Reading for this essay:

1. Red, White and Black – Gary B. Nash, Ch. 11 “The Tricolored American Revolution”
2. “Abigail Adams, John Adams, and Mercy Otis Warren Discuss ‘Remembering the Ladies,’ 1776” (use the link above)

Paper Prompts:

Note: Focus your paper on answering one of the prompts. Do not answer all of the prompts.

1) Many people have emphasized the importance of the American Revolution for the progress of humankind towards equality and democracy. Does the significance of the American Revolution change when the perspective shifts to include the experiences of women, African Americans, and Native Americans? Why or why not?

2) What overall impacts did the colonists’ victory in the American Revolution have on Native Americans?

3) What impact did the American Revolution have on enslaved peoples? And what strategies for liberation and equality were available to African American leaders after the American Revolution? Make sure to compare Prince Hall, Jupiter Hammons, and Richard Allen when answering this question.

Paper Guidelines

1) Each paper must be typed and 750-1000 words.

2) Use appropriate spelling, grammar and punctuation. Make sure to proofread your essay for clarity and style. Give yourself time to edit and to make revisions because strong historical writing requires revision! One thing you might want to try is to read the paper out loud to yourself because sometimes it’s easier to hear when sentences or phrases don’t sound right than to see it while reading.

3) Each short paper must have a thesis. Include the thesis in the first paragraph of the essay. See the “Thesis Tip Sheet” at the top of this assignment for more help with constructing a solid history thesis.

4) Underline your thesis statement in this essay.

5) Use specific evidence or examples from the assigned reading to support your thesis.

6) Rather than only quoting from the readings, try to paraphrase information to support your thesis. However, when you use quotes, use SHORT quotes from the reading to support your thesis. Avoid block quotes of more than 2 lines.

7) Whether you quote or paraphrase information from the assigned reading, to get a passing grade, the midterm paper MUST include citations. You can use MLA or Chicago Style citations in this class.

8) Here is some basic info about MLA style in-text citations:

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author’s last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text. The author’s name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

Example 1: Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (263).

Example 2: Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth 263).

Example 3: Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth.

For more info on MLA citations, see: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/ (Links to an external site.)