US History final paper

This paper is to be typed, double spaced, and needs to be proofread in advance of your submission. Cite any necessary sources including your textbook if you quote text(use parenthetical citations). Your paper should be at least five pages in length and should answer all of the following instructions below.

Your final paper is a culmination paper; it will tie together some of the major ideas and themes of our class. Since the overarching theme from Foner’s book Give Me Liberty! is FREEDOM, it will be the topic of your paper.

You should have a thesis for your paper and it should find application in the criteria that you will be discussing below. The thesis should attempt to make some argument or offer some perspective on what freedom is. Your thesis should be a response to the question: What has freedom meant or come to mean in U.S. history? The following requirements for your paper are:

[login to view URL] at least three historical eras in US history prior to Reconstruction. Be sure to assess: the meaning of freedom in that era, specifically to what group of people (or person) that you are referring to, to date and locate this era (years, place, etc), and to include any references from the text or class that might be useful in discussing this era. Choose one of these eras and find at least three outside sources (academic website, or text).

[login to view URL] over time- Consider how the understanding of freedom for these groups of people either changed or stayed the same. Did their understanding of freedom change as a result of historical change, circumstance, economics forces, political change, social reform, or war? Consider any that might apply. This will be useful in transitions in your paper and possibly when considering your thesis.

C.Research-- Go back and review Foner and your notes. What materials can you find to support some of your ideas about the shifting notions about freedom? Find articles and texts that may be useful. Please see our school librarian if you need help with this process.

[login to view URL], Discuss- What does freedom mean to you personally in 2014? How does that understanding of freedom compare with notions from class? What does it mean in your personal vision of your life and what does it mean to America? Is the greater world (outside of America) in greater need of freedom? Explain.

Sample topics for discussion in answering part A include:

-Native American communities

-Spanish colonization

-Colonial America

-Puritans

-Great Awakening

-Revolutionary War- Patriots, Sons of Liberty

-Founding Fathers

-Constitution

-Early presidents

-Hamilton, Jefferson, Locke, or philosophers

-Trail of Tears

-Slavery, slave narratives, laws dealing with slavery, Dred Scott case, etc

-Manifest Destiny

-Reforming communities, Utopia

-Civil War, Confederacy, Emancipation Proclamation, 13th Amendment

Article Writing Research Writing

Project ID: #6068175

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