America: The Story of Us
lilwing88
Posts: 2,812 ✭✭✭
Anyone catch this on the History Channel? It's pretty good (even if it is a little liberal leaning). Anyways, in the first episode they mention the second wave of settlers that came into Jamestown. The first settlers were dying off pretty quickly, so the next ones had to think of something quick to keep 'em going. One of the settlers smuggled over some tobacco seeds and started planting. With the help of the Natives and some luck the first tobacco harvest was successful. The first crop was estimated to have a current value of $1 million. Not bad. It's also the origin of Connecticut leaf tobacco.
What was really interesting was that they were growing the tobacco in sandy soil, so they had to use dead fish for fertilizer........ Eeeeeeew.
On a side note: At the time, Spain was the main exporter of tobacco. The punishment for selling or smuggling tobacco seeds out of Spain was death. Kinda makes the Cuban embargo look pretty stupid, huh?
What was really interesting was that they were growing the tobacco in sandy soil, so they had to use dead fish for fertilizer........ Eeeeeeew.
On a side note: At the time, Spain was the main exporter of tobacco. The punishment for selling or smuggling tobacco seeds out of Spain was death. Kinda makes the Cuban embargo look pretty stupid, huh?
Guns don't kill people, Daddies with pretty daughters do…..
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NO FREAKING S*#@ ! Enough Already!
but beyond that, the concepts of Personal freedom and liberty that were written into the founding documents have made their way to the people in time. the founding fathers recognized that they themselves are only human and have probably made mistakes in the forming of the country so they included an amendment process that eventually fixed the injustice of slavery.
the founding fathers did take on concepts like individual liberty in a way that the world had not seen for thousands of years or maybe ever. they did make a gross error but the effort was there. as you yourself said, there was "so much stuff going on during that time." the political arena was not the same as it was today. not all of the founding fathers owned slaves. some did. were concessions made in order to get more people on the side of the Americans? probably? was keeping slaves one of them? maybe?
the good to come out of the founding fathers concept of individual liberty and "all men are created equal" is that this eventually lead to the Thirteenth amendment:
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.[1]
since then, the people of the US have been lifted to a higher quality of life than any society before, and they brought the world with them. the freedom that the founding fathers conceived, when finally properly instituted, made this nation great.
we are still human. and we still make mistakes. we still are making some, but we were at one point the freest people on the planet.
"The genius of the Constitution is that it can always be changed. The genius of the Constitution is that it makes no permanent rule other than it's faith in the wisdom of ordinary people to govern themselves....... Our founding parents were pompous middle-aged white farmers, but they were also great men. Because they knew one thing that all great men should know: that they didn't know everything. They knew they were going to make mistakes, but they made sure to leave a way to correct them. They didn't think of themselves as leaders, they wanted a government of citizens, not royalty. A government of listeners, not lecturers. A government that could change, not stand still. The President isn't an elected king, no matter how many bombs he can drop, because the "crude" Constitution doesn't trust him. He's a servant of the people."
Where I grew up, the main road through the area is named Rolling Rd. While in High School and attending my driver's ed class we were taught by the football coach, a legendary man, not due to any sort of success of out football program but moreso for being the prototype for the American high school football coach. He only taught driver's ed, and only for one quarter of the school year. He didn't go by Mr. but by Coach, Coach Muskett.
So anyway, early on in our course he was commenting on how roads got their names. He used local roads that we would all know. As such he told us the following:
"Rolling Road, you all know Rolling Road up there off the parkway? It's called Rolling Road because they used to roll out the tobacco for drying up there." Which is true, and there are many examples along the eastern seaboard. Rolling Road in Baltimore is probably the most famous example.
Now, intersected my Rolling Rd. is another called Hooes Rd.(pronouced "whose"), with that in mind he continuned.
"And then there is Hooes Rd.(pronounced "hose"), cause that is where all the hos used to hang out."
Far and away one of my fondest high school memories. Highest GPA of my high school career, perfect 4.5.
The Founding Fathers may have been rich before the Revolution, but they knew the War would destroy everything - and it did; they were all broke by the end as they knew they would be. The War was waged for freedom from an oppressive Gov't, not for riches or material gain