Learning objectives:
Develop historical thinking skills. Interpret sources. Strengthen organization and communication skills.
Assignment Directions: Complete the prompts below based on the assigned lesson and the primary source you picked from the available sources. For each of the 4 prompts, write at least 1 paragraph. (Do not use outside sources.)
1) Provide a summary of the historical context (background) that is relevant to the source you picked. Use the information provided in the lesson and the information about the source to craft your summary. Be sure to use your own words. (Note that rearranging the order of words or changing a word here or there does not make a sentence one’s own. See Avoiding Plagiarism for more detail.)
2) Who wrote the source, when, where, and why?
3) Analyze the source. What did the author say? How does the historical context help you to critique or better understand what the source is saying? Consider the source’s perspective.
4) Draw conclusions: What information can we learn by looking at the primary source within historical context?
(Keep in mind that we are only using one primary source – one piece of a much larger puzzle – so keep the conclusions limited to what we can learn from analyzing the source within context.)
Sources to choose from:
Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery…in response to the Missouri Compromise: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=272
James Monroe on Slave Trade: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm? smtID=3&psid=202
John Ross to President Martin Van Buren on Trail of Tears: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=240
Cherokee Petition protesting removal: https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/manifest-destiny/cherokee-petition-protesting-removal1836/
GELO Assignment
Prigg v. Pennsylvania, on North’s liberty laws versus federal Fugitive Slave law: http://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-sectional-crisis/prigg-v-pennsylvania-1842/
South Carolina’s Declaration of Secession, excerpts: http://www.americanyawp.com/reader/thesectional-crisis/south-carolina-declaration-of-secession-1860/
