Antebellum+Assignment

Community Connections 2007: Antebellum Themes Then and Now

How do our historic patterns in the way we confront issues of race, class, gender, identity, and sustainability affect disadvantaged populations in the U.S. today?

In this Community Connections paper, we are asking you to make connections among the themes you’ve been studying in your U.S. History course and the work of your group. Please craft a polished analytical essay that approaches the question above in the following ways:

Part I o First, choose one of the themes (race, class, gender, identity, sustainability) to focus on for your essay. Explain your sense of how, in the antebellum period (1820-1860), people who fit into that group were limited by the social, economic, or political structures they inherited from the Framers’ generation. For instance, if you were black v. white, how did “the system” created by the Framers’ affect you? If you were male v. female? Rich v. poor? And so on.

Part II o Second, read Thoreau’s “On Civil Disobedience” plus the antebellum primary source designated for your group, looking for how the limitations you identified in Part I were combated by social reformers during the antebellum period. Using a minimum of two quotations from each of the documents, explain how the authors express their own agency during this time period. In other words, how, why, and in what ways did the authors see themselves as able to change or have an impact on the patterns you’ve identified?

Part III o Still focusing on your chosen theme of race, class, gender, etc., describe an analogous pattern that you see playing out with the population you’re studying in Community Connections. What inherited structures (“machines”) are people fighting against now? In what ways are modern people limited by those inherited structures? What specific people or circumstances have you encountered in Community Connections that suggest the complexity of the issue you’re dealing with?

Part IV o What’s the connection among Parts I, II, and III? How do you think your population should respond to these historic patterns and modern realities? How do the authors of the documents point the way to how concerned people today could express their agency to achieve a better outcome? In other words, what is the connection of your group’s work to the perspectives explored by the two documents and the antebellum era of social reform, and what should we as a society do about it?

What will I be graded on? You will be graded based upon five major factors: 1. Ability to describe the limitations placed upon the group by the structures in place. Have you given solid historical details that show exactly how the SYSTEM during the early 19th century intentionally or unintentionally restricted the experience of groups or individuals? Do you incorporate readings and themes from class to explain how the systems existed in the first place? 2. Use of the documents. Did you choose at least four quotations from the Thoreau and your assigned document that best exemplify the manner in which a person fought against the system? More importantly, did you explain HOW (in detail) the documents show the manner in which that person fought against the system? 3. Connecting to your group’s work. Did you relate the historical struggle born out in parts I, II, and III to your experience in Community Connections? Is there a CLEAR line drawn between the history you studied and the experience in the Community Connections group? 4. The role for activists. Have you created a realistic, thoughtful answer to the questions, rooted in specific historical or current experiences, regarding the way people should respond to the patterns that you’ve described? Have you shown an ability to analyze and develop an answer to a problem? 5. Mechanics. Was your paper proofread for spelling/grammar/etc.? Did you quote each document at least two times? Did you properly cite your sources?