The Slave Trade Abolishment essays

The Slave Trade Abolishment essays Up until the 1st May 1807, the Slave Trade had been an important source of income for the British Empire. Britain had relied on the Triangular Trade since 1662 and benefited in the centuries that followed until in May 1807, Parliament passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Bill in the House of Laws by 283 to 16. There were four main reasons as to why the slave trade was abolished; these reasons fell under one of these factors: the work of individuals; the work of groups; economics and fear. This essay will discuss the above categories and make a judge which one was the main contributor to the abolition of the slave trade in Britain. To begin with, the first factor this essay will explore is the work of individuals. The work of individuals certainly contributed to the abolition of the slave trade and the types of individuals varied from former slaves to Members of Parliament. John Newton, a former captain of a slave ship, gave evidence and wrote diary entries about the horrible and tragic things that occurred on slave ships; Newton also wrote Amazing Grace, a song widely known today. Olaudah Equiano was an extremely influential person in the 18th century- he was one of the few slaves that had managed to purchase his freedom. His heart rendering story became public when he published his autobiography in 1789. Equiano toured Britain, wrote letters to MPs and worked with white abolitionists- he dedicated the remainder of his life to the abolition of the slave trade. One of the greatest campaigners for abolition of slavery was Granville Sharp. In 1765 Sharp saw a black teenager waiting for free medical attention; the youth was almost blind, could barely walk and had a swollen head. Sharp introduced himself to the youth and learned his name was Jonathon Strong. Strong had been brought to Britain as a slave and had been badly beaten by his owner. Granville took Strong to a hospital where he recovered; two years later St...

The Pirate Hunters

The Pirate Hunters During the Golden Age of Piracy, thousands of pirates plagued the seas from the Caribbean to India. These desperate men sailed under ruthless captains like Edward Blackbeard Teach, Calico Jack Rackham and Black Bart Roberts, attacking and pillaging any merchantman unfortunate enough to cross their path. They did not enjoy complete freedom, however: the authorities were determined to stamp out piracy in any way they could. One of the methods was the employment of pirate hunters, men and ships specifically chartered to hunt pirates down and bring them to justice. The Pirates Pirates were seamen who had tired of the harsh conditions on board naval and merchants vessels. The conditions on those ships were truly inhuman, and piracy, which was more egalitarian, appealed to them greatly. On board a pirate ship, they could share more equally in the profits and they had the freedom to elect their own officers. Soon there were dozens of pirate vessels operating all over the globe and particularly in the Atlantic. By the early 1700s, piracy was a major problem, particularly for England, which controlled much of the Atlantic trade. Pirate vessels were swift and there were many places to hide, so the pirates operated with impunity. Towns like Port Royal and Nassau were essentially controlled by pirates, giving them the safe harbors and access to unscrupulous merchants they needed to sell off their ill-gotten loot. Bringing the Sea-Dogs to Heel The government of England was the first to seriously try to control the pirates. The pirates were operating out of bases in British Jamaica and the Bahamas and they victimized British ships as often as those of any other nation. The English tried different strategies to get rid of the pirates: the two that worked the best were pardons and pirate hunters. The pardons worked best for those men who feared the hangman’s noose or wanted to get out of the life, but the true die-hard pirates would only be brought in by force. Pardons In 1718, the English decided to lay down the law in Nassau. They sent a tough former privateer named Woodes Rogers to be Governor of Nassau and gave him clear orders to get rid of the pirates. The pirates, who essentially controlled Nassau, gave him a warm welcome: notorious pirate Charles Vane fired on the royal navy ships as they entered the harbor. Rogers was not intimidated and was determined to do his job. He had royal pardons for those who were willing to give up the life of piracy. Anyone who wished could sign a contract swearing to never again return to piracy and they would receive a full pardon. As the penalty for piracy was hanging, many pirates, including famous ones like Benjamin Hornigold, accepted the pardon. Some, like Vane, accepted the pardon but soon returned to piracy. The pardons took many pirates off the seas, but the biggest, baddest pirates would never willingly give up the life. Thats where the pirate hunters came in. Pirate Hunters and Privateers For as long as there have been pirates, there have been men hired to hunt them down. Sometimes, the men hired to catch the pirates were pirates themselves. This occasionally led to problems. In 1696, Captain William Kidd, a respected ships captain, was given a privateering commission to attack any French and/or pirate vessels he found. Under the terms of the contract, he could pretty much keep the spoils and enjoyed the protection of England. Many of his sailors were former pirates and not long into the voyage when pickings were scarce, they told Kidd that he had better come up with some plunder†¦or else. In 1698, he attacked and sacked the Queddah Merchant, a Moorish ship with an English captain. Allegedly the ship had French papers, which was good enough for Kidd and his men. However, his arguments did not fly in a British court and Kidd was eventually hanged for piracy. The Death of Blackbeard Edward Blackbeard Teach terrorized the Atlantic between the years of 1716-1718. In 1718, he supposedly retired, accepted a pardon and settled down in North Carolina. In reality, he was still a pirate and was in cahoots with the local governor, who offered him protection in exchange for part of his loot. The Governor of nearby Virginia chartered two warships, the Ranger and the Jane, to capture or kill the legendary pirate. On November 22, 1718, they cornered Blackbeard in Ocracoke Inlet. A fierce battle ensued, and Blackbeard was killed after taking five gunshot wounds and twenty cuts by sword or knife. His head was cut off and displayed: according to legend, his headless body swam around the ship three times before sinking. The End of Black Bart Bartholomew Black Bart Roberts was the greatest of the Golden Age pirates, taking hundreds of ships over a three-year career. He preferred a small fleet of two to four ships that could surround and intimidate his victims. In 1722, a large warship, the Swallow, was sent to get rid of Roberts. When Roberts first sighted the Swallow, he sent one of his ships, the Ranger, to take it: the Ranger  was overpowered, out of sight of Roberts. The Swallow later returned for Roberts, aboard his flagship the Royal Fortune. The ships began firing on one another, and Roberts was killed almost immediately. Without their captain, the other pirates lost heart quickly and surrendered. Eventually, 52 of Roberts men would be found guilty and hanged. The Last Journey of Calico Jack In November of 1720, the Governor of Jamaica got word that notorious pirate John Calico Jack Rackham was working the waters nearby. The governor outfitted a sloop for pirate hunting, named Jonathan Barnet captain and sent them off in pursuit. Barnet caught up with Rackham off of Negril Point. Rackham tried to run, but Barnet was able to corner him. The ships fought briefly: only three of Rackhams pirates put up much of a fight. Among them were the two famous female pirates, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read, who berated the men for their cowardice. Later, in jail, Bonny allegedly said to Rackham: If you had fought like a man, you need not have hanged like a dog. Rackham and his pirates were hanged, but Read and Bonny were spared because they were both pregnant. The Final Battle of Stede Bonnet Stede the Gentleman Pirate Bonnet wasnt really much of a pirate. He was a born landlubber who came from a wealthy family on Barbados. Some say he took up piracy because of a nagging wife. Even though Blackbeard himself showed him the ropes, Bonnet still showed an alarming tendency to attack ships he could not defeat. He might not have had the career of a good pirate, but no one can say he didnt go out like one. On September 27, 1718, Bonnet was cornered by pirate hunters in the Cape Fear inlet. Bonnet put up a furious fight: the Battle of Cape Fear River was one of the most pitched battles in the history of piracy. It was all for nothing: Bonnet and his crew were captured and hanged. Hunting Pirates Today In the eighteenth century, pirate hunters proved effective at hunting down the most notorious pirates and bringing them to justice. True pirates like Blackbeard and Black Bart Roberts would never have given up their lifestyle willingly. Times have changed, but pirate hunters still exist and still bring hard-core pirates to justice. Piracy has gone high-tech: pirates in speedboats wielding rocket launchers and machine guns attack massive freighters and tankers, looting the contents or holding the ship ransom to sell back to its owners. Modern piracy is a billion-dollar industry. But pirate hunters have gone high-tech as well, tracking their prey with modern surveillance equipment and satellites. Even though pirates have traded their swords and muskets for rocket launchers, they are no match for the modern naval warships which patrol the pirate-infested waters of the Horn of Africa, Malacca Strait and other lawless areas. Sources Cordingly, David. Under the Black Flag New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 1996 Defoe, Daniel. A General History of the Pyrates. Edited by Manuel Schonhorn. Mineola: Dover Publications, 1972/1999. Raffaele, Paul. The Pirate Hunters. Smithsonian.com.

U.S. Real Estate Market - Commercial & Residential Market Essay

U.S. Real Estate Market - Commercial & Residential Market - Essay Example The Florida real estate market may be turning for the better. According to MLS.com, as of November 2009, the median sales price $145,800 was an increase of .09% from the previous month and an overall increase of 8.0% from the previous 6 months. Although this news sounds refreshing, the real estate market is still down 6.5% for the year. The best and worst performing zip codes measures which zip codes in Florida have had either the best or worst previous month based on their median home sales prices. The best zip codes for November 2009 were 33805, 34601, 33547, 34652, and 32720 while the worst were 33916, 33705, 32819, 33607, and 33830. (MLS.com) In 2008 the Florida population demographics consisted of 18,328,340 people with a median income of $47,804. Of this population, 12.1% live below the poverty rate. According to Florida State University Leroy Collins Institute, Florida had 82.5 million visitors in 2008 which is slightly down from 84.5 million in 2007 and 83.9 million in 2006. Of its 20 post-secondary schools, Florida universities had a total enrollment of 298,866 people enrolled. Now is the time to buy. Real estate prices are at an all time low with numerous foreclosures in every state. Foreclosures in certain cities are selling for as low as 20 cent on the dollar. In order to calculate potential profit yield, it is necessary to know what’s the market value for an arms-length transactions in that specific market area. This can be determined by having an appraisal done. It is best to have a real estate appraisal performed prior to the purchase of any property whether it is a foreclosure or an arms-length transaction. By having an appraisal performed prior to the purchase, an investor or potential home owner can ensure that the purchase price is similar to that which houses are selling for in the condition and under the terms of the purchase. Once an investor/potential home owner knows what the distressed

Government 2301 Judicial Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Government 2301 Judicial Project - Essay Example He as made some land mark decision for example, on 17th January 2006, he dissented with Thomas Clarence and Scalia Antonin in Gonzalez v. Oregon, which held that the act of controlled substance doesn’t allow the attorney general of the U.S to stop physicians from prescribing drugs that will assist in suicidal for the terminally ill as the Oregon law permit, the issue was the interpretation of the case. Robert received a senate confirmation vote of seventy eight against twenty two. Clarence Thomas graduated from the law school in England. Thomas was appointed as an assistant Attorney general in Missouri and also practiced private law their. He was appointed as assistant Civil rights secretary at the department of education. He joined the U.S court of appeal for Columbia circuit in 1990. He has taken a judicially conservative perspective trying to uphold what he perceives to be the original meaning of the constitution. He was among the three judges who dissented in Hamdan V. Rumsfeld. In this case he was also the only one who conquered with the fourth circuit that congress had the power of authorizing the president’s detention of soldiers. Thomas received fifty two votes to forty eight. Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg is an associate justice in the Supreme Court. He appointed in was in 1993 and received. Prior to Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg appointment to Supreme Court, she had served as a federal judge for thirteen year in the U.S court of appeal of Columbia. Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg has spent a bigger part of her career as citizenship status of men and women’s advocate. Not only did she also engage in advocacy as a volunteer lawyer but she was also a member o board of directors for ACLU and also its general counsel. She was the one who administered the oath of office for Al gore in 1999. Ginsburg is the second woman to be an associate judge of the US supremacy court. She has had many health problems over the last mainly, early last year she was diagnosed

Business Ethics Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Business Ethics - Case Study Example He was also supposed to decide whether the company would sell their apple juice from the finished products manufactured by the PAI trade group. There was a lot of supposition  that the juice was adulterated with water and sugar syrup instead of pure apple concentrate. The CEO was supposed to determine the faults in the product lifecycle and still maintain a good relation with the nestle company. The CEO was required to clear the adulteration accuse of the company and make it regain its normal sales and market share. He was required to identify the faulty areas in the company, but the route he followed awoke the crisis. He called a meeting with the department heads and stakeholders and expected that they would give him an insight to the problem. The CEO handled the problem by considering perspectives of stakeholders rather than identifying the problem and dealing with it (Burke 1988). He was morally obligated to follow a certain procedure while making decisions. However, the issue at hand demanded better handling of the problem. Bruce McIntosh was responsible for ensuring that the products met the set quality standards. He believed that the PAI test was bias and was aimed at supporting domestic apple growers. He argued that the tests done by the detectives were not passed by the government agencies and hence he supported filing a lawsuit against universal. His perspective was to follow the ethic of quality set by nestle. Tom Storer was the head of operations and Canajoharie plant and was responsible for ensuring plants operated efficiently and profitably (Burke 1988). He supported cutting the cost of raw material on the expense of having pure materials. He signed contractual agreements with universal and hence authenticated the materials used. He did not take note of any previous warnings by their former supplier (Haskins), and he defended universal’s purity and price. He was

Selection Of Needs Analysis Approaches

Selection Of Needs Analysis Approaches ESP (English for Specific Purposes) is defined as an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learners reason for learning (Hutchinson and Waters, 1986). In other words, ESP courses are designed with the intention of meeting learners needs. Moreover, they also indicate that ESP is just one branch of EFL/ESL, the tree of which is nourished from communication and learning. Thus, like other forms of language teaching, ESP courses are designed in order to meet the certain purposes which learners are required to learn English for. They can be academic purposes (EAP) or work/training purposes (EOP/EVP/VESL). In another classification, the purposes of ESP courses can be for Science and Technology, Business and Economics or Social Sciences. As those above-mentioned purposes are quite various, it raises the necessity of Needs Analysis, which is considered as the irreducible minimum of an ESP approach to course design (Hutchinson and Waters , 1986, p54) or a vital step in the process of designing and carrying out any ESP courses (Songhori, 2008) or the very first step of course design process which provides validity and relevancy for all subsequent course design activities (Johns, 1991). With such increasingly importance of Needs Analysis to ESP course designers, this paper is conducted as a practice of carrying out Needs Analysis. However, due to the timing constraint as well as the requirement of the course, the paper just focuses on choosing an appropriate Needs Analysis approach to collecting the information of a specific group of learners needs. The paper also provides a detailed rationale and some samples of the means of data collection in order to support for the selection. NEEDS ANALYSIS THEORIES Since Needs Analysis is performed in order to find out not only the necessity, the lacks and the wants of learners towards the target situations (target needs) but also the learning needs or what learners need to do in order to learn, there exists different approaches to Needs Analysis, namely Target Situation Analysis, Present Situation Analysis, Pedagogic Needs Analysis. Deficiency Analysis, Strategy Analysis or Learning Needs Analysis, Means Analysis, Register Analysis, Discourse Analysis, and Genre Analysis. The term Target Situation Analysis (TSA) was first introduced as communication in the target situation in Chambers article (1980). However, in his book published in 1978, Munby already mentioned the target situation which, according to him, was closely concerned with the target needs and target level of performance and this has been followed by many researchers (Hutchinson and Waters, 1986; Dudley-Evans and St. John, 1998; West, 1994) with inheritance and development. Yet, whatever similarities or differences they share, they all use TSA with the same aim of finding as thoroughly as possible the linguistic form a prospective ESP learner is likely to use in various situations in his target environment. For example, Hutchinson and Waters (1986) considered Target Needs Analysis as in essence a matter of asking questions about the target situation and the attitudes towards that situation of various participants of the learning process (p59) and most of those questions are closely related to Munbys parameters. The second type of Needs Analysis that needs mentioning is PSA or Present Situation Analysis which may be posited as a complementary to target situation analysis (Robinson, 1991). As presented from its term, PSA is used with the attempt to find out the information about learners at the beginning of the course. It may estimate the strength and weaknesses of learners in all aspects, including language, skills as well as learning experiences. It may also involve information about the teaching and learning settings or the user-institutions reference. The information for PSA can come from a well established test or from learners previous learning results. Deficiency analysis or lack analysis is claimed to form the basis of the language syllabus (Jordon, 1997) since it is supposed to provide information about both the present situation and target situation and thus, the gap between them for the course designer to consult. Strategy analysis or learning needs analysis is another important type that the course designer should take into considerations when he/she designing an ESP course. It is concerned with learners view of learning or their learning preferences. It tries to establish how they wish to learn rather than what they need to learn and consequently help course designer to find ways of motivating and enabling learners to reach the goals of the course. Means analysis is considered to provide the course designer with information about the environment in which the course will be run (Dudley-Evans and St. John, 1998, p125) and consequently, the approach attempts to adapt the ESP course to the setting of the learning institution. The last type mentioned in this paper is Pedagogic Needs Analysis proposed by West (1998). It is considered to be a combination of all above-mentioned approaches with the hope to compensate all shortcomings of the above approaches through the combination. However, in some cases, it does not always work. In the history of ESP development, there may exist some other Needs Analysis approaches. However, due to the limit of this paper, only nine above approaches are selected to be briefly described. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF TARGET LEARNERS As aforesaid, this paper only focuses on finding a suitable Needs Analysis approach for a specific group of learners. More specifically, they are twenty 2nd-year students of Electronics and Telecommunications Department, College of Technology. They have just finished two terms of General English. According to their learning results of the first two terms, they are pre-intermediate English learners. This ESP course is their 3rd and also the last term of learning English at university and it is supposed to be a preparation for them to be ready for their future career of telecommunication engineers. The course is planned to last four months which will be divided into fifteen weeks of learning. In each week, learners are intended to attend seven 45-minute periods which will be allocated in two different mornings. The institution (i.e. College of Technology) assures to provide all needed facilities for the process of learning and teaching. For instance, essential teaching aids like tape/CD players, computers, projectors and a well-equipped library are always available for use. Teachers are also promised to have best conditions of finding appropriate materials as well as creating teaching environments to assist to process of learning and teaching. Above is all provided information about the target group of the English course for Telecommunication which is taught in the third term of the university curriculum. APPROACH SELECTION WITH A DETAILED RATIONALE In order to support the process of designing the most appropriate and effective course for the above-mentioned target group, it is necessary to give an adequate profile of the above-mentioned learners needs by means of a combination of two approaches: (1) target needs analysis and (2) learning needs analysis. The reasons for such selection are discussed as followed: Firstly, as aforesaid, an ESP course is designed to meet some certain needs of learners by bridging the gap between a current state and a desired or target one (Graves, 2000). Thus, it is necessary for the course designer to be aware of the learners states at both point of time. In other words, he/she is suggested to carry out both TSA and PSA. However, in this situation, since the target group of this ESP course is in their 3rd term at university, the course designer is quite sure about the current state of the learners as well as the current state of the institution facility. He/She knows where the learners are and what the learners lack. He/She also know what kinds of facilities are available to support the process of learning and teaching. Consequently, there is no need of carrying out a PSA for learners existing state of language/skills or the conditions of learning but there must be a necessity of TSA which is supposed to gather adequate and specific information about how the l anguage will be used, what the content areas will be, who the learners will use the language with, where and when the language will be used, etc. (Hutchinson and Waters, 1986) or about purposive domain, setting, interaction, instrumentality, dialect, communicative event, communicative key and target level (Munby, 1978). In conclusion, TSA is hoped to be a reliable indicator which can determine the destination of the course. It can also act as a compass to give the direction for the journey of teaching and learning. Nevertheless, TSA only provides the course designer with the information of the target situation. In other words, TSA can just answer the question of what to teach and how to teach. In this case, that is not enough. As this term is a part of a learning process, it is also crucial for the course designer to take into considerations the learners learning preferences. Thus, the employment of another needs analysis (i.e. learning needs analysis/LSA) is a good choice to make the process of course design perfect. Moreover, it is believed that the learning preferences and strategies for GE (general English) may be different from those for ESP. As a result, the course designer needs to know these differences in order to design an appropriate course for most of the learners. All in all, a combination of TSA and LSA is considered inevitable and is expected to offer the ESP course designer a full profile of both target situation and learning preferences for the 3rd-year students of Electronics and Telecommunications Department, College of Technology. SAMPLES OF THE MEANS FOR DATA COLLECTION As decided in the previous part, a combination of TSA and LSA is employed to give a detailed profile of target situation and learning preferences in order to support the design of the English course for Telecommunication. More specifically, both formal and informal means will be used to collect the data for the needs analysis at the beginning and during the course. At the beginning of the course, formal interviews with the managers of some telecommunication foreign companies will be carried out to identify the target situations in which learners will have to use the language. Below is some sample questions that may be included in the interview: Who will your employees speak English to? Native or non-native speakers? What is their level of main interlocutors knowledge? Expert or layman? Where will your employees have to use English? In the office, at the workshop or in the meetings? Can you mention some other situations? Firstly, an informal questionnaire with both closed and open-ended questions will be delivered to learners to find out the preferences of learners learning. Below is one sample question that may be included in the questionnaire: What kinds of materials do you want to work with in the course? (Please tick on the box the materials you want to work with) Textbooks provided by teachers Authentic materials (manuals, articles about telecommunication in newspaper, magazines, etc.) provided by teachers Authentic materials (manuals, articles about telecommunication in newspaper, magazines, etc.) searched and selected by learners A mixed use of all kinds Informal interviews with ex-learners (i.e. learners who already took the English course of Telecommunication) will be also utilized to specify the information of what they think should be included in the course as well as the way they think the best way to learn the target language. Below is a potential question that may be included in the interview In your point of view, which is the most important language skill that learners of this ESP course should improve? Reading? Speaking? Writing? Or listening? Why do you think so? During the course, another informal questionnaire will be delivered to learners of the course in order to check whether the course goes right or not.

Fading Christian Relevancy Exposed by Sallie McFague Essay -- Religion

My first encounter with Sallie McFague’s article was jarring: her eco-feminist metaphorical approach to theology is somewhat unexpected to those unfamiliar with Religious Studies. Yet I suppose I have misjudged much of this field of study by unfairly coming to expect either wholly traditional or wholly radical claims. McFague’s approach, however, seems relatively moderate and reasonable in all its assertions, and its neo-Derridian deconstruction had my inner cultural analyst bursting with excitement. Aching to break away from the patriarchical tyranny of classical Christian theology, she is committed to a drastic reconstruction of traditional Christian dogma. At first I wondered as to her motives: was this deconstruction fueled by a second-wave feminist desire to overthrow patriarchy, or the wishes of a tree-hugging ecologist on a mission to save the natural world (as suggested by her book’s title, Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age)? Apparently neither. It is after the first few paragraphs that McFague brings clear relevancy to her writing. She argues that the common interpretation of Jesus’ resurrection serves to negate God’s omnipresence. Traditionally it is understood that the resurrection represents a â€Å"personal, bodily translation into another world† (259) though which one can join the Savior. Thus while awaiting a later holistic reunion with God, one’s earthly, bodily present is in â€Å"between-time†, in limbo, lacking God in space and time. Thus McFague fears such an interpretation for its indirect implications: God, then, is not ‘omnipresent’ – He is only par tially, selectively present. (260) She proposes, then, that the resurrection tale no longer be held as a mythology of transcendence, but rather as a â€Å"promise of G... ...e need for metaphorical theology. The particular appeal of McFague’s style is, then, not necessarily her argument nor her logic: rather it is her open-minded approach to such controversial matters. For as McFague herself would openly admit, â€Å"there are, of course, different understandings on what is ‘better’† (265). Notes: [1] I particular enjoyed McFague’s observation that â€Å"a model is a metaphor with ‘staying power’† (278) as I have often wondered at what point a religious metaphor, such as ‘God as Father’, becomes accepted enough that it becomes used in the vernacular. [2] McFague’s ‘metaphorical theology’ very much reminds me of George Carlin’s attempts to rejuvenate an outdated Jesus in Dogma. McFague, like Carlin’s Cardinal Glick, is trying to ‘re-package’ and ‘sell’ faith (or rather, The â€Å"Buddy Jesus†) by preventing a need, and relevancy, for religion.