VooDoo in the Revolution

The Haitian Revolution was an important time in Haiti for the slaves. The slaves fought for their freedom against the white leaders and masters. The slaves in Haiti also practiced their own rituals and religious ceremonies during their secret meetings to plan their mass insurrection. The slaves would make sacrificial offerings and also they swore an oath of secrecy and revenge for theirtravesties. The summation of these practices would later become known as Voodoo. When someone thinks of Voodoo, their mind instantly jumps to a picture of the tiny dolls that people stick with pins with the beleif that harm will come to whomever the Voodoo doll isconnected. My mind also went in the same direction when Voodoo was first referenced in the Haitian Revolution, but it is actually far deeper and important to their culture than simply soft dolls.The slaves practiced this as a religion, not a hobby or simply in ceremony (though the rituals often included ceremonies). Vodouisants (the name given to those who practice Voodoo) believed in an all powerful deity named Bondye. This being was beleived to be the highest god, although Haitian Vodouisants also believed in lowerlevels of gods referred to as misté. Also known as Loa, Haitians aimed prayers toward these lesser gods due to the fact that the great Bondye was believed to be untouchable. Voodoo is very important to Haitian slaves because it gave them something to pray to and believe in. Their rituals in the dead of night gave them their own culture to oppose their masters.

http://tour-tv.com/2010/09/16/down-to-earth/voodoo-doll-2/

http://www.mythralthemystic.com/tag/haitian-voodoo/

The American Constitution

"We the People of the United States..." These words begin arguably the single most important document in American history: the Constitution of the Constitution of the United States of America. Written by James Madison in 1787, the intentions of this document were to form a stable central government for the newly-independent America. Together, the government and the document from which it was constructed would form the "supreme law of the land". Though Madison is credited as the author and writer of the initial draft of the Constitution, many m

en contributed to the writing of this all-important document, including the likes of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin. The Constitution, once completed, was the successor to the Articles of Confederation, which were set up while Americans were still fighting the American Revolution. As a result, by the end of the war, the policies were either outdated or contrary to what delegates believed would be right for the nation. Essentially, the Articles of Confederation put too much power into the hands of the individual states, and not enough into the central govern

ment. Though this foundation sufficed during the war, the founding fathers saw that there was potential for larger states to become more powerful, thus the Constitution was born.

By taking power out of the hands of individual states and putting it back into a central government, the country could be kept and controlled as one unit, rather than in 13 separate governing bodies. The Constitution has survived for nearly a quarter of a millenium since it's creation, and the policies set by it continue to be the backbone of our country. Though ratifications were made over the years by additions like the Bill of Rights, the general concepts of the Constitution remain the same.