The Reflective Essay will present a historical dilemma that comprises ethical challenge regarding the effect of a historical, social, political, economic, cultural, or global force on the period appropriate for History 1301. The student must use both Primary (at least 1) and Secondary (at least 3) resources to collect evidence of adequate source information to analyze, evaluate, synthesize and communicate a reflective response to the historical dilemma presented that demonstrates social and personal responsibility. Any plagiarized assignment will result in an unconditional "F" in the course. Please cite all sources you use except lecture notes. This assignment is worth 20% of your final grade! Your essay must be submitted in Blackboard. Required length: 3 pages, double spaced, font size: 12. Deadline: The essay must be submitted by 11:55pm on Monday, November 30th. No late submissions will be accepted! A guide to writing essays for history is available in the Course Materials folder in Blackboard. Please be sure to answer both of the following questions in your essay: This semester we examine different interpretations of Manifest Destiny. Which of those interpretations do you find most convincing and why? If none, is there another interpretation that you would like to offer? Would you argue that Manifest Destiny should be seen as a positive or negative force in American history? A major legacy of the conquest of the American West is the displacement of Native American nations. The map below shows Indian reservations in the United States: https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=native+american+reservations+map&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-003 Poverty rates at Indian reservations are staggering: http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1411 Do you think that Indian reservations should continue to exist in the twenty-first century? Or can you think of an alternative solution that would allow Native Americans to improve their living standards, while allowing them to retain their identity? Primary sources: a separate file with documents and definitions of Manifest Destiny will be attached . As far as secondary sources go, you should use your lecture notes, slides, the textbook, the sources linked above, and the articles below: http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/prelude/md_manifest_destiny.html http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/prelude/md_manifest_destiny2.html http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/prelude/md_an_ideal_or_a_justification.html No additional research is required/recommended. On the contrary, a good essay will incorporate the above sources only, both primary and secondary. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. Primary Sources Primary Sources Here is an excerpt from the article written by John L. O'Sullivan for the Democratic Review in July 1845 in which the phrase 'manifest destiny' was used for the first time: "It is wholly untrue, and unjust to ourselves, the pretence that the Annexation has been a measure of spoliation, unrightful and unrighteous--of military conquest under forms of peace and law--of territorial aggrandizement at the expense of justice, and justice due by a double sanctity to the weak. If Texas became peopled with an American population, it was by no contrivance of our government, but on the express invitation of that of Mexico herself; accompanied with such guaranties of State independence, and the maintenance of a federal system analogous to our own, as constituted a compact fully justifying the strongest measures of redress on the part of those afterwards deceived in this guaranty, and sought to be enslaved under the yoke imposed by its violation. She was released, rightfully and absolutely released, from all Mexican allegiance, or duty of cohesion to the Mexican political body, by the acts and fault of Mexico herself, and Mexico alone. There never was a clearer case. . . Nor is there any just foundation for the charge that Annexation is a great pro-slavery measure--calculated to increase and perpetuate that institution. Slavery had nothing to do with it. The far-reaching, the boundless future, will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High, the Sacred, and the True. And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us." Here are other primary sources you might consider and use in your essays: Caleb Cushing, a U.S. congressman from Massachusetts, justified expansion in the following way: "It happens that men, nations, races, may, must, will perish before us. That is inevitable. There can be no change for the better save at the expense of that which is. Out of decay springs fresh life." The following excerpt comes from a speech given by President James Polk: "The title of numerous Indian tribes to vast tracts of country has been extinguished. New states have been admitted into the Union, new Territories have been created and our jurisdiction and laws extended over them. It is confidently believed that our system may be safely extended to the utmost bounds of our territorial limits, and that as it shall be extended the bonds of our Union, so far from being weakened, will become stronger." Here is how the Mexican government responded to the Texan's accusations of violating their rights. This excerpt comes from the speech given by Mexico's Secretary of War, Jose Maria Tornel: "The charges of oppression and tyranny brought against our military officers are false and unfounded. Far from this, our soldiers have, on the contrary, been exposed to the same libelous charges as all our public officers. They have been disarmed and driven from their posts while holding them in the discharge of their duties. Every attempt made to enforce the law has been pointed out by the colonists as an attack, while the repression of crime has been called an insult and classed as an attempt upon individual liberties in their newly invented dictionary." While many Americans supported expansion, even if that meant war with Mexico, some did not, including the American painter George Caitlin, who said the following: "Manifest Destiny became an unrequited account of sin and injustice and U.S. citizens became cruel dispossessors." Manifest Destiny: Interpretations Feel free to incorporate/use any of these interpretations/definitions of manifest destiny below. "It meant expansion, prearranged by Heaven, over an area not clearly defined." (Frederick Merk. Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History." New York: Vintage Books, 1966. "Jacksonian Americans began to see and fulfill what they believed to be their destiny- to occupy all North American lands east and west of the Mississippi and Missouri valleys. During the 1830s and 1840s the members of Jefferson's Empire of Liberty sparked into a new flame called manifest destiny." (Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen. A Patriot's History of the United States: From Colombus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror." New York: Sentinel, 2004. "It was only a further twist on the many ironies of Western history that the mainstream patriotism of the nineteenth century had become the rallying point for the latest variety of Western outlaw." (Patricia Nelson Limerick. The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West." New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1987.) "Fundamental to the feelings of national superiority generated by romantic nationalism was the conviction that American territorial expansion was inevitable, that the nation's providential destiny- its Manifest Destiny- decreed an extension of the ideals of its founding charter throughout the entire continent." (Robert W. Johannsen. "Introduction." In Manifest Destiny and Empire: American Antebellum Expansionism. Sam W. Haynes and Christopher Morris, eds. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997.) "No other sovereign entity ever grew so large so fast to become so rich and so strong." (Richard Kluger. Seizing Destiny: How America Grew from Sea to Shining Sea." New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.) "Manifest Destiny as an expression of White superiority is but one explanation for what became a clear rise of anti-Mexican sentiments in the 1850s." (Ricardo Romo. "Mexican Americans: Their Civic and Political Incorporation." In Origins and Destinies: Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in America. Silvia Pedraza and Ruben G. Rumbaut, eds. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1996.) Guide to Essay Writing for History Essay Writing for History When given an essay assignment, students invariably have two questions: What kind of essay do you want me to write? and What kinds of information and organization constitute an "A" essay? You will find that my essay questions tend to be broad and general, covering large themes and/or long periods of time. This is because what we really want our students to get out of our classes is "the Big Picture" - a good grasp of the main themes that characterize the period we have been covering. So the next question that we are asked is How can I expect to cover these broad-based themes adequately in such a short paper? The answer lies in the difference between regurgitation and thoughtful synthesis. Regurgitation. This is what we DON'T want from you. Sometimes students think that if they spew forth everything in the lectures and books this will automatically constitute an "A" essay. But the types of topic questions we assign are so broad that it will be physically impossible for you to spew/regurgitate in a way that covers the whole subject adequately in the allotted length. If you choose this approach, you will probably feel that there just was not enough space/time to say everything that you needed to say. Thoughtful Synthesis. This is what we DO want from you. If you adopt this approach, then you will have no problem writing an "A" essay in the length/time allotted. The basic idea is to sit back and take a good look at the essay question. Then ask yourself: Can I outline the main themes? Could I organize everything we have studied about this topic into a single outline or framework? How would I do it? This approach allows you to see the most important currents/concepts. You are being asked to stand back from all the details and sift out those ideas, turning-points, trends, or other characteristics that really stand out as being the most crucial. Once you have decided on a few of these, you have a basic skeleton or structure that allows you to organize your essay. At this point it is time to begin filling in some details. But now you have freed yourself from the need to spew back to me vast and indiscriminate streams of facts. With your major currents guiding you, you are in the position of selecting those specific details and examples which will best allow you to illustrate your central themes. We truly don't expect you to give all the details. What we want is a sense that you have decided for yourself which currents and themes are the most important; and that you can illustrate and describe these themes with carefully chosen examples and appropriate evidence. In other words, we want you to be comprehensive, but this does not mean that you must slavishly reproduce in your essay every single little fact, date and name for the whole broad topic. What we do want is a sense that you have thought about the period as a whole, and tried to decide what is important and what is less important. Dates (mostly general time frames), names, and facts are of course crucial to your essay. Without these things your argument will be nothing but a bunch of vague generalizations. But they should be carefully selected dates, names, and facts B concrete evidence which supports your judgments about what matters in history. It is this complementary relation between the abstract and the concrete, the general and the specific, which characterizes an excellent essay. The essay is carefully structured, highlighting the most central trends while providing concrete examples. An "A" essay also makes full use of all class materials for examples. In other words, this kind of essay starts with the "Big Picture," but it also fills in the appropriate names, dates, and facts to make that picture clear and concrete. Of course, students also ask how we assign grades to these essays. A "B" essay will fully answer the "big picture" of the question and give good examples to support the points that are made. It will also make reference to the non-text readings for the class (where appropriate). So what would keep this sort of essay from being an "A" essay? Organization, grammar, style (repetitive wording, sentence structure, short and choppy paragraphs, word choice, etc.). While a "B" essay might mention a reading in passing or with a vague reference, an "A" essay would give specific examples from the readings (showing a deeper understanding). And, of course, the logic used to support the argument is important. You have to convince me of your argument – the sharper the argument, the higher the grade. Sloppy arguments make for lower grades. A "C" essay would have the big picture concept without the supporting details, or only the supporting details with no discussion of the big picture. Any essay which does not bring in some material from the non-text readings (where applicable) will make no higher than a "C" on the essay. Bottom Line: We expect you to write an organized and coherent college level critical essay with complete sentences and paragraphs. A basic college essay consists of: 1. the introduction with thesis statement (which is the road map for what comes next) 2. the body of the paper (which is where you lay out your arguments, following the road map in the order you provided in the thesis statement with at least one paragraph per item in your thesis statement) 3. the conclusion where you sum up the key points. In other words, tell us what you are going to tell us, tell us, and then tell us what you told us. Rule of thumb, we have never seen an essay answered completely in less than four paragraphs, most have five, six, or more.