History Final

THE QUESTIONS – ANSWER ALL THREE:

1. Starting with Frederick Douglass’s narrative of his life in slavery and in freedom, write an essay addressing some of the following questions:

How did slaveowners perpetuate the institution of slavery? What did it mean to Douglass to be slave? How did he define slavery? How did his definition differ from that of most Southerners? Northerners? What effects did slavery have on Southern society? How does Douglass’s narrative give us insight into the differences between North and South that led to the Civil War?

Do not try to answer each of the above questions. Use them as starting points for your thinking. Then construct an essay with your own thesis supported by specific historical examples and evidence from the primary sources.

2. Discuss the expansion of the United States. What was Manifest Destiny and how did Americans use this concept to justify expansion? What were the ideas involved and what was the impact of these ideas? Do you think that this expansion really was “destiny,” or are there other words that better explain the process? How does this historical epoch look from various perspectives of the differing groups who lived through it? What were some of the long-term consequences of Manifest Destiny?

Again, do not try to answer each of the above questions. Use them as starting points for your thinking. Then construct an essay with your own thesis supported by specific historical examples and evidence from the primary sources.

3. In what ways was the U.S. fundamentally different in 1877 from what it had been in 1860? Or was it?

Discuss the era of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Why were the North and the South ultimately unable to compromise their differences? How did each side come to see the other as engaged in a conspiracy to deprive them of their rights over the course of the 1850s?

How did the Civil War and Reconstruction reshape the U.S. politically, economically, and socially? Do you think Reconstruction was a success or failure?

This question really calls for you to think about the era as a whole. Do not simply list events, or causes and effects of the War. As always, do not try to answer each of the above questions. Use them as starting points for your thinking. Then construct an essay with your own thesis supported by specific historical examples and evidence from the primary sources.