Labor Unions

Various labor unions have been formed throughout the history of the United States; but the Unions really took a stand in the 19th century. Workers were put through brutual conditions and long hours with terrible salary. Workers formed these rebelious groups, or unions, to not only improve working conditions such as health and safety issues, but shorten the average 10-12 hour work day. During the early 1800's many work places were tansistioning into the factory style of work with early machines taking the place of human hands. This transistion made the wealthy richer and the poor struggle more. Many unions were formed for the sake of the every day hard workers who barely made a living  pushing through these arduous conditions ; some of these unions include The Knights of Labor formed by Uriah Stephens, American Federation of Labor, and the Committee for Industrial Organization.

KKK

The Klu Klux Klan first appeared around 1866 after the Civil War by veterans of the Confederate army.The group originally wasn't formed to be an anti-black group, but focused on the killing of freed slaves, intimidating northerners and southern republicans. In 1868, the Klan had killed around 1300 southern republican voters but soon faded away only to make a bigger comeback by the early 20th century. This time, the Klan was more structured and oraganized and payed memebers to establish new chapters for the organization. Their preachings focused on racism, anti-Catholicism, nativism, and anti-Semitism and was now growing to a size of around 4 million members. In the 1920's, members became governors for multiple states and began finding seats in congress; taking a much more political approach to voice their beliefs. After thousands of innocent murders and organized riots, Alabama's main KKK organization collapsed includng Indiana and 14 other participant states. Small groups still call themselves memebers of the KKK but it doesn't remain an official organization. Studies say 1 out of every 30 people were memebers of the Klan in the 1920's but since 2005 the number of memebers has dropped even more to 1 out of every 100,000 people. They still encourage to recieve as many memebers as they can for another up bringing, but turn many away with their ruthless actions towards racisim.

Civil War Political Cartoon

This carton represents the different views between President Abe Lincoln and Jefferson Davis with George B. Mclellan in the middle. Abe Lincoln simply wanted to preserve the Union and didn't believe it to be possible with slavery in the picture. Jefferson Davis on the other hand, was from the south and viewed slaves as property and a part as the south's economy. In the middle we have General George B Mclellan who was a Civil War General, memeber of the Democratic party, important organizer for the Union, and opposed federal interference with slavery.

Assignment 1

John Bell was a politician from Tennessee and a wealthy slaveholder. Bell served for the United States in multiple posistions including The House of Representatives and Senste. John Bell was born in Mill Creek, Tennessee and graduated from Cumberland University where he studied law. He first participated in politics in 1817 when he ran for Tennessee state senate and served a single term. Then from 1827 to 1841 he served for Tennessees 9th congressional district in the House of Representatives. When the election of 1860 came around, the Whig party had crashed but John Bell wanted to preserve the Whigs becoming a presidential candidate In the the United States Constitutional Union Party and opposed the spreading of slavery; although he was a large slaveholder himself. Abraham Lincoln won the election but Bell had 39% of the Souths votes and 13% of total votes. Following the election, Bell traveled to Washington D.C. To meet Mr. Lincoln and help to keep Tennessee in the Union.