Emmy's Topic

My topic is a part of the Library of Congress primary source collection. I'm planning to write on the establishment of the United States by looking through the journals of the House of Representative and the Senate from 1789 to sometime in the 1800s. I haven't been that far yet. The journals that I've been through are quite interesting. I've only been through around 40 journal entries of the House. 10-20 of them in the beginning were of the representatives being lazy and not coming to meetings, so they would adjourn to the next day at 11am, multiple days in a row. After that, I found the journal of the representatives voting for the first president of the United States, and it turns out there were more people than just George Washington and John Adams. Then I found the journal where they put taxes on things, and they listed all the different types of products that were being taxed. I'm looking forward to reading more journals and finding out how the structure of the government and other parts of the country were established.

  My topic is about Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest & i am mainly focusing on the relocation and removal of the tribes from their lands to the reservations by the Government. Im using the Library of Congress: American memories archive and specifically the collection about Native Americans in the Northwest. I've read about 15-20 of the sources on the site and i have a good starting point for what i am trying to research. Most of the primary sources in the collection happen to be annual reports from various field agents and military commanders reporting to the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the progress of the relocation process & general state of life on the reservations for the various tribes. These reports are very varied and cover a wide range of issues. Many of them seem to requisition orders from field agents asking for supplies in order to keep the reservations running smoothly and also updating the Government on their attempts to "civilize" the tribes and assimilate into the American way of life. Others are from military commanders giving accounts of various old indian wars and asking the Government on how things such as settler incursions into the reservations or how tribal raids should be handle. One of the most important documents i found in the collection was an actual executive order on how treaties with the various tribes should be handled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and generally any settlers who came into contact with said tribes and which tribes should be bribed off their lands and which tribes should be treated with no respect at all. I am beginning to form questions based on how the  Natives themselves actually viewed the Contact with the various agents and Government officials and how society in general viewed the relocation of the Natives to the reservations

My general topic is based on debates that occurred in the British parliamentary system. The main primary source that I have used so far comes from the British History Online Database. The specific collection I have focused on so far was Grey’s Debates of the House of Commons. After scanning through a few volumes one debate in particular intrigued me. This debate centered on the difficult situation that Britain faced when King James the II took flight. This added fuel to the burning inferno that was the British state of affairs. the first debate based on that situation was whether or not the Kings flight was strong enough reason to abdicate him from the throne. Next, the debates on who would inherit the throne, and what powers that new monarch should have occurred simultaneously.   From here I am considering focusing in on either comparing and contrasting British succession crises, or discussing the implication that King James’s withdrawal caused.

Brennan's Topic

For my topic I am looking into segregation and how baseball was such a huge ice breaker for the two races. Baseball was so important to almost everyone during most of the 20th century and for blacks and whites to be playing professional baseball together was crazy to think of back then. After doing research on the library of congress website and also on an online archive I was able to find many articles and photographs dealing with desegregated and segregated professional baseball leagues. In the early 20th century pro baseball leagues were segregated meaning there was a African American league and a white league. Towards the middle of the 20th century whites and blacks started playing together professionally. It was a unique way for African Americans to prove themselves to the whites and show them that they could in fact out play them. When the African Americans joined the white leagues it allowed the two races to basically ignore the skin color difference and just play the game. They were basically forced to work together on the field and it led to better relationships off the field. I am currently doing research on Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays, which are some of the best African American baseball players ever. Through interviews, documents, pictures, and articles written about them, the hard work and experiences these guys faced to play in the big leagues with desegregated leagues was tremendous. So i plan on finding more information on these guys as well as the laws during this time which kept blacks and whites segregated and also other players that might have played in black only baseball leagues.

Read this article about writing hacks and leave a comment

One of the things you'll hear me say over and over is that writing makes you think more clearly. Another is that the more you write, the easier you will find writing. I have to remind myself of these things on a regular basis, too! Lots of things can count as writing -- things you might not really consider, because we have all been trained to consider only formal writing as "real" writing. But a friend of mine posted a link to this article today, and it reminded me to think of all writing as writing. It also had some really good tips for getting into the writing habit. Please read it, and then comment on this post with your reactions and any tips or strategies you might have. Due date is Monday, October 6, at 3:00 p.m..

Jennifer's Topic

I started at looking at the infanticide cases on the Old Bailey's webpage. As I was going through the infanticide cases, I noticed quite a few cases that dealt with women and their bastard children. Many of the cases the women tried to cover up the infanticide by saying the babies were born still born. I looked at both the guilty and not guilty. A lot of the guilty cases people had found the child smothered or stuffed in places. The mothers would try and hide the child. In the cases of the not guilty verdict there were midwives or someone like that there to verify that the child was still born. I am questioning the problem of the societal view on bastards and that as a possible cause to the infanticide of bastard children.

Writing Group, Instructions

Welcome to the class writing group. Except for this week, goals and progress reports will be due by noon on Wednesdays, so that everyone has time to review each other's reports by class time on Thursday. Every week, you will need to post achievable goals below mine in the appropriate post. After the first week, you will incorporate a progress report (follow my model) as well.

Additionally, you should use your workspace to keep track of major goals, sources, to-do lists, etc.

Finally, we will all be posting examples of our work and work process on a weekly basis.


Timeline for papers:

October 14 - narrowed-down topic and at least one question that will lead to a thesis statement due at beginning of class

October 21 -- initial bibliography due; primary and secondary sources separated, Chicago format, at least 10 secondary sources

October 28 -- 1200-1500 word draft due

November 1, noon -- peer reviews of first draft due to Dr. Hofmann for return to authors by November 3

November 14, 5:00 p.m. -- Complete draft due for turnaround to peer reviewers. This should be a fairly polished draft, and have no spelling, grammar, or typographic errors.

November 18, beginning of class -- peer reviews due to Dr Hofmann


Final Draft due December 1