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Course Syllabus: Contextualize The Meaning Of Freedom

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Assignment Objectives The course syllabus explains that by the end of this course, students should be able to: "identify and recall several of the key...ideas" that have shaped American experience since the Civil War. This week, we started to dig in with the central idea of the course, "freedom." Our objective is: Identify and begin to contextualize the meanings of "freedom," both in the present and historically Directions: Draft written responses to each of the following prompts and share them with the course instructor. Student written responses for this assignment need not be formally presented: feel free to use lists, section headings, tables, bullets, numbers, etc. if they help you organize and present your ideas. Similarly, if you have …show more content…

I grew up in the in the middle to upper class suburbs, sheltered from the daily struggles that many others are forced to deal with each day. Therefore, freedom was simply a given. I was never restricted by my race, my socioeconomic status, or my religious beliefs. Sadly, I lived an extremely sheltered life, which restricted me from uncovering the meaning of freedom. I think freedom is a right that everyone ought to have; however, without ever struggling to obtain freedom, people take it for granted. Unfortunately, I constantly take my freedom for granted because I have never had to fight for it. When forced to think about the definition of freedom I would state that it is the ability to create opportunity for oneself under the protection equal …show more content…

Whereas other former slaves viewed freedom as the ability to own and cultivate their own land. Radical Republicans, such as Thaddeus Stevens, thought freedom was making small independent landowners of the former slaves. Liberal Republicans, controversially thought that freedom was provided by the law, but the former slaves granted their freedom needed to begin relying on themselves, so freedom was independence. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Southern Democrats thought freedom was limited to removing the shackles from former slaves. These definitions of history are all seen throughout

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