The Political Reforms Made By Solon During The Sixth...

Per the dictionary democracy is a â€Å"government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.†. This definition is well known due to the type of government that runs America today. As time went on democracy’s representation was altered after each time it was practiced in a different civilization. Before democracy came to America it was passed a long way from its possible beginnings in Athens due to a man named Solon. The political reforms made by Solon during the sixth century B.C. have many democratic aspects but not all reforms benefited the good of the people like it does today. Solon was given the special†¦show more content†¦In class, we learned about the two different types of peasants in Athens. The first type are the landowning peasants from the hillside; they had small yet fertile land. The reasons they are titled peasants instead of farmers is because they didn’t sell their crops for profit but rather use it to survive. But for these peasants to begin growing crops they had to have seeds which they often got from borrowing from wealthy aristocrats. When the time came for peasants to repay the aristocrats they often couldn’t due to bad harvests, poor rationing etc. Then they, unfortunately, became enslaved by the wealthy to repay their debt with manual labor (page 54 paragraph 2). Parents would often give away their children to settle their debt since there were no laws preventing this unruly exchange. They were taken and made to cultivate the land of the aristocrats (page 54 paragraph 13). If one didn’t have children to g ive they could also be exiled and sent to a foreign country. The second type of peasant were the sharecroppers, they lived in the plains and rented land from the aristocrats. Their crops were divvied with 1/6th paying for rent to the aristocrat, 1/6th as food for the animals, 1/3rd to feed their family and 1/3rd was saved as seeds for the next harvest. When these types of peasants were unable to pay their debt they because slaves of the land in which their creditors owned. We learned in class thatShow MoreRelatedEvolution of Democracy and the Athenian Constitution Essay4268 Words   |  18 Pagesago the ancient Athenians had developed a functional and direct form of democracy. What contributed to this remarkable achievement and how it changed the socio-political scene in Athens is what will be considered in this paper. The paper will have three sections, each detailing the various stages of political development from the kings of Attica to the time of Pericles when, in its golden age, Athens was at the height of its imperial power. The historical sources