US History

US History Research Paper
Technical requirements: 6-7 page paper, double-spaced, 12 pt. font, 1 inch margins.
Works Cited sources page does not count towards page limit – quotations should be cited in MLA standards.
Assignment: Read Joanne Freeman’s “The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to the Civil War”. In the 1850s, the sectional crisis was growing in intensity. In no more than (3) pages, what are the central ideas in the book? How did harsh rhetoric and violence in Congress inflame passions? Examine Representative Preston Brooks’ caning of Senator Charles Sumner. What was Brooks’ purpose? What was the American public’s reaction? Did Brooks’ violence make it more likely that slavery’s abolition could be achieved peacefully? Do not make assumptions; look at the facts.
Second, 1850s violence was widespread. After appropriate research in good, recent secondary sources, devote the rest of the paper to examining revolutionary abolitionist John Brown, a native of Connecticut. In 1856, at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas Territory, and at Harpers Ferry, VA, in 1859, what did Brown and his followers do? What was their purpose? What was the American public’s reaction not these events?Did Brown’s violence make it more likely that slavery’s abolition could be achieved peacefully? Please note that on the day he was executed, Brown wrote: “The crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”