Jesse Johnson

1. After the Civil War, slaves struggled to define their newfound freedom and what they would do with it. Even though they were technically “free,” the Andrew Johnson administration allowed white Southerners to take away the former slaves new found freedom, creating problems for the former slaves. At first, freedmen were going to be assigned some vacant land in hopes they would be able to start a new life of farming on their own lands. This was quickly taken away from them, forcing them to fall…

Brooke herbst Lincoln The year was 1865, it was January and about two month after Abraham Lincoln had been reelected as the president of the United states; the Civil war had been going on for 4 years. It was a difficult time to be president, yet Lincoln took it in strides. He was loved by everyone and could have easily taken the fastest less opposed path to peace, but he had other plans. He planned to abolish slavery and end the war. All of the above described about the 16th president 's life…

Building Freedom: The Freedmen and Their Quest for Egalitarianism The foundation of the United States of America was constructed upon the corpses of Native Americans. Cemented by institutionalized white superiority and racism, African American slaves were the bricks by which were used to erect this great nation. Even upon their laggard release from slavery in 1865, freedmen were far from equality, justice, and most importantly, freedom. Not only is the meaning of freedom extrapolated by Eric…

Identity of the characters in any type of literary work can set the stage for the complete background of the story. According to Michael LeMahieu “identity is a role one performs publicly for an audience rather than a private essence one contains inside” (LeMahieu 33). It allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the meanings behind the characters. This holds true revolving around the identity of the characters in Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks and Joe Turner’s Cone and Gone by…

Eric Foner’s “A Short History of Reconstruction” is an updated, abridged edition of “Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution.” This book redefines how the Reconstruction Era is viewed, in ways historians have not done before. Foner chronologically starts with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 to validate his statement that “Reconstruction was not only a specific time period, but also the beginning of an extended historical process: the adjustment of American society to the end of…

In the heart of the Cold War, tensions were building between the Soviet Union and the United States. The war had wrapped its chains around both countries leaving many citizens with one simple question: What is going to happen to us? With morale at an all time low due to the turmoil and division inside and outside our borders, we were in desperate need of a miracle to bring our nation back together. This miracle came in on February 22, 1980 at the Lake Placid Olympic Games in New York City. A…

Killing Lincoln: The shocking assassination that changed America forever, by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard is an astounding book based around the life of our former president, President Abraham Lincoln. The book is based in the nineteenth century, around the same time of the civil war. It gives great detail on the events that happened during his last few days alive. This book also focuses on the civil war and the generals in them such as Robert E. Lee. The first part of the book “Total War”…

History always has a way of repeating itself, but for some events there is hope it will not happen again. The President is theoretically one of the most well respected people in the United States. Sadly this has not always been the case and probably never will be. This can happen due to different views and opinions on how things should be done. In Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America forever, it explains the approach to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination…

Bill O’Reilly is a tv talk show host for Fox News. He is a journalist by trade and at one time he was a high school history teacher. Bill O’Reilly has also authored or coauthored many books including the one we are about to discuss. Killing Lincoln was written as if you are looking through the character’s eyes. Bill O’Reilly was a high school history teacher and even admits in the forward of the book Killing Lincoln he was surprised at all the conspiracies when they started writing the book.…

Controversial continues to be the adjective that defines Kanye Omari West. On his Saint Pablo tour in San Jose Last week, Kanye proclaimed that if he had voted he would have voted for Donald Trump. The large rectangular stage he stands on is suspended from the ceiling and is at the center of a Colosseum style stadium. The lights casts a reddish/orange hue on the stage, a stark contrast against the blacked out crowd. The design of Kanye’s concert is very much a metaphor for how he is viewed in…