major assignment

SYLLABUS

ADDENDUM 3: MAJOR ESSAY REQUIREMENTS

Details:

-Must be at least 1500 words in length, typed, and submitted to the ‘Major Essay Assignment’

than 11:59PM on

Monday,

June 27 and is worth 25% of your total grade for this course.

Note: Plagiarism in any form will result in an automatic ‘F’ for this assignment

Description:

-You will choose from one of the four Major Essay options presented below. As was the case

with the Primary

Source Assignment, each essay option corresponds directly to one of the Four Units covered in

this course. Again, the Instructor advises students to follow up on their Primary Source

Assignment by choosing the Essay Option they have become most familiar and confident with.

-Once you have settled on an option, you must do some actual RESEARCH based on the

Sources provided by the Instructor.

The student’s hypothesis, or ‘main idea’, should be a detailed statement, or several statements,

pertaining directly to the questions presented by the option they have chosen;

-You MAY ONLY USE the assigned

TEXTBOOK (as a SECONDARY SOURCE) and/or make reference to primary sources featured

there in NO OUTSIDE SOURCES ALLOWED for the MAJOR ESSAY ASSIGNMENT

-Remember that you will be graded for STRUCTURE and REFERENCING as much so as ‘how’

you write. To ensure that you get maximum points, be sure to have a clear Introduction, Main

Body, and Conclusion...as well as appropriately referencing page numbers of the assigned

textbook within the Main Body and/or primary sources featured in the textbook

.

Options:

*UNIT 1 Option:

What was the ‘Transatlantic Slave Trade’? How did it begin and develop? Be sure to describe

the key players and economic situations that led to its development as well as the human costs

in relation to the experience of Africans.

*UNIT 2 Option:

What factors during the colonial period led to American colonists declaring independence from

the British Empire? Be sure to discuss the economic, political, and cultural aspects of the

American Revolution.

*UNIT 3 Option:

What is the United States Constitution and how did it come about as a binding legal document?

What were the differences amongst the ‘Founding Fathers’ in developing the federal system of

the United States?

What role did the addition of a ‘Bill of Rights’ play in closing the deal?

*UNIT 4 Option:

Compare and contrast the ‘North’ and the ‘South’ in economic, cultural, and political terms in the

Build up to the American Civil War. What issues led to states seceding from the Union and

creating the Confederate States of America? What role did the issue of slavery play before and

during the Civil War?