What chances did enslaved African-Americans have of obtaining permanent freedom through revolt or escape? What factors work in their favor? What factors work against them?

What chances did enslaved African-Americans have of obtaining permanent freedom through revolt or escape? What factors work in their favor? What factors work against them?

The chances that enslaved African-Americans had of obtaining permanent freedom through revolt or escape were few and far between. In the film Solomon Northrup has a chance to escape when he is told by Mrs. Epps that he has to get some things for her from the general store. Solomon has the chance to escape and run off but on the way to the store he sees two slaves being hung, and suddenly he is paralyzed with fear and too scared to run away, so he just completes his chore.  Some of the factors work in the favor of slaves in their attempt to escape are their imagination and their time to think. For example in the film Solomon Northrup really only has the job of picking cotton and while it is a tough job it leaves a lot of space to think of other things while working. So while a slave is working he can be thinking about ways to escape and revolt against their owner. Some of the factors that work against slaves trying to escape are they have trust issues. For example in the film when Solomon Northrup gives Armsby his letter and payment to send this letter up north, Armsby betrays him and tell Mr. Epps that Solomon Northrup is attempting to escape. As you can imagine when a slave is being betrayed he gives up some hope on escaping or revolting against his master, thus loyalty works against him. 

Solomon Northrup thinking about how to escape

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How does gender shape the experiences of the slaves in the film?

How does gender shape the experiences of the slaves in the film?

          Gender dramatically shapes the experiences of the slaves in the film. For example a female slave in the film had a much harder time than the male slaves. As shown clearly with Patsey, because she was a female Edwin Epps raped her numerous times. Females in the movie were put into a position where they were vulnerable from all sides to attack. Usually women like Patsey were separated from their family and brought onto a plantation such as Edwin Epps and they were raped brutally on a routine basis. From a different viewpoint though female slaves did have somewhat of an upper hand over the Men, Because women were sexual objects to their owners they were out a little closer to their hearts, and thus less likely to be sold. A slave owner like one in the film, Edwin Epps would have to think hard about selling Patsey because he had sexual relations with her and thus she was somewhat emotionally involved with him. While on the other hand a male slave such as Solomon Northrup was treated as just a piece of property since he really held no emotional worth in the eyes of his owner Edwin Epps. Also female slaves in the film were not given as much freedom as the male slaves and were on a much smaller leash. For example when Patsey went to another slave owner’s plantation to acquire some soap she was treated very badly when she came back, because Edwin Epps was very protective of her and did not want her running off and having sexual relations with other men. 

                                                         Patsey and Mr. Epps and Solomon Northrup

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How do changes in ownership affect working and living conditions?

          

     How do changes in ownership affect working and living conditions? 

         Changes in ownership drastically affect working and living conditions of slaves. From the movie we can observe that when Solomon Northrup was on the cotton plantation of Tibeats although he was treated badly by Tibeats he was treated very well by the actual owner of the planation. An example of how he was treated well by the plantation owner was the owner of the plantation gave Solomon Northrup a violin to play at parties. Changes in ownership can mean a slave will be treated very badly at the plantation he is being moved to. For example Solomon Northrup was moved to the plantation of Edwin Epps, this man had a reputation of being a “nigger breaker” and he proved it to Solomon Northrup. Edwin Epps was very critical of everything Solomon Northrup did, when Solomon Northrup didn’t pick as much cotton as the other men that were slaves Edwin Epps beat him and humiliated him in front of his compatriots. Also a change in ownership placed Solomon Northrup in a very volatile situation, such as when Edwin Epps make Solomon Northrup whip Patsey with a with his whip because Patsey ran off to get some soap because Mrs. Epps wouldn’t allow her to shower. Lastly when slaves change ownership they can have their futures seriously changed. For example when Solomon was moved to the plantation of Edwin Epps he was given the opportunity of a lifetime. When Bass came to help Edwin Epps on the plantation as a hired hand, Solomon Northrup never expected for the message he told Bass to be conveyed to its true recipient, but it was. Solomon Northrup was freed because Bass told one of Solomon Northrup’s friends that Solomon Northrup was a slave and that he needed his freedom papers. This change in ownership resulted in the freedom of Solomon Northrup.

                                                         Solomon Northrup with Mr. Epps

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BLOG: Slave Narrative

                                 Slave Narrative

         This slave narrative is about a slave named, Miss Irene Robertson. Miss Irene Robertson was a slave in Washington, she had two slave masters and lived with her family throughout her life. Miss Irene Robertson was never sold, her 8 siblings also were not sold, her mother was sold at some point, but she was later bought once again. Near the end of her life Miss Irene Robertson’s father was given a piece of land by his father, his brother was also given land. The purpose of this given land was to run a cotton gin. When Miss Irene Robertson’s family was starting to do well with their gin someone came into their warehouse and burnt it to the ground. Miss Irene Robertson proceeds to speak about how this caused great heartache to her father. She then finishes her narrative by saying that the youth now do not like to work.

         I can conclude from this narration that Miss Irene Robertson lived a really hard life, but she was never separated from her family. I can also conclude that Miss Irene Robertson was persecuted after she was freed because someone burnt to the ground her family’s barn. Lastly I can conclude that Miss Irene Robertson is not very happy with the attitude of today’s youth.

                                                                                Washington

                                                                              Narrative

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Tecumseh Speech

                             Bob Marley- Get Up, Stand Up, Ft.Tecumseh 

           The song "Get Up, Stand up" by Bob Marley greatly reflects the theme of standing up for one's rights depicted in Tecumseh's Speech. Bob Marley states "Get up, stand up. Life is your right, So we can't give up the fight." This quote is proof of the similarity, Because Tecumseh states something tremendously similar, the following. "We must be united; we must fight each other's battles."

           It is clearly shown between these examples that both Tecumseh and Bob Marley felt it was important for them to stand up for their rights. And the way they would stand up for there rights is by speaking out. The only way these men knew how to speak out at this time in their lives was by artistic expression.

                                                                                          Portrait of Tecumseh

Bob Marley – Get Up, Stand Up Lyrics

Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight

Preacher man don't tell me heaven is under the earth
I know you don't know what life is really worth
Is not all that glitters in gold and
Half the story has never been told
So now you see the light, aay
Stand up for your right. Come on

Get up, stand up, stand up for your right
Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight
(Repeat)

Most people think great God will come from the sky
Take away ev'rything, and make ev'rybody feel high
But if you know what life is worth
You would look for yours on earth
And now you see the light
You stand up for your right, yeah!

Get up, stand up, stand up for your right
Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight
Get up, stand up. Life is your right
So we can't give up the fight
Stand up for your right, Lord, Lord
Get up, stand up. Keep on struggling on
Don't give up the fight

We're sick and tired of your ism and skism game
Die and go to heaven in Jesus' name, Lord
We know when we understand
Almighty God is a living man
You can fool some people sometimes
But you can't fool all the people all the time
So now we see the light
We gonna stand up for our right

So you'd better get up, stand up, stand up for your right
Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight
Get up, stand up, stand up for your right
Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight

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Slavery in America Timeline

                

             Slavery in America Timeline

1. 1600 Crossing of the

2. 1692 Slaves arrive in James Town

3. 1763 Population of slaves increase to 230,000

4. 1852 Fugitive slave act is put into order

5. 1852 Harriot Tubman furthers underground rail road to Canada/Northeast America

6. 1857 "A slave is not free just because he is in a slave state" -Supreme court

7. 1860 Textile mills flourish causing a great demand for cotton

8. 1861 seven states secede from union

9. 1861 Civil war outbreak

10. 1862 Lincoln implements Union Army into civil war

                                Underground-railroad

                                   Harriet Tubman

                             Inside of A Textile Mill

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The Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening was the spearhead of the evangelical trident that made its way across the great plains of the United States of America. Because of the separation of politics and religious negotiations in the U.S government. The Second Great Awakening consists of Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Mormons and Unitarians. Although these different branches of Christianity have endowed upon different rights and principals, they all fundamentally adhere to the same baselines.

                                                                1839 Methodist camp meeting

                Religious and Philosophical Reform

Clash of Christians

The Presbyterian Church:
Founded in the 1983 in the U.S.A
Enhanced with  ideas from John Calvin's religious teachings.
Strongly believes that God is the main authority over the religion and the world.
Believes that gaining salvation is God's gift and not from hard work.
Strictly follows the New Testament of the Bible and uses it to know about God and his purposes.

The Congregational Church:

Founded in 1681
Belief in Loyalty and sacred hearts
Has similar elements of Elizabethan Separatism.
Taught by Robert Browne.

Baptism:
Practices aspersion, sprinkling water on someone's head for cleansing of the body and spirit
Originated from Jesus's disciple John.

Methodists:
Founded in 1744.
Formed in England.
Has principles of Protestant.
Practices the Trinity

Unitarians:

Found in 1774

Theophilus Lindsey organised meetings
The religion itself has no set beliefs.

Mormons:
Known commonly as the church of Latter-day Saints.
Founded in 1830
Joseph Smith Jr. founding father of Mormonism
Founded in New York.
Mormon religion allows polygamy

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To my long distant family

When you’re traveling constantly it’s easy to forget where you’re going and where you came from. Conversations went a different way when I was talking to these people, the people back in Cambridge would have called these generous loving beings "savages". They weren’t expecting me to be there when they went for their daily rounds, along the Cumberland Gap. There I was in the chasm, face bloody with the ashen powder from my carabineers. Abequa was leaning over me palpating my now cloven leather boot straps, she’d never seen something so magnificent even when it was down into the belly of its last moments. I’d never seen something as beautiful as its longest years from a rosewood writing palate. Abequa was the tribes most influential virgin, despite what the other boys said about Teresysa. Nevertheless my job here in the west was to establish an empire not a family.

Stone Bridge Crossing

The Shawnee are people of a different age. This morning I woke up and was off on my way into Donner's Pass to collect my daily ration of berries. Suddenly I was swarmed by a feeling of warm buzzing inside my head, the buzzing had a name and his name was Damon. Damon had taught me that a lesson and that lesson was, “Never leave your back open to the Shawnee.” That’s how he justified knocking me over the head with a hemp weaved bag of chestnuts. I asked Damon why I always felt kind of encapsulated in a vacuum of fear when walking through this passage. He explained to me that years ago a family got stuck going through this very passage, and when the time came that they ran out of food they ate each other.

                                                                              The Donner Party

                                                                                    Donner Map




After being laden with the day’s daily tasks I and Sacagawea went on a peaceful nature walk up on the summit of Mount Whitney. She loved to tell me stories of how she was growing up, and how nature really impacted her life in such a strong way. We had almost reached the climax of this mountain when we bumped into a group of hostile natives, literally we bumped into them. They were very and I explicitly direct this at them they were with much intent of malice upon our humble souls. Sacagawea was very prepared and within a matter of minutes she diffused the situation and we were well off on our way. Apparently what had really happened was a miss communication. The native mountain people that were indigenous to these slopes had received a message that hostile foreigners would be in the area. And to our disbelief they assumed we were the 20 man party they were expecting. All I can say now is that we skim swaddled out of there very quickly.

Lewis & Clark at Three Forks

When I took the first step to sovereign and economic freedom I was addicted. For my family I write to tell you that I can no longer go back, I am in too deep here. It’s a whole new world that I was exposed to, ever since have been talking to these organically created humans my leaving party has been hit with a juggernaut of emotional righteousness. I’m planning on staying here on the west coast and earn a living selling shoes to passing cowboys. I no longer have plans of establishing a family for I fear I have gone too deep into my future without taking the proper safety precautions.

                                                                           Cowboy boots I am soon to be making

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Election Day!

      

                                                                     Election Day!
Election Day is a day in which Americans vote for their favorite candidate to be prompted into a higher position of office. Election Day determines senators and even state representative of a state. Election Day is considered a holiday only in Massachusetts, Delaware, Illinois, Hawaii, Michigan, Indiana, Montana, and West Virginia. Election Day is always on a Tuesday because in 1845, when the United States was mostly an agrarian country, the week was divided up by the events being held. So it only made sense the Election Day would be on a Tuesday because all the other days were taken up.

Massachusetts Elected Officials

Governor Deval Patrick

Secretary William Galvin

Attorney General Martha Coakley

Federal Representative of Massachusetts

Congresswoman Niki Tsongas (Democrat)

State Representative of Massachusetts 

Congressman Richard Neal (Democrat)

Senate leader Congressman Edward Markey (Democrat)

Senators of Massachusetts 

Elizabeth Warren (Democrat)
Edward Markey (Democrat)

                       Congresswoman Niki Tsongas represents the 3rd district of Massachusetts

                                                 Three branches of U.S government

                                                Charlie baker, New governor of Massachusetts

                                                             Massachusetts state flag

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National Anthem Remix

Mateus Siqueira 10/16/14 National Anthem Remix





ORIGINAL





Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!


Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,


And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"


And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave


O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!





REMIX





Keep us coming into greatness!


We will fight’ith when we need to


And “In God is our trust” shall be our goo


And the star-spangled banner shall be our kingdom come

Over the land of the free we should establish chum

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Lewis and Clark blog post

Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery set out to explore the Missouri river and to become friends (if possible) with the natives. Part of the mission was also to discover new plants and animals, that were not known to humans before.

                                         Lewis and Clark route

THE JOURNALS OF LEWIS AND CLARK

[Clark, July 28, 1804]

Today was Saturday, We were out hunting and found an Indian fellow. He wasn't alone, he had with him a group of about 20 or some men, and he wasn’t a threat. We then got hungry and went fishing, we caught three fat catfish, those fish are good to eat, and plenty of meat on them suckers. Finally last to be noted Willard lost his gun, that wasn’t very responsible of him.

                                                                    A Catfish in its hole

Temperatures we faced

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Great Journey Through Lowell

      


       My journey through Lowell

MONDAY 10/6/14

Today was Monday, I woke up and grabbed the closest pair of boxers I found. Then I proceeded to stumble my way into my shower, got out and threw some clothes on. By this point I was somewhat in a clearer state of mind, I rushed outside because by this point it was 7:00 and my bus leaves at 7:02. As I sprinted to the bus stop I saw the bus calmly chugging away while my friend sat inside laughing at me with this look of pity and pure feral greed of the extra seat he now possessed. Might as well get on with it, as I began the walk to school I noticed it was starting to get chilly around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. 20 minutes later I was at the steps of my future, I’m not going to forget to mention that I was borderline late so I rush to Mr.Murphys room and edge my way into the turquoise seat that was now inevitably mine.
                 My High School (Lowell High School)

Tuesday 10/7/14

Overall today was a pretty boring day. After I left 2^nd period I met up with my girlfriend in the hallway, we made some small talk about how late I’m going to be and I was on my way. As I walked into room 622 the feeling crept in again like it does every day, dozens of eyes digging their gaze into my pace, if it was fast or slow, trying to evaluate my mood? I sat down, glanced over at my friends tossed them a hello and then set my sight on the behemoth Lowell High calls a TV. The program on today was about how one would appropriately leave the school in case there was to be a fire. In my honest opinion all that stuff would go out the window once I saw some flames launching themselves at my sight. When advisory finished I left the room and went down into the gym, walked into the locker room and got that ever so welcoming smell of musky tootsie-rolls, it’s the only way I can describe it. Gym was great, coach Donohue came back, I really enjoyed his presence. For some odd reason people like him that put others in their place really shines a light into my heart, kind of reminds me it’s still there.
                     The Merrimack river walk

FRIDAY 10/10/14

Friday was good, Friday was very good. I woke up right on time, took a great shower, and arrived just in time for the bus. I talked to my friend about the NASDAQ and how penny stocks are for fools. When I arrived at school, went up to Mr. Murphy’s as usual, we drew a map of our route to school, thank god it was still fresh in my cranium. After 1^st and 2^nd period I say my girlfriend in the tunnel we talked a bit and I went over to my advisory to get a library pass, we went to the library and I finished up some French homework. Biology wasn’t fun we had another sub and she was really strict, so I didn’t get much out of that. I went to lunch and saw the nachos, oh the envy, perfectly room temperature. After lunch I did my usual schedule and ended up going on the bus after school ended, no hanging out with my girlfriend today. I got home saw the two pizzas on the table and quietly threw a fit with the voices in my head. I decided to take a nap, and the rest is a blur.

                       The Lowell skyline

Question #1- It would be really hard to keep a journal for a long time, mainly because of how bored I would get writing about the stuff I wrote. Unless I was doing fun stuff, I would be totally happy writing about fun things.

Question #2- I would probably enjoy it, if and only if I was doing something I liked.

Question #3- I would because, writing about stuff I like is easy and I get carried into the topic, and I love getting lost into a subject I love.

                            Link to my map

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Constitutional Issues - Boston Marathon Bombing

1. Miranda warnings

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev taken into custody

          
           

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the name that we are all talking about in this case. The issue at hand is that Mr.Tsarnaev was not read his Miranda rights before he was questioned, the main issue is that before a suspect is questioned he has to be read his rights. The excuse that the police are using is that they were not required to read him his Constitutional rights because of something called the public safety exemption. Investigators could circumvent reading Mr.Tsarnaev his rights because he was a terrorist and it was a serious issue of national security at the time. Keep in mind that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was interrogated for sixteen hours, without being told not even once the rights that he had.

2. Death Penalty

                                        What was leftover of the backpack used in the bombing  
     

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is in serious trouble, federal prosecutors will probably want to give him the death penalty. The only issue with this is that in Massachusetts the death penalty is nonexistent, but Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be prosecuted in federal court so federal laws apply, like the death penalty. This really hits a key on the piano of rights, we can see that if he committed the crime in Massachusetts then why would he be convicted in Federal court? What is probably happening is the prosecutors want to circumvent Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s rights and give him the death penalty.

3. Unregistered Guns
              The brothers taking aim and firing on the officers

It was made aware on Monday that Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, were using guns that hadn’t been registered into the gun database. The two brothers had an absurd amount of ammo for these unregistered guns, and use this ammo against police officers. The issue of concern here is that the brothers resided in Massachusetts and the state has some of the strongest gun laws in all the nation. So how did the brothers get these guns? When they live in one of the most anti-gun states in the nation.

4. Immigration

                    Boston Marathon bombers were coming to New York to party after massacre

The Tsarnaev brother’s immigration status has crossed into the headlights of the prosecutors. Dzhokhar Tsaraev became a U.S. citizen last year. But Tamerlan Tsaraev his brother had the process delayed because of Russia wanting to speak to him. They real issue here is how this will effect immigration in the United States, and how massive problems like this related to immigration will be prevented in the future.

5. Privacy
                                           Aerial Images Show Boston Bombing Suspect In Boat

            Tamerlan (front) and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as seen on security camera footage just prior to the bombing

The issue of privacy has now navigated itself into the playing field. The evidence that investigators used to capture the two brother, was acquired from private cameras. The issue is that some of the videos that the police took were using thermal imaging, and that is a big no no to the Fourth amendment. It was brought up in the Supreme Court once and the court found that it was a violation of the Fourth Amendment to look inside homes without a warrant.

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Compromises!

      Great Compromise
The Great Compromise truly struck a chord on the banjo of history. What basically happened was the Virginia delegation wanted to make votes proportional to a state's population, the problem with this was smaller states. An example was New Jersey, the New Jersey delegation did not want votes to be proportional to a state's population in the house. Why was New Jersey so up in arms about this? New Jersey and other small states came to the realization that if this "Virginia Plan" was applied then they would never have as much power as the bigger states had, the smaller states would ultimately be at the control of larger states with more power than them. So the New Jersey plan was formulated, this plan had a unicameral basis the gist of it was that each state would only get one vote, no matter the population. In the end what happened was both plans got merged together to form The Great Compromise, this new plan would create two houses. One of the houses called the House of Representatives would award votes based on the number of citizens a state had, the second house would be called the senate, this house would give every state 2 senators to represent them no matter the population of the state. Finally this bicameral way of counting votes was decided upon and both large and small states were happy.

The Great Compromise Comic

      Three-Fifths Compromise

Southern states and Northern states agreed on something,finally.The issue was that slave owning states wanted to have their slaves counted, because the higher the population count was then the more power the state was given. But there is a catch, the Southern states didn’t want to pay taxes on these slaves, all they wanted from the slaves was their body count and the work they provided. The Northern states had a big problem with this, they didn’t think it was fair that the Slave states could get more votes and didn’t have to pay for those votes. What ended up happening was the Northern states and the Southern states came to the conclusion that a slave was worth three-fifths of a person, thus allowing the Southern states to get some extra votes but the Northern states not feeling cheated when it came to population.

.

Three-Fifths Compromise illustration

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Declaration of Independence Blog Assignment

King George III:Hey! Just checking in on you guys,how's it coming along?

Thomas Jefferson:How is what coming along?

King George III:You know the whole us(me) controlling the colonies thing.

Thomas Jefferson:How do you think its coming along? 

Drafting Committee

King George III:That looks like fun! Whats the party all about?

Thomas Jefferson:Umm we are officially declaring independence from the British empire.

King George III:So why again are you doing all this?

Thomas Jefferson:Because the British Empire has always treated the colonies bad,we have the right to create a government that is molded around our beliefs,a government that will keep us safe.

King George III:What are some of the reasons for why you want to be independent?

Thomas Jefferson:Ill give you three,just off the top of my head 
                                        -We have natural rights,rights that were bestowed upon us by our                                                   creator,rights that can never be removed.           
                                      -We have the right to overthrow a government that is being unruly                                                   with us,we can then form a new government that better suits us.     
                                      -Lastly,we have been forced to house British soldiers in our homes.  

Thomas Jefferson:Furthermore we even tried to appeal your decisions in the colonies,we threw the tea that was being held in Boston harbor,Also we even wrote The Olive Branch Petition in which we tried to reason with you.

King George III:So from this point on the colonies are completely cut off from the British Empire?

Thomas Jefferson: Yes,in fact this is what is going on right now where I am.

Pulling Down the Statue of King George III

King George III:I hope it is worth it losing the great king you had.

King George III

Sources:

United States Declaration of Independence

King George III in coronation robes

Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, N.Y.C. ca. 1859

Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)

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French And Indian War

                                   "Join or Die. Drawing by Benjamin Franklin, May 9, 1754


The French and Indian War took place in 1754-1763,The French and Indian War was fought between British America and New France.The French and Indian War was fought because both France and British America wanted control of the trade routes.Specifically the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River now present day Pennsylvania.In the end of the war France was outmatched by Britain,thus the Treaty of Paris was signed on February 10th of 1763.Which entailed France to cede from the war but keep to islands with fishing rights,these islands are the present day Caribbean islands which France though would yield them much sugar cane.

                                    
                                                1750 possessions of Britain,and France


Source

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