Tag: slavery

South Carolina Secedes from the United States

20th December 1860

On this day the state of South Carolina voted 169-0 to secede from the United States, declaring itself an independent commonwealth. The other southern cotton states of Mississippi,  Florida,  Alabama,  Georgia,  Louisiana, and  Texas were quick to follow suit. Fear was in the air in the South that the new President, Abraham Lincoln, would stop the expansion of slavery and put it on a course toward extinction. The secession of the southern states led to the American Civil War [1861-1865] which resulted in defeat for the South and, eventually, to the abolition of slavery in the United States.

looking back

Lettura e ascolto intermediate in inglese: The Great Dictator’s Speech

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blue-ball

“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone, if possible: Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

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