Slavery

The fact that slavery exists today saddens me, not only because it is the possession of another person, but because it shows humankind has not changed or matured. The fact that slavery has ended in North America means nothing - there are still 200 million slaves in the world, and the United States doesn't seem to be doing anything about it.

Slavery still exists in Africa, Asia, and even as close as Latin America. In Africa, chattel slavery means that a person can become another person's property for life. Imagine, person can be traded, inherited, and owned, like an animal! 

During the wars in Sudan, one side captured and enslaved the other side's soldiers and citizens. In Mauritania, there have been reports of 390, 00 chattel slaves who are beaten, deprived of food, and given the "insect treatment," where slaves have tiny ants placed in their ears and then a scarf is wrapped around their head. 

India the country I was born in is estimated to have 15 million children living and working in enslavement.

Puritan

This week I have learned about puritans. The Puritans were a group of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries, including, but not limited to, English Calvinists. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England.The Puritans believed that the Bible was God's true law, and that it provided a plan for living. The established church of the day described access to God as monastic and possible only within the confines of "church authority". Puritans stripped away the traditional trappings and formalities of Christianity which had been slowly building throughout the previous 1500 years. Theirs was an attempt to "purify" the church and their own lives.Most of the Puritans settled in the New England area. As they immigrated and formed individual colonies, their numbers rose from 17,800 in 1640 to 106,000 in 1700. Religious exclusiveness was the foremost principle of their society. The spiritual beliefs that they held were strong. This strength held over to include community laws and customs. Since God was at the forefront of their minds, He was to motivate all of their actions. This premise worked both for them and against them. These were the things that i have learned in my american history and lit.