James Oakes, The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics.

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1 HIS121 (2009TRI1 A) 19th Century U S Jeff Kolnick Department of History kolnick@augsburg.edu Phone: Office: Memorial 115A Office Hours: After class for one hour MWF 11 12, TTh 1:30 2:30 Reading: Ron Takaki, Iron Cages: Race and Culture in 19 th Century America (revised edition). James Oakes, The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics. Kathryn Kish Sklar, Women s Rights Emerges within the Antislavery Movement, : A Brief History with Documents. Roger Daniels, Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life (second edition). A good dictionary, you will need it. Course Reading Schedule: For the first meeting please read the preface and pages 1 65 ( Republicanism ) in Takaki. I have included to questions on the syllabus and I will choose one for a 25 minute open book exam to given on our first meeting. September, 12 Takaki, Preface 65 September, 26 Takaki, Chapters 4 8 October, 10 Takaki, Finish October, 24 Oakes, Chapters 1 4 November, 7 Oakes, Finish November, 21 Sklar, All December, 5 Daniels, Chapters, 5 10 December, 12 Presentations.

2 Course Style The course will combine considerable discussion of the reading with lecture. There will be writing assignments due at nearly each meeting, most will be in class though there will be one paper. There will also be one presentation on any topic you choose from the period we are studying. Course Purpose The purpose of this class is to expose you to some of the major contours of US history during the nineteenth century while helping to improve your communication skills. I have tried to focus on some the major events and themes of the period: westward expansion and the political, economic, and cultural implications associated with it; slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction; immigration and industrialization and their impact on workers, farmers, and employers. We will not cover every issue in this class, but the intention is to put you in a place where you are well prepared to continue your studies of the United States and of the nineteenth century. Along the way, I hope you gain a broader understanding of how historical events or issues change over time while improving your skills at explaining historical change and evaluating and using primary and secondary evidence. In terms of communication skills, my primary intention is that you will be writing better paragraphs and essays at the end of the course. Appended to the the syllabus is a guide for writing strong paragraphs and essays. I strongly encourage you to study it closely. It is also my intention that you improve your oral communication skills (speaking and listening) and your critical reading skills. Assignments In Class Writing Each week except November 21 and December 12, you will write a minute open book essay on the week s reading. I will post 2 3 questions a week before the exam so that you can prepare for the assignment. On the day of the class I will choose one of the questions for the exam. The first exam will be on our first meeting and the questions are found below: Using evidence from all parts of the assignment consider the following: For the Founders, what were the principle characteristics of republican virtue and what represented the principle threats to republican virtue. Why did the founding generation believe republican virtue was necessary for the maintenance of a democracy and what did they imagine were the necessary to safeguards needed to protect virtue in the new republic?

3 The Paper You will write one 3 4 page paper based on the Sklar book. You will not be expected to use any other sources for this paper, but instead demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the evidence in the book. The paper will need to use evidence from the essay by Sklar and also the primary source evidence provided in Part Two. The paper will be due electronically on November, 25 (Happy Thanksgiving!). You can turn it in on Moodle or by e mail as an attachment using an older version of Word or RTF. You may choose to write on one of these two topics taken from page205 of Sklar: How did the antislavery movement challenge established notions of manhood and womanhood? Why did the emerging woman suffrage movement split on the issue of race? What effect did the split have on these two issues? Presentation You will give one presentation on a topic of your choosing of no less than five minutes and not more than seven. The presentations will be given on the last day of class. The topics of the presentation must be cleared with me no later than September 26 by way of e mail. We need to have a minimum of two consultations on the presentation in terms of sources and developing a thesis (consultations can be via e mail, phone appointment, or office hours). The presentation must use both primary and secondary sources and at least two of the secondary sources must come from scholarly journals. Internet sources are acceptable, but you cannot site or rely on reference materials (encyclopedias, historical dictionaries, Wikipedia, etc.). Reference materials are crucial, but only as a place to begin research. Attendance and Discussion Attendance is required for this class. One absence will result in a 2 point deduction in your final grade and two absences in a 6 point deduction. Three absences will result in a 15 point deduction in your final grade. Abscesses will also impact your attendance and discussion grade. Everyone will be expected to participate in each class meeting. Regular, high quality, participation will be rewarded with a bonus of up to 4 extra points for your final grade. These bonus points are only available to those who attend each meeting and make quality contributions to class discussions. Absences will result in a 1 point deduction of your attendance and discussion grade. Grading In class writing assignments 10 points each for 60 points, paper 20 points, presentation, 10 points, attendance and discussion, 10 points for 100 points total =4.0, 93 88=3.5, 87 83=3.0, 82 78=2.5, 77 72=2.0, 71 68=1.5, 76 62=1.0, 61 58=0.5, 57 0=0.0

4 Expectations for Written Work The papers and exams should be carefully written and proofread and use the following format: The Thesis Statement: In very short papers as we will have here, you will need a very short introduction in which the basic context for the essay is set. You will need a strong thesis statement at the end of the introduction. A thesis statement is the answer to the question, not a restatement of the question or a statement of what you intend to cover in the essay. For example, if the first paper topic were: What are the essential characteristics of a colonial state? A proper thesis would be: Colonial states operate in a way to divide the native inhabitants while exercising violence in a ruthless way in order to limit the chances of rebellion so that the state can continue to rob the native people of their resources. A very bad thesis would be: In this essay I will describe the essential characteristics of a colonial state. Note that in the strong thesis the question is answered quite specifically. The reader has no doubt as to the intention of the author. After you make your thesis statement, all subsequent words, sentences, paragraphs, ideas, and evidence will be used to support your thesis. The Topic Sentence (or Transitional Idea) Topic sentences, or transitional ideas, are very important. They serve as guideposts for the reader as she moves through your essay. That is why they are best understood as transitional ideas. A proper topic sentence does three things: First, they remind the reader what is in the paragraph. After reading the topic sentence everything that comes after it must relate to it. If the topic sentence is about how education in a colonial system works to prepare a select few native inhabitants to serve as functionaries within the colonial system then each sentence after that must relate to that sentence and nothing else. Issues relating to family and land belong in paragraphs relating to land and family. I will be looking for this in both your papers and in your shorter responses. Second, they remind the reader how the paragraph supports the thesis. Not only will a proper topic sentence tell the reader what to expect to see in the paragraph, they also help explain the larger argument by indicating why the sentence is needed to support the thesis. This is where the transitional idea part begins. We need to know about the educational system within a colonial state because creating educated elite among the native inhabitants helps to divide them.

5 Third, they reveal to the reader the logic of the essay. Like an algebraic proof, a fine history essay has an internal logic to it. In other words, the paragraphs fall in the particular order they do for a reason. After your introduction you might define terms, and then begin your analysis by using chronology as a guide for order. Historians take defining terms and chronology seriously. In an essay on colonialism or traditional society it is important to define terms clearly and with evidence very early on. Historians also believe it is important to explain why things happened in the order they did. Why do protests often begin nonviolently and eventually turn violent? Using chronology as a guide for paragraph order is almost never a bad idea in a history essay. When revising your initial draft of a response or a paper (revision is a big hint here) look for these things before turning in the final product. Analysis Following each topic sentence you will need a sentence of two of analysis. For historians, analysis is simply a sentence or two that takes the reader deeper into your idea. Ask yourself why the reader needs to know the idea you are proposing as a defense of your thesis and the answer, carefully crafted into a brilliant sentence, is analysis. The more times you ask and answer why the better. Evidence Nothing is more important than evidence for a history essay. Historians take seriously the presence of evidence and the quality of it. Your use of evidence must demonstrate both mastery of the reading material and work perfectly with the point raised in your paragraph. Your evidence needs to set out who is being quoted and in what context. It is almost never a good idea to start or end a paragraph with a quote. Analysis Following your evidence, it is always a good idea to ask yourself why you chose that particular piece of evidence to make your point. The answer to this why question, revised to cleverly fit into the paragraph, is your analysis. The more times you ask and answer why the better. You are now ready to start another paragraph. A good paragraph is typically about half a page. A typical two to four page paper will be about four to eight paragraphs. To get an idea of an acceptable paragraph in terms of the above, look at the sample paragraphs in the indented sections of the discussion section above.