American History
Learning Outcomes for Week 3
Gather, interpret, and assess information from a variety of sources and points of view.
Evaluate evidence and arguments critically or analytically.
Produce well-reasoned written or oral arguments using evidence to support conclusions.
Analyze and explain one or more major themes of U.S. history from more than one informed perspective.
Tasks to Complete
Read all the secondary sources
Read one primary source
Submit Race Essay 2
this is the check list
Essay Assignment: Read all of the secondary sources and one of the primary documents. Write an essay in which you develop an argument about what your analysis of the document allows you to understand about race in the 19th century United States. As part of your argument, explain how your analysis of the document adds to or challenges the information and ideas about race in the secondary sources. Cite all your sources (primary and secondary) using APA style at the end of the essay. (250-350 words).
Essay Structure and Checklist:
Introduction (1 paragraph. 50-75 words). Your introduction should clearly state your thesis and provide an overview of the main points you will make in your essay. Underline or highlight your thesis.
Body. (2-3 paragraphs. 200-250 words [total]). The main body of your essay should include the evidence and analysis that supports your thesis. Each paragraph should develop one main point and open with a topic sentence that clearly states that main point. Provide specific evidence from the primary source you selected and explain how the evidence supports your thesis. Also incorporate evidence from the secondary sources, explaining how it supports or challenges your thesis; if you are arguing the secondary source challenges your thesis, make a case for your interpretation.
Conclusion (1 paragraph. 50-75 words). Provide an overview of the main points you have made and identify briefly larger questions your analysis might raise or another context in which the issues could be examined.
Have you:
Clearly stated your thesis?
Highlighted or underlined your thesis?
Used evidence from primary sources to support your thesis? Explained how that evidence supports your thesis?
Explained how the secondary sources support or challenge your thesis?
Put all quoted material in quotation marks?
Included a list of works you used, cited using APA style?
Proofread your assignment?
Checked that the assignment is within the word count?
Secondary and Primary Source Readings
Attached Files:
File Whiteness and Race.pdf (230.57 KB)
Secondary Sources (read all)
Roediger, D. (2014). “Whiteness and race.” Bayor, R. (Ed.) Oxford handbook of immigration and ethnicity. New York: Oxford University Press. (Available as a PDF attachment under Secondary and Primary Sources and through Baruch Library electronic reserve).
From the American Yawp, read: “Race and Jacksonian Democracy,” “The decline of Northern slavery and the rise of the cotton kingdom," “Antebellum western migration and Indian removal,” "War for emancipation, 1863-1853," and “Politics of Reconstruction." (Locke, J. and Write, B., eds. (2017) The American yawp. Retrieved from http://www.americanyawp.com)
Primary Sources (select one).
Carlyle Indian Industrial School group photos. (1886, 1887). [Photographs] Retrieved from http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-sources/290
Douglass, F. (1852). What to the Slave is the 4th of July. [Speech]. Retrieved from https://bcc-cuny.digication.com/ushistoryreader/Frederick_Douglass_What_to_the_Slave_is_the_4th_of
Fitzhugh, G. (1854). George Fitzhugh Argues that Slavery is Better than Liberty and Equality. Retrieved from http://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-cotton-revolution/george-fitzhugh-argues-that-slavery-is-better-than-liberty-and-equality-1854/
Jackson, A. (1829) First Message to Congress. [Speech] Retrieved from https://bcc-cuny.digication.com/ushistoryreader/First_Message_to_Congress_Andrew_Jackson
Jacobs, L. (1866). Report from the Freedmen’s Record. [Report] Retrieved from https://bcc-cuny.digication.com/ushistoryreader/Louisa_Jacobs_Report_from_the_Freedmen_s_Record
Tape, M. (1885). A Mother Protests Against the Denial of Equal Education. Retrieved from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=3&psid=30
(1884). Exclusion of the Chinese. North American Review, 139. Retrieved from https://bcc-cuny.digication.com/ushistoryreader/Exclusion_of_the_Chinese_1884.