us history essay

Choose ONE of the two options below.

Option 1

Using information from this week's lesson and assigned readings, write a two-page, 12-font single-spaced essay addressing the following question:

Discuss some of the short-term successes of Reconstruction and its long-term failures for African Americans.

(Note: the successes were during the Congressional Reconstruction period, and you can look at the failures in the last years of Reconstruction and the Jim Crow period. You don't need to go beyond the 1920s since this is the period where our current lesson ends.)

If you consult external sources, you need to provide a reference at the end of the paper and citation within the body of the paper.

See the scoring rubric attached to this assignment on how it will be graded.

In addition to the videos in this week's lesson and the assigned pages in the American Yawp, you can also use information from the following article: Reconstruction

Option 2

Choose six terms from the following list of terms from this week's lesson. Write five well-developed sentences per term. Include everything you consider important about this term in your own words and explain its historical significance (or why it is worth studying). You should use information only from the video lessons and the American Yawp online textbook. Do not copy anything from the Internet.

In addition to the videos in this week's lesson and the assigned pages in the American Yawp, you can also use information from the following article: Reconstruction

The entire paper should be approximately two 12-font, single-spaced pages.

Choose six from:

Lincon's 10 Percent Plan

Radical Republicans Plan for Reconstruction

Presidential Reconstruction (Andrew Johnson's actions while Congress was out of session)

Black Codes

The Fourteenth Amendment

The origin of the KKK

Southern Redeemers

Compromise of 1877

Sharecropping

Jim Crow segregation

Plessy vs Ferguson

Disenfranchisement (as discussed in this week's lesson)

Lynching

Ida B. Wells

Booker T. Washington

W.E.B. Du Bois

NAACP

"The Birth of A Nation"

The Great Migration

Each term is worth a maximum of 8 points. Six terms X 8=48 points. (Everyone will earn 2 points for attempting the assignment). You can earn a maximum of 50 points.

Grading rubric for each term

7-8 points

You have written at least five well-developed sentences.

No key information is missing from the definition.

The term's historical significance is explained.

There are very few grammatical errors.

5-6 points

You have written five sentences, but some of them are quite short and missing information.

Important information is missing from the definition.

Imprecise definition.

No explanation of the term's historical significance is included.

There are obvious grammatical errors.

Under 5 points

You have written fewer than five sentences.

Your definition has inaccurate information.

Minimal effort is made to define the term.

Type your assignment in your text-editing program, save it on your computer, and upload your file. I will accept the following file formats: .doc, docx, .pdf