John Adams answer

John Adams was born on October 30 1735 to John Adams, Sr. and Susanna Boylston Adams. John Adams Sr. Was a farmer, well involved in his community and a deacon in the Congregationalist church. John Adams was very religious and because of that his father hoped he would become a minister. Attending Harvard College at sixteen the young Adams took time in planning his career. After graduation he became a school teacher but, finally decided to enter into the law. He married Abigal Adams October 25, 1764. He had the highest opinion of his wife and their correspondences have become good insights into what John Adams was like.
John Adams lived in Massachusetts, and was a modest farmer. Living close to Boston he was asked to defend the British officers after the Boston Massacre. Adams believed this involvement would ruin his career. However, he held to his cause and defended the British. Unlike his cousin Samuel Adams, John Adams was not a radical leader. He believed that America should be separated from Britain almost from the first but, he did not have the leadership qualities to inspire men. He was involved in his community which led him to be a member of the delegation sent to the continental congress.
At the first Continental Congress Adams was one of the few that believed that America should separate from Britain. The Lexington and Concord battles had already been fought and he believed that the time for peace was over. His biggest rival in this belief was John Dickenson. Dickenson was a lawyer from Pennsylvania who believed separation was the worst thing that the colonies could do in such an early stage. Because these sentiments were held by most of the Continental Congress peace treaties were sent to Britain instead of a declaration of independence.
In 1776 during the second Continental Congress, John Adams elected George Washington to be the General of the American army. This was a tactical move besides being a logical decision. Washington was from Virginia, one of the most powerful colonies in the union and he had the most military experience out of the other leaders of the Congress. Because of this move, more support for the separation of the Colonies was given be the other delegates.
In June of 1776, the final battle between Adams and Dickenson took place. Dickenson still believe that to fight the British now would be,“to brave the storm in a skiff made of paper.” To counter Dickenson’s impressive speech Adams spoke for a full two hours with the zeal of his character about how important separation from Britain was to the American colonies. "These colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states," he argued and,” that there was nothing more important on this side of Jerusalem,” were some of his thought provoking statements in that speech.
Because of his great speech, the colonies sounded as one voice to separation from Britain. John Adams, and Benjiman Franklin helped Thomas Jefferson to edit the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson later recounted that John Adams had been, "the pillar of [the Declaration's] support on the floor of Congress, its ablest advocate and defender against the multifarious assaults it encountered."

John Adams

Please write 500 words on John Adams by using your out of text readings, text-book and the movie shown in class.

first blog post cont.

Since I have never been in that kind of situation it's hard to know exactly what I would be feeling. I imagine curiosity being the first emotion I would feel when the slavers came. They would be so different, so unlike me. Everything about them from ships, clothes, language and skin would be alien to me. It would be kind of like a Men from mars setting where the aliens come and start killing people for no apparent reason. I would probably be feeling like the people in those horror films. What in the world is going on? How can I protect myself? Can I find a way to make these aliens go away? Can they be killed? Since I had no way to stop the slavers, the feeling of terror and hopelessness would be almost tangible. The society I had known for my entire life would be crumbling around my ears with no way to stop it. Because they would take the strongest people from our tribe, the village would be vulnerable to another raid.
To be captured by the slavers would be any ones worst nightmare. I would have heard stories about the cruelties of what was going to happen, some exaggerated into myth but most true. Walking with chains for miles with no humane comforts, being taken into a large building that was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, shoved into a small dark room for days sometimes weeks, would be enough to break my soul. It would be dark and hopeless without any comfort. Life would pass by in agonizing seconds with anything human taken away from you. It would be an animal like existence, being unable to make decisions or even wash one’s self. And the diseases. People would be dying constantly from them. We couldn't give them proper burials so they were left to be eaten by wild animals. In the fort I saw a person die right in front of my eyes. I wished it was me. When it’s loading time they take you through tunnel after tunnel one at a time, making you bend down when you go through doorways. Then you would see the sun. It had been a long time since I saw the sun. It would be blinding. Blinking a couple of times would expose the terrible scene before me. I would never see my loved ones again. I saw the little boat that would carry me to the waiting ship. The people who go on those boats never came back. There were sharks in the water, I could see their fins. I could jump over board. No there are sharks. We could push the alien over. Then the other aliens would shoot and recapture us. We don't know how to row the boat. I got into the small boat, looked at my home land for the last time, and then was put on the white ship.
No more light. No more air. There were too many bodies for such a small space. They wouldn’t let you move much. I just lied there with chains connecting me to the people on my right and left. I urinated where I was. The stench was unbearable. Oh to die. It would be so nice to just give up, stop living to just be the gain of these cruel men. Besides what would happen after the ship took us to where we were going? There would be no hope for a better situation. I would just die.

H240 first blog post

Imagine that you live in Africa and have been captured by a slave trader and are being shipped across the Atlantic.

It is hot and humid.