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American Encounters: Peace or Conquest? Native Americans share a pipe with Lewis & Clark
Go to: | Monday, September 10 | Monday, September 24 | Monday, October 1 | Monday, October 15 |
Check out the You be the Historian site at the Smithsonian. Click on Let's go. Explore each of the clues. Next, click on Conclude Your Investigation. Examine the conclusions about the Springer family reached by historians.
On blackboard
go to discussion forum titled "household Evidence." Write
on the following:
Assume that one hundred years from now a historian discovers your home or apartment fairly well intact. How would he or she determine the following (In other words, what evidence would they draw upon)?
1.
How you lived? Your standard
of living?
2.
How many people lived in the household?
Their relative ages? Their
relationship to and interaction with one another?
3. What people in the household did (work, leisure, entertainment, hobbies, eating and hygiene habits, etc)?
After you have posted, look at the posts of classmates in your assigned group. Write a comment on each post in your group. In your response, consider (1) what you found enlightening and interesting about the post and (2) what questions you might want to ask about the evidence presented. Be constructive in your comments.
| IMPORTANT NOTE: You
are NOT responsible for the two assignments listed below, originally
slotted for September 24 and October 1. Not only did the college
close for several weeks in the wake of the WTC attack, but as of the
week of October 1st, we had no Internet access in the main
building. However you might, if time permits, want to check out
some of the slave narratives and other documents in the two assignments.
Go to and then read the two following documents on the web:
Working with your assigned group, compile a list of similarities and differences based on these two documents in the voyages of indentured servants and slaves. Then, individually, post on the blackboard what you consider the most important similarity and the most important difference. Quote from the documents to explain your answer. Step One. Read the following:
Step
Two. As you read,
think about these questions: Who
is Barbot? Who is Equiano?
Are their accounts of the middle passage (Atlantic voyage) between Africa
and the Americas similar? Different?
Both? Given
who they are, do Barbot and Equiano bring different points of views and
perspectives to their accounts of slavery, particularly the middle passage? Barbot claims that he is “naturally compassionate” and that Europeans treated slaves much more humanely than Africans. How would you evaluate this claim? Does Barbot say anything that would contradict this claim? Does Equiano say anything that would undercut Barbot's claim? On what basis do you evaluate and judge the accounts of Barbot and Equiano. Step Three. Discuss the questions in step two with your assigned group. Step Four. Go to the blackboard. Post an answer to the following question.
Step Five. As time permits, respond to a posting by a classmate that has a somewhat different position than yours. Make your comments constructive |
The
Declaration of Independence, issued on July 4th, 1776 established
four principles that were revolutionary for the time:
(1) “All men are created equal”;
(2) People establish governments to protect the rights of “life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness”;
(3) Government derives its power from “the consent of the governed”;
(4) When governments rule without that consent, the people have the
revolutionary right and obligation to alter or abolish it, replacing it with a
new government.
The
second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence made the argument for these
principles. The body
of the Declaration then listed grievance after grievance to prove that the King
of England did not rule the thirteen colonies by the consent of the colonists.
Having shown that England ruled American colonists without their consent,
the Declaration concluded by asserting the right to overthrow the King’s
government and to create a new independent nation.
The
main author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, vigorously
promoted democracy, yet owned slaves.
The Declaration of Independence made an eloquent case for democratic
rights, but in practice those rights were denied slaves, women and Indians.
Even
so, the Declaration framed the debate over democracy for the next two centuries.
While it did not create full blown democracy, the Declaration did
establish a set of standards or ideals against which the nation could measure
democratic progress.
Over
the next 200 years, men and women of all races and classes struggled to bring
some of the undemocratic realities of American life in line with the democratic
ideals of the Declaration. Sometimes
that struggle was successful; sometimes it was not.
Some of those who struggled for equality, like the women who wrote the
Declaration of Sentiments in 1848, actually took the language of the Declaration
of Independence to both promote their struggle for equal rights and to bare to
the light of day that the Declaration of Independence did not live up to its own
declared ideals.
All
this raises questions. Is
the Declaration of Independence a democratic document?
Is it a revolutionary document?
You
will answer these questions taking then following steps:
(1)
Read the Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Sentiments.
(Go to http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/americanstudies/lavender/2decs.html
) Go to your
text to get background information about the Declaration of Sentiments.
Then, Read the two declarations side-by-side. Consider how the
Declaration of Sentiments is similar to the Declaration of Independence in
language, philosophy & structure? In what ways is it Different?
(2)
Look up the words “revolution” and “democracy” in an online dictionary.
(You can go to the American Heritage dictionary at http://bartleby.com/61/
or the Merriam Webster dictionary at http://www.m-w.com/
)
(3)
You will be assigned a group.
The group should discuss:
Is
the Declaration of Independence a democratic document?
Is it a revolutionary document?
You will also write on this question next Wednesday, October 24, as part of your midterm. This coming Wednesday you will get full instructions, including criteria for what makes a good essay
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HIS 120/ BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE/ PROF. FRIEDHEIM/ FALL 2001 |
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