The importance of Thanksgiving Essay Example for Free

The importance of Thanksgiving Essay Holidays in my opinion are times for families who are spread across the United States and those around the world to come together and share laughs, memories, and stories. One of the most important and my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving in my family is a time for love, giving thanks, and simple joy of being with family. It is a time to give thanks for all the things you’ve been blessed with from family right down to the shoes on your feet. Thanksgiving is so important to me because it allows me to spend time and visit with my family. Being around family just provides a sense of serenity and calmness. When we are all together everyone is laughing, and just enjoying each other. My family’s presence makes me feel as if there isn’t a care in the world. Love is indescribable and one of the greatest things about Thanksgiving. The entire atmosphere during Thanksgiving is that of uplifted spirits and rejoicing with family and friends. I get so excited just waiting on everyone to arrive and start sharing stories about work and life. The love that my family has is greater than any problem or circumstance that arises. When we all gather together to give thanks, I can feel the love in the air. The warmth I feel in my heart is a feeling that I wouldn’t trade for all the money in the world. Although we disagree at time my family is always there for me when I need them most. Giving thanks is another reason Thanksgiving is my favorite and in my opinion the best holiday I celebrate. Although I pray and thank the Lord every night before I go to sleep, giving thanks and being around the people you love while doing it makes it all the more special. When my family prays over the food before we eat Thanksgiving dinner we all join hands and go around the circle and say what we give thanks for. Giving thanks shows how grateful you are for the smallest things in life like the beauty of our world to the things we take for granted such as air, functioning limbs and hearing. The joy I get from being around my family is simply electrifying. I get so excited just thinking about celebrating Thanksgiving with my family. They are always so positive and fun to be around especially during the holidays. I feel like during Thanksgiving I don’t have a single care in the world. When I wake up during the days leading to Thanksgiving the happiness I feel is unexplainable. It is a feeling of freedom and just a relaxation from the everyday burdens of life. I give my family full credit for the person I am today. Without their loving and caring spirits and personalities I don’t know how I would be where I am today.

An Account of Racial Inequality in Langston Hughes Freedom Train :: Hughes Freedom Train Essays

An Account of Racial Inequality in Langston Hughes' Freedom Train "Freedom Train" by Langston Hughes is a powerful and eye-opening account of racial inequality in the early Twentieth century. Hughes poem is filled with a sense of irony but also hope towards the future. This tongue-in-cheek look at the so-called "Freedom" Train is a powerful image. Langston Hughes included important ideas in a simple and original way. Hughes was writing at the height of the Harlem Renaissance and his focus remained on issues faced by African Americans, but he did not dwell on the injustices. "Freedom Train" and other writings of Langston Hughes had a very hopeful tone. The poem, written in 1947, was produced in a time surrounded by war, patriotism, and also racism in America. World War II was ending and patriotism was at a high. The title, "Freedom Train" was coined from a locomotive that carried the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and other important American documents on a tour across the United States. People were free to visit this train when it arrived in their town. This was one example of growing patriotism after World War II. The irony of this poem is, as Hughes points out, the fact that the American people were celebrating this Freedom Train and documents assuring our freedom, while African Americans were still not even considered equal citizens by most white Americans. Racism was still common and blacks were still treated as inferiors. These injustices are what Hughes is concerned with. Hughes cannot fathom this as the "Freedom" Train because he has no real sense of freedom, but he is hopeful and looks to the future. Hugh asks, "How can this be a Freedom Train?" He remarks that he cannot even sit in the white man's railroad car that, at the same time, is encouraging freedom. The irony is unbelievable. Hughes is, in a sense, waiting for his own freedom train in a much deeper sense. By taking this poem one section at a time, and looking at the historical significance, one discovers these important links and u nderlying messages conveyed by Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes gives us an African American view on many issues that were important during this time. He writes in a very sarcastic manner when speaking of the Freedom Train.

Political, Social, Economic, and Intellectual Life

Between the time period of 1840 and 1860, slavery played an influential and pivotal role in the development of a new southern lifestyle. In the struggle for dominance in America, slavery was the South’s stronghold and the underlying cause in much of their motives for many of the economic instigations along with the affirmative political actions. By dominating the everyday southerner’s life, slavery also dominated the economic and political aspects of life during the height of the slavery period.By the 1840’s the Southern economy had become almost entirely slave and and agriculturally dependent. Without the dependence of slaves in the south, a person was to remain landless, poverty stricken or struggling to sustain life through the means of a minute, ineffective farm. However, even though slaves dominated the southern economy, slaveholders only included about 2 to 3 percent of the population, and most owned less than ten slaves. This small percentage of fortunate individuals were the few people successful in a slave based, cash crop, agricultural, Southern economy.In turn, the Southern economy was controlled and dominated by those who did and did not have slaves, which generated the political ideology and political atmosphere formed as a result of the utter reliance on slavery controlling all aspects of everyday life. ?Slaves in the south were the main contributors to the South’s economic success. The invention of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin made possible the wide-scale cultivation of short-staple cotton.All professionals worked diligently with one another to make sure each function, from production to distribution, was properly executed on the plantation, and that an ample supply of cotton was always present. An organized network of commerce never developed in the South, as the high demand for cotton in Europe, primarily Great Britain, and in North America, more slaves were needed in the south to continue to produce the lucrative cash crops, booming the southern economy and the need to create and reform the cash crop business.The the new cotton crop and other rising crops like rice and tobacco led to the increasing demands that were higher than the current production rate. In order for them to generate a more lucrative business, the south used slaves as a labor source to produce crops, which had the largest impact on the southern lifestyle. This in turn boosted the south's economy, which allowed the the southern life to thrive and create a distinction between themselves and the other economies of North America. Whilst slaves dominated the southern economy, slaveholders only accounted for about two to three percent of the southern population.This small, yet powerful percentage of individuals were the people successful in agricultural business and the driving force behind the usage and continuation of slavery in the South. Without slaves there would be no cotton, tobacco, or sugar production and without these integral items, the Southern economy would absolutely collapse. The South depended on slaves to fuel their economy which in turn allowed for slavery to dominate the economy and be the sole resource of the South. ?Between 1840 and 1860 many political issues, debates, and actions were inflamed by the presence of slavery.As America grew, both in population and in size, the South wanted more slave states and the North wanted more free states to increase their hold in politics and sway decisions in favor of what put them in a position for the greatest success. One important act that provoked the slavery dominated political world of 1840 to 1860 was the Kansas and Nebraska Act, composed by the highly acclaimed Democrat Stephen Douglas. This act was successful in repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and called for popular sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska which under the Missouri Compromise had been free, as dictated by federal law.The Missouri Compromise was originally an act to se ttle disputes about free states and slave states entering the Union in an attempt to keep the balance of free states and states that permitted slavery equal. To repeal this was to almost beg for revolution; hence the term â€Å"Bleeding Kansas† which included the John Brown riots and caused political and social unrest in these areas affected by the law. The Compromise of 1850 was another feeble solution to the predominate problem of run-away slaves and the recurring issue of slavery in new territories.This Compromise created stronger fugitive slave laws which satisfied Southern slave catchers and enraged Northern abolitionists. Millard Fillmore, President at the time, was inept in favoring any side and felt that this compromise would be the driving force that would keep the already fragile union together. The compromise also made California a free state, and the area won in the Mexican Cession would be subject to popular sovereignty, and lastly, dictated that there would be n o slave trade in Washington D. C. but it would remain a slave state to keep the proper balance. The weak and extremely controversial compromises would would only further split the nation on the topic of slavery and create a greater schism within the topic. From 1820 to 1860 slavery was a recurring topic in Congress and the House of Representatives. Slavery is even considered to be the cause of the Civil War and in the end, was grasped as the main reason for bloody fighting. All political issues during this time could not be discussed without the topic of slavery behind it. Read also: Theories Actually Seen in Practice in Ojt

The Differences Between The French And British And The...

Dissatisfaction, especially in the American colonies led to the rejection of mercantilism. Soon enough, capitalism replaced mercantilism in the late 18th century. Capitalism’s main principles challenged government economic control and advocated free trade, competition, and choice as routes to economic prosperity. The factors that allowed small numbers of Europeans to dominate vast areas throughout the world were naval power and a large central government. Naval power, guns, and cannons gave a large military advantage to the Europeans over the Indigenous peoples who were fighting with sticks. The large central government helped the Europeans conquer vast areas because they were able to send many ships and soldiers, which defeated the less†¦show more content†¦Since the land that the Aztecs inhabited was resource rich and full of gold, the Spanish wanted it to themselves. They overtook the land by killing the native people through a series of battles. The Aztecs that survived were eventually enslaved and forced to mine the gold or work on plantations. Gold was extremely valuable and to the Spanish meant power, money and status, which was why they acted in such extreme measures. Some factors that led to the mistreatment of the Indigenous peoples were the facts that they inhabited the land that the Europeans wanted and that they were inferior to the Europeans. Europeans wanted the Indigenous peoples’ land because it was either resource filled, good for agriculture, or habitable enough for colonies. As a result of all these factors, the Indigenous peoples were forced off their land, generally through violent means. Indigenous peoples living in inhumane conditions and acting savagely led to them being mistreated as well. Europeans believed themselves to be superior ans as a result they treated them as such. Indigenous peoples were tortured, enslaved, forced off their land, and so much more. Spanish priest and historian, Bartolomà © de Las Casas, was considered to be the first European who tried to improve the living conditions of the Indigenous peoples. Las Casas actually took part in the conquest of Cuba, however when he saw the way Indigenous peoples were treated, he was disgusted.