What If Benchmark

For this benchmark I created a fake news site with articles as my primary sources. My POD was using the original copy of the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson.This copy included a paragraph about slavery. Check out how it changed the future here!

Below is a picture of the homepage.
Screen Shot 2012-06-04 at 12.00.20 PM
Screen Shot 2012-06-04 at 12.00.20 PM
Reflection:

During the Revolutionary War the Declaration of Independence was written. The copy that effects us today, however, was not the first or original copy of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson wrote the first copy and in this he included a debatable paragraph that discussed slavery. For this project I decided to change history so that the original copy was used. Due to the fact that the south was all for slavery, they were not in agreement with the Declaration. In an alternate history they were so displeased that they separated themselves from the north and sided with the King of Britain. 

What I liked about this project was the fact that I got to dictate what I wanted to happen. Based on my research I could create a reasonable alternate reality. What was difficult however was coming up with a situation that would really make a difference. The original idea that had was to effect the history of slavery by ending the life of Harriet Tubman. Automatically I assumed that this would rid history of the underground railroad but then it was brought to my attention that someone other that Harriet Tubman could have created the underground railroad or something similar. Another difficult thing was creating the articles (the primary sources). Often times I felt that I was being very repetitive and at a lost of what to write. I wanted to change history but not so much that I confused myself and come up with an unreasonable outcome.

I think that history itself is based on the actions of an individual or group. Without people trying to solve problems in history or standing up for what they belief there is no history. Systemic changes are a result of the individuals effect on history. Often times I think systemic changes are hyped up more in history. This is not to say they aren't important though. I didn't realize until this project that if a simple decision wasn't made in the past, it in fact could have change my life completely at the moment. Usually I think of history as a set thing, I never thought about changing it.

I think that with this project we had a lot of freedom of choice, we chose the topic, what type of primary sources, and how we wanted to present it. Now that I'm done with the project I think that it was a good idea to handle the project the way it was handled. I don't really have any improvements that I could suggest. But if I had to do this project over I definitely would have spend more time finding a topic that interest me more instead of picking the first one.

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