Using Posters to Understand Democracy!

Over the course of the last few days, we have discussed the rise of democracy in the early 1800s, and how we can define democracy. Before diving into the lesson, we used the two essential questions: How should we define democracy? and How democratic was the United States in the early 1800s? With a variety of sources and documents, were able to answer these questions thoroughly and create a poster using what we learned. The first document we analyzed was a photo which depicted a group of people gathered to vote. This photo clearly showed how different voting was in the 19th century compared to today. In the 1800s, voting wasn't as secretive as it is today. Along with the photo, there was also an article which had a detailed explanation of the photo. From this photo and the explanation, it is evident that woman and African Americans couldn't vote. Additionally, there were two graphs. One graph showed the property requirements as well as the tax paying requirements to be able to vote, and this decreased over the years. On the other hand, the states in union increased each year. The country was growing and more and more people were able to vote. The second graph was a representation of the methods of voting for the president. Over the years, the people was able to vote for president, rather than just the legislatures. By 1863, everyone voted for president except South Carolina. Basically, these two groups show the rise of democracy over the years, and how democracy altered many states. Aside from the two graphs, we analyzed two quotes. Basically, these quotes were saying that democracy is the right for everyone to vote, but the people were not getting what they wanted, and state was not practicing democracy. In conclusion, the last document we analyzed focused mainly on the Dorr War. This document focused on Thomas Dorr, a man organized a convention to frame a new constitution, and change the voting laws in Rhode Island. This constitution granted more voting rights for liberal white males. However, Dorr attempted to capture the state arsenal and then was arrested. Basically, Dorr tried to establish a whole new government in Rhode Island. To appease Dorr, the governor decided to establish a new constitution. Below, I have provided a photo of the poster my group created in class to show our understanding of Democracy in the 1800s.