Ethnic United States since the Civil War

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Michael Trotti
History Department
412 Muller
 (607)274-1591

Venture A

 

Options 1 and 2 -- African Amereicans and Chinese Americans in Harper's

A for-profit website, HarpWeek.com, offers a few free web pages about the coverage of different issues in the national magazine Harper's Weekly in the 19th century. Two of those online exhibits are useful for us.

Go to one (or both?!) of the following sites and explore the nature of coverage by Harpers. Note -- these are quite extensive websites, with dozens of images and dozens of magazine stories and editorials each, along with some interpretive narratives, timelines and so forth. Don't assume you can (or need to) look at everything here. This is a venture -- explore a number of avenues of interest to you, and do the assignment:

As you explore, Think about the sort of coverage, the stereotypes evoked, and how white, middle-class readers (the audience for Harpers) might have responded to this at the time. Please keep track of the particular materials you peruse (brief list of titles and dates of articles/images).

 

 

Harper's African American Images

Option 1:

Toward Racial Equality:
Harper's Weekly Reports on
Black America, 1857-1874

 

 

After surfing one (or both?) of these sites from Harpers, Write one of the following and turn it in to me on the date indicated in your syllabus (please type and double space):

  1. a brief (1-2 page) analysis of the significance of this sort of coverage to the history of ethnic America. List somewhere the particular materials you looked at.
  2. a brief letter (1-2 pages) to the editor of Harper's Weekly expressing your views on their coverage. Cite somewhere the particular materials you looked at.

Start your response with a list of the title/date of the articles/images explored.

 

 

Harper's images of Chinese Americans

Option 2:

The Chinese-American
Experience, 1857-1892

 

 

After surfing one (or both) of these sites from Harpers, Write one of the following and turn it in to me on the date indicated in your syllabus (please type and double space):

  1. a brief (1-2 page) analysis of the significance of this sort of coverage to the history of ethnic America. List somewhere the particular materials you looked at.
  2. a brief letter (1-2 pages) to the editor of Harper's Weekly expressing your views on their coverage. Cite somewhere the particular materials you looked at.

Start your response with a list of the title/date of the articles/images explored.

 

 

ellis island

Option 3:

  • The American Family History Society has an Ellis Island website which allows you to trace different family names (yours?). It also has a timeline, scrapbooks, other information.
  • Go also to a site describing the voyages themselves, including advertisements, tickets, and narratives of the crossing.

 

After exploring this material:

list the particular documents you viewed (just a quick list to let me know what was most of interest to you), and

write a brief short story about the experience of arriving in America. The door is open to you as far as length, perspective, and story line. Do integrate some things you've learned from these sites, but just informally (no citations necessary). Venture forth.

 

Do 1 of these 3 options (not all three!), and check the syllabus for the due date for this assignment.

 

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(Last update: 20 January 2008).