Final Essay Assignment, Summer 1210

In a well-written and organized essay, answer one of the following questions.  Essays should be about five pages in length, double-spaced with one-inch margins, and typed in a normal size font.  Sources should be your class notes and textbook, do not use outside sources.  If you use information from the textbook, make sure that it is written in your own words.  Essays should be emailed to jevery1@verizon.net by 7:00AM on Sunday, August 10, and send your essays as both attachments and emails, just in case I have any difficulties opening up the attachments.  Remember, your reviews on either the slave narratives from Frederick Douglass or Harriet Jacobs are due on the same date and time.  You can certainly email your assignments ahead of time.  I will email you back with your essay, review, and final grades.  The essay and review assignments will be posted on my CCRI website in case you may misplace your hard copies or you can contact the department secretary at 825-2171.  In the two weeks that I will be away training with my new guide dog, you can contact me at 401-338-1027—leave a message and I will return your call that evening.  Good luck!

1. Why did the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency in 1860 spark the southern movement for independence and begin the Civil War?  In your essays, discuss the major events/developments from the Mexican War up through the 1850s that led to the outbreak of civil war in 1861.

2.  Why did Reconstruction become “America’s Unfinished Revolution?”  Address the following topics in your essays:  how the Civil war was converted from a limited cause of preservation to a radical crusade to also end slavery, the positive accomplishments especially during the first half of Reconstruction, and developments that insured that Reconstruction would become an unfinished revolution.