This week in history we focused on the presidency of John Quincy Adams, and all the reasons why even though he was an excellent and experienced statesman, his four year presidency was pretty ineffective. I absolutely love history! It's so amazing to find connections between current events and events of long ago. We tend to think that political events and contentions of our day are unique, and they really aren't! When John Quincy Adams was elected in 1824 he ran against 3 other men, and none of them got a majority of electoral votes so the House of Representatives had to declare the winner! Sound familiar? Hanging chads, anyone?
After his term as President was over, John Quincy was elected and re-elected to the House of Representatives and served there for 18 years. He was the first former President (and only one other has done it since) to later serve in Congress. He also practiced law in his retirement, and as a very old man was co-counsel on the landmark Amistad case that was heard in the Supreme Court in 1841. If you are not familiar with the Amistad story, you should be. It was a Spanish slave ship whose slaves broke free, killed many of their captors, and forced the surviving sailors to head the ship back to Africa. But the sailors secretly managed to steer the ship north instead, and it was captured off the coast of Long Island. The slaves and the ship were then held in Connecticut while people tried to sort it all out.
The Spanish government claimed the slaves as their property and wanted them returned. The ship owners claimed them as THEIR property and wanted them returned. At that time, even though slavery had not yet been abolished in the United States, slave trade from Africa had been. So some compassionate U.S. attorneys realized that the slaves, having been born in Africa, were actually free men and should be returned to their homes. The ensuing trial was an important step toward the abolition of slavery in the U.S.
We watched the excellent movie "Amistad" for movie night. It is rated R for violence and brief nudity, so be forewarned if you decide to watch it. The violence of the slave revolt on board ship is very graphic, and so is the violence of the slave captors toward the slaves while aboard ship (that is also where the nudity occurs). It made me weep to see the injustice of it. I'm so thankful that we can learn and talk about such important historical moments together as a family.
Also this week Little Man finished a story about King Arthur and is now working on an original Medieval themed story about a boy named Ben.
He also began working on his home-made Halloween costume with my hubby's help. He is creating a robot suit out of cardboard and some $2 goggles. :)
I spent a lot of time prepping and taping walls to prepare to paint daughter H's bedroom, which we are turning into an office/guest room. I have decided to call it the "study." Pics coming soon!
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