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| | Often there are maps to read on history exams, and here is a tip for them: before the Civil War there was no West Virginia. If you see West Virginia on a map, then it was after the Civil War started. | | Often there are maps to read on history exams, and here is a tip for them: before the Civil War there was no West Virginia. If you see West Virginia on a map, then it was after the Civil War started. |
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| | '''Above all, understand a question before trying to answer it!''' | | '''Above all, understand a question before trying to answer it!''' |
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| | Sometimes adults still use that motivation of putting off meals until work is finished. There are also other effective motivational techniques. Take something you enjoy, such as watching a sports game, and deprive yourself of it until you finish your work first. You will enjoy the game better that way. Set goals, and then strive to achieve them. | | Sometimes adults still use that motivation of putting off meals until work is finished. There are also other effective motivational techniques. Take something you enjoy, such as watching a sports game, and deprive yourself of it until you finish your work first. You will enjoy the game better that way. Set goals, and then strive to achieve them. |
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| | + | == A Few Things We Overlooked == |
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| | + | An historical fact we overlooked is how American Indians survived. In the northeast, they relied more on farming and foraging (searching widely) for food. In the Great Plains of the Midwest (west of the Mississippi) and further west, the American Indians relied more on hunting, particularly bison which almost went extinct before conservation efforts increased their numbers again. |
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| | + | We talked about the Puritans who settled in New England, and the Quakers who settled throughout the colonies but mostly further south in the colonies of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Both religions were Christian, but they were as different as day and night. The Puritans believed that humanity was fundamentally sinful, and that "predestination" saved only a pre-selected few. Quakers, who were pacifists (refusing to participate in any war), believed that every person is fundamentally good with an inner light from God. Quakers rejected predestination. |
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| | + | During the American Revolution, which the Quakers refused to support, payments to colonial soldiers stopped after a while. Then here was a "Newburgh Conspiracy" which consisted of a plot among officers of the Continental Army (the colonial Patriots fighting in the Revolutionary War) to hold a military coup and establish martial law in order to obtain back pay that was owed to them by Congress for their military service. The plot came to a climax when they angrily met on March 15, 1783, and were surprised by an unexpected appearance by George Washington. He gave a short speech, but the officers were still still angry, and lacking in the respect that they usually gave to their esteemed leader. Washington then pulled a letter from his pocket from a member of the Second Continental Congress. But Washington was unable to read the letter without his reading glasses, and in a miraculous moment of powerful emotion, he declared, "Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country." Many of the officers were suddenly moved to tears in the realization that Washington, like themselves, had sacrificed much for the country. Washington then read the letter from Congress, and the officers subsequently abided by Congress's own timetable for paying them. Washington's speech is known as the Newburgh Address. |
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| | + | The Newburgh Conspiracy is a good story. In addition to enjoying a story in history, also recognize its '''historical significance'''. Why is this particular story important in the history in our nation? Because this event confirmed civilian authority over the military. Congress, a civilian authority, decides if and when to pay the soldiers. The soldiers have the guns, but they must submit to the civilian authority of Congress. |
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| | + | The Founding Fathers were influenced by many ideas from Europe in creating the documents at the foundation of the creation of the United States. John Locke's philosophical ''Two Treatises of Government'' influenced them, particularly with the notion that government is a social contract between the people and those who govern. Under Locke's theory, we have God-given rights of life, liberty, and property which should not be taken away from us. European ideas of the Enlightenment also influenced the Founding Fathers, as did the British Whig political philosophy (not to be confused with the later Whig Party in the United States). But European notions of disbelief in God, called skepticism, did not have any influence on the Founding Fathers, all of whom believed in God. |
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| | + | It was mostly white men who owned property who elected the first Congress and the Electoral College which chose Washington as the first president. Over the early 1800s the limitation that only those who owned property could vote was gradually eliminated, such that nearly all white men could vote, and after the Civil War all black men could vote, too. Some, but not all, women could vote until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920 which gave suffrage (the right to vote) to women. |
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| | + | We learned about the Great Awakening around 1730-1740, but there was also a Second Great Awakening nearly a century later, from 1800-1840. It focused on reaching out to people who were not attending church, and to initiate social reforms such as the abolitionist movement to prohibit slavery. An alternative to the abolitionist movement was the American Colonization Society, which was formed in 1817 to send free African Americans to west Africa, where a colony was established in 1822. That colony later became the nation of Liberia, but only about 13,000 African Americans settled there. |
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| | == Key Terms Through Reconstruction == | | == Key Terms Through Reconstruction == |
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| | One approach to improving your knowledge of these key terms is to type or write out short descriptions of each one. There are only 321 terms. If you took 2 minutes for each one that you did not know, then it would take you only 1 hour to complete 30. In one day you could cover nearly the entire list, and you would not likely forget them for a long, long time. Typing or writing out the meaning of something in one's own words has the effect of really burning it into one's memory. I still recall lines from Shakespeare that I wrote out by hand when I was in the eighth grade! You can use the term list description handout to help you. | | One approach to improving your knowledge of these key terms is to type or write out short descriptions of each one. There are only 321 terms. If you took 2 minutes for each one that you did not know, then it would take you only 1 hour to complete 30. In one day you could cover nearly the entire list, and you would not likely forget them for a long, long time. Typing or writing out the meaning of something in one's own words has the effect of really burning it into one's memory. I still recall lines from Shakespeare that I wrote out by hand when I was in the eighth grade! You can use the term list description handout to help you. |
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| − | Our first through sixth Lectures should have covered all of of the following terms, except the Lectures did overlook the Newburgh Conspiracy (or Address). That was a plot among officers of the Continental Army (the colonial Patriots fighting in the Revolutionary War) to hold a military coup and establish martial law in order to obtain back pay that was owed to them by Congress for their military service. The plot came to a climax when they angrily met on March 15, 1783, and were surprised by an unexpected appearance by George Washington. He gave a short speech, but the officers were still still angry, and lacking in the respect that they usually gave to their esteemed leader. Washington then pulled a letter from his pocket from a member of the Second Continental Congress. But Washington was unable to read the letter without his reading glasses, and in a miraculous moment of powerful emotion, he declared, "Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country." Many of the officers were suddenly moved to tears in the realization that Washington, like themselves, had sacrificed much for the country. Washington then read the letter from Congress, and the officers subsequently abided by Congress's own timetable for paying them.
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| − | The Newburgh Conspiracy is a good story. In addition to enjoying a story in history, also recognize its '''historical significance'''. Why is this particular story important in the history in our nation? Because this event confirmed civilian authority over the military. Congress, a civilian authority, decides if and when to pay the soldiers. The soldiers have the guns, but they must submit to the civilian authority of Congress.
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| − | Another historical fact we overlooks is how American Indians survived. In the northeast, they relied more on farming and foraging (searching widely) for food. In the Great Plains of the Midwest (west of the Mississippi) and further west, the American Indians relied more on hunting, particularly bison which almost went extinct before conservation efforts increased their numbers again.
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| | {| class="wikitable" | | {| class="wikitable" |