History 1301 Essay Assessment Assignment
General Information and Instructions:
The purpose of this assignment is to use different historical methods you have learned about during this course to complete a historical research project. Your research project should start with your developing a historical question, that you then research, and then attempt to answer using both primary and secondary sources to
Research Option #1: History Turning Points
General Overview: Select an event, incident, a legislative action, or related marked historical moment in the years up until the American Civil War (Pre-Columbian Era to 1865), that marks an important transition in American History. This historical event can lead to a social, economic, or political transition that shaped the country’s history. Additionally, you will conclude this research project with a supposition of how history might
have been shaped had this event never occurred or of another possible outcome could have been possible.
Examples: The effect of the Salem Witchcraft Trials on the colonial religious goals of Massachusetts; The post-French & Indian War colonial taxation policies of the British government; The failure of the indentured servitude system to provide an ample labor source in the pre-Revolutionary American South; The passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act & its relationship the impending crisis that becomes the American Civil War.
Research Objectives & Questions to be Discussed in Your Essay: (Incorporate these questions in the writing of your essay.)
- Why did you select this event?
- What were both the short- and long-term effects of this historical event?
- Who all were impacted/affected by this historical event?
- How was history changed by this event?
- If you were to imagine a different outcome or reaction to your event, what do you suppose might have been a different outcome in the short- and long-term?
