Required Readings and Resources
Give My Liberty: American History:
Chapter 15: “What is Freedom?”: Reconstruction, 1865–1877 (pages 564–602)
Chapter 16: America’s Guilded Age, 1878–1890 (pages 603–648)
Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History, Chapter 15:
“Petition of Black Residents of Nashville” (1865), pages 1–4.
“The Mississippi Black Code” (1865), pages 7–11.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Home Life” (ca. 1875), pages 14–17.
Frederick Douglass, “The Composite Nation” (1869), pages 18–23.
Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History, Chapter 16:
Andrew Carnegie, “The Gospel of Wealth” (1889), pages 32–35.
William Graham Sumner, “On Social Darwinism” (1880), pages 35–39.
Henry George, Progress and Poverty (1879), pages 42–45.
Walter Rauschenbusch, “The Social Gospel” (1912), pages 49–
Guides to Performing Primary Source Analysis
“How to Read a Primary Source” by Zachary Schrag
https://historyprofessor.org/research/how-to-read-a-primary-source/
“How to Analyze a Primary Source” by Molly Ladd-Taylor, Annette Igra, Rachel Seidman, and others
https://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/history/resources/study/primary/
“Interrogating Texts: Six Reading Habits to Develop in Your First Year at Harvard” by Susan Gilroy, Librarian for Undergraduate Writing Programs, Lamont Library
http://guides.library.harvard.edu/sixreadinghabits
How to Do Citations
Since there are two books either written or edited by Eric Foner, the citations for the textbook, Give Me Liberty, shoudl give the authors last name, a key word from the book’s title, and the page referenced: (Foner, Liberty, 29).
For the sourcebook, Voices of Freedom, you will need to use three different forms of citations. For the introductory paragraphs to each text, which are Foner’s contextualizations of the texts, use the editor’s last name, a key word from the book’s title, and the page number referenced: (Foner, Voices, 1).
Otherwise, whenever a text has a distinct author (such as Adam Smith), use that author’s name and the page number (Smith, 3). If the text does NOT have a distinct author (like “Jewish Petition to the Dutch West India Company”), furnish key words from the title of the text and the page number: (“Jewish Petition” 21).
By making distinctions between the author of each piece, you make it easier for your reader to know who you are getting your information from.
Your response paper should be 1/2 to 1 typed page in length (single spaced in Word) and consist of your reactions to one of the assigned readings. Do NOT summarize the text. Instead, select a passage, idea, or claim that intrigues you. It might be something you agree with (and explain why) or with which you disagree (and explain why); it could be a passage you do not completely understand and would like to try to puzzle out. If an idea strikes you as strange or offensive, you are welcome to write about that too.
The Response Paper should have the following structure:
A thesis statement.
Use the textbook in order to contextualize the primary sources. Be sure to find the ideas discussed by Foner in the textbook that most aptly describe the background in which the primary sources were written.
Furnish two or three quotes from the primary source that reflect the idea in the thesis statement.
Provide analysis of the selected quotes. Analysis consists of asking questions about the document (Who wrote it? What is her/his background? What is the author’s argument? What evidence does the author use to support her/his argument? What evidence does the author not use that might have hurt her/his argument (context helps to answer this question)? How does the author’s role and status in society affect her/his argument? How does the author nuance her/his argument? How does the author’s argument and method of argumentation help us to understand her/his argument? What does the author imply with her/his argument but does not directly state? What other questions can you come up with?) Analysis is also providing our own thoughts and opinions about the author’s argument based upon our greater understanding of the context provided by the textbook.
When you evaluate your peer, check to see if he or she has an argument and provides evidence to back up that argument. Consider how well you like the way in which she or he has explored the passage, idea, or claim that he or she chose. Also, does this response paper compel you to think differently about the reading than when you first read it yourself?
Please answer each question with a minimum of 150 words and please follow all the instructions above.
- With Elizabeth Cady Stanton’sˇ”Home Life” and Frederick Douglass’ “The Composite Nation,” what can we say about people’s perceptions of and hopes for Reconstruction of the South?
- From your reading of Andrew Carnegie’s “The Gospel of Wealth” and William Graham Sumner’s “On Social Darwinism,” what were some people’s perceptions of the Gilded Age?
- In what ways do the “Petition of Black Residents of Nashville” and “The Mississippi Black Code” tell us about former slaves’ and slaveholders’ views of freedom?
