12 point left justified double spaced with 1 inch margins. Minimum 5 sources 3 primary and 2 secondary. I will provide some great sources in case you want to use those. I will also provide a copy of my thesis and outline. Additional information directly from the professor: ”
Your response should address the lived experiences of Americans during this era, including diverse demographic groups such as African Americans, Mexican Americans, American Indians, and women” My Thesis:
America changed in many ways following the end of the Civil War. But was it truly a new, modern society? To answer the question, one must understand what makes a society modern. When thinking of a modern society, a few characteristics immediately come to mind: industrialization, a means of connecting the country, civil rights, and a society that others look toward as an example. With this in mind, I contend that the United States was not yet a fully modern society. However, the United States was taking important steps following the Civil War and had become much more modern by the turn of the century than before the Civil War. Overall, this impacted lives in numerous ways during this age. This more modern society allowed for more freedoms and protections, but also bred animosity during Reconstruction.
Supporting Evidence and Sources:
Supporting Evidence 1: Civil Rights
Congress was now granted the right to protect individual rights as opposed to it being left up to the state. 3 amendments were passed in the same vein as the CRA of 1866. These amendments abolished slavery, made all African Americans citizens, and gave them the right to vote. This was a huge stepping stone as far as bringing the US into a more modern society.
Supporting Evidence 2: Industrialization
Following the Civil War, Industrialization boomed throughout the entire country. There were mills, plants, and railroads springing up everywhere even in the Southern US mainly due to the invention of the cotton gin in 1974. This led to further industrialization as people moved to larger cities and manufacturing hubs looking for gainful employment. On top of this, workers and unions had begun to arise to gain better working conditions.
From U.S. Senate, Testimony of Samuel Gompers, August 1883, Report of the Committee of the
Senate upon the Relations between Labor and Capital (Washington, D.C., 1885), 1:365–70.
Supporting Evidence 3: Transcontinental Railroad
The transcontinental railroad led the US to become significantly more modern because it truly connected the entire country for the first time. What was normally a 4-month trek now became a 3.5-day ride on the newly built railroad.
Bowles, Samuel. Our New West. Hartford, CT, Hartford Publishing Co., 1869.
Supporting Evidence 4: Ellis Island and the wave of immigration
I use Ellis Island as proof that the US was becoming a significantly more modern society as time passed because it showed that our reputation had begun to spread around the world. Instead of a divided country, we had now become the land of opportunity for more than 10 million immigrants from 1882 to 1900. The included excerpt shows a young man from Norway coming to the US because of the great fortune that it had brought to others he knew and he believed it to be his best bet to escape poverty and war.
Ueland, A. (1929) Recollections of an Immigrant. New York, Minton, Balch & Company. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/29001450/.
Supporting Evidence 5: Reconstruction
Despite all of the good things that happened during reconstruction such as the earlier listed changes toward modernity, there were also many bad things as well. Reconstruction did lead to more governmental responsibility toward formerly enslaved people, but it also gave rise to the KKK. The KKK was seen as the only way to protect their way of living in some cases as they worried about “carpetbaggers” and recently freed slaves.
pp. 437–38.]
pp. 437–38.]