John Biewen, the author of Scene on Radio for his series, ‘The Land That Never Has been Yet’ made this series to talk about different historical events that relate to U.S. democracy. Biewen retells events about democracy in the United States in his own insight that they are glories and full of flaws. Episode 2 of this series recounts a specific historical event with the purpose of interpreting how U.S. citizens used their hardship as an opportunity to demand a better life. This historical event is Shay’s rebellions. Throughout the episode, John Biewen uses different rhetorical modes like example, narration, and ethos to broad out his insights of this event. These modes help his interpretations become more effective to the listener or reader …show more content…
Readers and listeners need know what he is trying to say about Shay’s Rebellion is true so he quotes directly from Henry Knox and George Washington to start off the podcast with a primary source that could start off that credibility. A few pages later of the conversation between these historical names John Biewen says, “Shays’ Rebellion. If you grew up in the U.S., you may have heard about it in high school History class, and your textbook might have said that it helped move the framers to write the Constitution. But if you’re like me, you couldn’t say much more about it than that” (Biewen 6-7). In this quote we can see that Biewen is trying to relate to us in a way to build his reliability with people like him who have heard of Shay’s rebellion from textbooks but didn’t know much context about it other than that. After questioning what this event says about democracy in the U.S., John Biewen introduces us into his insights of Shay’s Rebellion that textbooks don’t include, he was able to effectively construct this because of his ethos. His ethos supports his effectiveness into relaying his purpose to the readers or listeners because we can trust that his interpretations are correct and helps us understand the concept of democracy
In the HISTORY, Shay’s Rebellion is the protest around 1786 to 1787 by the American farmers that are against the state and the locals collecting all the taxes and judgmental for the debt. The farmers from New Hampshire and South Carolina rebel in Massachusetts. In addition, it is where there are bad harvests, economic depression, and high taxes to threatened the farmers with the loss of their farms. A man who was from Massachusetts, Daniel Shays, was a captain in the Continental army. Furthermore, at Springfield there were incidents where leading merchants, lawyers, and supporters of the state government were harassed.
Former captain of the Continental Army Daniel Shay led the protests. He refused to sit back and watch as his fellow Americans were about to lose their farms due to high taxes, economic depression, and bad harvests. Almost every state had its own military force and the national government could not gather enough individuals to ban together. This made ending the protests nearly impossible and the new leader’s hands were
This event was a test to show if the new country could take the violence current countries had to take. Shays Rebellion showed the American government was weak and needed a change soon. This event was so tragic that this led to the destruction of The Articles of Confederation. In current day America we are now governed by a stronger government under The Constitution that is why the event is so important in American history and that is why I chose this event.
The audience were both loyalists who were unsure in joining the American rebels who were leaning towards the side of the loyalists that it was written in such a way that common people could interpret concepts and to promote the rebellion. The technique was to use what he thought was "common sense" to persuade people into believing what he expected to be an obvious thing. His argument is for American independence which begins with theoretical reflections about government and religion which furthermore progresses into the specifics of the colonial situation. He distinguishes between society and government; society to him is constructive whereas government is represented as an institution. He saw that the global significance of the American struggle for independence was human rights and freedom.
In the book “The Island” by Gary Paulsen, fifteen year-old Will Neuton is portrayed as an introspective character because he’s constantly having conversations with himself in his head about ongoing situations, he comes off as “timid” or even “shy” with most people not including family, and above all, because he enjoys planning and thinking about all the things surrounding him to better find his peace and happiness. To begin my statement, Will is an introspective character because of the mental situations or conversations with himself. For example, during one of Will’s adventures to an island he observes the blue heron among other natives but is fascinated by this bird and concludes to himself “I am a painting, I can sit still this way and
Rhetorical Analysis Thomas Paine Speech In Thomas Paine’s speech about The American Crisis, he captures the audience's attention and makes the issues evident. In the text “The American Crisis” by Thomas Paine, we explore the issues that America is facing and try to find resolutions. Paine increases his credibility by using personal experience and emotion to show the people he really cares.
Many of these farmers who joined the rebellion had been fighting in the American Revolution, leading the farmers to not be able to tend to their land. The government did not pay them for all the time the farmers spent fighting in the war. Shay was determined to save his farm so he gathered nearly 2,000 farmers and started to attack courthouses. The point of attacking courthouses was to prevent the courts from selling property as payment for debts. Once George Washington stated, “If there exists not a power to check them,” Washington questioned what would happen and what was happening at the time without an executive branch (Document 3).
“Let the people take arms. The remedy is to present them with the facts, pardon, and pacify them.” (A letter by Thomas Jefferson, paragraph 2). Shays’ Rebellion was a group of American citizens that were fighting for their rights and were against taxation during the 1780s. Although many people perceive Shays and his followers as rebels, nevertheless Shays’ and his followers were freedom fighters because the government were treating others unfairly, the justice system was full of revenge, hatred, etc., and the wealthy became more rich from taxes.
The taking sides essay for the week is if the 1828 election represented a democratic revolt of the people. There was an issue that arose after the 1824 presidential election; claims were uttered that the election of 1824 was corrupt which resulted in John Quincy Adams winning the election. During the election in 1824 Andrew Jackson loss the votes to Adams, therefore, Jackson began to campaign for the 1828 elections. Prior to Jackson it depended on the wealth of the individual to determine the president and this is what was believed to have happened in 1824. Jackson campaigned and earned votes from the majority of voters and became president in 1828 the first president who wasn’t known for his wealth.
As Thomas Jefferson wrote, “...what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let the people take arms.” In January 1787, a group of farmers lead by Daniel Shays protested in Massachusetts, because they were upset about unfair taxing laws and because of them, lost their property, couldn’t make money, and were sent to jail. They protested by taking over the government’s arsenal. Although some may argue that Daniel Shays and his followers were rebels because of their controversial methods, nevertheless Shays and his followers were freedom fighters, because they had a valid reason for what they did, the laws were unfair, and they were just trying to get their rights.
So few people these days truly understand the political chaos that happened in the early days of the United States. One man named William Manning, a farmer who became enveloped in the ever shifting political landscape, recognized this split in society, especially when it came to how much influence people like him had in policy. Seeing this disparity prompted Manning to construct The Key of Liberty, a series of writings explaining his views on society, critique of the current policies and the role that many ordinary Americans were denied in the democratic system. While we don’t know much about what most people back then thought of early America, we can see through Manning’s lens that the struggle for democracy still had not made its way to the
Even though shays men were defeated by James Bowdin, it still affected the lives of people after the war. The Article states” Shays’ rebellion demonstrated the high degree of internal conflict lurking beneath the surface of post-Revolutionary life. National leaders felt compelled to act to put an end to such popular actions that took place beyond the bounds of the law. ”(Daniel Shays - Patriot or Traitor). Sheys’ rebellion has convinced others to fight for what's right and never give up hope.
In these three writings, Harry Macarthy's “The Bonnie Blue Flag,” George F. Root’s “Battle Cry of Freedom,” and “The John Brown Song.” Display their views on how society fought for their freedoms. Men were told they had to fight, causing many to die because of fear. All of these writings express the value of freedom and how all people should have rights. In the American Reader by Diane Ravitch, almost all of the readings are similar in the sense that everyone wanted equal rights, Natural Rights, and a strong but not too powerful government.
Therefore, by applying the four levels of interpretation to whatever one is reading, one can obtain the most knowledge from what the author is trying to say, and that, as Dante
In the United States, people always talk about freedom and equality. Especially they want elections could be more democratic. In American Democracy in Peril, Hudson’s main argument regarding chapter five “Election Without the People’s Voice,” is if elections want to be democratic, they must meet three essential criteria, which are to provide equal representation of all citizens, to be mechanisms for deliberation about public policy issues, and to control what government does. Unfortunately, those points that Hudson mentions are what American elections do not have. American elections do not provide equal representation to everyone in the country.