From: Daniela
Burr
Question: Do you know why presidential elections
are always held in November? Does it have to do with Civil
War? And have they always been held on the first Tuesday
of November?
Answer: No, the standardization of
the day for voting for president had nothing to do with
the Civil War -- it predated that event by sixteen years.
Here's the explanation from ”Ben's Guide,"
a helpful website maintained by the U.S. Government Printing
Office at http://bensguide.gpo.gov/:
Election of the President &
Vice President: Election Day
The Constitution (Article II, Section 1) provides
that "Congress shall determine the Time of choosing
the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give
their votes; which Day shall be the same throughout
the United States." In 1792, legislation was enacted
establishing the first Wednesday in December as the
day on which presidential electors were to assemble
and vote, and further required that the States appoint
electors within 34 days prior to the date set for
the electors to vote. In 1845, Congress enacted legislation
providing a uniform date for the choice of electors
in all states, establishing "Tuesday next after
the first Monday in the month of November of the year
in which they are to be appointed."
Why November?
The decision to create a single day for the selection
of Presidential electors was intended, in part, to
prevent election abuses. The reason that November
was chosen was that the United States was largely
a rural and agrarian nation. Since the harvesting
of crops was normally completed by this time, farmers
were free to vote. Also, since November is before
the onset of winter, traveling would be easier (particularly
in the northern states that experienced harsh winter
weather).
Why Tuesday after the first Monday?
Tuesday was chosen partly because it gave a full day's
travel time between Sunday, which was widely observed
by religious groups as a strict day of rest (except
for traveling) and voting day. Two days were given
for travel to give voters the time to travel by foot
or by horse to the nearest polling place, usually
the county's seat.
Finally, the choice of Tuesday after the first Monday
was established to prevent elections from falling
on the first day of the month. The first date of the
month was typically reserved for court business at
the county seat and would not make a good day to hold
elections. By making the Tuesday following the first
Monday in November election day, Congress had insured
that this would not happen."
From:
Barbara Broyles
Question: Are there any lesson plans available
on the Mexican holiday of 16 de Semptiembre?
Answer: A lot of people are talking
about teaching Mexican history in U.S. schools, but
finding someone who's doing it and providing helpful
how-to's is another story, isn't it?
Here is a convenient English-language webpage on September
16th – it’s part of a website on all Mexican
holidays, so be sure to check out that information as
well:
http://www.mexonline.com/grito.htm
Have you looked at the “Mexico for Kids”
website maintained by the Mexican government? This looks
quite promising. It’s available in Spanish, English,
French, and Italian at:
http://www.elbalero.gob.mx/index_kids.html
And there’s a special history section at:
http://www.elbalero.gob.mx/kids/history/html/home.html
Do you read Spanish? If so, bookmark the University
of Texas Library’s website for sources on Mexico
and Mexican history. Most of these are Spanish-language,
although there are some helpful “Anglophone”
numbers as well:
http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/mexico/
Try this one out for a lesson plan:
http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Byrnes-celebrations/mid.html
And for future questions about classroom resources for
Mexican history, go to this website and work your way
through it and down it:
http://members.aol.com/MrDonnHistory/K12west.html
You do have to work your way through this site, but
I found it was worth the trouble:
http://www.archives.gov/grants/about_nhprc/commission_staff.html
From: emunoz1
Question: I was curious to know the number of
slaves in the U.S. during the first half of the nineteenth
century? How many freemen in that same period? Also, what
source would you recommend on the prevailing feelings
of white Americans toward the African American at the
time?
Answer: Most estimates of the number
of free African Americans in the U.S. in 1860 are around
490,000.
And this webpage gives a good summary of statistics
on slaves in 1860:
http://www.civilwarhome.com/population1860.htm
This one is a useful brief summary of population shifts
among African Americans in the early nineteenth century:
http://www.africana.com/research/encarta/census.asp
As for the second part of your question, try these books
about white attitudes toward African Americans in the
early nineteenth century:
Obudho, Constance E. Black-white Racial Attitudes:
An Annotated Bibliography (Westport, Conn. : Greenwood
Press, 1976). This book will give you a chance to review
an analysis of all the books on the subject and find
some that sound useful.
Bay, Mia. The White Image in the Black Mind : African-American
Ideas About White People, 1830-1925 (New York :
Oxford University Press, 2000). This is really interesting
as it examines the other side of the coin -- how African
Americans developed their attitudes toward whites.
Jordan, Winthrop D. The White Man's Burden : Historical
Origins of Racism in the United States (New York
: Oxford University Press, 1974). This is largely based
on Jordan's earlier book, White Over Black (Baltimore,
Md. : Penguin Books, 1969, c1968).
From: Arietta McGowan
Question: Who was the only president who was
not elected by the people as either president or vice
president?
Answer: You're thinking of Gerald
Ford, whom Richard Nixon appointed vice president to
succeed Spiro Agnew, who had resigned. Then Nixon resigned,
making Ford president.
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