to own property. Since many slave owners had viewed the slaves as their property it was considered that they had a right to keep them according to the constitution. This was also a big point in John C Calhoun’s speech, however, instead of using the constitution, he argued that slavery is a state right.

(John Locke)

Slavery is necessary for America

The last major point that I noticed was that slavery was so embedded into America’s way of life that it would be impossible to detach from the practice. Alexander Jackson argued this heavily in his speech, he stated a white man can not run the country if he is working on his land. He also mentioned that while white men were here to run the country slaves were put on the earth to work. Thomas Robert also had similar thinking he mentioned that America had a system where the North relied on industrialism and the south focuses on slavery due to the conditions of their environment.

Each one of the pro-slavery thinkers made several points to create a sound argument. However, I found it interesting that the three points made above were constantly brought up by many of the pro-slavery speeches. Overall, I enjoyed hearing both sides of the argument and being able to speak through the voice of someone else.

Susan B Anthony and the Town Hall

 

Childhood

Susan B Anthony was born on February 15, 1820, in Massachusetts. She was one of eight kids raised in a Quaker household and due to her Quaker upbringing, she had an immense belief that everyone was equal under God and that God exists within every human being. Due to her and her family’s beliefs, Susan B Anthony played a role in activism at a very young age. At the age of 17 she was already participating in abolitionist meetings in her own home. As Anthony got older, she later became a teacher at a school in Rochester, N.Y earning less pay than her male counterparts. Much of Susan B Anthony’s childhood and early adult years built the foundation for her work in later years.

(Susan B Anthony's childhood home)

Women's Rights 

Susan B Anthony is most known for her work in Women’s rights by being recognized for being president, of the Rochester branch of the daughters of Temperance, organizing the Women’s National Loyal League, the first national women’s political organization in the United States, and giving speeches alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton. During this time there were many ways that women were treated wrongly. However, the biggest right Susan B Anthony is most known for fighting for is women's right to vote. In 1872 Susan B Anthony was arrested for casting an illegal ballet, which inspired this famous line from her speech On Women's Right to Vote "It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.” Anthony believed that if women didn’t have the right to vote they would never be able to move up in the world and they would continue to be second to men.

 

Abolitionist

However, while Susan B Anthony is most known for her work in women's suffrage, she also was an abolitionist that fought for slavery to end. From an early age, Anthony was a participant in the abolition movement in her own home this is where she met men such as Fredrick Douglas who not only taught her about what it is like to be a slave in America but also gave speeches alongside her. Anthony served as an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society and gave speeches such as Make theSlave’s Case Our Own, In this speech she asks her audience to put themselves in the slave’s position, asking them to imagine if they were the people put through one of the vilest forms of slavery ever seen. 

 

I would like to think that Susan B Anthony would include all these life experiences and elements in her speech. Below I’ve highlighted all the elements made above in what I envisioned Susan B Anthony would say with blue being her childhood and beliefs, pink being her work with women’s rights, and purple being her views on abolishing slavery.    

 

(Susan B Anthony and Fredrick Douglas) 

Town Hall Speech 

Good afternoon, Everyone

 

My name is Susan B Anthony, however many of may know me as the infuriating woman that wants to ban alcohol, others of you may refer to me as the woman that needs to sit down and shut up, and some of you may know me as a friend or teacher. However, regardless of my reputation, I am here to ask you to question your beliefs and ask yourselves how it can be possible to enslave a human.

First and foremost, what makes a human a human?

 

Under God, a human is self-conscious, willful, and created with a purpose

 

According to some of you, a human is someone with the ability to vote to make women and slaves second class  

 

However, I believe being a human is being able to understand that there is God within each and every one of us giving us the ability to empathize when we are treated unfairly.

 

Therefore, I would like to simply ask you to use your god given ability to empathize

 

Imagine working day after day in the rain, sleet, or snow and never reaping the benefits of your tireless endless work

 

Imagine the only difference between yourself and a pig is how much you’ll run for on the market

 

Imagine never knowing what it means to be considered your own person, but instead being forced to carry out the will of a man with the same capabilities as you.

 

The majority of you will hear this and see it as nothing more than meaningless because anything coming out of a woman's mouth does not matter and never will, but more importantly, many of you believe you cannot empathize with slaves because they are not a person, they are 3/5 of a person, you cannot empathize with something that is not a man.

 

You cannot empathize with something that cannot read and write

You cannot empathize with something that cannot make a choice  

You cannot empathize with something that cannot think

 

However even as a so-called fragile, incompetent, delusional woman, I have been able to meet people that completely defy your beliefs. I have met men such as Fredrick Douglass who has the ability to not only read and write but also communicate their ideas eloquently and critically. Yet based on many of your beliefs this is impossible simply due to the color of their skin or the curl of their hair.

 

Instead of challenging your beliefs or questioning how you could possibly align your Christian beliefs to justify your right to treat a human created by God as less than an animal, you pat yourselves on the back for civilizing these barbaric people. You taught them Christianity a religion that states do to others as you would do to them yet subject slaves to the will of their master.

 

In closing I would like to leave you with this statement If, by some magic power, the color of our skin could be instantly changed and the slave’s fate made really our own, then there would be no farther need of argument or persuasion, or rhetoric or eloquence.

 

   

 

 Additional Links

 https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/susan-b-anthony

https://ipg.vt.edu/DirectorsCorner/re--reflections-and-explorations/Reflections102218.html

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=3#:~:text=Anthony%20devoted%20more%20than%20fifty,and%20convicted%20

 

The Bible and Slavery

 

There were many ways slavery was argued in America. Proslavery people would argue that slaves were property and therefore owning slaves was a constitutional right. Antislavery people would argue that owning slaves was morally wrong because slaves were also human. However, one thing both sides had in common was their use of the Bible to justify slavery. Some might question how one text can support having slaves and ending slavery at the same, which is why we’ll be exploring this topic in this blog post.

Bible arguments against slavery

Many who argued that Bible was against slavery used the Bible’s general principles to justify their argument.  Arguments against slavery would include general rules of thumb like the ten commandments or quote verses such as Luke 6:31 “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”.  General rules such as this one begin to show the Bible is against slavery because Americans would not dare enslave themselves or treat anyone like them as they treat their slaves. Quotes like these capture the overall essence and concepts used in the Bible.

One Abolitionist that used the overall concept of the Bible against slavery to her advantage was Susan B Anthony, in her speech make the slave's case our own. She references (Mt 22:39) “could we but make the slave our neighbor and love him as ourselves”, along with (Heb 13:3) “could we but feel for the slave, as bound with him”. In these two quotes, Susan B Anthony slightly changes these verses to ask her audience why these statements in the bible do not apply to slaves just as much as they do to white people.

General principles like the ones used by Susan B Anthony are known better as morals and ethics or simply knowing right from wrong. However, since most morals were based on teachings of the Bible many people assumed that if slavery felt wrong based on their own morals, then the Bible would never support slavery. Therefore, they used the Bible’s overall main idea to create a valid argument for why the bible was against slavery.

Bible arguments for slavery

Instead of general principles and morals pulled from the Bible, arguments in favor of slavery listed specific moments where slavery was used along with the absence of slavery in the Bible. Many people that argue the bible supports slavery point to the fact that God had ordained slavery and Jesus had never spoken against it. They believe that if slavery had been against the teachings of the Bible, then Jesus would have spoken out against it during his time on earth. Since slavery has been around since the beginning of time if God truly had an issue with it then he would have condemned the practice in the bible.

Another argument that could be used is Paul’s statement where he gives describes the relationship between slaves and slaveowners 6:5: Ephesians “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ.” This statement not only shows that slavery was in the bible, but it also had certain guidelines on how slavery should be handled. According to both of these examples, the bible does not condemn slavery and even mentions that slaves should treat their masters as they would Christ.

 

    Conclusion

Ultimately the argument is not entirely based on facts, but instead on your interpretation of the bible. Based on both sides of the argument you can tell they both have evidence from the bible that supports their points. The reason why both sides can be justified is because the bible is a book of ethics that leaves its meaning up to the interpretation of the people who read it. Meaning the bible supports both sides of the argument, but where you stand morally determines whether you believe the bible supports slavery or not.

 

Additional Links 

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A145473606/GPS?u=hpu_main&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=f63fcda6

The Supreme Court

The supreme court is known to many as one of the most powerful courts in the world, with the job of interpreting the constitution. This powerful job is split between only nine judges with the ability to serve for life. The decisions made by these nine court judges can completely change the outlook of the entire country as seen in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case or the Brown v. Board case. However, this information was not my biggest takeaway from the supreme court lecture instead, my biggest takeaway was the importance of marketing in the supreme court.

The supreme court is marketed to the public as sophisticated and rational while maintaining the idea of being accessible and empathic to the public. As seen in the picture above each one of the court justices is dressed in their robes and they all seem to be elderly. Their attire conveys the professionalism of the justices while they stand in order of seniority representing the exclusivity of the court. However, the justices are all smiling and they are also made up of different genders, races, and overall physical characteristics. Their smiles make them seem empathic and their ranging characteristics show they represent different groups of people. 

Another example of how the supreme court is marketed is the building itself. In recent news, the security fence put around the court has been removed due to recent discourse surrounding Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. I feel this is because the tall gates did fit the supreme court's marketing image. The building itself is meant to be seen as grand yet they removed the gates to make it seem as if the building is still visible and attainable to the public. 

I believe the reason marketing is so important to the supreme court is because the court justices are not directly chosen by the people but instead by the president. While the power of the court is dependent on the trust of the public the court is not chosen by the people yet instead marketed to the people. 

https://www.supremecourt.gov/visiting/exhibitions/GroupPhotoExhibit/Default.aspx

https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/08/security-fencing-around-court-is-removed-but-building-remains-closed-to-public/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWRoXYRsaeo