Uncategorized

An unfortunate aspect of war is the sheer amount of casualties that are suffered on both sides of the conflict. Throughout the history of the United States war has been an ever-present facet of out society. Most of us have difficulty remembering a time when America was not involved in some sort of armed conflict. During the 19th century, the United States faced a series of conflicts within the confines of her borders that resulted in some of the largest and bloodiest fighting seen to date.

The 1883 Pensioners lists hundreds of casualties stemming from the early 19th century, through the War of 1812 and through the American Civil War. Within this list lies the names of the pension recipient, the cause for which the pension is being offered, and the date in which the first payment was submitted. At first glance this census, of sorts, provides few details to create much of an argument out of other than it can be assumed these pensions were direct results of the various conflicts America fought during the century. However, upon looking through many of the reasons for the pension, we as historians can uncover some rather interesting little tid bits. First off, gunshot wounds, while the major cause for a pension, was not the sole injury sustained. In many cases diseases and illnesses could result in a person obtaining a monthly check. Epilepsy receives an average payout of $8.00 whereas chronic diarrhea saw a person receiving half of that. While you will have difficulty arguing that chronic diarrhea should be classified as something the government should include as reasoning for a pension, it is clear that it was a rather rampant problem that plagued many people during this period.

An argument that I would like to bring up concerning a rather heartbreaking part of this data is the amount of dependent mothers and widows represented within the data. Females makeup roughly fifty-percent of the population, give-or-take, but when we, as students of history, think about war we directly assume the victims are male. We forget that there are women back home caring for the family and painfully trying to make ends meet. Today strides have been made to recognize this forgotten section of society as women are increasingly making up larger and larger sections of the armed forces. But in the 19th century, women were decades from achieving the right to vote, let alone go off to war. So the subsection of pensions for women that are represented in this data has to do with them becoming widowed and needing to care for a family, presumably. The average payout here is the same as epilepsy at $8.00 a month. This would have the same buying power as around $250.00 today. $250.00 is not a lot of money one bit considering the various bills now accrued by the widow from her husband and also raising her children. There are numerous different injuries including in this data set but to pull one out to compare: an injury to the right foot received $25.00, over three times the amount that a widowed mother is now receiving.

There is no doubt that serious wounds such as amputations and other handicaps sustained as a result of battle require a large degree of money. But by giving women a measly $8.00, I would argue, society is valuing their life and their contributions to society in a much smaller degree. This can be seen throughout the history of the United States and around the world. Women have tended to be treated as inferior to men. They had been refused the right to vote up until 1919, lacked equal rights within a marriage, have their bodies regulated by church and state alike, are refused entry into certain military branches, the list goes on and on. During a time when women had difficulty even obtaining a job, they are now without the love of their life and their breadwinner. How, as a society, could this be allowed to happen?

When doing research for my data I was intrigued to find many different connections for all aspects of the data. When looking I found that many of my question were answered to a certain extent. Within minutes of searching for how pensions were paid out I found a few fast facts that really applied across the board for this data set. The main idea of the first article that I came across was specifically how Civil War pensions were paid. In this data set many of the pensioners were likely receiving such pensions from injuries suffered from the Civil War so I thought this would be a good place to start. The main question that I had from the first visualization was how there were so many differences in pensions paid and this article was very helpful. Almost instantly my question was answered, it turns out that those who applied for pensions earlier were likely to receive lower pensions. Using today’s logic that seems like it would be really unfair and it was, and it only got worse. Due to pension laws evolving over time a person would receive more for the same injuries on different types of technicalities. So, if someone who was certain about their ailments significantly effecting their lives to receive a pension would in fact be paid lower than someone who would try to work or survive without a pension. And the pay wouldn’t change over time for those earlier applicants either, someone would just get paid more based on whichever technicality was passed before they applied. I found this to be particularly disturbing because as I said before, people who were certain that they would need a pension to keep going who benefit less by applying than someone who thought that they could at least make ends meet for a while without a pension. Similarly, in regards to different pieces of pension qualifications being passed your ability to be pensioned changed as well. So if you weren’t eligible to be pensioned one day the next day you could be eligible. So overall, one day you would not be eligible to receive a pension and then the next day, you could not only receive a pension but have a higher monthly payout that someone who has been receiving one for years. From these two statements alone my data started to make so much sense. Perhaps it was that people knew that they could receive more if they waited, but for those who really needed the pensions, who couldn’t wait, were not to benefit. This is kind of disappointing, how most of these people, veterans, or widows from the war, had a portion of there income governed by dates on a page possibly missing a potential meal by a day or two.

I’ve also learned that the whole pensions system was kind of weird. Just for the sake of taking a look I Googled the 1886 census and looked at some data from a county in Illinois, and shockingly the data was almost exactly the same. Many of the pensions were in the same area and some were exactly the same for a certain field. In the mother category most people received $8, this was the same in this county in Illinois as we’ll as Albany. Also many of the abbreviations for the certain injuries. So somewhere along the way they made some sort of rigid system that was adopted by every census taker in the country. If this kind of communication was out there why couldn’t as system be to create some sort of uniformity for the payments? It was like they made all these new rules, let new people in, adjusted a little for inflation but forgot about the people who filed for pension earlier on. The weirdest part of all of this was that there was no federal government action at this time. Civil War veterans did not start receiving pensions from the federal government until 1930. After all this I look at the relative similarities as nothing short of a miracle. Especially in those times where there was no form of really efficient communication, this would’ve been ridiculously hard. So since there was no federal structure the whole payment of pensions was based on state or county rules. It would’ve been up to the counties that the people lived in to keep track and maintain the records for the pensioners, another tall task, so I can see where the temptation to cut corners comes in. One thing I thought that was interesting about how states and counties paid pensions was that some counties would have a competitive rate compared to another county that could have a greater ability to pay a higher pension. I would think a county like Albany who at that time was fairly prosperous would presumably have higher pensions then say a smaller county in a lesser state or especially the South. The fact that almost across the board pension rates are similar is simply astounding.

Overall I find that the this dataset’s true story is lost in history somewhere. It’s not one of the more glorious parts of history but it’s in there. For this set the main factor that drove the pay scale was when you applied to be pensioned. This is something that you wouldn’t guess from first glance. And that is something that I experienced first hand. At first I looked at this data and thought why would there be a difference at all? Even though injuries ranged from challenging to life altering it was basically all left up to a date. That is something in today’s times could never happen. To think of something that could change the ability to feed your family left up to a chance date, especially set by the government would not fly. By today’s standard that is borderline unfathomable.Though most logic would go against the actual truth of how the pension was paid it’s still interesting to find it.

The first data visualization is about the average age and appraisal between male and female slaves in eight southern states. Before we can truly understand the way the slave trade works, we must first understand the slave trade processes. The information given in the data set tells the story of how different information can correlate, but does not imply causation. According to Historian Herbert Gutman, “once every 3.5 minutes, 10 hours a day, 300 days a year, for 40 years, a human being was bought and sold in the antebellum South.” Most slaves were primarily sold to work and maintain their white master’s plantation. Other times when a master experienced a decrease in profits they would sell their best slaves to help with their economic struggles. It also did not help that as America began moving westward the opportunity to own land increased. As a result, a higher demand was placed on slaves, which encouraged the slave sale.

Based on the graph, there is a distinguished difference between male and female appraisal values. Whether a slave was sold into a big or a small plantation, a master’s goal was to acquire a slave who was able to work quickly, withstand gruesome hours, and carry heavy loads all for the sake of producing the most products. Most times male slaves were more appealing because of their physical ability to work on the fields which gave them an advantage over women. Even with a difference in gender value, both males and females shared a commonality when it came to average age. For example, if there were three males whose ages were 25, 15 and 35 and each had the same set of skills, the 25-year-old slave would be priced at a higher value. This meant that if a male or female slave were in their prime age (18-27) they would be priced at a higher value. However, some states show an average age of (4-12) which does not necessarily mean only children were sold, but a result from insufficient records. The masters as well as the slaves did not keep good records of their ages, some slaves’ names were barely acknowledged. This was a way for masters to keep their slaves oppressed, it was all about considering slaves as less than human beings and more about considering them as property. The better the master’s “property” the better the chances that he will make a greater profit.

The final aspect of the graph is the different states that divide each column. Out of the seven states, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi are the three dominate states. From a geographical aspect these three states were located further south, where slavery was more prominent. The cotton gin invention could also explain why many plantations increased in size. For example, in Georgia the slave population by 1800 doubled to 59,699, and by 1810 the number of slaves had grown to 105,218 meaning that more slaves were being sold into the state. In Louisiana, by 1840 – 1860 Louisiana’s annual cotton crop rose from about 375,000 bales to about 800,000 bales. By 1860 Louisiana produced about one-sixth of all cotton grown in the United States, creating a higher demand for slaves to work the fields in this area. As for Mississippi, it was the state with the highest appraised value for both male and female slaves. This is due to the fact that by the first half of the 19^th century, Mississippi was one of the top producers of cotton in the United States. As the white settlers’ population  increased so did the slave population and by 1859 Mississippi made a name for itself, producing over a million pounds of cotton.

 

The visualization shows which types of “defects” different slaves possessed based on their geographic location in the United States of America between the years 1742 and 1865. The visualization is color coded by which defects appeared in the slave sales records for each state. It is broken down even further by the addition of a sliding filter that allows you to narrow down the data set in increments of 20 years. Without even looking at which types of defects were recorded in each state you can immediately begin to recognize a trend simply by moving the time slider up and down through the years. When it is at its earliest years you only notice defects in two states which reside primarily more north than south. However as you move the slider further along you begin to see more and more records of slaves with defects appearing in the southern region of the United States. This is most likely because as slave labor was more and more used by the southern states, more and more defects began to arise over time due to the severity and intensity of the labor that was required by slaves.

We can also begin to notice differences when we look at which types of defects appeared to be more common compared to defects in other states. For example, we are able to see that in the more northern states, the slaves that were listed as having defects appeared to be defects such as being old, or deaf, or as having bad character, or even being free. This is compared to a southern state such as Louisiana where not only does it contain all of the previously listed defects, but it also primarily contains physical defects that are most likely attributed to the intense labor and living conditions that they were forced to endure. These defects included things such as being burned, without fingers, one handed, hernia, broken back, and crippled. All of these types of defects appear to be far more common in the south than up north and are most likely due to the much more intensive plantation labor that is known for being located in the most southern states in the United States.

We are also able to note that some of the more northern states are not listed as having any slaves with defects until the early to mid 1800’s. This could be because the types of labor that slaves were forced to endure were not as difficult or intensive as the labor that was endured in the deep south. It is possible the punishments and the work its self was not as harsh, and because of this, slaves did not develop defects in the more northern slave states until later in the 19th century. It is also possible that perhaps slaves with defects began to appear more towards the north later in time because they were being sold with defects to the northern states. It is possible that they may have been sold simply because they possessed what some slave owners considered as a defect. It is possible that due to the nature of the work in the deep south, that slave owners in the deep south did not want to purchase slaves that already contained something that they thought was a defect, because they thought it would mean they would be less efficient at the work they would be forced to do. If this is the case, it could mean that slave owners in the deep south might not have had any choice but to sell their slaves to the more northern states because they would be willing to buy them for less money, because the defects that they possessed would not severely impede their ability to effectively complete their jobs. This theory is also supported by looking at the defects that appear in the states mentioned above such as Mississippi and Tennessee. The defects that do appear in these states are not anything that would be to physically debilitating. These are defects such as being unhealthy or sick, lame, old, or unsound. These are all “defects” that could either resolve themselves over time such as being sick, or defects that would not effect their ability to work in a serious way, given that the labor in these states were less intensive.

It is also important to note how many defects are located in each state over time. Every state contains a considerable amount more of defects when you move the slider all the way to the later dates as compared to when they first appear on the map. There is no state where the number of defects in slave records goes down or stays the same. Not only does the number of defects increase, the types of defects also becomes much more diverse. This could be because over time, the labor that the slaves endured caused more and more of them to suffer from physical injuries that took time to develop. It could also be because over time slave owners began to trade slaves as they became injured or grew older and may have had to settle for a lower price from another slave owner due to the defects.

The causation of the of the appraisal for female and male slaves in the slave data is the high demand for slaves between 1775 and 1885 due to the economic opportunity that the southern states had at the time which was created through the means of producing goods such as cotton and tobacco. Slaves have fluctuated in value over that hundred year span, mostly increasing in value as the years went on. It has become an ordinary way of living for those in the south to own slaves and benefit from their free labor. As the popularity of owning slaves grew, so did their value. In the beginning of the years in which the data was recorded, having slaves was legal and a way of life for the white men which mainly were located in the south. It is a pretty known fact that tobacco plants as well as other jobs were located in the southern states and that they took a lot of labor to maintain. With the legality of slaves, those who were able to afford slaves bought as many as they could to do these jobs that required an abundance of labor. The appraisal value of male slaves are more than that of female slaves. This is caused due to the amount of labor as well as type of labor that male slaves can do that female slaves can’t physically do. Females don’t have the same body type or muscle mass that males do, therefore they are more limited to the work they can do. Male slaves also tend to be more skillful with their hands and can do jobs such as being a blacksmiths while women who are skillful will most likely do the jobs such as basket making and other simple jobs. While males are doing more physical labor out in the field or blacksmith work, female slaves can do less physical work such as watching children, making items such as baskets, and other activities. With that being said, their value isn’t going to be as high because that labor isn’t as intense or challenging and isn’t as profitable as the males line of work is overall. It is pretty standard that all male slaves will be worth more money than their female counterparts. The direct causation of the value difference between the male and female values seems to be due solely to their potential productivity and how much money they can bring in.

 

An argument that can be noted from the data set that may come as a surprise to some people is the average price of slaves throughout time. Most people will automatically assume that as the years go by that the value in slaves only increases until it is abolished in the 1860’s. According to the data however, the value trend with slaves throughout time haven’t been as consistent as some people may think. The trend of slave values started at a decent number and then proceeded to decrease in value before picking back up. It isn’t clear why the value of slaves decreased during this time but it can be argued that the causation for the slaves to steadily increase in value after it’s descent can be caused by the growing popularity of slaves. As the years went by, news of how effective the slaves were could have been spread throughout the south. The businesses started to thrive and become more successful than they may have been previously. It is noted that the value of slaves really started to get high in price in the 1800’s. The causation of this spike can be credited to the industrial revolution. The south was a big manufacturer of goods during this time period and provided these goods to the northern states; states in which slaves were outlawed. With the slaves providing free labor, the south was able to benefit exponentially. This of course made the south even more wealthy and this in turn caused the appraisal of slaves to increase since they were viewed as a great asset to the owner of the plantations and manufacturers of goods. Even though the value of slaves were at a higher average than it was previously, the value of slaves still drop in price certain years before increasing again. This trend of erratic values continues throughout the decades. The causation for this trend is unknown and there aren’t any signs that may explain why. The value of slaves however hits its peak in 1864 in which is a time in American history when the civil war was taking place. The average appraisal price for the slaves during this time period was over a staggering 1000 dollars. The price of slaves during the time of the civil war jumped up by over three hundred dollars.  The reason for this insanely high price can be argued to be a direct result of the civil war that was happening at this time. Since one of the main reasons of the civil war was over the liberation of slaves, this caused the value of the slaves to soar to new heights. This is the highest value that slaves have been since the data has been recorded. It can be inferred that slave owners were attempting to get top dollar for their slaves at this time since the possibility of slaves being outlawed all together was in the minds of the owners during the time of war if the south suffered defeat to the north. Slave owners figured that it was the best time to increase the value of their slaves in order to have some type of monetary gain in case the south lost the war. In the year 1885, the value of slaves appears to begin its plummet at a fast rate. This is a direct causation of the south losing the civil war to the north which resulted in the outlawing of laves. Since having slaves were illegal, there was no longer an appraisal value on the now former slaves.

The 1940 census is made up of a variation numbers such as dates of birth and texts such as names and whether an individual owned their home or was educated. This information allows viewers of the census to piece together lives of the people in the census and to get a sense of what these people did daily back then. From the information provided, many conclusions can be drawn. One of the conclusions is that mostly men were the head of the household, most women did not work but some did, and men and women went to school but men received higher paying jobs then women. These conclusions are just some of many that can be gathered from the census by taking a quick glance. Although a once over of the census provides a great deal of information, there are some other relationships between the data that needs more looking into and requires past knowledge.

Education is always seen as an important aspect of how well of an individual will be, the type of job they will hold and if that job will be able to provide for the person and family members. The level of education someone is able to reach holds much value and the value of it directly correlates with many other aspects of someone’s life but often times, there are a group of people (usually a particular race or ethnicity) who receive a good education and are still unable to provide for their family or are working lower paying jobs than others. They are looked over when it comes to promotions, and often have their work ethic attributed to something other than them simply working hard. This can be seen in the 1940 census; the census shows that most of the people on it received some sort of education. The educational levels ranges from elementary school to a four year college degree or beyond. As previously stated, most of the men and women had an education but the men received higher paying jobs and this was also the case when it came to whites and blacks.

Looking at the census with all the different data, it is difficult to see what correlates with one another and what does not. Creating different visuals allows the viewer to see if there are causations, patterns or correlations between the information provided. The census divides into three races, Filipino, Negro and White. Upon taking an initial look, the division of the census into three races is unclear. The data shows that there are races but being that there are many names, it is hard to parse out the different races. The census itself also does not show the division of the educational level that each race has reached; the correlation between race, educational level, average income and the value of the homes they lived in is not clear until different visuals of presenting the data was created. In order to make these relationships clear a scatter plot was created. The educational levels are broken down into three groups with different colors so that the differentiation can be made; red is college or higher, purple is high school and green is elementary.

Carefully looking at the plot, the assumption that white privilege has its place in the relationships seen between the previous categories noted is made. The plot shows that there were a group of whites that received an elementary school education and the average value of their homes was about 2,074 dollars and average income was 238 dollars; there were also group of blacks that received a college education or higher and the average value of their homes and average income was less than that of the whites. The same conclusion is made pertaining to Filipinos and whites, the Filipinos highest educational level is college or higher and the average value of their homes and income is less than whites and less than the blacks as well. For years, other races have had to work twice as hard and if not harder to get decent paying jobs whereas whites are sometimes allocated the privilege of not having to go through as much hardships but still being able to reap the benefits.

To ensure that white privilege was indeed at play, the scatter plot was looked at again and a second set of information in the white section was provided. The highest level of education that whites received was a high school education; this means that both blacks and Filipinos went on to receive college degrees in different fields whereas whites did not. Based on previous information, the assumption that although the highest level of education reached by whites was high school, they would still have a higher income and their homes would be of a higher value was made and the assumption was correct. For a white person with a high school education, the average value of their home was 1,585 dollars and average income was 227 dollars. The scatter plot also provided an interesting find. A white person with just an elementary school education had a lower average income than one with a high school education, although not by much, but their homes were worth more than another white person with a high school education. The census does not make why that is clear but further research may be able to provide an answer to that. Although that interesting observation was there, the fact still remained that their homes were worth more and incomes were higher compared to the other two races despite of their minimal level of education.

The 1940 census shows a trend of white privilege that have been there since the beginning of time. Whites across the world have felt superior to others and their superiority complex has led them to acquire lands, wealth and even people. The census shows that these other two races although they have worked hard and have reached high levels of educational achievement, it means almost nothing in the end. They worked jobs such as cooks, and laundry personnel and are being passed on the jobs that they may be able to use their degrees in. Whites were able to acquire jobs such as administrators, treasurers and accounting clerks despite their educational shortcomings all because they were not black or Filipino.

 

 

 

Where a person is born defines a lot about them, especially a soldier. If a Soldier feels that his homeland is under threat, he will be willing to sacrifice himself in order to defend it. that is usually what separates Soldiers from people who get paid to fight. There is a sense of pride, country and a need to defend it.
A second part of the data set provided that I will be focusing on will where these soldiers come from. Whether they come from a foreign country, or they list that they come from one of the states, it tells a whole lot about them and their story. Where these soldiers come from and where they say they come from are very different and tells us a lot about themselves and their sense of nationalism. For example, if an individual says that they are from New York when they sign up, that person could be from another country however he has a strong sense of pride about his new-found home there for he is willing to fight for it. On the other hand, an individual who declares that he is from another country may not feel the same sense of pride. But it should go without being said that either way, any individual who signed up for the militia is brave.
As you can see in the image, a majority of individuals from this roster identified themselves as either coming from Ireland or Germany followed by England. This doesn’t come as a surprise because a majority of the people who came to New York in the first place were from Europe. All of the following militiamen come from New York and the surrounding areas. The huge difference between New York born troops and European born militiamen +has mostly to do with the age of the newly formed government and country. The younger population mostly make up the American born militiamen and on the other hand, the older are the majority and they are the first generation to colonies the new land. I would predict that in the following years as the war progressed, more and more New York born men would enlist because they would eventually be old enough to fight. Some people may ask why sign up to fight for a country and land where they aren’t even from? Surprisingly, 71 individuals were actually born in England and would be fighting their own homeland. Initially I would have thought that it would have been 2nd generation men signing up for the Militia to fight the British. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that a majority of the soldiers were born in Europe. They all signed up to accomplish a common goal and were tired of being oppressed by an imperialist government governing them from across the Atlantic Ocean. I think that its very impressive that these people from all different backgrounds were able to come together in order to defend what they called their new homes.