...The essay below was a very strong essay answering the question about Reconstruction. It was an actual essay (word for word) written by one of the students in class. It received 28.5 points out of 30. This was a great essay; about the only comment I would write was that the thesis in the introduction could have been a little more direct: As a country, America has gone though many political changes throughout her lifetime. Leaders have come and gone, all of them having different objectives and plans for the future. As history takes its course, though, most all of these “revolutionary movements” come to an end. One such movement was Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a time period in America consisting of many leaders, goals and accomplishments. Though, like all things in life, it did come to an end, the resulting outcome has been labeled both a success and a failure. When Reconstruction began in 1865, a broken America had just finished fighting the Civil War. In all respects, Reconstruction was mainly just that. It was a time period of “putting back the pieces”, as people say. It was the point where America attempted to become a full running country once more. This, though, was not an easy task. The memory of massive death was still in the front of everyone’s mind, hardening into resentment and sometimes even hatred. The south was virtually non-existent politically or economically, and searching desperately for a way back in. Along with these things, now living...
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...Essay 1 The years following the Civil War were laden with political, social, and economic strife, especially in the South. While the events of Reconstruction provided political, social, and economic gains for various groups, Reconstruction can only be described as a minor success due to its many shortcomings and failures. The most notable successes of Reconstruction include reunification of the Union, passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, and establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Reuniting the Union was Lincoln’s and many other Northerners’ main focus after the Civil War, although the last ex-confederate state was not readmitted until 1870. The passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments officially outlawed slavery, granted freedmen equal protection under the law, and gave black males the right to vote. While these helped equalize blacks and whites politically, the Freedmen’s Bureau was established to help provide economic and social assistance to former slaves. The bureau offered necessities like housing and food, but more importantly built schools and provided education and employment opportunities to blacks following the Civil War. With much southern resistance to the new political rights of former slaves, the...
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...Some famous immigrants who arrived through Ellis Island included Charles Chaplin, Cary Grant, Harry Houdini, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is easy to see from this list how immigrants have changed the face of the United States. All of these famous people contributed to the United States, giving a bright future for innovative contributions to the young nation. c. The most important change in the United States ‘ involvement in foreign affairs from 1789 to 1877 was expansion of its territory. Marked by a treaty with France buying Louisiana territory doubling the United States, and other treaties with France, and Britain. The Treaty of Guadalupe added more territory and Texas being annexed. d. In the period 1789 until 1877, the signs that signs that the United States had developed a state constitutional democracy were such as the constitution and the bills of rights ratified, although women rights to vote were denied Elizabeth Candy Stanton continued the fight. Major democratic...
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...Major Historical Turning Points of America: Essay I Brian Tui Strayer University Dr. Donna Reeves History 105 January 19, 2013 Abstract What are the major turning points in American’s timeline that helped shaped it into the amazing country that it is today? What was the impact of those turning points on today’s American culture? This essay will give us a tour through two major turn points in America. The first being the “Turning point of the civil war” and the second being the “Turning point of Industrialization and Urbanization”. In the “Turning point of the civil war” we will peer into several possible outcomes of the “Reconstruction Period had Abraham Lincoln survived”. In the “Turning point of Industrialization and urbanization we will also investigate “Industrializations effect on the average working American” and touch on “How state courts served to discriminate against non-white citizens and immigrants”. Finally we will conclude with “The New America”. My view on how the events of the past shaped America into the wonderful nation I am so proud of today. Turning Point of the Civil War America could not be the honored country that it is today had it not been for the turning point of the civil war. In the mid-1800s the Northern and Southern states were divided on many differences. A major difference that lingered after the signing of the Constitution was slavery. You have the Northern statesmen who firmly oppose slavery and the Southern statesmen...
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...The relation between imperial state and economic expansion in Sung dynasty Introduction: The economy of China under the Sung dynasty (960–1279) of China was marked by commercial expansion, financial prosperity, increased international trade-contacts, and a revolution in agricultural productivity. This dynasty had one of the most prosperous and advanced economies in the medieval world. Private finance grew, stimulating the development of a country-wide market network which linked the coastal province with the interior. This phenomena can be linked to the Chinese imperial state variously. This essay will analyze this situation in three parts, political environment, development of markets and technology, population growth and urbanization. The political environment is beneficial to economy (e.g. in Hsiao-Tsung’s case): The great economic expansion in sung dynasty was contributed from the stable political environment. In this section the Hsiao-Tsung’s reign will serve as the example case and be analyzed in the following paragraphs. The reason why choose it is that this reign is the most prosperous and tranquil reign in South Sung dynasty, which was depicted as the ‘golden age’ of this dynasty. To start with, generally speaking, the political trend which the political climate became increasingly conservative in its...
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...Civil War Essay Prompts Reconstruction Historian Synopses: • Dunning School (Traditional): Dunning and Moore. It is a Tragic Era. The Southerners were tortured. The two underlying foundations: (1) the South should have been readmitted quickly after its defeat (2) there should have been no discussion of racial equality for the freedmen. He is accused of being racist and pro-southern. The Republicans were divided between leniency (conservatives) and punishment (scalawags and carpetbaggers – radicals). The freedmen are not to be blamed because they were pawns and were used by the Republicans. Once a freedman voted for a Republican, he was not paid back for his loyalty. Corrupt and incompetent Reconstruction governments that were eventually overthrown when Democrats regained control and the Tragic Era could come to an end. Bitterness and hatred between the races resulted. South was converted into a colonial appendage. What the Radicals were trying to do was dominate the South as though it were a colony. Moore emphasizes the punishment of North on South. This is the very negative Traditional school • Revisionist School: Simpkins & Woody. In spite of the Traditional charges of incompetence, the Reconstruction governments achieved a lot. Most wrote new constitutions that introduced long-needed laws about school, administration, civil and judicial rights, etc. They were successful. The Reconstruction governments were not controlled by blacks. In no Southern...
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...Unit I: Essay Exam: Reconstruction & Rise of Industry US History Since 1877 Professor Valdenia Winn February 14, 2013 According to Dictionary.com, radical means: 1. Of or going to the root or origin; fundamental: a radical difference. 2. Thoroughgoing or extreme, especially as regards change from accepted or traditional forms. Historians identified Congressional Reconstruction as “radical” because of how the South tried to elude the Thirteenth Amendment. Because of these extreme circumstances the federal government had to intervene, which at that point made it radical to most historians. The root of the problem was slavery and the problem solver was the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The Thirteenth Amendment prohibited slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment established national citizenship for persons born or naturalized in the United States. It also prohibited the states from depriving citizens of their civil rights or equal protection under the law as well as reduced state representation in the House of Representatives by the percentage of adult male citizens denied the vote. The Fifteenth Amendment forbade states to deny citizens the right to vote on the grounds of race, color, or “previous condition of servitude”. Another problem solver was the establishment of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which was there to aid former slaves get on their feet and supervise “all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and...
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...Timeline Part II NOTE: Before starting the Timeline project please refer to the "Example Timeline Matrix" document. Instructions: Complete the matrix by providing the Time Period/Date(s) in column B, and the Description and Significance of the People/Event(s) to American History in column C. See complete instructions in the Syllabus for the Module 3 assignment entitled. “Timeline Part II.” NOTE: The timeline project does not need to be submitted to turnitin. NOTE: Please write your answers in a clear and concise manner. Limit your submission of the Timeline Part II up to 250 words per topic/subtopic. For example, if a topic is divided into 3 subtopics, you may write a maximum of 250 per subtopic listed. Be sure to cite all sources. Major Event/Epoch in American History | Time Period/Date(s) | Description and Significance of the People/Event(s) to American History | 1) The evolution of the institution of slavery from the Colonial Period to the 1860s. | 16th Century – 19th Century | I found this excerpt from Robert Francis Engs from the Macmillan Information Now Encyclopedia: The history of African American slavery in the United States can be divided into two periods: the first coincided with the colonial years, about 1650 to 1790; the second lasted from American independence through the Civil War, 1790 to 1865. Prior to independence, slavery existed in all the American colonies and therefore was not an issue of sectional debate. With the arrival of independence...
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...Veer Shah AP United States History DBQ Essay #3: “American period between 1860-1880” The historic period prior to the 1860s was the most underlying era in American society as it led to the bloodiest war in the American history, the Civil war. Prior to the Civil war, the American politics were sectionally divided between the Northern Republicans and the Southern Democrats. The political culture was almost saturated as both sections had realized that the numerous compromises would only provoke questions and dissimilarities between them, with the largely interfered question of slavery and suffrage. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had been implemented as a nationwide direction towards admitting states with reference the 36° 30´ latitude line, either as a free-state (above line) or as a slave state (below the line). Despite of the temporary success of the compromise of 1820, it was repealed by the Stephen A. Douglas in 1854 in his Kansas-Nebraska Act. Likewise, the Compromise of 1850, created by the Great Compromiser, Henry Clay, was an effort to preserve the Union by settling the issue of slavery in the newly acquired territories from the Mexican-American War. Although it assured a temporary peaceful settlement between the sections, it failed to give birth to the Civil war and the rise in sectionalism. Although all these compromises had served their desired intents, politically as well as socially, in turn, they only played a catalyst role in increasing the tensions...
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...Bibliographic Essay on African American History Introduction In the essay “On the Evolution of Scholarship in Afro- American History” the eminent historian John Hope Franklin declared “Every generation has the opportunity to write its own history, and indeed it is obliged to do so.”1 The social and political revolutions of 1960s have made fulfilling such a responsibility less daunting than ever. Invaluable references, including Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004); Evelyn Brooks Higgingbotham, ed., Harvard Guide to African American History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001); Arvarh E. Strickland and Robert E. Weems, Jr., eds., The African American Experience: An Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001); and Randall M. Miller and John David Smith, eds., Dictionary of Afro- American Slavery (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1988), provide informative narratives along with expansive bibliographies. General texts covering major historical events with attention to chronology include John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000), considered a classic; along with Joe William Trotter, Jr., The African American 1  Experience (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001); and, Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold, The...
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...ELECTIVES: America’s Colonial Foundations (0.5) America’s Colonial Foundations provides an introduction to the major topics of the establishment of British North America, their political economic and social structures, religious and intellectual characteristics and the transition from distant citizens of Great Britain to a new American identity. It will examine changing relationships with Native Americans, development of racial slavery as a labor source, and European cultural influences on the various colonial regions. American Literature (0.5) Throughout the course of American Literature, students will be able to encounter and experience the full span of America’s rich literary history. The course begins with the literary contributions of America’s first settlers, and explores how their faith and difficult circumstances shaped their lives and the literature through which they captured these early moments of America. The course then moves through the Age of Faith, during which the core of American Literature was shaped by a strong and foundational faith, and then into the Age of Reason, during which the world of science and modern thinking started to shape the literature of the times. The study of literature then moves into the Romantic period, and then the Realist period, both of which shaped American Literature at its core and brought about significant changes to the style, structure, and purpose of literature. The introduction of Modern literature includes the literature of...
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...or professional occupational backgrounds. This essay majorly looks into the American connection which led to mass immigration from Asia after World War II. It is worth noting that prior to the 1940s, the only Asian region where America had dominance was the Philippines, which was an American colony since 1898 (Cheng and Liu 74). The advent of the Second World War changed this economic and configuration as the U.S interests seeped into regions where previously they exercised little influence. Progressively, wartime involvement affected the political and economic alignments which occurred after the post-war period. When the war ended, the Soviet Union and America became interlocked in a political supremacy war. This turf led to a chain of wars which involved the two countries, but the wars were fought in regions that belonged to neither, mostly in the Southeast Asia like Vietnam. The economic and political elites, alongside the ordinary people who were fleeing from the war created a notable group of Asian immigrants to America. Due to its dominating role in the area, the United States became the most suitable destination for the Southeast Asians during the postwar period. To maintain its interest as well as prevent her rivals from gaining an advantage, America started laying the bedrock for the economic relations which would direct the capital flow and people between her and Asia. This was done by being involved in the reconstruction of parts of war-torn Asia. Like other...
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...Equality after 1865 This was a time when America was trying to find herself. These were the years known as the Reconstruction Period from 1865-1877. During this time period, the African-American people became free from slavery but one can only imagine what free really is. While the nation search for ways to establish true meaning of equality, African-American people continued to struggle to find out just what equality means and to have the same rights and freedom as the white people in the nation. Whether as slaves or free people, the political and social status of African Americans has always been to obtain the ability to participate in the nation’s economy. While many historians believe that slavery and politics can be attributed to the Civil War, more than 600,000 Americans died and with the help of the Emancipation Proclamation to start the motion to free the slaves, America became even more a divided country in 1865 than the previous earlier years (Bowles, 2011). Although freedom in the post-Civil War years did not guarantee equality, African Americans continued to struggle from racism, segregation and discrimination for many years, but the birth of equality is beginning to grow and show that all men and women are created equal. The effort to integrate African Americans (ex-slaves) in the American society after the war, known as the Reconstruction Period, was a very difficult task and while the country was divided between the North and South, racism was still very...
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...African American's Journey Essay Below is a free essay on "African American's Journey" from Anti Essays, your source for free research papers, essays, and term paper examples. “African American’s Journey to Freedom” Charity Johnson HIS204: American History since 1865 Instructor: Leslie Ruff February 11, 2013 “African American’s Journey to Freedom” To some African Americans it may seem ironic that The United States of America is known as “the land of the free” considering that majority of their ancestors entered the US as slaves. African Americans were brought to North America via the middle passage which originated during the fifteenth century. They were enslaved for approximately 400 hundred years until the end of the Civil War in 1865. Although African Americans were enslaved in America, they were determine to survive and one day be freed in this great country. During The African American’s journey to freedom several significant events took place which was inclusive of but not limited to: The Civil Rights Movement of 1865-1877, Separate but Equal Legislation (Plessy vs. Ferguson court case) in 1896, The Harlem Renaissance of 1920, Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, The March on Washington Movement of 1963, and The Black Power Movement of the late 1960s and 1970. I will discuss the significance of these events in relation to the African American journey to freedom and how they have help shape American society today. THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT OF 1865-1877 Frequently when...
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...Throughout history we’ve seen political and economical forces work in tandem with each other. Whether it be communism and socialism, imperialism and nationalism, etc. great impacts on the world have been the result. The two forces that I chose for examine in this essay are Capitalism and Industrialization. What is capitalism and industrialization? Capitalism is a type of economic and political system where business is controlled by private owners, rather than be regulated by the government, and Industrialization is the transition from an agrarian society to an industrial one, with improvements in technology and industry. Capitalism and Industrialization are two forces that have shown a high amount of synergy throughout history. With the rise...
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