Assignment
This assignment has several documents for you to read and view in order to answer the four required questions. Please follow any formatting guidelines and minimum length requirements as set by your professor. Please take your time to analyze these documents and submit thoughtful arguments supported by the evidence these documents provide. Documents:
1. "Virginian Luxuries" by unknown artist (ca. 1800)
2. Alexis de Tocqueville Describes the Three Races in the United States (1835)
3. Declaration of Sentiments (1848)
4. "The Discord" by F. Heppenheimer (1855)
5. Abraham Lincoln's speech in Peoria, Illinois (October 16, 1854)
6. Abraham Lincoln's Fourth Debate with Stephen Douglas (September 18, 1858)
7. The Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th)
Based upon your reading of these selected primary documents and incorporating such secondary sources as your textbook and lecture notes, I would like you to answer the following 4 Questions. Please provide specific examples from these documents that support your arguments.
1) What relationships of power are featured in "Virginian Luxuries" (Document 1)? How are unequal power relationships reflected in Toqueville's distinctions between the three races (Document 2)? What future does Toqueville predict for these groups of people and why? Based upon your own knowledge, how accurate do you believe Toqueville's observations and predictions were?
2) What relationships of power are featured in "The Discord" (Document 4)? How does the Declaration of Sentiments (Document 3) reveal the nature of gender relationships in nineteenth century America? Based upon your knowledge of this time period, do you agree with these sentiments, why or why not?
3) What are Abraham Lincoln's views on the institution of slavery and notion of racial equality (Documents 5 and 6)? Because these speeches were made on the "campaign trail," how much do you believe these statements reflect Lincoln's real thoughts or do you believe he is "playing politics?"
4) Based upon your knowledge of the Civil War and reading of the Reconstruction Amendments (Document 7), in what specific ways were the questions and crises of liberty and unequal power relationships contained in these various documents resolved or exacerbated by the 1870s?