Prep for Tomorrow's Tests on Columbus and on the Civil War

Study hard tonight!  You'll do great tomorrow!

As you study tonight, be sure that you can:

• define each of the vocabulary terms and use each of them in a good sentence.
• analyze at least two of the three quotes, remembering to identify the speaker, identify the source, paraphrase the quote, explain why it is historically important and significant, and include necessary historical details.

To practice, here are some suggestions:

• Quiz yourself on vocabulary terms.
• Pretend it's the test and try to write two good quote analysis paragraphs.
• Pretend it's the test and try to write five to ten good vocabulary sentences.
• Ask a friend or family member to quiz you on vocabulary.
• Ask your friends from class or your family to help you if you are confused.
• E-mail me if you have questions--BUT I will not be near my computer between 5:30 and 10:30 tonight (no, Ruby, I'm actually not on the blog 24/7).

Here are the model quote analyses for grade 8:

QUOTE A: A. “For four years I have cursed my willful idleness and begun to deem myself a coward. I cannot longer resist the inclination, to go and share the sufferings of my brave countrymen, against the most ruthless enemy the world has ever known.”

ANALYSIS BY ODALYS AND 802: The first quote was said by John Wilkes Booth. He wrote it in a diary in November 1864. The quote means that he is mad that he is an actor and hasn’t been fighting for what he believes with the others. He wants to serve his country and he can’t take it anymore. He was part of the South so he opposed President Lincoln’s beliefs. To him—and to many people in the South—President Lincoln was the “most ruthless enemy the world has ever known.” He then assassinated President Lincoln at a theater. It was easy because there was no security. He did it so he could say he was a brave countryman fighting for his beliefs.

QUOTE B: “One white man named Lincoln supposedly fought the civil war to solve the race problem and the problem is still here. Another white man named Lincoln, again the same white man issued the Emancipation Proclamation to solve the race problem; the problem is still here.”

ANALYSIS BY 803: Malcolm X, a civil rights activist, said this in an interview in 1963. Malcolm X said that Lincoln, a white man, tried to solve the problem of racial inequality, but he didn’t get it done. However, Lincoln really fought the Civil War to end slavery and to keep the Union together. Lincoln actually believed that whites were better than blacks. Malcolm X is right that the race problem is still here, but he’s wrong about the idea that Lincoln was trying to solve it.

QUOTE C: “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.”

QUOTE ANALYSIS BY 804: Quote C is by Martin Luther King. He said this in 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial during his “I Have a Dream” speech. I note that when he said five score years ago, he was referring to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. He was also talking about the Emancipation Proclamation, when Lincoln ordered the slaves in the South to be freed. King said this at a time when he had wanted to make blacks equal. He thought segregation was cruel and he thought Lincoln was a great American.

Here are the model quote analyses for 7th grade:

QUOTE A: “They should be good and intelligent servants, for I see that they say very quickly everything that is said to them; and I believe that they would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they had no religion.”

ANALYSIS BY NYAH AND 703: Christopher Columbus said, in his log in October 1492, that he thought the Native Americans would be smart servants because they easily repeat words and that they could easily be converted into Christians because they apparently had no religion. This quote is important because it shows what Columbus really thought of the Native Americans. It shows that he wants them to be obedient. Other necessary information that you need to know is that the Spaniards had the natives as slaves and had them search for gold.

QUOTE B: “Their reason for killing and destroying such an infinite number of souls is that the Christians have an ultimate aim, which is to acquire gold, and to swell themselves with riches in a very brief time and thus rise to a high estate disproportionate to their merits.”

ANALYSIS BY HELMSLEY AND 703: This quote was written by a priest named Bartolome de las Casas in a book he wrote named, “Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies” in the year 1542. This quote was historically important and significant because it talks about the way that Christopher Columbus treated the Native Americans. This quote means that they were killing the Native Americans for the simple reason that they wanted gold and to be full of riches in a short time and to be a very powerful state. This was the time when the people had just discovered America existed. Columbus’s voyage was motivated by finding another route to India. He found the Americas instead and wasn’t conscious of the fact that he had discovered a “New World.” He had wished to get gold, but instead took many slaves to Spain.