Directions:
To formulate your answer to the questions below you must use the resources provided for you in this course (lectures, primary sources, American Yawp). Failure to do so will affect your grade accordingly. Address one of the questions below. The word count is 500 words minimum.
Question(s):
How did Northern and Southern Nationalism lead to the Civil War?
How did Northern and Southern Nationalism determined nature of the economic, political, and social debates of Reconstruction?
How did Reconstruction fail and how did it succeed economically, politically, and socially?
How did African-Americans, Yankee Unionist, and Southern nationalist view Reconstruction? How did these different perspectives intersect politically? How did they disagree?
The Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal” and that they all have a right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The Preamble to the Constitution declares, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promise the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” How did Reconstruction in theory and in practice arrive closer to making these promises real and/or how did Reconstruction break these promises of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution?
Primary Sources
Freedmen discuss post-emancipation life with General Sherman, 1865
https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/reconstruction/charlotte-forten-teaches-freed-children-in-south-carolina-1864/
For additional primary sources check out the American Yawp ReaderLinks to an external site. chapters 16 and 17. https://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html
Detailed Directions
Read the prompt carefully to understand what your reader expects. Before you begin to address the prompt you should have viewed the video-lecture and read the secondary and (at least two) primary sources and annotate/highlight the information or examples that will help you prove your main idea to the prompt.
As you write your weekly critical reviews you should keep in mind these two objectives: 1) read analytically and think critically; and 2) improve how you explain what you are observing and how you rationalize what is happening in the readings (that is, you are working on the improvement of your written communication skills).
With these purposes in mind you will 1) analytically read historical material(s) to answer specific prompt questions, and 2) write a clear and strong comment as a reply to these questions.
You accomplish the above objectives and proposes by efficiently writing: 1) you need a clear topic sentence or main idea, 2) you need to provide evidence and examples (at least two) from the readings that support your topic sentences, and 3) you must finish with a concluding sentence.
The topic sentence of your WCR should be a direct answer to one or more of the prompt’s question(s). It should be only one sentence. If it is more than one sentence then it is not a topic sentence or main idea.
In the next six or seven sentences you most support your main idea with the evidence you have annotated/highlighted from your reading of the materials. I strongly encourage you to explain this information and the examples you select in your own words. Do not quote from the materials unless you believe the authors’ words cannot be expressed better in other words. If you quote, you have to cite the source (author and or title of primary source is sufficient).
In the last sentence of your comment, you reaffirm the main idea you have offered in your topic sentence. This is your conclusion.
Assessment: My reading of your WCR will assess whether your submission demonstrates 1) you understand the prompt and assigned materials; and 2) your ability to organize your ideas and the evidence you have collected in a strong paragraph (topic sentence, evidence, and conclusion).
(DO NOT USE ANY SOURCES BUT THE ONES GIVEN)
