200 words each discussion
Lesson 3
Read Chapters 5 & 6, and Thomas Paine Calls for American Independence, 1776 and the Declaration of Independence, 1776 under VIII in the Primary Sources at the
end of Chapter 5. You may also use Chapter 5 as background material on Thomas
Paine and Thomas Jefferson. Once all reading is complete, respond to the
following items:
Compare the
backgrounds of Jefferson and Paine; did Paine have an advantage or
disadvantage by not being born in the colonies? Explain.
Examine the language
used in both documents; who is the audience for each writer?
Why does Jefferson not
discuss slavery in the Declaration?
What did Paine and
Jefferson say about the monarchy in their respective documents?
Why does Jefferson
focus more on the king than parliament?
Lesson 4
Read Chapters 7 & 8 and the information
included in Sally Hemings and Thomas
Jefferson and The Master and the Mistress. Once all reading is complete, respond to the
following items:
Why do you think the
accusations made by Callender were ignored during Jeffersons lifetime and
later by historians? Why do you think Madison Hemings assertions were
ignored?
Why do you think
Callenders claims failed to hurt Jefferson politically? Do you think a
similar scandal would hurt an American president or elected leader today?
Why or why not?
Based on Madison
Hemings family history, how common was racial intermixing in 18th and
19th century Virginia?
According to Eric
Foner, how and why has the work of Annette Gordon-Reed fueled a
controversy over the Hemings-Jefferson relationship?
Should his
relationship with Sally Hemings influence how we view Jefferson and his
place in American history? If no, why not? If yes, how should they
influence how we view him?
Lesson 5
Read Chapters 9 & 10 and the Monroe Doctrine. Once all reading is complete, respond to the
following items:
The Monr
oe Doctrine
became one of the crucial foundations of American foreign policy over the
next century; what was the occasion for Monroes articulation of this
doctrine, and what were the circumstances motivating its adoption?
What reasons were used
by Monroe to justify this foreign policy pronouncement, and how do they
relate to arguments made during the revolutionary and early republic
periods?
Lesson 6
Read Chapters 11 & 12 and the information
included in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl; Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl; scroll
down the document at this website and read through Chapters V, VI, and VII of
the account by ex-slave Harriet Jacobs. Once all reading is complete, respond
to the following item(s):
What does this account
reveal about the nature of slavery and how slavery affected southern
society?
How did Jacobs resist
the sexual predation of her master?
Describe the
relationship between Jacobs and her mistress.
Lesson 7
Read Chapters 13 & 14 and the Emancipation Proclamation
Transcript. Once all reading is
complete, respond to the following items:
In early 1863, President
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
Why did Lincoln decide
to issue the Proclamation at this particular time?
What factors
determined this decision?
What did the President
hope to gain?
What were the
limitations of the Proclamation, and what was its larger historical
significance?
Lesson 8
Read Chapter 15 and the information included in
the Mississippi Black Code (recommend that you view the article in
Firefox). Once all reading is complete, respond to the following item(s):
During Reconstruction,
Black Codes were enacted in several former states in the Confederacy. A
Republican-controlled Congress would later react to suppress these codes.
What ultimately were
these codes designed to do?
Precisely how did the
codes aim to accomplish these objectives?