In this assignment, I will be summarizing two of the cultural events that were discussed this week: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart was a famous Austrian composer who lived in the 18th century. He is regarded as one of the best composers ever. Let’s dive in to his life and his works:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. His father, Leopold Mozart was a famous violinist, and his mother played the harpsichord, so his musical talent clearly ran in his blood!

Mozart was a musician even in his toddler years! At the age of three, he was playing chords on his family’s harpsichord. At four, he started playing short pieces, and at five he was already composing music! He was described as being very gentle and kind yet also outgoing.

Mozart’s father started taking him on tours around the country, where he played for nobility. His sister, Nannerl Mozart was a very talented musician also, and she sometimes went on tours with him.

Mozart continued composing pieces throughout his life. He wrote over 600 pieces in his lifetime, including ones for Benjamin Franklin’s glass harmonica! He married Constanze Weber in 1782. He had six children, but only two survived to adulthood.

Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin

Eli Whitney was an American inventor best known for inventing the Cotton Gin, although he contributed in other ways to technology.

Eli Whitney was born on December 8, 1765. His father was a farmer who served as justice of the peace. He went to Yale college, where he learned many of his engineering skills.

In the south at that time, there were two types of cotton: green-seed and black-seed. The black-seeded one was easy to clean and separate the seeds, but it could only be grown on the coast, so it wasn’t very popular. The green-seeded variety could grow more widely in the south, but it was very hard to separate the seeds. Whitney noticed this, and he realized that if someone could invent a machine to separate the seeds, they would become very rich.

He started to make a model that had cylinders with nails and brushes on them, so when it was turned, it cleaned the seeds. (This is a simplification, the exact machine is more complex.) He further refined his design, then patented it. This helped revolutionize the cotton plantations, and made work easier for the slaves.

Eli Whitney also invented other things, like a milling machine, but he is best known for the Cotton Gin.

This week’s assignment will be on the Bill of Rights. I will cover the history of the document and its content. I will also explain the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights.

The Amendments are the modifications to the Constitution. Some of them restate or reaffirm the things covered in the Constitution, while others cover new issues.

The first ten Amendments were passed as a whole, which is what we call the Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights has its origins traced back to the Magna Carta and other important documents, but it really began after the Constitution was ratified. Some people disagreed with the Constitution because it didn’t contain some freedoms that they felt were important.

James Madison proposed some amendments, and the House and Senate condensed his into 12 amendments. 10 of these were ratified by the states, which became the Bill of Rights.

Below are the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights in a simplified, easy to understand version.

1. You have the freedoms of speech, press, assembly, petition and religion. This means that people can choose their religion, and have the freedom to say whatever they like, and petition and meet freely. Congress is supposed to protect these rights.
2. You have the right to own guns and use them properly. The government cannot confiscate them without a good reason.
3. There will be no quartering of troops. The government cannot send soldiers to private homes and force people to take care of the soldiers. This was a important one during the 18th century because this was legal when the colonies were under British rule, so the writers of the Bill of Rights thought this was important.
4. The government can’t search a person or their property without a reason or cause to believe that that person has committed a crime.
5. You have the right to remain silent, which means you don’t have to give testimony against yourself if you don’t want to. You can’t be tried for the same crime twice.
6. Anyone accused of a crime should be able to get a speedy and fair trial and they are allowed to get a lawyer and get their own witnesses. They also must be told what they are being charged with, and they can question witnesses opposing them.
7. A jury trial is needed for civil cases in federal courts.
8. The government can’t say that you have to pay excessive or unfair fines, and you can’t be punished in a cruel or unfair way.
9. The government can’t take away rights that are not stated. This means that if there are rights that the people have that are not mentioned in the Constitution or the Bill or rights, the people and states still have those rights.
10. Anything not left up to Congress is the right and responsibility of the people.

Thanks for reading!