Students will demonstrate the ability to: Analyze historical facts and interpret

Students will demonstrate the ability to:
Analyze historical facts and interpretations
Analyze and compare political, geographic, economic, social, cultural, religious, and intellectual institutions, structures, and processes across a range of historical periods and cultures
Recognize and articulate the diversity of human experience across a range of historical periods and the complexities of a global culture and society
Draw on historical perspective to evaluate contemporary problems/issues
Analyze the contributions of past cultures/societies to the contemporary world
Skills
The purpose of this assignment is to help you practice the following skills that are essential for your success in this course, in college, in the field of History, and in your professional life beyond college:
Analyzing and synthesizing primary documents
Comparing and contrasting experiences and perspectives
Thinking critically about written information
Knowledge
This assignment will also help you to become familiar with the following important content in this discipline:
The experiences and perspectives of African American soldiers serving in the Union Army during the Civil War
The experiences and perspectives of African American soldiers forced to serve in the Confederate Army during the Civil War
The experiences and perspectives of African Americans enslaved in the South during the Civil War
The experiences and perspectives of African Americans tasting freedom for the first time as the Civil War came to an end.
Task
Read the excerpts from the letters, WPA project interviews, and the Hughes biography found in Content under American Voices as AV 3. Complete and submit a ten-paragraph written assignment based on this content (and this content alone) addressing each of the four topics below and following the instructions and format for each topic:
Compare and contrast the two letters sent home from the war by Lewis Douglass and Spotswood Rice:
What was the context of each letter? (Paragraph one)
What are the main purposes of each letter? Identify two important messages that each writer wished to impart to his reader. (Douglass – Paragraph two; Rice – Paragraph three)
Compare and contrast the Civil War military service of Martin Jackson and Bill Simms:
Identify one way in which the military service of Jackson and Simms was the same and one way in which it was different. (Paragraph four)
In what way did each of the two men reveal where his own sympathies rested in this war? (Paragraph five)
Compare and contrast the reactions of Mary Anderson, Louis Hughes, and their plantation masters to the Civil War and its outcome. Specifically:
How did Anderson’s “marster” and “missus” react to the approach and imminent arrival of the Union troops and how did they break the news to their slaves? (Paragraph six)
How did Hughes’ “Boss,” Master Jack, prepare for the arrival of the Yankees? What did Hughes learn about the courage of the “Boss” when time came for him to enlist in the service of the cause and, later, when he learned that the Union troops had arrived on his plantation? (Paragraph seven)
How did Mary and her peers react to the arrival of the Union soldiers on their plantation? Describe the celebration that ensued. (Paragraph eight)
What did Louis and Uncle George do when Union troops appeared in the vicinity of their plantation and why did they risk their lives to return to the plantation? What was significant about the date they reentered Memphis? Describe the scene they became a part of there? (Paragraph nine)
What is your most important takeaway from these document excerpts and what makes these 19th century accounts relevant today?
Identify a relevant current issue in the United States and explain how the position a 21st century American takes on this issue could be informed by the history revealed in this set of primary documents. (Paragraph ten)
Criteria for Success
A submission that follows the instructions provided in the Task above will contain ten paragraphs. No introductory or closing paragraph is required.
The name of the assignment, Analyze, Synthesize, and Compare and Contrast: African Americans and the Civil War, should appear at the top of the submission.
This assignment is worth up to 100 points. Each of the ten paragraphs is worth up to 10 points. Each paragraph will be scored by content based on the specific questions asked for each – see the rubric for point values. Each paragraph should be concise but complete. Make sure you have addressed the questions as they were asked. Your submission should also be written in complete sentences, be grammatically correct, and contain no spelling errors. Points will be deducted for multiple misspellings, incomplete sentences, and grammatical errors.
One or two direct quotes from each document excerpt are permissible but should be brief. Do not include more than one sentence, or partial sentence, in a quote. When you do choose to use a direct quote, you should identify the source by name within the paragraph. Examples:
Jackson described himself as an “official lugger-in of men that got wounded” and compared his job to that of a Red Cross worker.
Boss declared that he could “whip a half dozen Yankees with my pocket knife.”
“Such a day I don’t believe Memphis will ever see again,” concluded Hughes.