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.