Cherokee Nation in the 1820s

John Ross (pictured to the right) and Major Ridge were Cherokee leaders who felt that the best way for the Cherokee nation to remain independent and strong was to adopt parts of white culture. Click on the link to find out more about these leaders, and respond to the following two prompts:

1. Why do you think that many of the Cherokee opposed the ideas of Ross and Ridge. If you had been a Cherokee in the 1820s, which side would you have been on, and why?

2. Why do you think John Ross, who was only one-eighth Cherokee and raised and educated in the white community, might have felt so strongly about his Indian heritage?

Who really invented the cotton gin?

As you know, every history book says that Eli Whitney "invented" the cotton gin. And while it is true that Whitney received the patent for the cotton gin, your research from the Smithsonian Institution showed the real story about the cotton gin's invention might not be so simple. So, who really invented the cotton gin?

Nat Turner's Rebellion

1. Explain what is happening in the picture. Are there religious connections in the picture? What are they?

Document 1 --   The Richmond Enquirer, August 30, 1831:

We cannot say how long they were organizing themselves, but they turned out on last Monday morning early (the 22nd) upon their nefarious [sinful] expedition. They were mounted to the number of 40 or 50, and with knives and axes, knocking on the heads or cutting the throats of their victims. They had few firearms among them, scarcely one, if one, was fit for use. But as they went from house to house, they drank ardent spirits [alcohol] and it is supposed, that in consequence of their being intoxicated, or from mere fatigue, they paused in their murderous career about 12 o'clock on Monday.

2. How many slaves took part in the rebellion?

3. The census of 1830 shows that there were 7,756 slaves in Southampton County where the rebellion occurred. Why do you think such a small percentage of slaves participated in the rebellion?

4. Do you think that the author of this article was biased in favor or against the slaves? Why?

Document 2 -- Harriet Ann Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself:

Not far from this time Nat Turner's insurrection [rebellion] broke out, and the news threw our town into great commotion..... By sunrise, people were pouring in from every quarter within twenty miles of the town. I knew the houses were to be searched, and I expected it would be done by country bullies and poor whites. I knew that nothing annoyed them so much as to see colored people living in comfort and respectability. Those who never witnessed such scenes can hardly believe what I know was inflicted at this time on innocent men, women and children, against whom there was not the slightest ground for suspicion. Colored people and slaves who lived in remote parts of the town suffered in an especial manner. In some cases the searchers scattered powder and shot among their clothes, and then sent other parties to find them, and bring them forward as proof that they were plotting insurrection. Everywhere men, women and children were whipped till the blood stood in puddles at their feet. Some received five hundred lashes.

5. Why do you think that the "country bullies and poor whites" were allowed to harass the Africans?