You will find under the LESSONS tab in your course in a document under Unit One entitled “Young Women Homesteaders and the Promise of the West.” This features excerpts from the diaries of women who moved west and tried to farm the land—homestead. Write in Microsoft Word a short paper in which you explain what you think about the experiences of these women? What do you think about their hardships and the advantages they had through the experience? Address two other aspects of the accounts: To what extent were the women engaged in the broader society of which they were apart? Were there one or two more involved than the others? If society expected men, generally, to assume personal responsibility for earning a living in the market place, to what extent did the Homestead Act enable women to redefine and challenge traditional expectations about personal responsibility, assert themselves in new ways, and take responsibility for themselves? Most importantly, what do you think about their experiences? Could you see yourself in their shoes, risking everything to go west and contending with the same environment that they confronted? What have you learned about the American past from their experiences? I want to see your reactions, thoughts, and analysis. Note: With Respect to your short written analysis: 1. These are not collaborative projects. Each student’s work must be his or her own work. I enforce the college’s code of academic dishonesty to the letter. 2. You will type your name on the upper, right-hand corner. . The paper will be double-spaced. 4. Any kind of block style is unacceptable. You will indent each paragraph FIVE spaces. Failure to indent properly paragraphs will result in an automatic ten-point deduction in your grade. 5. Save the File in Microsoft Word as a .docx and name the file by your last name.
