Reply A James B Initially, the North relied on small scale farming that fed them, and industrialization spread from New England. The rivers at the north were a good source of energy when they began making their own tools and inventions. The social and economic transformation of industrialization in the North had both positive and negative outcomes. Hand tools were replaced with power driven machinery resulting in an influx of workers in the North. Different families were performing different tasks in factories including cutting shoe soles while others cut leather in shoe factories. Products could be produced in large numbers and transportation improved and it could be done through canals, ships, and trains making trade easier to do. Communication improved and it was way faster with the invention of the telegram. With the railroads, people could travel and get jobs in further places. From the article ‘High costs of Being Poor’ it was surprising to learn how states can take resources from foster children and the elderly, including burial plots. It is just the same as being poor before and even after the industrial period because there were many problems facing the working class who barely had rights to protect them, and they had to fight through unions. In one of the YAWP readings, a strike occurred in the Mills when they wanted to reduce women’s wages. The strikes negatively affected the businesses and the economy at large in a negative way. Women were paid way less than men and as stated in the text, page 239, the wives of laborers took care of their homes and children. This has since changed and despite gender inequalities still existing in our society, women have been able to take up jobs and be successful even in the male dominated fields. Reply B Marcus T I think what is most important to take away from this assignment is the people that were fighting for the slaves to be free. There were people back then that did not believe it to be right, and fought for the slaves freedom with them. Benjamin Banneker is one of these people. Obviously he is a black man himself so he would be fighting for the freedom of his race in America, but the way he presents himself in his letter to Thomas Jefferson is perfect. Obviously, I think one thing that we all can disagree on is slavery, and how they passing a law that took away the free slaves' freedom and returned them to their masters. I disagree with it obviously because of how wrong it is. Slavery is wrong in the first place, then when they got their freedom, it was gonna be taken from them. In the first YAWP reading, the Letter of Cato and Petition, the man writes "To make a law to hang us all, would be merciful, when compared with this law; for many of our masters would treat us with unheard of barbarity, for daring to take the advantage (as we have done) of the law made in our favor." He preferred death rather than to be turned back to his master, if that doesn't show how cruel slavery was and how .

1. Reply A James B
Initially, the North relied on small scale farming that fed them,
and industrialization spread from New England. The rivers at
the north were a good source of energy when they began making
their own tools and inventions. The social and economic
transformation of industrialization in the North had both
positive and negative outcomes. Hand tools were replaced with
power driven machinery resulting in an influx of workers in the
North. Different families were performing different tasks in
factories including cutting shoe soles while others cut leather in
shoe factories. Products could be produced in large numbers and
transportation improved and it could be done through canals,
ships, and trains making trade easier to do. Communication
improved and it was way faster with the invention of the
telegram. With the railroads, people could travel and get jobs in
further places.
From the article ‘High costs of Being Poor’ it was surprising to
learn how states can take resources from foster children and the
elderly, including burial plots. It is just the same as being poor
before and even after the industrial period because there were
many problems facing the working class who barely had rights
to protect them, and they had to fight through unions. In one of
the YAWP readings, a strike occurred in the Mills when they
wanted to reduce women’s wages. The strikes negatively
affected the businesses and the economy at large in a negative
way. Women were paid way less than men and as stated in the
text, page 239, the wives of laborers took care of their homes
and children. This has since changed and despite gender
inequalities still existing in our society, women have been able
to take up jobs and be successful even in the male dominated
fields.
Reply B Marcus T
I think what is most important to take away from this
assignment is the people that were fighting for the slaves to be

2. free. There were people back then that did not believe it to be
right, and fought for the slaves freedom with them. Benjamin
Banneker is one of these people. Obviously he is a black man
himself so he would be fighting for the freedom of his race in
America, but the way he presents himself in his letter to
Thomas Jefferson is perfect. Obviously, I think one thing that
we all can disagree on is slavery, and how they passing a law
that took away the free slaves' freedom and returned them to
their masters. I disagree with it obviously because of how
wrong it is. Slavery is wrong in the first place, then when they
got their freedom, it was gonna be taken from them. In the first
YAWP reading, the Letter of Cato and Petition, the man writes
"To make a law to hang us all, would be merciful, when
compared with this law; for many of our masters would treat us
with unheard of barbarity, for daring to take the advantage (as
we have done) of the law made in our favor." He preferred death
rather than to be turned back to his master, if that doesn't show
how cruel slavery was and how horrible it was then I don't know
what does. I think a connection that I can make from today
compared to that time is the people in power not changing laws
for the better of the people here present, and the people calling
for a change not getting the answer they asked for. There are
plenty of examples in today's world of that. I think a question
that arose for me was how I did not pass the 2008 Civics
practice test. I should know all this stuff but I guess I never
paid close attention in history. It isn't my strongest subject for
the fact it doesn't interest me as much as medical or science
classes do.
1
3

3. American History
Student’s Name
Institution/Affiliation
Course
Professor
Date
The most important thing to remember from these sources is
that slavery, an institution that was prevalent in America is that
it was a long-fought battle whereby the enslaved people kept
pushing for their rights while the government, on the other
hand, did everything it could to suppress them. One thing that
stood out for me regarding this is the Letter of Cato and Petition
by “the negroes who obtained freedom by the late act,” which
shows the devastating reality of enslaved people in American
history. Despite a bill passed in 1780 to erode slavery, there
was a proposal to erase this bill and thus crash the dream of
enslaved individuals to achieve freedom, causing a formerly
enslaved man to write a letter attacking American Slavery.
I disagreed with the efforts of the proponents of slavery to write
off the 1780 bill. Through the bill, enslaved individuals had
already earned their freedom; therefore, to reinstitute slavery by
writing this bill would have been cruel. As the formerly
enslaved person writes in the letter, it would have been better to
hang them rather than make them slave subjects since their
enslavers would treat them even more cruelly. This is something
that stuck with me because it shows the extreme lengths of

4. slavery and what individuals went through, to the point they
preferred to die over it.
This made a significant connection from past experiences
learned in class, whereby we learned about the cruelty of
slavery through the different accounts of slavery. Throughout
the class, we have learned about what happened to these
enslaved people, even during the transatlantic trade, where they
were transported with inhumane and unsanitary conditions, to
the point some chose death by jumping into the water to drown
themselves rather than face slavery. Similarly, in the letter, the
enslaved person wishes for them to die rather than be
repossessed by their masters.
As I went through the assigned readings, one crucial question
arose, especially regarding Thomas Jefferson’s response letter
to Benjamin Banneker. The question is whether Jefferson’s
response was adequate, considering the passion and plights
Banneker had expressed in his letter. This is because Jefferson's
letter was short, without much consolation or reassurance
compared to the long descriptive and emotive letter Banneker
had written.