Extra Credit Short Response: What is Freedom?
| Style | APA |
| Number of words | 293 |
| Number of sources | 0 |
| Spacing | Double |
| PowerPoint slides | 0 |
The assignment below is extra credit worth 10 points for just doing it, and is meant to get your feet wet in writing responses that reflect your thoughts on a particular subject. Go for it!
Extra Credit Short Response: What is Freedom?
(At least 150 and no more than 300 words – due by the end of the week)
If I asked you what America stands for, the chances are high you may respond “freedom” and “liberty,” or perhaps something about what we call “the American Dream,” the idea America is a place where you can be who you want to be. Of course, you may also say America is a place where that American Dream is out of reach to many, a place where people do not feel free, and where they cannot be whatever they want to be.
As we see when we study American history, both of these things – and many more – are true.
History is not about memorizing names and dates from long ago – it is about what those names and dates mean, and how they may help us understand where we are today as a country and a people. The textbook in this class is Eric Foner’s “Give Me Liberty!” a phrase that summarizes what all of these names and dates are about – the pursuit of freedom. It is a great way to understand all of the things you’re going to be reading about and watching videos about, a way to put everything in context. Simply put, American history is all about people crying out and demanding “give me liberty!”
Watch this video of Eric Foner (a great historian and also our textbook author) talking about this idea of freedom as part of American identity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9w7KH1Lte0 You should also read the preface in the textbook, especially where he talks about freedom and the American ideal.
Freedom is a fundamental American value first articulated in the Declaration of Independence, which states that all people have a right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But for much – some would say all – of U.S. history, most Americans were denied this right and denied the full meaning of being an American. Women and people of color (especially African-Americans and Native Americans) are frankly still struggling for their full rights as Americans, but they certainly either never had it or lost it during the time period we will study in this class.
But what does freedom really mean, in specific terms? What does it mean to be free?
For most of American history, freedom meant access to land. With land, you could make your own way, to build your wealth – or at least have the chance to do that. Without land, you were dependent on others. The land is the whole reason Europeans came to the Americas. In short, land meant freedom. But why is that? Do you agree? Is that true today? As we study the dramatic events in early American history, pay attention to how important land is to all of these people, especially the wars that will be fought over it, because U.S. history is a history of brutal conquest of people over control of the land.
Yet freedom means more. Think about some of the rights enshrined in our Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution, from freedom of speech and religion to protection against unlawful arrest, or the right to bear arms. Are any of these especially important to you?
So write a paragraph on what freedom means to you (about 150-200 words or so). What specifically would you need to feel free? Are we truly free in America today? Do you feel free, or do you feel that somehow you may not be, that that freedom is under threat? What does it mean to be an American?
You will submit this and all writing assignments here on Blackboard. If you’re unclear how to do this, here’s a link to a quick video:
Submit an assignment tutorial https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cv1KOhABlBE
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