After years of knwoing what the DOI was, it was enlightening to finally read the document closely and see how carefully Jefferson et al make the argument for independence. I especially like the part, "When in the course of human events . . ." This phrase struck me because . . .

I really enjoyed looking at the artist who were painting around the time of Emerson and Thoreau; it was nice to see a visual embodiment of all the RWE and HDT were talking about. My favorite piciture, "The Harvest" corresponds nicely to the section in Walden where Thoreau writes, " . . .

I really liked the atmosphere of this story. After reading The Scarlet Letter in high school, I din't much care for Hawthorne, but I really enjoyed the creepiness of this story, and the message, which seemed to say . . .

As part of our discussion of slavery, we watched the 1997 film Amistad, directed by Steven Speilberg. Although the film turned into a pretty predictable courtroom drama, the first half of the film, detailing the capture of the slave and the voyage of the Middle Passage was some of the most imagery of slavery I have ever seen, especially the early portions of the film aboard the slave ship