General Instructions
All students are responsible for reading all assigned chapters and any additional material posted here. Members of groups for whom papers are due must also write a five-paragraph essay of 500 to 700 words. Your essay should present a thesis statement and support it with evidence, including direct quotations drawn from the primary sources at the end of each chapter and any primary sources provided by the assignment. Do not summarize the chapter. Only use those facts from the primary and secondary sources that support your argument.
Every assignment should conform to my style guidelines. Avoid common errors, and check your work before submitting it.
Papers will be graded according to my grading standards.
CV1 = Contending Voices, volume 1. CV2 = Contending Voices, volume 2.
Weekly Assignments
To see which group you are in, please see the group assignments posted here.
January 28: Group 1 papers due.
Please read CV1 chapter 4, and the Declaration of Independence. Imagine you are Jonathan Sewall. What one sentence from the Declaration would you most object to? Write an essay explaining why Sewall would object to that sentence and why John Adams would or would not be willing to change that sentence to meet Sewall's objections.
February 4 . Group 2 papers due.
Please read CV1, chapter 5, and Article I, sections 1-7, of the Constitution. Choose a specific provision in that article and explain how it supports Madison's argument that the Constitution would not lead to tyranny, and why Henry might still fear the new form of government.
February 4. Group 3 papers due.
Please read CV1, chapter 6, and Article I, section 8, of the Constitution. Choose a specific provision in that section and explain how it supports Hamilton's vision of the federal government, and why Taylor or Jefferson might object to it.
February 7. Group 4 papers due.
Please read CV1, chapter 7, and the Treaty of Greenville. Imagine that it is 1810 and it is your job to draft a treaty that would satisfy both Tecumseh and Harrison. What provisions of the Treaty of Greenville would be important to each of them? Would it be possible to satisfy both? Write an essay explaining whether any treaty could have prevented the fighting of 1811-1813.
February 11. Group 5 papers due.
Please read CV1, chapter 8, and the excerpt from Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia. (Note that is is a different excerpt from the one in Contending Voices.) What categories and types of evidence does Jefferson use to decide whether blacks are equal to whites? Which of these do Lundy and Walker agree with, and which do they reject? Explain how the three men understood racial differences and why their ideas about difference and equality led to different suggestions for the future of African Americans.
February 14. Group 6 papers due.
Please read CV1, chapter 9 and the letters written by frontier schoolteachers. Both Wright and Beecher applaud education, but what kind of education did they imagine? Do the two teachers' acts conform to Wright or Beecher's view of the purpose of education? Do the teachers themselves conform to Wright or Beecher's view of the proper role for women? Using evidence from the letters and from the writings of Beecher and Wright, explain which author's ideals were being practiced in the late 1840s.
February 18. Group 1 papers due.
Please read CV1, chapter 10, and Leslie T. Chang, "In Chinese Factory, Rhythms of Trade Replace Rural Life," Wall Street Journal, December 30, 2004. Write an essay comparing life and work in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the mid-nineteenth century with life and work in Dongguan, China, in the early twenty-first century. Are there significant differences? Does the history of Lowell have lessons for Chinese workers, Chinese employers, or American consumers today? Use quotations from Sarah Bagley and/or Nathan Appleton in your essay.
February 21. Group 2 papers due.
Please read CV1, chapter 11, and Daphne Eviatar, "Free-Market Iraq? Not So Fast," New York Times, January 10, 2004. Write an essay comparing the American occupation of California in the 1840s with the American occupation of Iraq in the early 2000s. Are there significant differences? Does the history of California have lessons for Americans or Iraqis today? Use quotations from the primary sources in Contending Voices in your essay.
February 25. Group 3 papers due.
Please read CV1, chapter 12. Then visit the "Domestic Slave Trade" image gallery at The African American Migration Experience website. (Note that there are nine pages of images.) Choose one image, then write an essay explaining how Helper, Fitzhugh, or Burke might use that image to support his or her arguments. Keep in mind that an image is different from a text, and that a photograph is different from a painting or drawing. Use quotations from the primary sources in Contending Voices in your essay.
February 28. Group 4 papers due.
Please read CV1, chapter 13, and Abraham Lincoln's speech at Ottawa. Write an essay explaining how Bibb or Shadd might have reacted to Lincoln's speech. Which parts would they disagree with? Which parts would they accept? How might either of them try to persuade Lincoln to become his or her ally?
March 4. Group 5 papers due.
Please read CV1, chapter 14, and the Republican and Democratic party platforms of 1864. Write an essay explaining how the Democrats presented themselves as loyal Americans while still distinguishing themselves from the Republicans. Use direct quotation from the party platforms and from the primary sources in Contending Voices in your essay.
March 7. Group 6 papers due.
Please read CV1, chapter 15, and President Johnson's proclamation of April 2, 1866. Write an essay explaining what Johnson, Schurz, and Smalls thought the war had been about, and whether it was over in 1866. Use direct quotation from the proclamation and from the primary sources in Contending Voices in your essay.
March 9-11. Take-Home Midterm.
I have posted the instructions as a PDF file. For the midterm itself, the instructions will be accompanied by three primary sources.
March 23. Group 1 papers due.
Please read CV2, Chapter 2. Then log onto HarpWeek (G number required for off-campus access). Accept the user agreement, then choose "Search" and then "Harper's Weekly Indexes." Once on the Index screen, check only the "Illustrations" box and type "railroads" in the search box. Perform this search, and you should get a list of 728 images of railroads published between 1857 and 1903. Choose one of these images and, using the primary documents in Contending Voices, write an essay explaining how Powderly and Gould might each interpret the image. Not all images will be equally relevant, so look for an image that reflects some of the themes of the chapter. Please make a careful note of the date of the image so that we can find it again and project it during the class discussion, and please provide a printout with your paper. Note that either a cartoon or a more realistic illustration is acceptable. So is an advertisement if you want to include that in your search.
March 28. Group 2 papers due.
Please read CV2, Chapter 3. Then log onto HarpWeek (G number required for off-campus access). Accept the user agreement, then choose "Search" and then "Full Article Text - Standard Search." Once on the Search screen, choose only "Illustrations" from the "Select Feature" menut and type "Georgia" in the search string box. Limit your search to the dates 1/1/1880 to 12/31/1903.
Perform this search, and you should get a list of 56 images. Ignoring irrelevant hits, like images of the battleship USS Georgia, choose one of these images and, using the primary documents in Contending Voices, write an essay explaining how Watson and Grady might each interpret the image. Not all images will be equally relevant, so look for an image that reflects some of the themes of the chapter. Please make a careful note of the date of the image so that we can find it again and project it during the class discussion, and please provide a printout with your paper.
April 1. Group 3 papers due.
Please read CV2, Chapter 4. Then visit the American Memory collection, "Votes for Women: Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1848-1921."Select one image or textual document. Using the primary documents in Contending Voices, write an essay explaining how Richards and Goldman might interpret the document or image, and why they might differ. Be sure to use the primary documents from Contending Voices. Please note the title of the image or document and enough identifying information that we can find it again and project it during the class discussion, and please provide a printout with your paper.
April 4. Group 4 papers due.
Please read CV2, Chapter 5. Then visit the American Memory collection, "Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures." Choose one page from one pictorial and, using the primary documents in Contending Voices, explain why Bourne and Creel might disagree over whether it was propaganda or merely public information. It may help to view the page as a PDF. Please note the date of the issue so we can find it again and project it during the class discussion, and please provide a printout with your paper.
April 8. Group 5 papers due.
Please read CV2, Chapter 6. Then visit "The African American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920." Choose one document from the period 1900-1920 and, using the primary documents in Contending Voices, explain how Garvey and Randolph might each interpret it to support their arguments. Please note the date and description of the document so we can find it again and project it during the class discussion, and please provide a printout with your paper.
April 11. Group 6 papers due.
Please read CV2, Chapter 7. Then visit "The Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850 - 1920 (EAA)." Choose one document from the period 1900-1920 and, using the primary documents in Contending Voices, explain how Barton and Barsodi might each interpret it to support their arguments. Please note the date and description of the document so we can find it again and project it during the class discussion, and please provide a printout with your paper.
April 15. Group 1 papers due.
Please read CV2, Chapter 8. Choose one document from the primary sources at the end of the chapter and write an essay comparing it to any one primary source from one of the chapters we read in Contending Voices, volume 1. Explain how the comparison of the two documents shows change over time.
April 20. Group 2 papers due.
Please read CV2, Chapter 9. Choose one document from the primary sources at the end of the chapter and write an essay comparing it to any one primary source from one of the chapters we read in Contending Voices, volume 1. Explain how the comparison of the two documents shows change over time.
April 22. Group 3 papers due.
Please read CV2, Chapter 10. Choose one document from the primary sources at the end of the chapter and write an essay comparing it to any one primary source from one of the chapters we read in Contending Voices, volume 1. Explain how the comparison of the two documents shows change over time.
April 27. Group 4 papers due.
Please read CV2, Chapter 11. Choose one document from the primary sources at the end of the chapter and write an essay comparing it to any one primary source from one of the chapters we read in Contending Voices, volume 1. Explain how the comparison of the two documents shows change over time.
May 2. Group 5 papers due.
Please read CV2, Chapter 12. Choose one document from the primary sources at the end of the chapter and write an essay comparing it to any one primary source from one of the chapters we read in Contending Voices, volume 1. Explain how the comparison of the two documents shows change over time.
May 4. Group 6 papers due.
Please read CV2, Chapter 13. Choose one document from the primary sources at the end of the chapter and write an essay comparing it to any one primary source from one of the chapters we read in Contending Voices, volume 1. Explain how the comparison of the two documents shows change over time.
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