HIST 136 Final Paper- 100 points
This paper is to be typed, double spaced, and needs to be proof read in advance of your submission. Cite any necessary sources including your textbook (use parenthetical citations). Your paper should be at least five pages in length and should answer all of the following instructions below. The paper is due in my office 4114 on Tuesday by noon– no later (I will be in my office from 10-12 AM, try to come early if possible). You must give the paper to me personally or schedule an appointment for drop off before this time if you are unable to do so. If it is late it will be docked 15 points each day. If received later than Friday it will be a zero.

Your final paper is a culmination paper; it will tie together some of the major ideas and themes of our class. Since the overarching theme from Foner’s book Give Me Liberty! is FREEDOM, it will be the topic of your paper.
You should have a thesis for your paper and it should find application in the criteria that you will be discussing below. The thesis should attempt to make some argument or offer some perspective on what freedom is. Your thesis should be a response to the question:  What has freedom meant or come to mean in U.S. history? The following requirements for your paper are:

A.Discuss at least three historical eras in US history prior to Reconstruction. Be sure to assess: the meaning of freedom in that era, specifically to what group of people (or person) that you are referring to, to date and locate this era (years, place, etc), and to include any references from the text or class that might be useful in discussing this era.

B.Change over time- Consider how the understanding of freedom for these groups of people either changed or stayed the same. Did their understanding of freedom change as a result of historical change, circumstance, economics forces, political change, social reform, or war? Consider any that might apply.

C.Research– What materials can you find to support some of your ideas about the shifting notions about freedom? Find articles and texts that may be useful. Please see our school librarian if you need help with this process.

D.Finally- What does freedom mean to you personally in 2013? What does it mean in your personal vision of your life and what does it mean to America? Is the greater world (outside of America) in greater need of freedom? Explain.

Sample topics for discussion in answering part A include:
-Native American communities
-Spanish colonization
-Colonial America
-Puritans
-Great Awakening
-Revolutionary War- Patriots, Sons of Liberty
-Founding Fathers
-Constitution
-Early presidents
-Hamilton, Jefferson, Locke, or philosophers
-Trail of Tears
-Slavery, slave narratives, laws dealing with slavery, Dred Scott case, etc
-Manifest Destiny
-Reforming communities, Utopia
-Civil War, Confederacy, Emancipation Proclamation, 13th Amendment