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Example research essay topic: World War One Sacco And Vanzetti - 2,692 words

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Were Sacco and Vanzetti convicted and eventually executed because of popular beliefs about anarchy? The majority of the evidence on Sacco and Vanzetti points to the fact that they did not receive a fair trial, but why is that? Many people of the time feel that can be attributed to the fact that both of the men were Italian immigrants. While this may have aided the feeling of hated that was already preeminent at the trial. It was not however the main reason that the two men were not given their fair trial that every one is alleged to have the right to. The main reason that Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted, and eventually executed with out the proper process of appeals, is the fact that they were members of a militant group of anarchists.

Both Sacco and Vanzetti were members of a movement that was considered by many of the people of the day to be the evil advisory of the free world. This was the felling in the wake of world war one and the red scare. The movement of anarchism has never been led by a single man, but many people have been influential in its cause over the years. One such man was Luigi Galleani. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, was one of the leading Italian anarchists in America. Sacco and Vanzetti adapted many of the major policies of Luigi during their time in America.

This occurrence was a direct result of the many editorials that Luigi wrote in the anarchist newsletter Cronaca Sovversiva. This newsletter was terribly influential in both Sacco and Vanzetti's lives. Vanzetti himself eventually wrote for the Cronaca Sovversiva. Both Sacco and Vanzetti had been know to distribute the pamphlet, Sacco did so while he was on a break at the shoe factory. One of the most under-debated topics of this unfortunate situation is the reason that Sacco and Vanzetti turned to anarchism in the first place. Many of the sources choose to ignore this question.

Both Sacco and Vanzetti came from small Italian farming villages. Sacco was from an upper-middle class farming family. He was the third of seventeen children. His father owned land and had hired hands that would work with Sacco in the fields. Sacco was never really one for formal education. He was just a hard worker with good family values.

So why did he turn to anarchism? Much of the same could be said for Vanzetti. He came a slightly smaller family that had just decent socio-economic status it his hometown. He was formally educated and excelled quickly. But his father removed him from his studies to learn a trade when he had heard that several layers were applying for the same job with less pay than a tradesman would be earning. Forty-two men competing for one position that paid thirty-five lire.

Eventually Vanzetti was placed in an apprentice ship for a bakers trade. He was away from his home for several years at the age of thirteen, working late and lonely hours. The only way he found to entertain himself was with random readings and religion. Vanzetti was a devout Catholic. He loved his mother more than anything else, and to be away from her made his heath slowly deteriorated. He was returned home to help his health return.

Shortly after Vanzetti recovered his mother fell ill with cancer. She was in constant pain for three months. In the last few weeks of her life her suffering was so intense that her husband could no longer bear to witness her pain. This left Vanzetti to care for his mother alone. She would eventually die in his arms.

He later stated that he buried part of himself when he buried his mother. He was so distressed that he would go days with out speaking. Following these events he never had a relationship with any woman besides his mother. Her death scared him to the point were he was not able to speak of his mother even during his time in jail, more than 10 years after his mother had died. When he boarded with a co-workers family they stated that he never had a guest of the female persuasion, nor did he ever have a date.

He was also very exclusive with his time to the young boys of the family. This may have either represented the fact that he was afraid to get attached to women, or it may have represented that he was attracted to little boys. Either way his mothers death seemed to rattle his faith in God. This event shocked him to the point were he had left for America, because in his own words There was nothing left for me to but come away. I had to put the seas between me and my grief.

Vanzetti's feelings towards the developments in his life may have been a reason for his sudden turn into anarchism. While Vanzetti came to America to escape grief, his intentions were to start a new life filled with happiness and prosperity. He like most other immigrants felt that America was the land of freedom-freedom not merely to gain wealth, for which we cared little, but freedom of the mind and of ideas. We always think that a natural right, and in that is our happiness. So what led a man in search of freedom in America to pick up arms against this country?

To most of the immigrants who came to this country, around the turn of the century to the First World War, America was the fairy tale that they were looking for. Upon arriving in America many immigrants were disappointed at what they saw. Extreme prejudice hampered their ability to mingle in with the rest of society. The lack of quality jobs also hurt immigrants. Poverty and language barriers ruined their dreams of property ownership and comfortable living that had been promised them in their homelands. Much of the myth of streets paved with gold and boundless opportunities were concocted by people looking to make money in their homeland.

Shippers and merchants did their best to swindle whole families out of their savings. Often they promised many things that they knew America did not have, just in order to make money. These shippers and merchants often had men out on the town singing the praises of going to America. Stories of boundless opportunities and limitless freedom. Overcharging and overbooking was prevalent, by those who would look to make a great deal of money.

The desire to fight back against the people that had taken advantage of them may have been a primary motivation for immigrants to pledge themselves to something with such a reputation for being a radical movement. This could have been one of the main reasons for the raise in popularity of anarchism amongst immigrants. Sacco and Vanzetti both coming from middle class families, were never really used to such exploitation. They also knew what it was like to have a stable income.

This may have inspired them to take up the cause of helping to better the lives of their fellow immigrants. Rather than looking at the problem on small scale as did many immigrants both Sacco and Vanzetti decided that they needed to assault the source. Instead of looking to form unions to prevent corrupt business, or attempting to take their grievances to the government, they elected to shoot over the head of the government and protest government itself. Anarchy as a movement attempts to annihilate all government.

Capitalism is too well renown for its ability to keep the lower classes suppressed while keeping them alive and working for the upper classes. Sacco knew what it was like for lower classes due to the fact that he had several men working under him to help his family farm in Italy. Sacco felt that the lower classes were mistreated in America. He had worked side by side with the lower class while not exploiting them. He felt that the way his father had treated the migrant farm workers was the proper way to treat a human being of lower class status.

Being in a stable family with decent economic status he could have returned to Italy if his situation ever got to grim. However he may have felt that he needed to stay and help champion the cause of the worker. By working hard and getting ahead Sacco could help out the less fortunate people who did not have the means to return to their native countries. Some people had the means to return home but their conditions back home were no better than that of the ones plaguing them in America. To them a newer more open form of oppression and a fresh start was worth fighting for.

Sacco held on to his ideals and worked his way up the ladder. During his struggles he was able to gain access to anarchist writings. Sacco felt he was becoming a good soldier in the revolution that anarchism was to inevitably bring about. He wanted to help, what he felt were the wheels of justice rolling. He handed out the writings to entry level workers to help give them something to dream about, sort of an excuse to continue on fighting to stay alive. This theory is supported by the dream that Sacco had while he was in jail.

Sacco expressed a dream that he endured in jail to help sum up his feelings in his later days. He described the scene as unions strike in a Pennsylvania mining camp. Government soldiers, who represented capitalism, barged in armed with riffles and bayonets in order to break up the strike. Sacco jumped to his feet and tried to urge the workers to hold their ground, while trying to appeal to the human side of the soldiers. Remember that everyone of us we have a mother and a child, Sacco stated, and you know that we fight for freedom which is your fight. During his attempt to appeal to the hearts of the soldiers he was shot in the heart.

He woke up with what Sacco refereed to as a sweet dream fresh in his memory. He tried to link the fact that government as well as their soldiers have no heart, or feelings, while he was willing to die for his fellow workers and their ideals. This dream came from the mind of a simple man who was trying to establish symbolism and irony along with his desire to be a martyr. He was not trying to save himself at this point but trying to set the wheels rolling, and if this were to occur Sacco felt he would be remembered for all time as one of the first men to die for the glorious cause of what his narrow mind believed to be freedom. Following the assassination of President McKinley, anarchism was perceived as a terrible cultish enemy of the United States of America.

It was to be established as a hated ideal once powerful members of American Government were receiving bombs. In the wake of this scare and the begging of Americas entry into World War One, both Sacco and Vanzetti fled their lives in America to go to Mexico. This was done in order to escape the draft. Much of the foreign immigrants were not ordered to fight, but they feared that if for some reason the Government wanted to round them up the government would have knowledge to were they were. They were not sure if they would bet put interment camps or even jailed as spies. Sacco left his wife for more than a year and a half rather than starting a new life under an assumed name, as most of his anarchist friends did.

He met Vanzetti there in Mexico. They also met with other leading militant Anarchists. In Mexico they all suffered great hardships. This tested their ideals, and hardened their beliefs. They all went back to America after being exhausted and defeated. Most of the men never returned to their original lives.

Sacco lived under an assumed name till he could return to his wife and family. Sacco was a man who was as detected to his family as he was his job. He was a tireless worker, and a great family man spending almost all of free time with his wife and kids. Yet Sacco's desire to free his fellow man from the shackles of oppression made him give this all up for more than a year and a half.

Sacco was either wonderfully nave man with the best of intentions or he was a terribly phony man striving for the to achieve greatness. He was more likely too naive to know that his undying faith in anarchism would eventually rob him of the life he had worked so hard to achieve. Those are the reasons that Sacco and Vanzetti turned to anarchy. But the main point of this essay to point out the reasons why they were convicted. For starters Fred H.

Moore was the chief council. Mr. Moore was himself a radical and made his living as a defender of radicals. He was not a member of the Massachusetts bar assassination thus he was, unfamiliar with the policies and traditions of Massachusetts bench.

This often led to the judge being offended by his inability to recognize and follow the proper etiquette of the courtroom. In addition to this it helped to fuel Judge Thayer's severe hatred of radicals or as he refereed to them reds. Judge Thayer is an enigma. There was a great deal of horrible precedents set in this case due to his intolerance of anarchists. He was unique in his prejudice, most people involved were prejudice against the two men because they were Italians not because they were reds.

Popular feelings about anarchy going into the trial were far from positive. Judge Thayer was responsible for helping the shift the negative focus off anarchism and helped develop some of the first modern cynical feelings towards the government. If not for Communist Russia and the second red scare anarchism may have developed into a popular movement. Judge Thayer was rather inconsistent with his decisions. His ignorant comments to the press dammed him in the eyes of the public.

His prejudices carried over into the jury. Think about it for a minute. The judge in a case you are on the jury for constantly attempts to make the guilt of the defendants obvious. It may sway your opinion towards guilty. A judge appears to be a respected and educated member of society. Mr.

Thayer took advantage of his position in the courtroom to sway the opinions of the jury every chance he got. He allowed several bizarre testimonies. For example he allowed the prosecution to establish the validity of a witness whos testimony was less than reliable. The witness who was known as Spain had seen Sacco leaving the scene of the crime. Viewing the scene from a distance of from sixty to eighty feet, she saw a man previously unknown to her in a car traveling at fifteen to eighteen miles per hour. She only saw Sacco for from one and a half to three seconds.

Yet after more than a year she testified and said this The man that appeared between the back of the front seat and the back seat was a man slightly taller than the witness was. He weighed possibly from 140 to 145 pounds. He was muscular, an active-looking man. His left hand was a good-sized hand, a hand that denoted strength. " Sacco had small hands. Also when she was asked to identify Sacco in a lineup Sacco was the only man in the line up. Not terribly difficult to identify a man when hes the only one there.

This may have been done due to the polices prejudges against reds or even to cover their own backsides. If the police did not convict Sacco or Vanzetti, then it looks as if they botched the case. None of the sources blame the police f...


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Research essay sample on World War One Sacco And Vanzetti

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