Answer one of the following four questions:
1. Is history all about dates and facts? Why? Why not?
2. What were the roles of women and the family in colonial America? Did they differ by region?
3. When and on what grounds did the Americans make a case for their independence from Britain?
4. What were the fundamental challenges to creating successful state governments in the new republic? A federal government?
Part II (30 minutes)
Answer the following question:
According to the textbook "the Great Awakening encouraged men and women who had been taught to remain silent before traditional figures of authority to speak up, to take an active role in their salvation. They could no longer rely on ministers or institutions. The individual stood alone before God. Knowing this, New Lights made religious choices that shattered the old harmony among Protestant sects, and in its place, they introduced a noisy, often bitterly fought competition." Explain how this analysis illustrates the importance in colonial America of one or more of the three themes in the course: freedom, diversity, and/or migration.
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A Sample of Comments on Part II
Responses to an A or A-:
Theme: Freedom. Good. We liked how you tied the three themes together. What was it about the Great Awakening that encouraged religious freedom and hence diversity?
How was religion made different by the G.A.?
Theme: Freedom. Nice analysis of the development of freedom in the colonies stemming from the G.A. You might have explained more fully why an emotional approach encouraged religious freedom. Did more religious freedom mean more religious diversity?
Theme: Diversity. What does the Catholic Church have to do with the Great Awakening? Substitute the Puritans or the Anglican establishment for "Catholic Church" and your essay would be more accurate for colonial America. Your discussion of the breakdown of hierarchy in organized religion as a result of the G.A. is basically right on the money. We especially liked your observation that the G.A. had the opposite effect (more diversity) than what was intended. Isn't that often the case in human affairs? We're not sure we can agree with your assertion that the G.A. was a premeditated action on the part of organized religion with the goal of stopping the spread of new religions. It seems to us that it was much more of a spontaneous series of revivals.
Responses to a B+, B, or B-:
Themes: Freedom & Diversity. Good analysis of personal accountability. Can this analysis be applied to colonial aspirations for political freedom? Your essay could have used a bit more historical detail to support your generalizations about the spiritual revival represented by the G.A. For example, who was Jonathan Edwards and why was he important?
Themes: Freedom & Diversity. Why were people able to "speak up before the traditional figures of authority," as you say? Is there an answer to this question to be found in the respective roles of emotion and reason in the G.A.? Wasn't the encouragement of individualism a central result of the G.A.? That individualism, or reliance on self, sparked democratic ideology. We think you recognize that, but you weren't clear in your expression of it.
Themes: Freedom, Diversity, & Migration. This essay has the right idea but doesn't say enough about the Great Awakening. How did religious reform become "a tremendous catalyst for greater diversity and a [sic] element necessary for the advancement of freedom," as you put it? How did greater diversity of religion spawn ever increasing migration? To improve try making use of a few more facts to support your generalizations.
Responses to C+, C, & C-:
Themes: Freedom, Diversity, & Migration. While you mention all three themes, you don't delve into any one of the sufficiently. Why did people break "away from their old established religions to preserver their own salvation," as you say? What was it about the new approach of the G.A. that encouraged more religious individualism and diversity? Wasn't the religion of the G.A. more reliant than ever on feelings?
Theme: Diversity. You make generalizations in this essay that need more development and explanation. Why and how did the new ideas of the Great Awakening give people some room to make their own interpretations? Why did more diversity encourage a new respect for freedom?
Theme: Freedom. Did a desire for freedom lead to dissatisfaction with religion in the G.A., as you say in your second sentence? Or did dissatisfaction with the old religion lead to a desire for more religious freedom? The bulk of your essay really argues for the second interpretation. If so, how did the G.A. lead to the gaining of more freedom as you say in your third sentence? How were the people "given the chance to worship God as they pleased," as you put it? Does this increased freedom that you are talking about have anything to do with the eventual separation of the colonies from England?
Responses to a D+, D & D-:
Themes: Freedom, Diversity, & Migration. Where did the freedom that you speak of come from? What role did the Great Awakening play? What other kinds of diversity were there? This essay reminds us of your journal entries -- full of sweeping generalizations that aren't backed up by specific evidence. We do not think you are doing enough reading in this class to have the evidence you need at hand when you need it. If you can consistently be like you were in class the other day when you were discussing the ante bellum transportation system, your work and grades would improve.
Theme: Freedom. How did the Great Awakening wake "up the common man and woman to stand a stand in what you believe," as you say? What encouraged people to stand alone, thus giving them "the courage to fight for what was right," as you put it? How long after the G.A. was it before the coming of the American Revolution? You make it sound as if the two happened at the same time.
Did the G.A. really make it possible for Europeans to practice any kind of religion they wanted to? In your next test try to use more facts to support your assertions instead of just making assertions that stand alone.
Theme: Diversity? It seems to us that your essay focuses on freedom as much as it does on diversity. But more importantly, it really doesn't answer the question. It says almost nothing about the Great Awakening. What was the G.A. and why did it come about? What and how did it contribute to the development of freedom, the growth of diversity, or the spread of population in the colonies? Your essay is silent on these matters and goes off in a strange direction.
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MID-TERM EXAMINATION
PART I (45 MINUTES)
Answer one of the following four questions.
1. Discuss Anne Hutchinson's decision to migrate to the New World. How did her religious views differ from John Winthrop's and other mainstream Puritans? What were the consequences of her diversity?
2. Discuss how the ideas of freedom and equality played a role in the lives of white male property owners, African Americans, white servants, women, minors, and propertlyless adult males in colonial America. Was there a gap between what Americans said and what they did?
3. During the 1760s and 1770s did Americans (all, some, none?) consider themselves to be revolutionaries? Why? Why not? Be sure to discuss the concept of sovereignty in your answer.
4. How did Jefferson's and Hamilton's views on human nature and beliefs about individual freedom differ and what was the significance of these differences for government policy in the 1790s?
Part II (45 Minutes)
The three themes of this course are migration, diversity, and freedom. Discuss one of these themes for the period 1492 to 1800 by answering one of the following questions.
a) immigrants to America were both "pushed" and "pulled" to the New World. What were the factors that tended to push people out of Europe? What were the factors that tended to pull them toward America? Which was more important - the push or the pull? Why?
b) apply the word diversity to America in this period. That is, what was diverse? What effect(s) did this diversity have on American economic, political, or social/cultural life? Be specific.
c) did All Americans enjoy more freedom in America than they would have had they been able to stay in their native country? What were the sources of individual freedom in America? What were the impediments to it? Explain.
Mid-Term Make-up
Part I (45 minutes)
Answer one of the following questions:
1. Compare the philosophies of the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment in colonial America. How were they alike or different? Which philosophy did Benjamin Franklin personify? Why?
2. What were the incentives for and the obstacles to a constitutional convention in 1787? What role did the "people" play in the ratification of the U.S. Constitution?
3. What were the roles of women and the family in colonial America? Did they differ by region?
4. How did the emergence of industry impact the lives of or ordinary workers in America at the beginning of the 19th century? In particular, discuss the challenges facing women workers in the Lowell textile mills.
Part II (45 minutes)
The three themes of this course are migration, diversity and freedom. Discuss one of these themes for the period 1492 to 1800 by answering one of the following questions:
a) immigrants to America were both "pushed" and "pulled" to the New World. What were the factors that tended to push people out of Europe? What were the factors that tended to pull them toward America? Which was more important - the push or the pull? Why?
b) apply the word diversity to America in this period. That is, what was diverse? What effect(s) did this diversity have on American economic, political, and/or cultural life? Be specific.
c) did all Americans enjoy more freedom in America than they would have had they been able to stay in their native country? What were the sources of individual freedom in America? What were the impediments to it?
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Responses to an A or A-
Your answer to this questions was well argued, making excellent use of data to back up your generalizations. Don't you think that political turmoil in England/Europe (e.g. the English Civil War or the Thirty Years War) was another push factor?
A very well argued answer to the question. You do especially well comparing the Spanish and British and in evaluating the difference between rich and poor immigrants. Keep up the good work as we pull toward this course's finish line.
This essay makes very good use of facts to support its generalizations which distinguishes it from most others. You missed an opportunity here to compare the Spanish with the English. Were the push/pull factors the same for the people from both countries? I would also have liked to see a clearer statement of the theme (argument) that you were discussing.
Responses to a B or B-
Your comparison of the French and Spanish with the British in this essay is good. You make many good points about the attraction of America to those looking for economic gain and religious freedom. Couldn't you have given an example to back up your generalization that America was seen as a refuge by some of those who came? Who saw it as a refuge?
This essay does a good job discussing the "push" factor in immigration to America but not so good a job on the "pull." What was it about America as opposed to someplace else that attracted immigrants? That is, why did people go to Massachusetts or Virginia rather than some other place?
This essay uses evidence to support its generalizations fairly well but doesn't make really clear which theme (freedom or migration) it is addressing. Do you think that the "pull" of America became more important than the "push" from Europe/England over time? Were the push/pull factors the same for the English as the Spanish?
You make good points in this essay about Indians and Africans. Certainly, they did not enjoy more freedom as a result of colonization. But you don't say enough about indentured servants or the poor in New England to defend your claim that they did very well here. What evidence can you marshall to support such an assertion? What about women? Was America a place for them to do better? To have freedom?
Responses to a C or C-
This essay shows an understanding of the difference between the "push" and "pull" factors but is very vague about who was affected by these factors and why. It is not enough to say that "some people" were pushed out for religious reasons or that others were pulled to America for economic opportunity. Who do you have in mind? When did they come? You also don't make clear which theme you are discussing (freedom or migration).
Your essay makes some good generalizations but offers too little data to back them up. It also offers in evidence events and developments that came after 1800, not before, suggesting a confusion about just what happened when. For example, the African flight to the North was not an important factor in the African American experience before 1800. Do you think that those blacks who came here in chains in the 17th or 18th centuries were pushed out of Africa or pulled to America?
What is the theme from the course that this essay is addressing? Is it freedom or migration? I think you do a better job of arguing for the push from Europe than the pull to America. What made migrants think of America as a land of economic opportunity? Was there really religious freedom in the New World? For example, were the Puritans tolerant of the Quakers or even of each other? Didn't the Puritans and even the Quakers expect some conformity? So where's the freedom???
This essay argues correctly that diversity (or at least some American awareness of it) grew during the period under consideration. You focus on religious diversity, but weren['t there other sources of diversity such as race, gender, and socio-economic status? At the end your essay drifts past 1800 and into the 19th century.
Responses to a D or D-
This essay seems to be in response to question IIb, but you don't make this clear. In addition, most of your evidence for the existence of diversity in America is drawn from the years after 1800, but the question asks for evidence of diversity between 1492 and 1800. Are you saying that there was no diversity in America in the colonial era?
This essay is full of sweeping and unsupported generalizations. The word "they" that is meant to apply to all migrants to North America in the period between 1492 and 1800 is too vague to be helpful. When you speak about economic and religious freedom, which groups do you have in mind? What about the Africans who were forced to come to America in chains? How does the "push" or "pull" thesis apply to them?
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Answer any two of the following four questions:
1. Why was the economy a political issue in the United States during the Age of Jackson (1828-1840)? How did the era's two major political parties differ about the economy? Explain the significance of this difference to one of the three main course themes.
2. What was the Dred Scott decision and why was it important to the sectional crisis of the 1850s? Based on Paul Finkelman's chapter in American Vistas, show how the issues in this decision were anticipated in Illinois between 1818 and 1857. Relate this decision to one of the three main course themes.
3. Describe the status of women in the United States in the mid nineteenth century. Based on Thomas Dublin's chapter about Lowell's women workers in American Vistas, would you say that they had more or less freedom than their colonial forebears? Explain.
4. Show how the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution illustrates at least one of the three main themes of Reconstruction
Part II (60 minutes)
Answer one of the following two questions:
1. Discuss the influence of one or more of the three themes of this course on the events leading up to both the American Revolution and the Civil War. Can comparisons be drawn?
2. Define Manifest Destiny from an ideological perspective. Then show how it affected the American people, the United States government, and other nations of the world in the 1840s. Relate your discussion to one of the three main themes of the course.
BE SURE THAT YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THE QUESTIONS ASK BEFORE YOU BEGIN WRITING YOUR ANSWERS. TRY TO BE CLEAR, CONCISE AND WELL ORGANIZED.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
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Answer two of the following four questions:
1. Define Manifest Destiny. Then show how this ideology affected the American people, the United States government, and other nations of the world in the between 1840 and 1854.
2. What were the social, economic, and political goals of the Radical Republicans for the newly freed slaves in the South. What did these goals mean for the southern states and the nation as a whole? Did the Radical Republicans succeed or fail? Explain.
3. The American Civil War has been called the first "total war." Do you agree or disagree? In your answer be certain to define "total war," being careful to explain how it differs from limited war. Use specific examples to support your argument that the Civil War was or was not a total war.
4. What were the roles of women and the family in pre Civil War America? Compared to their colonial forebears, did American women have more or less "freedom" by 1840.
Part Two (60 minutes)
Answer one of the following two questions:
1. Two of the most important leaders in America at the beginning of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, had a lot in common with two of the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Compare and contrast these four men on the subject of government. Be sure to show how they were different as well as alike. In writing your answer you may want to discuss one or more of the course's themes -- freedom, diversity, and migration.
2. What is a Constitution? Focusing on the years between 1787 and 1877, discuss how the U.S. Constitution, including amendments, dealt with two of the three themes we have studied this semester -- freedom, diversity and migration. Did the Constitution serve all the people, none of the people, or some of the people. Explain.
BE SURE THAT YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THE QUESTIONS ASK BEFORE YOU BEGIN WRITING YOUR ANSWERS. TRY TO BE CLEAR, CONCISE AND WELL ORGANIZED.
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