Essay is AMERICAN REVOLUTION TO 1850s

Hello, Reader. My name is Emilia Taylor. Just recently, I received a letter in the mail stating that I had inherited an estate and its contents in New York from an uncle I had never met. Apparently, he had just recently passed away and left everything to his youngest surviving relative, me. Upon receiving the keys to the house, I immediately set about discovering its contents. I must admit, I was not expecting to find much of anything so I was very surprised when I found a time machine in the basement. How do I know it’s a time machine, you may ask? When I sat down and pressed a couple of buttons, I went back in time! So far, I have made two trips: one was to the era of Prohibition and the other was to the era of the Civil Rights Movement. I have detailed my exploits below.

At first, I just used the buttons to change the date around and happened upon May 14, 1925. When I had chosen a date, a large red button began to flash; so, naturally, I pushed it. The machine began to vibrate, and then spin faster and faster. This seemed to go on forever, though it was probably closer to a few minutes. As the machine stopped, I quickly jumped out of it before it decided to move again. I looked around the basement and noticed that things did not appear the same as when I first sat down in the machine. As I walked up the stairs, I noticed that many of the photographs on the walls were different and the furniture was also not the same. On the table in the front foyer was a newspaper with the headline, “Dry Navy Hunting Rum Leak” and the article outlined that the navy and other police forces were trying to crack down on illegal alcohol smugglers.[endnoteRef:1] I remembered that the 18th Amendment made illegal the “manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States from 1920 to 1933.”[endnoteRef:2] It was evident that I had jumped back in time to the period known as Prohibition. After exploring New York City and perusing the “speak-easies” that proliferated, I returned to the time machine, headed for another time. [1: “Dry Navy Hunting Rum Leak,” Daily News (New York), May 14, 1925, accessed November 10, 2016, available from http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-prohibition-days-gallery-1.51845?pmSlide=1.51916. ] [2: Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. “Prohibition”, accessed November 10, 2016, available from https://www.britannica.com/event/Prohibition-United-States-history-1920-1933.]

This time, I noticed that there was also a button to choose different locations to travel to. I chose Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963 and appeared at the Lincoln Memorial. This choice was perfect timing to catch the iconic speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr. In fact, I appeared as he said, “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.”[endnoteRef:3] Historians would later speculate about the significance of this day, but I was able to witness it firsthand. I would learn later that over 250,000 people had attended King’s speech and that there had also been other speakers that day as part of the March on Washington to peacefully protest for jobs, freedom, and an end to racial discrimination and segregation.[endnoteRef:4] After witnessing such a monumental occasion, I decided it was time that I head home. I returned to my time machine, input the date in which I was from, and chose New York City bringing the machine to life once again. [3: Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have a Dream Speech,” August 28, 1963, American Rhetoric Top 100 Speeches, accessed November 10, 2016, available from http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm. ] [4: History.com Staff, “King Speaks to March on Washington,” History.com, 2010, accessed November 10, 2016, available from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/king-speaks-to-march-on-washington. ]

Upon returning to my own time, I was left with much to reflect upon. I had learned much about the Prohibition era and the exact reasons that caused the United States to outlaw alcohol. I also learned more about the Civil Rights Movement through Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Witnessing these events firsthand, seemed to make them much more significant to my own life. I never had the privilege of meeting my recently deceased uncle, but now I have the means to do so and I intend to use it, if only to thank him in person for his gift of time travel. I hope to discover more secrets to my new home, to the past, and maybe even to the future. Off I go