Last Day Festivities!
McLean's Essay:
Trade, Transportation, and Human Rights in the 1800s
How many people were addicted to opium in China in the 19th Century? How many hours of work did it take to turn a five month journey into a five day trip? How many slaves were traded in the 400 years of slave trade? It took a million addicts to get open walls, 30,660 to turn five months into five days of travel, and more than twelve million slaves before freedom. Trade, transportation, and human rights were all significant themes in the 1800's around the world.
Most countries like to trade like the British, but others hated the idea. China was one of these countries. The Chinese officials hated trading for one main reason, and that was control. The Chinese didn't want any western ideas to reach their people because they thought if their people heard about freedom, their people would fight to get it. The Chinese only allowed one port, and the people on the ships weren't allowed to get off them. The British didn't like this, so they had the devious idea of selling opium to the Chinese. Soon the Chinese people got addicted and wanted more which meant more trading had to be allowed. The Chinese realized this and destroyed all the opium, making the drug illegal and closing the port. The British were obviously not excited about this and declared war on China. The British won and made China open more ports and pay the British back for all the opium they destroyed, leaving China very poor and still addicted.
To trade with people, you need a way of getting to them such as boats or horses. Traveling like this could take months, so people started thinking of ways to make it faster, and one way was trains. A trip from one side of the U.S. to another could take five months by ship, but with trains it could take five days. It took twelve hours of work from hundreds of workers every day for seven years to complete it. People at both ends of the country started building and eventually met at the center at Promontory Summit, Utah. The official putting in the last nail missed it and had to get a worker to nail it in, but the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. was completed in 1869.
Before the first railroad was built, the Civil War happened, which was a war partially about human rights. Human rights often are a problem in many countries, such as Bulgaria fighting against the Ottoman Empire. In April 1876, the Bulgarians wanted to be their own country and decided to fight for it. The Ottomans, instead of killing just the people in the uprising, killed people who weren't even involved. "Sixty villages were wiped out." The other countries of Europe were surprised by this massacre and decided to help the Bulgarians. Often in history people tried to hold down others and then the people realized this and tried to rise up and fight for freedom. This happened in the French Revolution, when the young Italians rebelled against Austria in 1848, and it happened in the Civil War, which was a step towards freedom and justice for African Americans.
Without millions of opium addicts, the East might not have opened their borders to trade. Without thousands of hours of sweat from poor workers, there might never have been a faster way to travel across the U.S. It took more slaves than we should have to count to reach equality. Though I think that the work on the railroad was worth it, forcing trade through promoting addiction was unnecessary and slavery was even more cruel. The 1800s was a time of progression through change in transportation, freedoms, and trade.
McLean's Story:
The Girl in the Egg War
Jane sat beneath the deck of the ship. She was a mail order wife, sailing to San Francisco to marry Samuel Holland, who was working in the gold rush. Her trip was hours from being over, and it was stormy, which by this point Jane was used to. She wasn’t afraid of noise or the rocking of the boat, and being a curious person, Jane wanted to see what it was like on the deck. She stepped onto the deck, the cold, wet rain slapping her face with a large gust of wind. As she was taking it all in, the boat rocked, and with another thrust of wind, she found herself looking into the black abyss of the ocean, stumbling, and tumbling into that abyss.
After struggling to swim and seeing an island in the distance, she blacked out. She woke up cold and disoriented, feeling the warm rocks of a tiny island beneath her. Startling loud bird sounds and the birds themselves surrounded her and slowly filled up all her senses. In the distance she could hear people shouting and talking. Nearer than the people, she saw a small boat. Not thinking clearly, she stumbled to it, frantically slipped in, and let it free from the shore. The cold sea breeze cleared her head, and she realized she had fallen off her ship. Where was the ship? Looking forward, she saw a large body of land. As she rowed toward the distant shore, she realized there was a large basket of enormous eggs in the boat.
Jane landed near a bustling market, noisy people promoting their products all around her. After weeks of near silence on the boat, the chatter made her cold head spin. She had lost everything she had and felt strange in her wet dress, so she took the basket of eggs and made her way through the market, having no idea what treasure she now possessed. She stumbled around trying to find someone who could help her find the mining camp where her soon-to-be husband was located.
She came upon a boy about her age, dressed in oversized clothes and was covered in dirt. When she asked him how to find the camp, the boy ignored the question and instead asked, “How much gold did your husband manage to find?” Confused, Jane said, “What do you mean? I haven’t met him yet!” The boy responded, “Then how do you have so many eggs?” Believing he could help, Jane explained her story. The boy introduced himself as Timothy Scott then explained that the eggs in her basket were worth $1 a piece! He good-naturedly explained to her she could buy new clothes, rent a room, and buy food for herself for weeks with all those eggs.
Stunned, Jane thought about her prospective husband and how much money she now had without him. Maybe she should just go back to the small island and get more eggs. With the boy’s help, she turned toward the market and shouted, “Eggs for sale! A dollar a piece!”
Later, dressed in neat but simple men’s clothing, Jane found Timothy again in the market. The business opportunity opening her vision, she asked him, “Have you ever considered hunting for eggs?”
Timothy responded, “Yes, but getting on the island is dangerous and there have been many fights over those eggs.”
Jane, smiling broadly, asked, “Well, are you up to the task?” The careworn young boy thought about it. Orphaned by disease, he had come to San Francisco in hopes of finding gold and starting a new life. He had not been successful with finding much gold. Hunting for eggs sounded like a new adventure. His brown hair blowing in the harbor wind, he smiled and said, “Sure, why not?”
Jane and Timothy went to her stolen boat and rowed back to the island, hoping to exchange the boat for the good will of the men she left there. They brought water and food as a peace offering, but the men from the island were gone. Instead there were thousands of birds on the island and eggs laying around for the taking. Quickly filling her basket and the bottom of their boat, they returned to the market, daring the crashing waves, and sold their eggs happily.
Bulgarian Potato Pancakes
3-4 potatoes
1 egg
1/2 cup Sirene cheese
a bunch cilantro
a bunch parsley (I did not add any)
salt to taste
Olive oil for pan
Wash, peel and grate the potatoes. Combine with the other ingredients. Heat oil in a pan and add a thin layer of the potato mixture. Brown on both sides. Take it off the heat. Repeat with remaining potato mixture. Serve hot.
We made protein/snack balls based on Bulgarian Garash Cake.
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