Mississippi Town

For my town I did Hannibal, Missouri. Hannibal was founded in 1819 by Moses Bates. By 1830, the population was 30. Access to the Mississippi river and railroad transportation fueled growth to 2,020 by 1850. Hannibal was considered a city in 1845. Its latitude and longitude are: 39 degrees 42' 15" N and 91 degrees 22' 39" W. Other famous residents include Molly Brown who was on the Titanic and Cliff Edwards who played Jiminy Cricket. The population in 2000 was 17,757. Hannibal is best known as the boyhood home of Mark Twain.

Slavery Project Summary

For my project, I researched Sally Hemings. Sally was a black slave and was Thomas Jefferson's mistress. She was almost completely white in appearance. She supposedly had six children with Jefferson. Today, the relationship of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings remains an interest to historians and the public. DNA testing was used to see if Sally had any descendants. DNA testing however has not proved whether or not Thomas Jefferson was the father of her children.

My Weekend

My weekend was very boring. Since I was sick, I stayed inside. I played Wii and watched t.v. Yesterday my brother threw this big glob of mud, twigs, and leaves into my hair. It's not really exciting but at least it's something I did. I also got a new book called "Girl at Sea", and it's really good.

Three Stories

During the past couple months, we have been studying three different people. Johnny Tremain, Ishi, and Jude. There are some similarities between them as well as some differences. First of all, J.T., Ishi, and Jude all have really good friends. Johnny has Rab, Ishi has Timawi, and Jude has Max.
They are also fighting for something. Johnny was fighting for liberty during the Revolutionary War. Ishi was fighting for liberty when the white people wiped out their tribe. Jude was also fighting when he was living during the Vietnam time. Some differences are that Jude is Irish, Johnny is English, and Ishi is Native American. They also have different ages.

Spring Break

"Look at all the seals!" I was on the sailboat Bandit off of Baby Island. My friend and her family took me sailing for four days. We went past Baby Island where we saw gray whales, harbor seals, and dolphins. Near the Oak Harbor Military Base, there is a place called Point Polnell. There are signs that say no trespassing. The signs also said Unexploded Ordinance or in other words, unexploded land mines. However, we went walking along the beach anyways. We stayed there for two days then sailed back to Holmes Harbor. My wonderful sailing trip was over.

The Life of Ishi

Ishi was a Native American, and belonged to the Yahi tribe. He was born around 1860. Over the years, his tribe was wiped out due to the white people. The only remaining family were his grandparents, mother, uncle, cousin, and friend from another village. Over time his family died making him the last member of his tribe. He was later found in a slaughterhouse near San Fransisco, where he was taken to the local jail for a place to stay. He was then moved into the Museum of Anthropology where Alfred Kroeber studied Ishi closely and learned about the Yahi. In 1916 Ishi died of tuberculosis.

Daybook Activity

One story of the A-bomb was in the perspectives of the people in the plane, Enola Gay. It says that for the captain, it was sort of like a game to them. It was also a very calm day with no enemy fire or anything. The crew were surprised that there was nobody shooting at them.

I think that if a crew member from the Enola Gay met a survivor of Hiroshima, he might have felt very guilty. And if the survivor said that their family died, that might make them feel even worse. Of course the crew member would not actually say he helped bomb the city, so he might go along saying stuff like "Oh, that's too bad." And "How horrible." Eventually, after the conversation, he will feel guilty about what happened.

A Hiroshima and Nagasaki Survivor

On August 9, 1945, Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. However, 3 days earlier, he also survived the Hiroshima attack as well. He became the first person certified as a survivor of both U.S. atomic bombings at the end of World War II. Japan is the only country to have suffered atomic bomb attacks. Yamaguchi is satisfied that his record is now a historical fact.

Perspectives of Hiroshima

In the story about Hiroshima, it was written in Mrs. Nakamura's perspective. She was a citizen of Hiroshima. It says that she was a person who did what she was told. So she and her 3 children went out and stayed in a military area. There were several warnings over the radio, that instructed the citizens to evacuate. However, she stayed at home until and urgent warning had been issued. So the town was prepared for the bombing, but didn't know when it would happen.

Newspaper Article

In 1836, Mary Shodd, a girl only of 13, was very determined to stop slavery. Being an African American herself, she wanted all slaves to be free. She would always get mad when her friends would talk bad about slaves. She and her friends at the finishing school she went to, hid a runaway slave. They hid him under a table while his owners were searching for him. She will become an important part of the Underground Railroad.

The Cat Years

This story was mainly talking about the transition from children to teens. It described the children as to being puppies while teenagers as cats. It was also discussing how a child will be loyal and faithful to the parents while the teenager will be independent. The story says"Keep still, and your lap open and it will come to you." This was talking about how to treat your teenager.

5 Minutes of My Day

Over the weekend, I went to the market with my mom, brother, and sister. My sister and I stayed in the car. There was this woman whose car was parked next to us. And you know what she did? She pulled down her pants and peed in the parking lot. Now that is just really gross. So all of this happened in 5 minutes.

The American Revolution

I think that the main point of the video about General Burgoyne was to show that the Americans were not the only ones who had problems. The video also pointed out Burgoyne's overconfidence which was eventually his downfall as well as the rest of the British. He didn't realize the war would be as easy to win as he thought. He also didn't realize the method of which the Americans were using. Which was guerrilla fighting or ambushing.

The Mayflower Arrival

When the voyagers arrived in the New World, it was winter time and it was very cold. A group of men went to go explore and came across an abandoned Indian camp. The Indians went to a different camp in the winter. So the men came and they found mounds. They dug the mounds up and discovered either corn or the grave of someone. The men took the corn and instead of burying the dead, they looted the graves. The women were also eager to get off the boat. Not to mention the foul stench and the sick people. However, since there were no dry or wet suits, the men started to get chills because the just wore wool clothes and leather boots. So there were still many problems that they faced even off the boat.

The Mayflower

Some unexpected problems occurred while planning the Mayflower voyage. One of the problems that they had while planning out the voyage was the cost. It was estimated to have cost about fifteen-hundred pounds sterling . Another problem was one of the ships was taking on a lot of water. This was because the masts were too large and were creating a lot of torque, causing strain on the ship. Some of the first voyagers got off the ship when they turned around. It was a very hard voyage, spending nine weeks at sea, but finally they made it to the New World.

The Boston Massacre Trial

In the Boston Massacre 5 people were killed. In the t.v. show, John Adams, I thought that they did the scene very well. it all started when about 200 rioters were throwing snowballs at a British soldier. the jury later found out that they were throwing oyster shells and clubs. the first shot was fired when someone threw a club at the soldiers head. Then the rioters were shouting " Fire, d*** you, fire!" However, Captain Preston who was in charge told them not to fire.In the trial for the British soldiers almost everyone in the court were very unhappy. They obviously hated the British and wanted them to hang for murder. They just wanted them dead. However, the British soldiers were innocent. The men who hated them even made up lies to get them proven guilty. In the end when the jury found the soldiers not guilty, the citizens were outraged. John Adams was defending the British soldiers. Sam Adams who hated the British as much as everybody else, knew john Adams did the right thing.

Thoughts on To Kill a Mockingbird

To kill a mockingbird is considered a sin. It is because the bird has a beautiful voice, so it would be bad to kill something so beautiful and innocent. I think it corresponds with the title of the movie because the man named Tom Robinson was accused of rape. However, everyone knew he was innocent, but I think they found him guilty because he was black. In the end he was shot and killed and should not have been killed. There was also a man named Boo Radley who was really unique. And if you killed him, that would be like killing a mockingbird because he didn't do anything wrong anyway.