Choose one of the following prompts. 1. Readings and lectures in this course have emphasized the way ...
Choose one of the following prompts. 1. Readings and lectures in this course have emphasized the ways in which developments in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century generated sharply contrasting viewpoints. For your first paper assignment, choose two documents (from two different weeks of assignments) from Voices of Freedom. Write a brief essay for each that encapsulates the viewpoint of the author and situates it within key developments in American history between the 1790s and the 1840s. For each document (and for each essay), you should then summarize what a document offering an opposing point of view might say (you might also identify the likely author of the opposing document). In some cases, you may be able to draw directly from one of the documents in Voices of Freedom for this opposing viewpoint; in others you can treat yours as a "hypothetical" opponent/opposing point of view. Each of the two essays should be approximately 500 words (but no more than 600 words). At a minimum, incorporate references to three documents from Voices of Freedom in your paper, and two references from lecture. 2. Rip Van Winkle, which was first published in 1819, imagines the story of a man who fell asleep during the American Revolution and awakened twenty years later to find a much- changed world. For your paper, imagine if Rip Van Winkle or some other fictional person had slept another twenty years or so (they were asleep from the beginning of the American republic until the late 1830s or 1840s). Your essay should distill for your chosen figure the major transformations that had occurred in the United States during their prolonged slumber and assess how and why they might embrace and/or reject these changes. In support of this assessment, you should draw on documents from Voices of Freedom. The essay should be between 1,000 and 1,250 words (and no more than 1,250 words). Please start your essay by briefly identifying (in one to two sentences) who your fictional figure is (in terms of their race, class, gender, region, etc.—a white northern college- educated man? An enslaved woman in Mississippi on a cotton plantation? A member of the Shawnee people?) since who this person is will inform what major transformations will be most relevant to them. At a minimum, incorporate three documents from Voices of Freedom in your paper, and two references from lecture. For both prompts, you will draw on Give Me Liberty and lectures for context but will focus your analysis on the primary documents from Voices of Freedom. Please use a 12-point font and double space with 1” margins. I am happy to have you refer to the course texts and lectures parenthetically: so, if you use the textbook Give Me Liberty! for context (Foner, DuVal, McGirr, Chapter 9). In the case of Voices of Freedom documents, please cite title or author (Douglass). Please do not use Ai, this will be going through turnitin.com
