HISTORY 2050-080 Prof. Dewar MacLeod
Spring 2024
FINAL EXAM – Due Wednesday, May 15th
Save all three essays as ONE FILE in MS Word or PDF and submit through Blackboard.
Answer ALL of the following questions in essays of about 750 words (3 pages) each. Remember,
you are writing essays, not simply answering each of the questions in order. You must have a
thesis, a well-organized argument that develops your thesis, and evidence to support your
points.
BE SURE TO USE SPECIFIC PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTS AS EVIDENCE AND ANALYZE AND
EXPLAIN WHAT THE DOCUMENTS TELL US. IF YOU DO NOT, YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A GOOD
GRADE.
IN ADDITION TO USING PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTS AS EVIDENCE, YOU MUST MAKE
REFERENCE TO SOME OF MY COMMENTS FROM THE DISCUSSION BOARD. Feel free to disagree
with me or emphasize other points, but you must demonstrate that you have absorbed my
notes.
You may use any sources you like, including my comments and fellow classmates’ words from
our discussion board. Again: just give credit when you use someone else’s words.
Do not plagiarize!!! This means: do not buy, steal or borrow someone else’s words. If you use
another writer’s words, put them in quotation marks and cite them properly (make sure I know
where you got them). You should feel free to quote from the textbook or other sources, but
make sure to give credit where it is due. If you have any questions about plagiarism, check your
student handbook or contact me directly. Remember: using another’s words without proper
citation – even if you didn’t mean to!!! – is plagiarism and will result in – at least – a failing
grade on the exam, possibly even for the course. You may use any sources you like, including
our discussion board. Again: just give credit when you use someone else’s words.
Please read the WPU Academic Integrity Policy at https://www.wpunj.edu/human-
resources/policies-forms-contracts/handbooks-and-contracts/faculty-and-professional-staff-
handbook/academic-integrity-policy-for-students
Again: It is your responsibility to demonstrate to me that you have done the work in writing
your essays. SAVE all notes, citations, drafts, library call-slips, book orders, downloads,
weblinks, etc. to show the work you have put into writing the papers. If you simply purchase a
paper called something like “The Causes of the Civil War” or copy from a website, you will fail
the course and be reported to the Dean of Students.
Your essays will be graded on your ability to explain clearly by synthesizing your understanding
of what you have read in the textbook with the primary source documents we read each week.
In order to get a good grade on this exam, you must refer to and discuss the documents. I do not
want a simple summary of the textbook.
THE QUESTIONS – ANSWER ALL THREE:
1. Starting with Frederick Douglass’s narrative of his life in slavery and in freedom, write an
essay addressing some of the following questions:
How did slaveowners perpetuate the institution of slavery? What did it mean to Douglass to be
slave? How did he define slavery? How did his definition differ from that of most Southerners?
Northerners? What effects did slavery have on Southern society? How does Douglass’s
narrative give us insight into the differences between North and South that led to the Civil War?
Do not try to answer each of the above questions. Use them as starting points for your thinking.
Then construct an essay with your own thesis supported by specific historical examples and
evidence from the primary sources.
2. Discuss the expansion of the United States. What was Manifest Destiny and how did
Americans use this concept to justify expansion? What were the ideas involved and what was
the impact of these ideas? Do you think that this expansion really was “destiny,” or are there
other words that better explain the process? How does this historical epoch look from various
perspectives of the differing groups who lived through it? What were some of the long-term
consequences of Manifest Destiny?
Again, do not try to answer each of the above questions. Use them as starting points for your
thinking. Then construct an essay with your own thesis supported by specific historical
examples and evidence from the primary sources.
3. In what ways was the U.S. fundamentally different in 1877 from what it had been in 1860? Or
was it?
Discuss the era of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Why were the North and the South
ultimately unable to compromise their differences? How did each side come to see the other as
engaged in a conspiracy to deprive them of their rights over the course of the 1850s? How did
the Civil War and Reconstruction reshape the U.S. politically, economically, and socially? Do you
think Reconstruction was a success or failure?
This question really calls for you to think about the era as a whole. Do not simply list events, or
causes and effects of the War. As always, do not try to answer each of the above questions. Use
them as starting points for your thinking. Then construct an essay with your own thesis
supported by specific historical examples and evidence from the primary sources.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=3&smtID=2
https://bb.wpunj.edu/ultra/courses/_36099_1/outline/edit/document/_1948235_1?courseId=_36099_1&view=content
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html
https://bb.wpunj.edu/ultra/courses/_36099_1/outline/edit/document/_1948238_1?courseId=_36099_1&view=content
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=4&smtID=2
https://bb.wpunj.edu/ultra/courses/_36099_1/outline/edit/document/_1948242_1?courseId=_36099_1&view=content
https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=4&smtID=2
https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=4&smtID=2
https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu//era.cfm?eraID=4&smtID=2
https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu//disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=11&psid=3835
