Assignment:
Part. 1: Charles Finney
Answer the following question in a paragraph:
Review: God in America-People & Ideas: Charles Finney
Evaluate Charles Finney's involvement in at least two social reform movements in the United States and explain how this involvement helped form a national identity.
Part. 2: Richard Allen
1. Read-People & Events: Richard Allen.
2. Read-Historical Document Richard Allen in Walker's Appeal .
3. Read-Richard Allen in Walker's Appeal
4. Complete 9.01 Richard Allen
Answer the following questions:
1. To what plan is Bishop Allen objecting in this article?
2. What specific objections does Bishop Allen innumerate in this article?
3. Would you have agreed or disagreed with Bishop Allen? Explain your answer. Use direct quotes to support your answer, but place them in quotation marks i.e. "quote" to separate them from your own ideas.
4. Bishop Allen supported the idea of Africans staying in America. How would this influence American culture?
Part. 3: Could They Have An Affect?
Could authors have an effect today on the American public the way James Fenimore Cooper, Henry David Thoreau, and Edgar Allan Poe did? Why or why not? Back your opinion up with thoughtful analysis or facts.
Part. 4: Thoreau
Instructions: Read this excerpt from Thoreau's Civil Disobedience.
If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth - certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn. . . .
Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible."
Answer the following questions based on the reading.
1. What metaphor is used to discuss government in this reading?
2. What specific phrases are utilized in this metaphor?
3. Why do you think Thoreau used this particular metaphor in his argument?
4. What is the meaning of the word minority as a political term in this reading?
5. What specific act of civil disobedience does Thoreau propose in this selection?
6. Did Thoreau make a convincing case for civil disobedience? Why or why not? Support your answer With specific evidence from the selection.
Part. 5: Susan B. Anthony
Introduction: Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" wasn't a new concept. But because Thoreau wrote so eloquently on the matter and acted upon his beliefs, it helped define America's distinct culture that was willing to commit civil disobedience in an effort to right the wrongs of society.
Examine Susan B. Anthony's illegal voting in 1872 in light of Thoreau's Civil Disobedience (1848).
Read: https://thoreau.eserver.org/civil2.html
1. Was Susan B. Anthony's voting effort worth the cost?
Defend your answer
2. Which paragraph (1, 2, or 5) from Civil Disobedience best relates to the civil disobedience exhibited by Anthony
Paraphrase the paragraph in your own words.
Examine John Brown's action in 1859 in light of Thoreau's Civil Disobedience.
Henry David Thoreau refused to pay his poll tax, an act of civil disobedience, to protest slavery. He received a fine for his action. John Brown attempted to start a slave rebellion, a violent act of disobedience, to protest slavery. He was executed for his action, but Thoreau defended his actions.
3. Was John Brown's civil disobedience worth the cost he paid?
Defend your answer.
4. Which paragraph (3 or 4) from Civil Disobedience best relates to the reason for Thoreau's and Brown's actions?
5. Discuss how the actions of social reformers influenced American culture. Use specific examples.