Bacon's Rebellion

Bacon's Rebellion happened in 1676 and was a movement led by Nathaniel Bacon in opposition to William Berkley, which was the governor of their home colony, Virginia. The civil disobedience was started when farmers were upset with the corrupted government and wanted their land and families to be safe from Native attacks. Instead of working with the laws of Virginia they pushed them aside, and tried to overturn government. Some scholars say that the second amendment was derived from this rebellion because the right to bear arms was made more important than ever before this point.

American Tobacco and European Consumers

In the 17 c. the new world was mostly based on the simple product of tobacco, selling it, growing it, smoking, sniffing, chewing, or drinking it. This caught on in Europe and the English were willing to buy large quantities of it, and that was the only reason that tobacco had commercial value. Some people in Europe hated it such as King James who was recorded referring to tobacco as “A costome loathsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the black stinkin fume thereof, nearest, resembling the horrible…smoke-of the pit that is bottomelesse.” He also uses the point that it is imitating Natives as his one of his examples asking if Europeans should walk naked as the Natives do. Also saying it was barbarous and beastly mannered. When Spaniards first brought tobacco to Europe during 16 c. doctors claimed it to be the “wonder drug” because it “cured” hunger and thirst for sailors, and provided a “joyous intoxication.” At the beginning the habit was expensive because of the scarcity of tobacco. But after the first century or so prices plunged from the increasing availability of the product. The book states: “American tobacco was the first colonial product of mass consumption by Europeans” and the economy did well after that because smokers needed pipes, boxes to hold the tobacco, embers or steel and flint to make sparks, pipe cleaners, and spittoons. In conclusion tobacco changed the new world and Europe one in the same.

Rhetorical analysis

Author: Though the document doesn't directly state an author it is infered that is is written by members of the British Council and King James. This is supported by the first parargraph as follows: "JAMES, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. WHEREAS our loving and well-disposed Subjects, Sir Thorn as Gales, and Sir George Somers, Knights, Richard Hackluit, Clerk, Prebendary of Westminster, and Edward-Maria Wingfield, Thomas Hanharm and Ralegh Gilbert, Esqrs. William Parker, and George Popham, Gentlemen, and divers others of our loving Subjects, have been humble Suitors unto us, that We would vouchsafe unto them our Licence, to make Habitation, Plantation, and to deduce a colony of sundry of our People into that part of America commonly called VIRGINIA, and other parts and Territories in America, either appertaining unto us, or which are not now actually possessed by any Christian Prince or People, situate, lying, and being all along the Sea Coasts, between four and thirty Degrees of Northerly Latitude from the Equinoctial Line, and five and forty Degrees of the same Latitude, and in the main Land between the same four and thirty and five and forty Degrees, and the Islands "hereunto adjacent, or within one hundred Miles of the Coast thereof;"

Audience: English residents in the colonies.

Tone: Proficient, this is supported by the word choice of the document and the

Purpose: Virginia’s first charter

Ethos: Imposes fear in the audience and attaks their emotions provoking them to do as they are told.

Pathos: Reverential and careful of keeping that mutual respect.

Logos: Very specific and clear in saying what needs to be understood, and sort of also a hidden motivation in making the colonists belive that thay care about them when they are only pursuading them to do what they want.

Author: Virginian council

Audience: King James and the English Council

Tone: proficient

Purpose: Virginia’s first charter

Ethos: N/A

Pathos: Reverential and careful of keeping that mutual respect.

Logos: Very specific and clear in saying what needs to be understood.

Distruction of the Indies

My own view is that the spaniards were to hard on the indians. Though i concede that they didn't know any different, I still maintain that they could have gone about it differently. For example when it states "This is a most tender and effeminate people, and so imbecile andunequal-balanced temper, that they are altogether incapable of hardlabour." Although some might object that the spaniards were just there to do their job to take over the country, i reply that if they were just a little more passionate about the issue they would have had more cooperativeness. The issue is important because it dictated the whole future of the americas.

my writing philosophy

Don't tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon. I have formed my own philosophy on writing, it is also the motto that I live by and apply to many other aspects of my life. What my idea means is that you can’t let anyone limit you to what you are capable of, and that if you put your mind to something and truly dedicate yourself you can exceed all expectations from anybody, including yourself. Writing should be an expression of ones feelings while also serving its purpose. If a writer can get his or her thoughts through to the selected audience then their job has been completed. And a good writer also knows that there is always room for improvement. Another viewpoint that I have come up with is that you can never be great if you settle for anything. This motivates me to strive to be the best and yearn for the knowledge that can help me achieve my goals. As you can see writing is a part of my life that I put a lot of thought and effort into, not only so I can attain my objectives but as well as to take as much out of every experience as I can to help me better my life and expand my comprehension of the world around me.

'English Composition as a Happening' reflection

Charles Deemer's main point in this piece is the education that the English composition course provides is insufficiant and should be redesigned to be modeled after The Happening.

Examples of support for this are:

"The 'teacher' speaks from his place in the front of the classroom, sheltered more than likely by the wall of his podium, while the class in the rear listens or pretends to."

"Let me be more explicit in the delineation of my goals. English Composition is a proper introduction to the possibilities of the university, a preview of what the university is about. This is actually the unadmitted, and ineffective, tradition of the course, since the written medium has been the essential vehicle of scholarly communication between members of the university, student and "teacher" alike. English Composition is what the university is about. Or should be what it should be about."

"Neither should English Composition instruct in the pleasant phrasing of nonsense. It should actually instruct in nothing, in the sense that a "teacher" reveals and a class digests. What does a "teacher" know? He is merely human."

"The goal is a class of students actively aware and participant, a class that does not swallow the "teacher's" remarks but considers them."

"To remove the "teacher's" authority. To engage the student's active participation. Fortunately, a recent art form provides a model upon which to base a reconstruction of English Composition that will attain these ends. I refer to the happening"

"students have been compulsorily miseducated for years prior to their university enrollment."

"But such a drama in the classroom happening should never take the form in which a student changes an opinion because the "teacher" disagrees with him."

"But there is yet another, and I think more important, advantage to modeling English Composition after the happening. Western education has long suffered under the delusion that scientific abstraction is the unique way to knowledge. This, unfortunately, to the neglect of the poem"

"The happening is a first step toward such a revitalizing experience. And so English Composition as a happening properly previews all that a university should be. Witness the reengagement of the heart, a new tuning of all the senses Taking the first step toward poetry"