A+Northern+Factory+Owner

= NAME: BIff McGee= = =

Age: 32 Gender: Male Occupation: Factory Owner If in politics, what was your occupation prior to that: None Social Class: the ruling class, wealthy, property-holding factory owner Financial Situation: rich enough to hire many wage workers Appearance: white hair, serious facial expressions, medium height, talks with a calm tone

Location: Boston, Massachusetts Daily Routine: manages his factory, imports raw materials from the South or from other colonies, attends religious and political meetings and writes down on his journal Personality/Quirks/Unique Personality Traits: He tends to be often selfish and less caring about others, in order to increase profit, he'd do anything. Past/Individual and family history: Ever since his family moved to New England, they were landed with large grants of lands Family: His parents are old but happy, and they moved to live the suburbs.. Social relations with others: With the wealth he owns, he tends to influence his local governors when it comes to political decision makings. Religion: Methodist Christian Education: successfully completed public high school/university education in New England. Conflicts/Enemies: against slavery supporters and labor union groups (he is a factory owner, after all)

**Journal #1** - The time frame is sometime during the year 1850. Consider all of the things that have taken place during the previous five years (Mexican-American War, Mexican Cession, Wilmot Proviso, Compromise of 1850, Fugitive Slave Act). You are free to write about any one (or more) of these things in your journal entry. Be sure to include your actions in response to one (or more) of these events.

This is surely a time when my country is undergoing lots of changes on a short period of time. Tensions between two parties are building up, and the issue of slavery is being constantly debated. The Wilmot Proviso in 1846 proposed to ban all blacks in any newly gained territories from the Mexican War and the Mexican Cession, including south Texas and New Mexico east of Rio Grande. Well, the intent was that slavery does not spread all over to the new west, and I guess that plan worked partially.

Like four years after that, the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 takes place. Suspected freed slave fugitives are denied a jury trial, the right to testify in their own behalf, and other basic constitutional rights. Basically, accusers could now falsely identify and legally kidnap free blacks. The Fugitive Slave Law also denied any suspected runaway rights of self-defense, and required northerners like us to enforce slavery. When will these Southerners start making sense?

The darn Southerners just want to hunt some Black people around, I think. But I, on the other hand, am a proud Whig Abolitionist. Abolition is the morally just thing to do and all but I must admit this too - slavery is not really needed that much in the industrial areas up in the North here. Factories, like mine, usually have foreign immigrant workers and women because white males are not cheap to hire. My factory, especially specializes in the production of textile.

For my factory, I follow the Waltham-Lowell system which has amazing efficiency. Inventions like the spinning mule, the spinning jenny, and the water frame help me produce more results in a shorter amount of time. Textile production under the original “putting out” system was basically when women inside each house produce limited amounts of textile each, later to be collected. The Waltham-Lowell System, however, located all stages of textile production done under one roof; my workers live either really close to the factory or in a company housing, both far away from their home and family.

But these days, my feeling tells me that my workers are a bit infuriated with the rough work hour schedule every day of the week. There seems to be some sort of labor unions or strikes being formed. And that scenario is, frankly, quite intimidating. I must make sure that does not happen when I’m around.


 * Journal #2 -** The year is now 1852. Continue your story as you began in Journal #1. For this journal entry and all subsequent entries, you must interact with at least two other characters in each journal entry. When you interact with another character, provide a hyperlink to that character's page in your journal entry.

Whig party meetings are getting increasingly ineffective these days. All the members do is talk about matters that need action. This is especially true when we come to slavery. Everybody agrees that slavery is unjust, immoral and should be abolished, but nobody has volunteered to take any active role in many years. Now if there was a different political party to join besides the Jacksonian Democrats, I will gladly join the group.

in the midst of all this internal and external chaos, I came cross an incredibly fascinating person. His name was **John Brown,** and he carried a big, radical plan in his mind. That crazy man told me that he wanted to have a deal, a risky deal that seemed like the right course of action. I accepted the offer and agreed to allow runaway slaves in my factory, under one condition - they worked for me. Hiding slaves, as you know, is perceived to be a wicked vigor; but I wished to free chained men and women to gain freedom.

=
====== Mr.Brown then went on to observe the employees in my factory, and although I hired mainly immigrants and women he selected a hardworking black worker, **Jim,** to talk to. Jim was a free slave who was born from the South. From what I know, he must earn money to help his family still on the South, and I've been keeping him inside my factory for quite a while now. John Brown and my Jimmy had some chit chat going on and then Mr.Brown had to leave for a meeting.

After I delivered a polite farewell, I began to think, “Why are the Northerners not doing how much they should be doing to prevent slavery from expanding?”. The more I thought, the more disaffection I got towards the Whig party.

I also thought about why my workers seemed to be unhappy most of the time. Long, restless hours of work every day was the likely cause. Ever since Presidents like Hamilton supported businesses by providing subsidies, businessmen have became the wealthiest men in their cities. No specific law code restricted factory owners, and therefore I could quite literally, do whatever I want in that factory. I could hire a worker and pay him/her as mush or little as I wished. Many exploited this governmental system, in which no real laws regulated factories, and possessed mountains of disposable income. The workers correspondingly got lower wages which made them angry.

In addition to hiding runaway slaves with John Brown, I will also try to improve work conditions and increase salaries as a warmhearted individual. Perhaps that will stop labor unions from forming inside my factory.

PS I heard about this church called the "United Methodist Church", and I want to go but don’t know the address.

**Journal #3 -** It's 1854... the Kansas-Nebraska Act has passed. Squatters are now moving into Kansas in an attempt to sway the vote. Continue your story...

Good lord. I have to dig through a massive pile of dust whenever I wish to write in this journal because I only do it once every two years. Well since my last journal entry, my factory has expanded in its size and its number of workers. Now I have officially been admitted to the United Methodist Church. I attend the worship ceremonies every Sunday. And I just didn’t do this without any reasons. There are specific characteristics about this group I like, which is why I became a member of this society.

First of all, the United Methodist Church is made up of a bunch of abolitionists. They still see Blacks as lower people, which is completely racist, but the Methodists wish to ban slavery or at least stop it from spreading. Secondly, they all tend to condone temperance, or to limit themselves from drinking alcohol. And ... I personally think that is a noble quality to pursue. The last aspect of a Methodist Church I can recall is their tendency to be against women’s rights like suffrage. I love my wife and all but, most of my factory workers are still women or immigrants. What would happen if the women demanded more rights? Terrible...

Speaking of immigrants, I hired some Irish workers for my factory. A noticeable employee was Grace Finnigan, who seemed to be racially discriminated the most. She had a very hard time finding a satisfactory job in America and I tried to make her feel welcomed to my factory. Like any other Irish, she was a Catholic, but I decided to be tolerant and allowed her to work on my factory.

Oh! A few months ago, the Kansas- Nebraska Act passed, and got rid of the Missouri Compromise. Some idea called “popular sovereignty” was going to take place in newer states. As a Northerner, I see this as a betrayal that is going to increase the Slave Power’s domination of government. How could our country's government be so whimsical?

On the other hand, I read a fascinating article on Boston Herald written by Fredrick Douglass. He is a free slave and an abolitionist (obviously) who writes about many enlightening ideas. Perhaps I should visit him one day...

**Journal #4 -** It's now 1856. Bleeding Kansas has just taken place and John Brown emerged on to the scene. Buchanan was just elected as the US President. Dred Scott is arrested and is about to be brought to trial. Continue your story.

My town of Boston is becoming increasingly populous and lively. More Germans and more Irish are coming in day by day. These massive waves of immigrants are bringing in both benefits and problems. They first give us more man power, which helps our city become more industrialized. However, these foreign people mostly settle around urban areas and create a wide slum area. That’s why most of my well-off friends live in the suburban areas to avoid these “dirty” people. And I realize, ever since the Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia, the social and wealth gap between the rich and the poor has been widening, causing some sort of tension in our society.

Well, it became 1856 and the Presidential election is back. I think Pierce’s presidency will soon be replaced through. Buchanan, a democrat, has just battled John Fremont in the general election. At the end, Buchanan became our 15th US president.

Around two years ago, I said I wanted to meet the author named Fredrick Douglass. Now I see that he’s nothing compared to John Brown. John Brown is, undoubtedly a man with the most reckless actions. He is somebody who would do anything to accomplish his goal of abolishing slavery. I heard he gathered around 20 men to raid the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia. He wanted to take the weapons and to arm the slaves, but he was stopped by the soldiers sent by Robert E. Lee. Despite his bold efforts, Brown and his men were either killed or captured.

I also heard about another fascinating man named Dred Scott. This African-American slave is now arrested and is about to get on trial. Dred was taken to the free state of Illinois by his master, then went to the free territory of Wisconsin. He resided on free soil for a considerably long period of time. And Dred thought he lived in a free state long enough to become a free man. When he sued his master, however, seven out of nine Justices on the Supreme Court concluded Dred was not even an American citizen. Poor Scotty was not protected by any constitutional rights and must live as a slave.

Things are pretty tense around here nowadays... All these issues revolving around social classes, slavery and etc are creating conflicts, especially between the Northern and the Southern states.


 * Journal #5** - The year is 1860. Lincoln was just elected as US President, prompting South Carolina to secede. Write the next chapter in your story.

I KNEW IT, THOSE DAMN SOUTHERNERS.. I KNEW IT ALL SINCE THE LECOMPTON COMPROMISE!

Alright. So around three years ago, the Lecompton Constitution was set up advocating slavery. Representatives of the North were only given two choices: to allow limited slavery or unlimited slavery. Nonsense! We the free states, of course, refused to cast in our votes and left. Then Buchanan this fool wanted the Congress to accept Kansas as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution. That was when our brave Stephen Douglas organized his followers and separated themselves from the pro-slavery Democrats. The bill could not pass the House for obvious reasons. In the election held in 1858, Kansas voters rejected the Lecompton Constitution and Kansas - I hope - will later be a free state.

Lincoln (he wasn’t our President back then) delivered his famous “House Divided” speech in 1858 and I still remember some of his lines. He said that “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free”. At that time I thought his argument was feasible; we the free state will just ignore the slave state and get along. Now, however, I see the house has become divided, tipped, and about to fall apart. These Southerners are attempting to leave our Union and keep their slaves. This year, 1860, ’s election was teeming with tensions and surprises. We had:
 * Douglas (Democrat Northern wing) : he wanted popular sovereignty
 * Breckinridge (Democrat Southern wing) : he wanted federal protection of slavery in the territories
 * Bell (Border state) : he was not that remarkable
 * Lincoln (Republican) : he only got 40% of the electoral votes (swept the North with a huge majority) yet still won the election.

Now when President Lincoln was placed in office, many Southerners immediately initiated a movement for secession. South Carolina in particular, was a quick one; she succeeded from the Union the moment Lincoln was elected. Throughout their history, South Carolina has been a strong support of states’ rights and slavery. People like Calhoun and Preston Brooks (the fighter) urged secession right away. And you know what. BRING IT ON! All workers are on my side because I always treat them with respect, care, and timely salaries. Let’s see which side will run out of war supplies faster.

Citations

"| Hall of Fame | Search | Inventor Profile | Samuel Slater." //Invent Now//. Web. 09 Nov. 2009. .

//Ambrose F. Keeley Library//. B.M.C. Durfee High School. Web. 9 Nov. 2009. .

"Waltham-Lowell system -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 09 Nov. 2009. .

http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/255/PreviewComp/SuperStock_255-36755.jpg

http://www.civilwarhome.com/images/nebraska.jpg

//Civil War Soldiers//. Digital image. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .