Ancient Athenian Activism

Early American democracy was a government, where there would be people who run to be the president, of the guy who runs the country, an the citizens of the country vote for them. The citizens get one vote, and they choose who they want to vote for. To be a voting citizen, you had to be a white, adult man who owned property. They had to have been born in the US, or applied to be a citizen. Only 6% of people out of the 4 million person population could vote.The citizens would submit their vote by filling out a sheet of paper with their opinions. The person who got the most votes would be the president, and the runner-up would be the Vice President, but that has changed by now. The Vice President is now chosen by the president. There would also be separate elections for the senators, who govern each state and vote on matters for the whole country and majority wins. This was called a representative

democracy.

The people would also vote for governors and mayors, who choose what is best for their city or state, or at least they are supposed to!

Early American democracy wasn’t all that fair, though

Only a small amount of society was able to vote; white men. Women and people of color could not vote. Only white men could run for office, too. Nowadays, everyone can vote and run for office. The people who could run for office would usually be rich, and they richer people were more likely to win.

Section Two

Ancient Athenian Democracy

Ancient Athens had a direct democracy, meaning the citizens would vote on every single thing that came up. the winning side would get the law passed in their favor. They would vote by filling out a hunk of clay called a ostracon. They would also vote for leaders and government, and if they hated someone, they could ostracize, or nominate, them to be voted out of Athens so they would not be a citizen anymore. The only people who could vote in Athens were citizens, and citizens would only be citizens of they were a free man who had both parents who were native to athens.

Pericles giving a speech

Section Three

Activism in Early America

Early American activism was performed in many ways. One of these ways was public speeches. Politicians or just random people would give a speech in a public square to anyone who was there, and assume they told everyone else about it and then it eventually got to the government, and they changed the law. Another was was protests. People would march in the streets, and sometimes vandalize a few things along the way. The authorities would sometimes have to take control of these protests with weapons. Other times the protests would be peaceful.

Samuel Adams giving speech

When authorities take control of protests

The Boston Massacre was an event in history where the colonists of New York were marching all night and harassing the British soldiers, who were sort of the police at the time, took control and shot up the rioters.

Early American activists

In early America, women could not vote. Only men could vote at that time. The activists were called women’s suffragists, because they marched and protested for women’s rights. In 1882, the United States government decided that Chinese Americans in the US were taking up too many jobs. They made the Chinese exclusion act, which blocked all imigration from China. The Chinese Americans fought for their rights by writing letters to government officials, trying to convince them that they had to change the laws.

In many places in the US, black people had a terrible amount of rights less than white people. They would march in streets, trying to get there point through. They fought for their rights by marching with many people, so the lawmakers could see how many people were starting to hate them, and then they got the sense to change the laws.

Section Four

Ancient Athenian Activism

Ancient Athenian Activism was pretty simple

Pericles gave a few speeches on his ideas about a future for Athens

People who wanted change would go to the nearest or most populated public area and they would speeches, hoping to get people on their side of the argument. Pericles was one of these activists.

Ancient Athenians would also create plays; comedies and tragedies would reflect current events and show what should happen, or how stupid what had to change was.

Antigone was a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles. In Antigone, a person called antigone’s brother dies and she wants to bury him, but king Creon says no. When Antigone tries to bury her brother, but gets caught and is executed. All the people who loved her and missed her committed suicide, and Creon had to live with his regrets. It explained how the laws were wrong, yet Antigone disobeyed it to do the right thing. it shows how civil disobedience can change laws.