p5.09+Crispus+Attucks+Page

Group Members and Roles

 * Michael: Leader, Handouts
 * Michelle: Speaker
 * Melina: Radio
 * Lauren: Journalist
 * Rachel: Photographer, Video
 * Matt: Visual
 * Michelle: Brochures

What Your Group Wants -- Plan for New Constitution
Slavery - Extreme restrictions on slavery and importation of African slaves. Slavery needs to not entrench itself into American society. This convention should not be a political demonstration of the relationship between the economic scene of Northern merchants and Southern plantation owners. The Constitutional Convention must uphold the natural law entitled to everyone. African-Americans are human beings entitled to the same freedoms.

Trade - Government at national level should direct trade.

Bullet Points of Your Plan
-Clear incompatibility of slavery with the principles of the American Revolution and Declaration of Independence. -Slavery is a moral abomination. -Insist on restrictions on entry of slavery into western territories. -Uncompromising in denunciation of slavery. -Emotion and morality should help our position against slavery. -The representation of slaves to compute population for Congressional representation is a strong and controversial issue.

Radio Announcement
Script: ''All men are created equal. So it is stated in the Declaration of Independence, yet our newborn nation allows innocent men, women, and children to suffer the cruelties of slavery every day of their lives. It is our duty as citizens of the United States of America to end this moral abomination that plagues the freedom our fathers gave their lives to achieve. African-Americans are human beings too; “America is free, could not we be?” Approved by the Crispus Attucks coalition.''

Brochure




Orator: Text of Your Speech
media type="file" key="crispus-attucks-plan-09-10.flv" width="640" height="360" align="center"

My fellow country men, we all have congregated here to discuss the matters of the constitution! Now at this moment, our fellow Christians are scourged, beaten, taken from their families, separated from their spouses and denied their voice! They every day, are sold into captivity and taken from their native land!!! What fellow Christian brothers do I speak of?? Our Black brothers! Many shall say that they are no more than chattel! BUT cows and chickens cannot become Christians!!! Because they are cows and chickens! Not men! These poor slaves are baptized and converted to become Christians! If they are no more than chattel, than why do we treat them as men? If the south wants them counted as humans and equal so that they may have the upper hand in congress, than FREE them!

Freedom! Liberty! Are not these the things on which our newborn country was founded upon!? We bled for it! Died for it and we dutifully fought the British, our opposition for so long for it!! Now, we turn around and scourge our fellow men in the name of economy! We continue to call our country a free country, but alas we are not! We hold slaves!!!

If we will not free our brethren from their bondage, than let us deny the Declaration of Independence! Did we not say: “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal??” THE TRUTH! IS THAT ALL MEN ARE EQUAL WHETHER BLACK OR WHITE!! Our God does not see us as black and white, bond and free, but as one body of man! If we continue to hold our brothers in bondage we are at risk! For God will not let us continue this abomination! It is the curse of heaven to hold slaves! If we shall not let them have a voice than they shall rise up and seize it themselves! If we do not give them a chance to speak than we shall expect a no better rebellion than which we have just fought! ARE WE NO BETTER THAN THE BRITISH!! ? ARE WE NO BETTER THAN KING GEORGE THE THIRD??? If we do not give them this opportunity than we shall be at fault on judgment day! When God himself will strike us down!

Our own Crispus Attucks died for the fight for our country! A black man! Fighting the British because he did not want to be controlled by an island! HE DIED FOR US! Do his people not deserve our respect? Does his death mean nothing to our country and its free inhabitants? How can we let slavery continue when one has died for us in the name of freedom! THE FREEDOM THAT WE SO CRUELLY DENY THEM!!!!

Humans are not above one another because of the color of their skin! It demeans the name of humanity! We have beaten down our fellow Christians!

Christ himself died for the World! Not just the white man! Why!? Why do we continue to beat them!?

NOW! WE MUST GIVE THEM A VOICE AND COUNT THEM AS MEN!! PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY! LET THEM BE FREE! PART OF THIS COUNTRY! LET THEM SPEAK FOR THEY HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY! GIVE THEM LIBERTY!

I REND MY COAT IN ANGUISH AND I THROW DOWN MY (HAT O R POWDERED WIG) IN DISGUST FOR SLAVERY! media type="file" key="crispus-attucks-plan-09-10.flv" width="720" height="480" align="center"

Debater: Possible Objections to Plan and Your Replies
-Slaves are property, not people.

''Then why are they allowed to practice religion and be married? African-American slaves are just as human as Caucasians.''

-Slavery is not an important issue, economy is the main concern.

''Slavery is a VERY important issue in the colonies; it causes disunity and subjugates and enslaves an entire race of people. We believe abolition of the slave trade can be knit into the compromise.''

Journalist: Write-Up of Convention Activity
Constitutional Convention by Lauren Zimmerman

At the Constitutional Convention, held this afternoon, delegates came together to reform the Articles of Confederation, which soon took a controversial turn when the delegates decided to do away with the entire establishment and create a new Constitution. The delegates quickly divided into different factions according to their position on the new national government. Opening speeches from each group showed the great hatred for the others and the devotion which each showed for their own beliefs. Namely two conflicts arose pitting the small, northern states against the large southern states: legislative representation and slavery.

Virginia, representing the large states, and New Jersey, representing the small states came forth with their own plans for representation. Virginia advocated representation by population with a bicameral legislature while New Jersey lobbied for equal representation by state. The vicious prejudices between these two factions showed as delegates participated in mudslinging. Both have vowed to secede from the nation without the promise of solely their ideas written into the constitution.

Other delegates proposed a combination of the two plans with both, a House of Representatives, appeasing Virginia, and a Senate, to please New Jersey. Advocates of “The Great Compromise” explained how theirs is the “moderate decision” and is essential to the success of the new nation. They explained how, “Together we’re better, forever we’re stronger.” They pled for the Virginians and New Jerseyans to see reason and to compromise for the good of the country. How long before these two groups will realize the need for all the states to have a say and stay with the convention is yet to be known.

The North and the South again clashed with the issue of slavery. The Dixiecrat Bloc distanced themselves from the North, by explaining how Northerners don’t understand the Southerners, having “no idea what slavery is like.” They argued that to own slaves is their choice and they wish to preserve the so-called right. It preserves their economic wealth and this “servitude,” with which they renamed the more appropriate name of slavery, is all that black people are good for. They asserted that without slavery, these Christian people would be a danger to society.

The Crispus Attucks Coalition, including slave-owner Delegate George Mason of Virginia, discussed how they do understand slavery. George Mason and others have witnessed the atrocities of the morally abominable institution and called for extreme restriction and termination. They discussed how these people, our own brothers, are not given the same rights which we enjoy every day. Delegates quoted our own Declaration of Independence, saying that “all men are created equal” and have rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” As the Dixiecrats argued for the right to have slaves, why don’t they consider the God-given rights of our African people? These enslaved people are human-beings and cannot be compared to black bears roaming a city but merely an inexperienced child who needs guidance after being freed. Although the Dixiecrats were correct in believing that the slaves today have only known their master’s plantation and plantation work, they can survive on their own if we teach them and let them choose to have freedom and tenaciously hold to their rights before another, like these despicable Dixiecrats, can strip them of their natural and inalienable rights. As a delegate for the Great Compromise questioned, “Should pigment be what we judge by?”

Compromise for these problems will have to come before consensus can be reached for the constitution. Toward the end of the convention, signs of peace showed through the contentious fog as the delegates participated in a group hug. Beginning with Virginia delegates, eventually the entire convention was swayed to join in the embrace. Tensions between political views may be lifting, however Dixiecrats and Crispus Attucks’ members refused to close the circle, forcing New Jersey to fill in and keep the peace. Will the moral debate come to an end? All we can hope is that delegates will heed to the advice of Great Compromise delegates when they said, “Compromise is best.”

Comments from Rival Plans
I'M HUNGRY.

Love, The Dixiecrats. <3

Hide your babies. Love, The Dixiecrats <3

Yes I do know that, but I didn't write that. Someone whose name I've been instucted not to disclose was at my house when that was written, and therefore was on my wiki account. The mystery continues :O!!! - Jay

This was a different occasion. It was Friday I believe...don't remember.

American slavery and the colonies under Britain are not the same thing. And exclamation points are a privilege, not a right. - The British Block's Monarch, Period 1.

Photos