Semester In Review

This semester

During this semester, we have read and discussed so many great writings from Early American Literature. I have mentioned this many times, but I have read more this semester than I have ever in my life, and I am really enjoying it. One of our first assignment s was the essay of “What is American?”, by Hector Saint-John de Crèvecoeur. A great piece of writing that showed how life in America was during the Revolutionary War, there were only thirteen colonies in the United States, and Great Britain owned pretty much owned the rest of the world. Most important, they claimed to own the United States and we were fighting them for it. The struggles people were going through in their old homes and the struggles of life in America.  With this essay, Hector Saint-John de Crèvecoeur became the first American author to write a European bestseller.  Next was the great Ralph Waldo Emerson, and his work, “Self-Reliance" which states “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” A great piece of writing that makes you ask the question, who are you really? Also this week, we were able to read some of the works, of one of my favorite author’s, Edgar Allen Poe.  Poe who lived in Richmond, and went to school at University of Virginia, might be one of the most famous writers in American Literature. I still need to visit the Poe Museum in Richmond, and also Poe attended the one year old University of Virginia, where they still have his room which is only 5 blocks from where I work. I was able to listen to the audio from,” The Tell-Tale Heart” and the poems, “The Bells”, and “The Raven” , all masterpieces that will be read and loved  forever.

Next was Thoreau’s essay, “Walking” and “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” "Let me live where I will, on this side is the city, on that the wilderness, and ever I am leaving the city more and more, and withdrawing into the wilderness". This was my favorite assignment, we got the opportunity to take a walk in nature and talk about what we observed. It was very a relaxing and pleasant experience and I found a new lunch spot by doing this assignment. One thing that I do not enjoy reading about is slavery. I know we should all learn from our mistakes in history, but the pain and the hardship that those people had to go through during this time in history is awful. In reading Harriet Jacobs, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”, you learn what it was like to be a female slave. Having to sell her children and it also shows the sexual abuse that the female slaves had to deal with on the plantation is horrendous. Listening to the order of how the Declaration of Independence was amazing, Jefferson would write a first draft then the committee would do a draft. I was interesting to see the differences in writings between Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

People were not satisfied with the constitution, so people wanted a Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. They were introduced by James Madison and they helped protect the natural rights of liberty and property. “The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection” James Madison’s Federalist Paper #10. Not everyone was for the Bill of Rights being added to the US Constitution, Alexander Hamilton was one and he wrote #84 in the Federalists Papers to express his opinion that the Bill of Rights is not needed to ensure the rights of the people. One place that I have visited since I moved here a couple years ago was, St. John’s Church in Richmond where Patrick Henry gave his famous speech of “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death”. Cool old white church that is important in American History. Thomas Paine’s,” Common Sense”,  presented an argument to the people who lived in the Thirteen Colonies that they no longer needed to be under British Law and that they need independence from the British Crown. Selling 500,000 copies in the first year alone, he donated all of his profits to George Washington’s Continental Army.

Ben Franklin’s Virtues were great and it seemed ahead for the time he was living in, but it seems that everything that he did was ahead of his time. My Virtues are,

1.     Loyalty: to always be trustworthy.

2.     Compassion: Continue to care and help others

3.     Perseverance: Always continue fighting, never quit

4.     Wisdom: Never stop learning, Knowledge

5.     Ambition: Drive for success

6.     Honesty: No lies to self or others

7.     Acceptance: Don’t judge a book by its cover

8.     Gratitude: Appreciating things more

9.     Trust: Be able to trust others

10.   Courage: Always stand up to what’s right

11.   Creativity: Continue to be different

12.   Peace: No more fighting, words or fists

13.   Justice: Always remain fair

14.   Integrity: Marinating strong moral principles

15.   Cockiness: Knowing that I can always change how things end up

16.   Change: Always be open to change of location or heart

17.   Love: Be Loved and give it back

18.   Respect: To who should be

19.   Service: Put others before myself

20.   Expression: Talk about what bothers me or makes me happy