p5.+Dixiecrat+Bloc



Group Members and Roles
 * Nathan S: Speaker, Co-Writer, Coordinator
 * Mahaila W: Debater
 * Brennen H: Radio PSA
 * Tyler H: Video PSA
 * Weston G: Photographer, Writer
 * Jeffrey L: Social Networker
 * Jacob V: Journalist/ Brochure
 * Sarah B: Graphic/ Brochure

=Group Slogan=

"In the North and in the South, slavery keeps our nation's health."

=What Your Group Wants -- Plan for New Constitution= We want to maintain our system of slavery to keep the south alive. Also we feel the need to give the slaves voting privileges that count as 3/5 of a vote. Finally, we want to pay off the national debt so our country can unite and begin to prosper. =Bullet Points of Your Plan= =Orator: Text of Your Speech= Good afternoon my fellow delegates. Allow me to introduce myself; I am Charles Pickney, here to represent the Dixiecrat Bloc and her interests. Now, I hear talk in the north of abolishing slavery and I could not be more disgusted. For those who do not know, the southern states thrive, if not survive, off of slavery; without it, this country would be bankrupt in a week. Admittedly, slavery is not the friendliest of ideas, but in order for us to prosper, it is vital to keep these men working for everyone’s benefit. How do you expect us to provide food, tobacco, and everything else for the union if we don’t have the affordable manpower to do so?media type="file" key="dixiecratbloc-speech-p5-2013.mp4" width="480" height="320" align="right"
 * Slavery to stay in the South with no taxes
 * To keep trade with all countries including Africa to keep a strong economic income
 * Representation of slaves counting then as 3/5 of a person (as not to be taxed) and given 3/5 of the vote
 * No federal control over trade where profit goes to the states not nation
 * Slavery is key to keep agriculture strong which brings a lot of money for the nation
 * Pay off our debts
 * Prevent the nation from failing
 * Make sure the south has power in government

The other delegates, especially those in the Crispus Attucks Coalition, talk of uniting our country through freeing the slaves. They could not be more wrong. Our country is already on the edge of financial collapse, and to free all of the slaves would be to pound the final nail into America’s coffin. Debtors and creditors will never stop fighting until the gargantuan financial burden is paid off. You see, slaves are required for us to be able to turn a profit and without our plantations being worked by slaves, the south will be forced to spend their fortunes on imported goods. Congress will slowly perish in the fiery depths of economic hell as they helplessly watch their debts skyrocket; our battle for freedom will have been for nothing. Is there anything worse for our unity as a country than to be broke and filled with disgruntled plantation owners? In fact, if slaves are freed, then I wouldn’t be surprised if we, the south, seceded from this country just for our own survival.

Now, we concede that slavery is not our country’s beautiful side but to live in harmony, this tradition of slavery, must continue and not fall victim to the Constitutional Convention. We do not harm our slaves unless they deserve such punishment, just as a father would punish his son if he were to do disobey him. In fact, I would say that our slaves are happier as slaves then they would be free; we feed them, clothe them, and house them. To outlaw slavery is to set thousands, if not millions, of broke, uneducated black men loose in the southern colony. Outrage will erupt and our entire country will be more divided than ever before. If you choose to free the slaves, then you might as well re-label the southern states as New Africa! This turmoil must be contained for the sake of preserving our country’s well-being. How are we, of the south, supposed to cope with our property and investments being stolen from us? We have been acquiring land for over a century from all our ancestors, and all of our hard earned land will do us nothing if we do not have the proper quantity of slaves to work for us. Is it normal to live in harmony when we have nothing? We’ll be bankrupt just farming for ourselves; we will be sent back to the days of the early 1600’s where we won’t even know if we will have a sufficient harvest.

We are not here just to reject your ideas, but instead to insert our own into this convention. Our plan is a simple one: keep the slaves and restore unity in our country. In order to accomplish this feat, our slaves need to have a vote in order to give them power, but the suggestion of the taxation of them…ridiculous. Slaves are not paid, and if they were, then they would cease to be slaves, but rather servants. Our slaves deserve the vote because then the state’s population will even out and who’s to say the north with their panoply of free men will not oppress us southerners. We lack the number of men that they have because we possess a large population of black slaves. Without the slave vote, the north will forever have control over us; it won’t be long before the southern states stop looking to the northern states as fellow friends and start to see them as tyrants like King George III. Everyone in this convention is here to create a working government and a unity between the states. Our plan is to give the people not what they want but what they need. For our nation to flourish, we need peace between the states by giving slaves the right to vote in order to balance power between the north and the south. Next, we follow with more federal power leading to more unity. Then, perhaps in a few decades, when our country is financially sound and doing well, we can then deal with the slavery debacle if such an argument still exists, but until then we must maintain the current system just to stay afloat as a country.

Is it not clear by now that the entire southern culture depends on slavery, this isn’t something you can just outlaw and wipe away from the land. Our states will collapse, we will be damned, and so will the freed slaves. For the sake of the country that we spent eight long years fighting for, the country built from nothing by our ancestors, the country that has seen more governmental change than England has in 500 years. If we end slavery, then these miraculous feats will have been for nothing. For the north and the south, slavery will continue to keep our nation’s health.

=Why Our Plan is Good:= Our plan is simple with no twists that people will have to struggle to adjust to. We want to equalize the power so our country will not have one section or state that is better than another. By giving slaves a 3/5 vote the power of our republic is balanced between the north and south so laws can be equal and fair with north oppressing south or vice versa. As stated before our plan is simple but simple is what we need right now, we are trying to unite the states and if the plan becomes too intricate the common man will start to question it. If we were to outlaw slavery there would be a huge revolt from the south and frankly our country could not withstand that in its current condition.

=Print Journalist: Write Up of Convention Activity= = =

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The tension in the room could be felt by every living soul. Everyone’s mind racked by doubt as to what our nation’s future would hold. The meeting was commenced by the delegates of the Virginia Plan. James Madison, the leader of the party, orated for the need of “representation by population” in the current government. Madison sermonized to his fellow Americans, that each state should be represented by the number of people there are in that state. This proposition quickly became a sensitive subject for the New Jersey Plan, who promptly disagreed with James Madison’s overture. William Patterson, leader of the New Jersey Plan, returned fire with his own proposition which was that each state got one vote no matter the population. This, Mr. Patterson appealed, would give the smaller states, those like New Jersey, equal power with the rest of the states. Mr. Madison readily dissented with his lone and ineffective argument that,”700,000 men do not equal to 27,000 men.” Although the math is accurate, the Virginian Plan delegates failed to realize the fear the New Jersey Plan saw in their idea. William Patterson retaliated back at the Virginians that if the larger states, like those of Virginia, were to get all the power, then those larger states would “end up being a tyrannical leader like King George III.” After several bickering comments amidst the Virginia Plan party and the New Jersey Plan party, the delegates representing the Great Compromise group fought their way into the debate. They instructed the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan to come to a compromise, to keep the unity of our nation. And while the Great Compromise delegates announced their ideas, a certain delegate representing the Crispus Attucks Coalition foolishly expressed his inattentive behavior and ludicrously posed for the cameras. The second part of the debate was between the arrogant and hypocritical group of the Crispus Attucks Coalition and the respectable, prodigious Dixiecrat Bloc Party. The Crispus Attucks Coalition unknowledgeable with the fact that the southern states thrive off the slavery, their delegates made irrelevant observations that slaves on the southern plantations are abused and treated horrifically, although this has never been displayed before in the south. While half-wittingly debating with the intelligible Dixiecrat Bloc, both delegates from the Crispus Attucks Coalition asserted that they “could see the future.” The delegates embarrassed themselves by speaking of foreseeing a man named Frederick Douglas being born and a civil war would break out if slavery was not abolished. Concluding the Constitutional Convention, the Dixiecrat Bloc threatened to secede from the Americas if slavery was abolished.======

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