IMPERIALISM

CUBA

PHILIPPINES

Yellow Press

DJANGO UNCHAINED

Contribution by Sofia Daireaux

DJANGO UNCHAINED AND THE SCIENCE OF PHRENOLOGY

VIDEO LINK

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwvgbi_django-unchained-old-ben_shortfilms

The movie “Django Unchained” from Quentin Tarantino, takes place in Texas, 1858. In this film, Django (actor: Jamie Foxx), a black slave is promised his freedom by the German bounty hunter King Schultz (actor: Christoph Waltz), if he helps him find his own slaveowners in order to kill them. After achieving this, Django becomes a free slave and Schultz, feeling he owes something to him, accepts to help him rescue his wife, Broomhilda (actress: Kerry Washington), who’s working on “Candyland”. This enormous plantation belongs to Calvin Candie (actor: Leonardo DiCaprio), a slaveholder who also enjoys watching “Mandingo fights”, in which slaves are forced to fight to death.

In this scene, Candie introduces his guests to the skull of Old Ben, a slave who had worked in his family for a long time. He says that he’s been his whole life surrounded by “black faeces” and that he’s always asked himself the same question: “Why don’t they kill us?” Candie uses the science of phrenology in order to justify and “understand the separation of their species”. He shows that in the skull of blacks the area associated with “submissiveness” and “servility” is larger than any other human beings' skulls. On the other hand, he says that the skull of white men has more developed the area associated with creativity.

This topic has to do with the pro slavery theories developed by southerners in order to justify slavery. They tried to give scientific arguments for this institution, such as the “science” of phrenology which gave physical evidence of the blacks’ inferiority.

In fact there was a doctor from Kentucky, Charles Caldwell who “deployed phrenology in almost exactly the same manner as the fictional Candie. In 1837 he wrote to a friend claiming that "tameableness" explained the apparent ease with which Africans could be enslaved. This was a standard phrenological argument. Areas located towards the top and back of the skull, such as "Veneration" and "Cautiousness", were routinely claimed to be large in Africans.” (James Poskett. “Django Unchained and the racist science of phrenology”. The Guardian, Tuesday 5 February, 2013.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Unchained

TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2013/feb/05/django-unchained-racist-science-phrenology

Reconstruction

CIVIL WAR

TRASNPORTATION 1800-1850

Rather than giving funds directly to the railroads in the form of grants or loans, the government divided the land along the railroad rights-of-way into square sections, and alternate sections were given to the railroads. The remaining sections were sold directly to settlers. The government could command a much higher price for land that would be serviced by a railroad, and many settlers willingly paid a premium for the promising sites. Conversely, the lands granted to the railroads could be similarly sold to settlers in order to raise the necessary capital for the actual building.

The Rise of Manufacturing 1800-1850

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MAP 1848

John Wayne's "The Alamo"

Territorial Expansion

Labour Day

In more than 80 countries, on May 1, labor unions and working people take to the streets. The holiday is often referred to as International Workers’ Day or May Day. May Day was designated an international labour day by the International Socialist Congress of 1899, and it remains the standard Labour Day worldwide, with a few exceptions, including Canada and the U.S.

The day marks the 1886 Haymarket Affair in Chicago, where police shot and killed several demonstrators who were fighting for the eight-hour workday. Over the next several years, people across the globe began demonstrating on May 1, and in many countries the day became an official holiday.

So why is it that American don't celebrate it in May? Government officials feared instigating anger over the event at Haymarket Square. But politicians and others relaized that a holiday honoring workers was necessary. So, following the massive 1894 Pullman Strike, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was quickly ushered through Congress. From then, on Labor Day officially occurred on the first Monday in September.t is often celebrated with parades and speeches, as well as political rallies, and the day is sometimes the official kickoff date for national political campaigns in the U.S. It marks the end of the summer.