Module Three Blog

One of the main subjects of this module was the Panic of 1837. Firstly, the video titled “Martin Van Buren and the Panic of 1837” by Political Toast was focused on Van Buren’s response to the Panic of 1837. He was the first president to deal with an issue like this. In relation, the video titled “The Panic of 1857” by Ryan Sweeney is about the economic collapse due to the railroad companies borrowing too much money and the banks not having gold to back up America’s paper currency. Next was the video titled “War & Expansion” by Crash Course, which was about the Mexican-American war and the United States annexing California, Oregon, and Texas. Also, another video about westward expansion was the video titled “Building the Transcontinental Railroad” by CBS Sunday Morning, which explained the largest steam locomotive that ran from the east to the west. Finally, there were two videos explaining the Civil War, the first one being titled “Dr. David Blight on Civil War Economics” which was about how the Civil War started and gave an analysis of who benefitted the most. The last video of the module was titled “The Civil War in Four Minutes” by the American Battlefield Trust, this video shared the most interesting information of them all. It was introduced that free African Americans did at one point have the right to vote. I was intrigued oppression that freed African Americans faced. I never knew that before the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans had the right to vote. Overall, this module explained the Civil War, western expansion, and the rights, and lack of rights, of the freed African Americas in post-Cold War America.