Archive for category assignments
Final Exam Study Guide Available
Posted by msouther in assignments on November 22, 2009
The final exam study guide link is now live in the LINKS on the right sidebar on this page.
December 2: Congressional Reconstruction, 1867-77
Posted by msouther in assignments on November 18, 2009
Review Henretta, Chapter 15. Visit the website Toward Racial Equality: Harper’s Weekly Reports on Black America. Find a cartoon and, using your knowledge from Chapter 15 and your examination of the cartoon, comment in response to this blog post on what the cartoon illustrates about the nature of Reconstruction. What view does the cartoon take? What were the implications of the situation that’s depicted in the cartoon?
November 20: Secession, Unionism, & the Outbreak of Civil War
Posted by msouther in assignments on November 8, 2009
Read Henretta, Chapter 14. Southern secession, while hardly surprising given the deterioration of sectional relations in the 1850s, was hardly the only thinkable sentiment for many southerners. Following Abraham Lincoln’s election to the presidency in 1860, people in the Upper South (Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, Arkansas, and Kentucky) debated a course of action. Constitutional Union candidate John Bell won Virginia’s electoral votes in the election. Many Virginia counties clung to unionism (support of the United States government), however precariously. As a result, Lincoln’s decision to fortify Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina in April 1861–and his subsequent call for U.S. troops to retaliate after Confederate cannons fired on the fort–held tremendous implications for the president’s ability to hold on to Virginia. With these events in mind, read the following documents about sentiments toward southern secession in Augusta County, Virginia, in the Valley of the Shadow online exhibit: “God Save Our Union” and “A Southerner on Secession,” “Policy of the Border States,” and “Seventeenth Volume.” Augusta County is located near the Blue Ridge of the Appalachian Mountains and stood uneasily between the stronger unionism of the mountain region and the stronger secessionism of the Piedmont and Tidewater regions. In a comment to this blog post, write a paragraph in which you explain the views about secession that each author holds. What conclusions can you draw about the state of public opinion in Virginia in early 1861?
November 13: Manifest Destiny & the Texas Question
Posted by msouther in assignments on November 2, 2009
Read Henretta, Ch. 13. Also, for today’s blog assignment, please view John Gast’s painting American Progress and analyze it in the context of westward expansion, especially in the context of “Manifest Destiny,” the idea that it was inevitable and desirable for the U.S. to expand across the American frontier. What clues do you see in the painting?
November 6: The Spread of the Southern “Cotton Kingdom”
Posted by msouther in assignments on October 23, 2009
In this exercise you will examine the demographic changes associated with slavery between 1790 and 1860. You’ll learn to access the appropriate data and create and edit maps to display your findings.
1. Go to the Historical Census Browser.
2. Go to the box labeled “Choose a category to begin examining data:” and click “Slave Population.”
3. On the next page, change the end date from 1960 to 1860. Then click to highlight “Total Slaves (1790-1860).” Click “Submit.”
4. On the next page, “Census Data Over Time,” check one of the boxes by any state that had a slave population during the period. Then scroll to the bottom of the table and click “Retrieve County-Level Data.” Choose a first year (I recommend 1790 for northern states or 1820 for southern states) and click “Map It!” beneath it. A smaller window will appear, and within a few seconds a map in it. This indicates relative concentrations of slaves in different counties in that state.
5. Returning to the county-level data page, repeat step #4 with a different year (I recommend 1820 for northern states or 1860 for southern states). Map this data as you did above.
6. Because each map initially divides the data into four quartiles, it is difficult to compare two maps unless you change these quartiles into a more standardized set of ranges. The lowest and highest numbers must remain constant, but you should change the others to rounder numbers like 2000, 4000, 6000, etc., or 5000, 10000, 15000, etc., depending on the data. Make your decision based on the population ranges you note on both maps. Your goal is to have two maps that enable you to compare the slave population in two years and draw some conclusions.
In a comment to this blog post, write a paragraph or two about the changes you see between the first and second year. Make sure you note the state and years you analyzed. Referring to your textbook, pp. 268-70 and pp. 383-86, speculate on how the changes you note may reflect larger patterns. What do you think accounts for the changes you see?
October 30: Immigration, Labor, and Urban Life
Posted by msouther in assignments on October 22, 2009
In class we’ll examine the rise of immigration, especially German and Irish, in the early to mid 19th century, as well as the rise of the labor union movement and some aspects of urban life in growing American cities.
For today’s blog comment:
Examine documents linked below. Comment on what you think were the main arguments of nativist doctrine (the idea that immigrants were inferior to native-born Americans) in the first two documents below and the ways in which nativists depicted Irish immigrants in the three cartoons that follow.
Know-Nothing Platform 1856: http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/974.htm
Nativist Reaction: http://www.hsp.org/files/anticatholicpress.pdf
“The Day We Celebrate” Cartoon: http://www.haverford.edu/engl/faculty/Sherman/Irish/stpat’s.jpg
Harper’s “Black and White” Cartoon: http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/omalley/120/alien/harpers.jpg
“Uncle Sam’s Lodging-House” Cartoon: http://www.hsp.org/files/unclesamslodginghousecover2.jpg
October 23: The Emergence of Northern Industry (clarification)
Posted by msouther in assignments on October 12, 2009
Read Henretta, Chapter 10 “The Economic Revolution.” Next, open and read each of the four primary sources at the bottom of the page in Comparative Labor Systems: Plantation Rules/Factory Rules. Apparently the URL doesn’t change when you navigate to the specific page, which is what caused the confusion. I just figured this out and apologize. To get to the actual page where the sources are located, click “9. Plantation/Factory Rules” in the left sidebar. Then, on the page that appears next, click “Student Activity Packet” in the middle. In a comment to this blog post, answer the first three questions that accompany the four texts.
October 16: Film: “Muscle Over Steam”
Posted by msouther in assignments on October 12, 2009
Today, while I am on my conference trip, you will view a documentary film called Muscle Over Steam, which will prefigure our discussion of the emergence of northern industry next week. Muscle Over Steam is set in 19th-century Philadelphia and focuses on the changing nature of firefighting. Be sure you sign in on the attendance sheet. Also, I will give you the opportunity to replace any earlier blog post comment that you missed or for which you did not earn credit. After watching the film you may add a comment to this post in which you comment on what you see as the most important element in the transformation of firefighting in the early to mid 19th century and how you think the film might relate to the rise of industry.
October 14: Midterm Exam
Posted by msouther in assignments on October 4, 2009
Note that on Monday, October 12, we will not hold class due to Columbus Day. On Wednesday, October 14, you will take the midterm exam. See your syllabus or the Assignments tab on this website for details. Here is the exam study guide.
October 9: James Madison & the War of 1812
Posted by msouther in assignments on October 1, 2009
Review Henretta, Chapter 8. Next, view the William Charles political cartoon “Columbia Teaching John Bull His New Lesson” (1813). Columbia was the United States personified, while John Bull was a common nickname that referred to England. In a comment to this blog post, describe in a paragraph the larger context that framed this cartoon, focusing your attention on American relations with Great Britain in the years leading up to the War of 1812. Finally, note why these grievances existed despite American independence, won just a quarter century before.
msouther
