HIS 204 WEEK 1
he History of Reconstruction. Many Americans like to imagine the history of their nation as one of continual progress. While acknowledging that not all persons and groups enjoyed equal rights at all times, Americans often take it for granted that American history moves in only one direction: toward greater rights, greater freedom, and greater equality. This perspective makes it difficult for many Americans to understand the Reconstruction period and to place it in a broader historical narrative. The problem they face is that African Americans from roughly 1867 to 1875 enjoyed far more political influence and equal rights than they ever had before, or ever would again until the end of the modern Civil Rights Movement almost a century later. The fact that a group could be stripped of rights it once enjoyed is difficult for many Americans to accept, and so they often retreat into a false narrative, in which African Americans never gained any rights at all, and were abandoned to their fate as soon as slavery ended. In this model, the infamous Black Codes—which were in effect for less than a year—take center stage, and the various gains of Reconstruction get ignored.
Analyze the history of Reconstruction to identify the concrete gains which African Americans won during this time period. Explain the role of the federal government in extending rights to them and protecting those rights, and explain how the gains of Reconstruction were reversed. Summarize your conclusions on these issues by responding to the following questions:
a. Were the goals of Radical Reconstruction feasible ones?
b. Is it possible to transform a society drastically by government action, or might attempts to do so prove counterproductive?
c. Would a more gradualist approach to extending rights to and establishing freedom for African Americans have been more successful?
d. What would be the costs and dangers of such an approach?
Review the following video about the differences between primary and secondary sources, and how to find both in JSTOR:
a. JSTOR primary and secondary sources
When responding to the questions, draw from at least TWO of the following primary sources and specifically cite them in your post:
a. Speech in the Senate
b. Northern teacher to the Freedmen’s Bureau commissioner
c. The Ku-Klux
d. Civil Rights Act
Also, draw from the material in ONE of the following films:
a. What is freedom?
b. Slavery by another name
Your initial post should be no fewer than 200 words in length, which does not include works cited or the questions being answered. It should address all of the components of the question in a way that demonstrates independent, critical thought and command of the required material. It should not merely repeat the material in the textbook or other sources, but should use that material as the basis for an idiosyncratic interpretation of the topic. All sources need to be cited using proper APA format. If you borrow wording from a source, the wording absolutely must be marked as a quotation.
In addition to your initial post, you should respond substantially, in posts of no fewer than 100 words, to at least two classmates and contribute to their analysis of the topic. When responding to classmates, you should refer to the material from one of the sources which you did not reference in your initial post. Identify important points which they may have missed which either support or challenge their interpretation. Explain how their views have made you rethink your own conclusions or offer perspectives which might help them regard the topic in a different way. Feel free to ask probing questions of your classmates, but, if you do, offer your own interpretation. That is, don’t just respond, “What do you think of X, Y, and Z?” Instead, respond, “What do you think of X? I think W because of V, U, and T. On the other hand some might point to S and R.” In short, the ideal response to a classmate would involve you encouraging a classmate to see things from a new perspective, even as you clarify and develop your own thoughts as well
Week 1 Quiz
1. In what year did the United States reach a milestone in which more people lived in urban areas than farms?
1. In what year did the United States reach a milestone in which more people lived in urban areas than farms?
2. The Dawes Act was significant because it demanded what from Native Americans?
3. One of the most significant examples of corrupt business practices during the Gilded Age occurred in which industry?
4. Gilded is a term that means something that is golden or beautiful on the outside, but often has nothing of value on the inside. Which literary figure termed late-19th-century America the “Gilded Age”?
5. Which of the Gilded Age presidents did the most to attempt to weaken the power of trusts?
6. The West is less about the archetypal cowboy and more about the transformation of an entire region. Which of the following contributed least to the settlement of the West?
7. Inventor Elisha Graves Otis helped to change the nature of the city through the invention of
8. Which of the following aspects of business is not typically associated with John D. Rockefeller?
9. The belief in the inalienable right of the United States to expand its western frontier from the Atlantic to Pacific oceans, “from sea to shining sea,” and claim the entire North American continent for itself is best known as what?
10. The city was a place of contrasts in the late 19th century. The skyline itself was a breathtaking symbol of progress as new buildings crept ever higher toward the heavens. Which of the following was the least likely aspect that inhabitants confronted in these new cities?
The Industrial Revolution. Too much corporate influence in politics; the specter of socialist policies undermining capitalism and individual freedoms; a middle class in apparent decline; waves of immigration which threatened to alter the character of American society; new technologies which introduced new social problems as well as offering new opportunities; and a general sense that the common people had lost control of their government: To a sometimes surprising degree, the issues which troubled Americans in the last quarter of the nineteenth century resembled our own. The past often loses much of its vigor and tumult as it becomes codified as history, and it can be difficult at times to understand how truly revolutionary—tranformative, disruptive, unprecedented, and divisive—an event such as the Industrial Revolution was for the people who lived through it.
The Industrial Revolution. Too much corporate influence in politics; the specter of socialist policies undermining capitalism and individual freedoms; a middle class in apparent decline; waves of immigration which threatened to alter the character of American society; new technologies which introduced new social problems as well as offering new opportunities; and a general sense that the common people had lost control of their government: To a sometimes surprising degree, the issues which troubled Americans in the last quarter of the nineteenth century resembled our own. The past often loses much of its vigor and tumult as it becomes codified as history, and it can be difficult at times to understand how truly revolutionary—tranformative, disruptive, unprecedented, and divisive—an event such as the Industrial Revolution was for the people who lived through it.
To better understand this turbulent period, review the major economic and social changes of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Illustrate the revolutionary character of this period by describing the rise of Big Business and identifying the particular forms new corporations assumed. Identify the social problems and opportunities which economic changes created in the cities, the New South, the farmlands, and the West. Explain the role of state and federal governments in these developments. In your response, explain how socioeconomic changes affected the following groups, and how those groups responded to these changes:
a. Native Americans
b. Immigrants
c. Farmers
Summarize your responses to the prompts above by responding to the following questions:
a. What were the most revolutionary social and economic developments of the last quarter of the nineteenth century?
b. How did different groups of Americans respond to those changes and how effective were their responses?
c. What role did government play in these developments?
When composing your initial post and your responses to your classmates, draw from the material in at least THREE of the following primary sources:
a. Cross of gold speech
b. Wealth
c. Chief Joseph speaks: Selected statements and speeches by the Nez Percé chief
d. Our immigrants at Ellis Island
e. Letter on labor in industrial society to Judge Peter Grosscup
f. Populist Party platform
g. What’s the matter with Kansas?
Also draw from the material in ONE of the following videos:
a. The American industrial revolution
b. Industrial New York
Your initial post should be no fewer than 200 words in length, which does not include works cited or the questions being answered. It should address all of the components of the question in a way that demonstrates independent, critical thought and command of the required material. It should not merely repeat the material in the textbook or other sources, but should use that material as the basis for an idiosyncratic interpretation of the topic.
In addition to your initial post, you should respond substantially, in posts of no fewer than 100 words, to at least two classmates and contribute to their analysis of the topic. When responding to classmates, you should refer to the material from one of the sources which you did not reference in your initial post. Identify important points which they may have missed which either support or challenge their interpretation. Explain how their views have made you rethink your own conclusions or offer perspectives which might help them regard the topic in a different way. Feel free to ask probing questions of your classmates, but, if you do, offer your own interpretation. That is, don’t just respond, “What do you think of X, Y, and Z?” Instead, respond, “What do you think of X? I think W because of V, U, and T. On the other hand some might point to S and R.” In short, the ideal response to a classmate would involve you encouraging a classmate to see things from a new perspective, even as you clarify and develop your own thoughts as well.
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